Mormon Musings

The storm fronts that come into our lives will not last forever.  We can surmount the drifts of difficulties and we can hold out if we maintain our perspective and faith.  Just as we know there is sun just beyond today's cloud cover, so we must not doubt the continued, watchful, and tutoring presence of The Son in spite of the stormy seasons in our lives. Elder Neal A. Maxwell (Even As I Am, pp. 102-03)

At the ninth hour, or about three in the afternoon, a loud voice, surpassing the most anguished cry of physical suffering issued from the cross, rending the dreadful darkness.  It was the voice of Christ: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  What mind of man can fathom the significance of that awful cry?  It seems that in addition to the fearful suffering incident to crucifixion, the agony of Gethsemane had recurred, intensified beyond human power to endure.  In that bitterest hour the dying Christ was left alone, alone in most terrible reality.  That the supreme sacrifice of the Son might be consummated in all its fullness, the Father seems to have withdrawn the support of His immediate Presence, leaving the Savior of men the glory of complete victory over the forces of sin and death .  Elder James E. Talmage, Jesus The Christ p. 661 (emphasis added) See also D&C 133:50

This is one of the best talks on the enabling power of the Atonement I have ever read.  It is also very practical in the approach...In short, it is VERY, VERY, VERY good. http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1966

The first company of Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. Their journey was difficult and challenging; still, they sang: Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear; But with joy wend your way. Though hard to you this journey may appear, Grace shall be as your day. [“Come, Come, Ye Saints,”  Hymns,  2002, no. 30] “Grace shall be as your day”—what an interesting phrase. We have all sung it hundreds of times, but have we stopped to consider what it means? “Grace shall be as your day”: grace shall be like a day. As dark as night may become, we can always count on the sun coming up. As dark as our trials, sins, and mistakes may appear, we can always have confidence in the grace of Jesus Christ. Do we earn a sunrise? No. Do we have to be worthy of a chance to begin again? No. We just have to accept these blessings and take advantage of them. As sure as each brand-new day, grace—the enabling power of Jesus Christ—is constant. Faithful pioneers knew th

“The repenting sinner must suffer for his sins, but this suffering has a different purpose than punishment or payment. Its purpose is  change. ”  Elder Dallin H. Oaks ( The Lord’s Way  [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1991], 223; emphasis in original).

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/the-first-great-commandment?lang=eng&media=video

“The great Mediator asks for our repentance  not  because we must ‘repay’ him in exchange for his paying our debt to justice, but because repentance initiates a developmental process that, with the Savior’s help, leads us along the path to a saintly character”  Elder Bruce C. Hafen ( The Broken Heart  [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989], 149; emphasis in original).

"I love the Savior. I feel that as he hung upon the cross and looked out over the dark scene, he saw more than mocking soldiers and cruel taunters. He saw more than crying women and fearful friends. He remembered and saw even more than women at wells or crowds on hills or throngs by seashores. He saw more, much more. He, who knows all and has all power, saw through the stream of time. His huge, magnanimous, loving soul encompassed all eternity and took in all people and all times and all sins and all forgiveness and all everything. Yes, he saw down to you and to me and provided us an all-encompassing opportunity to escape the terrible consequences of death and sin.” (Elder John H. Groberg, "The Beauty and Importance of the Sacrament," Ensign, May 1989, 40)

“The Savior, as a member of the Godhead, knows each of us personally… In the garden and on the cross, Jesus saw each of us and not only bore our sins, but also experienced our deepest feelings so that he would know how to comfort and strengthen us...  “The Savior’s atonement in the garden and on the cross is intimate as well as infinite.  Infinite in that it spans the eternities.  Intimate in that the Savior felt each person’s pains, sufferings, and sicknesses.  Consequently, he knows how to carry our sorrows and relieve our burdens that we might be healed from within, made whole persons, and receive everlasting joy in his kingdom”   (emphasis added, Elder Merrill J. Bateman, “The Power to Heal from Within,” Ensign, May 1995, 14).

http://mormonchannel.org/ mormonmessages?v=911129090001

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2007/08/overcoming-feelings-of-inadequacy?lang=eng&query=elder+s+(name%3a%22David+S.+Baxter%22)

Nobody becomes perfect in this life…Becoming perfect in Christ is a process.  We begin by keeping the commandments today, and we keep more of them tomorrow…We can become perfect in some minor things…if we chart a course of becoming perfect, and, step by step and phase by phase, are perfecting our souls by overcoming the world, then it is absolutely guaranteed—there is no question whatsoever about it—we shall gain eternal life…If we chart a course and follow it to the best of our ability in this life, then when we go out of this life we’ll continue in exactly the same course…The Prophet Joseph Smith told us that there are many things that people have to do, even after the grave, to work out their salvation. Bruce R. McConkie