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Showing posts from May 25, 2014

Each of us has some control over finding joy (Truman G. Madsen)

“For it is not chance but choice that is involved here. Each of us has some control over finding joy. To paraphrase Elder Marion D. Hanks: “No matter how we live, there will be pain in this world. But misery is optional.” Think about it. Christ is against selfishness and sin – not because He is the giant spoilsport, but the other way around. He is against sin and selfishness because He is against despondency and melancholy and morbidity. He is against the shrinking of our capacity for fulfillment. On this He is the world’s leading expert. He knows. As the book of Hebrews has it, “For the joy that was set before him [He] endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). Whose joy did He envision? Ours. He saw beyond our sins and stupidities and our clumsy mistakes. He knows what we have within us to become. And having paid the awful price in blood, He is entitled to alert us to reality. This changes the kinds of questions we ask of life. Instead of “What’s in it for me?” we ask, “What’s in it for tho

Israel’s God is incomparably great; wings of eagles (Isaiah 40:28-31)

  28  Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard,  that  the   everlasting  God, the  Lord , the  Creator  of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?  There is  no searching  of His understanding.   29  He giveth power to the faint; and to  them that have  no might He increaseth strength.   30  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:   31  But they that  wait  upon the  Lord  shall  renew   their   strength ; they shall mount up with wings as  eagles ; they shall  run , and not be weary;  and  they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31

The greatness of God (Isaiah 40)

13  Who  hath  directed  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord ,  or  being  His  counsellor  hath  taught  Him?   14  With  whom  took  He  counsel ,  and  who  instructed  Him,  and  taught  Him  in  the  path  of  judgment ,  and  taught  Him  knowledge,  and  shewed  to  Him  the  way  of  understanding?   15  Behold,  the  nations   are  as  a  drop  of  a  bucket,  and  are  counted  as  the  small  dust  of  the  balance:  behold,  He  taketh  up  the  isles  as  a  very  little  thing.   16  And  Lebanon  is  not  sufficient  to  burn,  nor  the  beasts  thereof  sufficient  for  a  burnt  offering.   17  All  nations  before  Him  are  as  nothing;  and  they  are  counted  to  Him  less  than  nothing,  and  vanity . Isaiah 40:13-17

Believe in God (Mosiah 4:9)

Believe in God; believe that He is, and that He created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that He has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which The Lord can comprehend. Mosiah 4:9

I have heard no bad news (Thoreau)

“I know that I am. I know that another is who knows more than I, who takes an interest in me, whose creature, and yet whose kindred in one sense, am I. I know that the enterprise is worthy. I know that things work well. I have heard no bad news.” Henry David Thoreau

comfortable gods (Holland)

Sadly  enough... it  is  a  characteristic  of  our  age  that  if  people  want  any  gods  at  all,  they  want   them  to  be  gods  who  do  not  demand  much,  comfortable  gods,  smooth  gods  who  not  only  don’t  rock  the  boat  but  don’t  even  row  it,  gods  who  pat  us  on  the  head,  make  us  giggle,  then  tell  us  to  run  along  and  pick  marigolds. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland April 2014 General Conference https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/the-cost-and-blessings-of-discipleship?lang=eng#11-10985_000_12holland