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Showing posts from February 26, 2012

Recognizing the Lord's Hand (Callister)

Recognizing the Lord’s Hand Naturalism’s explanations of the origins of life and the miracle of our bodies often appear convoluted when placed side by side with the simple truths of the revealed word and divine scripture. With its 107 million cells, connected to the brain by over 1 million neurons, the eye is more perfect than any camera ever invented. It caused Charles Darwin to humbly admit, “That the eye with all its inimitable contrivances … could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest sense.”   1 The Psalmist wrote, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” ( Psalm 53:1 ). Such a foolish disbeliever ought to look at his hands. Seventy muscles contribute to hand movements. Much of the rest of the body is devoted to optimizing the complex function of the hand. There are no muscles in the fingers. The sole purpose of the forearm, its muscles and bones, is to move and position the hand. To observe a miracle, look at a baby’s crea

contrary to the economy of God (Joseph Smith)

I will inform you that it is contrary to the economy of God for any member of the Church, or any one, to receive instruction for those in authority higher than themselves; therefore you will see the impropriety of giving heed to them; but if any person have a vision or visitation from a heavenly messenger, it must be for his own benefit and instruction; for the fundamental principles, government, and doctrine of the Church are vested in the keys of the kingdom. Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith , sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976], p. 21]

...then you may begin to think that you can find out something about God... (Brigham Young)

Do you read the Scriptures, my brethren and sisters, as though you were writing them a thousand, two thousand, or five thousand years ago?  Do you read them as though you stood in the place of the men who wrote them?  If you do not feel thus, it is your privilege to do so, that you may be as familiar with the spirit and meaning of the written word of God as you are with your daily walk and conversation, or as you are with your workmen or your households.  You may understand what the Prophets understood and thought--what they designed and planned to bring forth for their good. When you can thus feel, then you may begin to think that you can find out something about God, and begin to learn who He is. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 7:333

quote about prayer from Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas, Pinegar)

Alexandre Dumas, in his classic tale The Count of Monte Cristo, wrote, “For the happy man prayer is only a jumble of words, until the day when sorrow comes to explain to him the sublime language by means of which he speaks to God.” (Trans. Lowell Bair, New York: Bantam Books, 1981, p. 34.) (April 1993 General Conference , Peace through Prayer, Sun. Morning Session - Rex D. Pinegar)

our world is a place of law and order (Sill)

One of the distinguishing characteristics of our world is that it is a place of law and order, and the basic law of creation is God’s fundamental law of compensation. It says that all work must be paid for, that we can no more do a good thing without sometime, in some way receiving a reward, than we can do an evil thing without suffering a penalty. In everything that we do, including the very thoughts that we think, we are subject to this interesting, undeviating eternal law. It is just as universal in its operation as are the laws of gravity, electricity, light or heat. It is never set aside, it is never suspended or restricted, and it governs in every department of human activity. Nothing is ever denied to well-directed effort and nothing is ever achieved without it. The Lord himself gave this law its clearest expression when he said, ‘There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—and when we obtain any ble