Mormon Musings

“Be not afraid, only believe” ( Mark 5:36 )

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

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." Martin Luther

"You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you." -CS Lewis

"Yes, we will make mistakes. Yes, we will falter. But as we seek to increase our love for God and strive to love our neighbor, the light of the gospel will surround and uplift us. The darkness will surely fade, because it cannot exist in the presence of light. As we draw near to God, He will draw near to us." —Dieter F. Uchtdorf, " The Hope of God's Light "

"Please understand that having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and keeping His commandments are and always will be the defining test of mortality." —Quentin L. Cook, " In Tune with the Music of Faith "

“[Someday]  from  the  vantage  point  of  the  future,  we  shall  be  satisfied  with  many  of  the happenings  of  this  life  that  are  so  difficult  for  us  to  comprehend,”  …  “We  knew  before  we were  born  that  we  were  coming  to  the  earth  for  bodies  and  experience  and  that  …  after  a period  of  life  we  would  die.  We  accepted  all  these  eventualities  with  a  glad  heart,  eager  to accept  both  the  favorable  and  unfavorable.  We  eagerly  accepted  the  chance  to  come earthward  even  though  it  might  be  for  only  a  day  or  a  year.” - Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball   (2006), 20

I do not believe there is a man here today but what knows that the doctrine taught today is truth. It is the word of God—the revelations of Jesus Christ to every one that hears, and salvation to all who yield obedience to it and carry it out practically. Your faith without works is vain. The religion which you and I believe in requires us to live by its precepts—to be Saints in very deed. It is life, joy, and peace to those who practice it, and condemnation to those who despise it. Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 8:256

The gospel teaches us to be happy, to have faith rather than fear, to find hope and overcome despair, to leave darkness and turn toward the light of the everlasting gospel.   Paul and others warned about the trials of our time and the days yet to come. But peace can be settled in the heart of each who turns to the scriptures and unlocks the promises of protection and redemption that are taught therein.   President Boyd K. Packer, October 2013 General Conference   http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/the-key-to-spiritual-protection?lang=eng

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.  The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Nelson Mandela

“It will take unshakable faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to choose the way to eternal life. … It is by acting on that faith we build the strength to do the will of God. And it is by exercising that faith in Jesus Christ that we can resist temptation and gain forgiveness through the Atonement. … “The best time to resist temptation is early. The best time to repent is now. The enemy of our souls will place thoughts in our minds to tempt us. We can decide early to exercise faith, to cast out evil thoughts before we act on them.” President Henry B. Eyring -“Spiritual Preparedness: Start Early and Be Steady,” Ensign, Nov. 2005, 38, 40

So, as a new year starts and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that  faith is always pointed toward the future.  Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will  yet  be efficacious in our lives. So a more theological way to talk about Lot’s wife is to say that she did not have faith. She doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she already had. Apparently she thought—fatally, as it turned out—that nothing that lay ahead could possibly be as good as those moments she was leaving behind. "Remember Lot's Wife" Elder

Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there any thing too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27

"Search diligently, pray always and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another." D&C 90:24

... by   faith  all things are fulfilled— Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with   surety   hope   for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which   hope   cometh of   faith , maketh an   anchor   to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in   good works , being led to   glorify   God. Ether 12:3-4

"Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done."  Source: “Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis” (2006)

It is natural to have questions—the acorn of honest inquiry has often sprouted and matured into a great oak of understanding. There are few members of the Church who, at one time or another, have not wrestled with serious or sensitive questions. One of the purposes of the Church is to nurture and cultivate the seed of faith—even in the sometimes sandy soil of doubt and uncertainty. Faith is to hope for things which are not seen but which are true [see Hebrews 11:1 ;  Alma 32:21 ]. President Dieter http://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/come-join-with-us?lang=eng F. Uchtdorf, October 2013 General Conference

As a scriptural theme for this discussion, I have chosen the second-shortest verse in all of holy scripture. I am told that the shortest verse—a verse that every missionary memorizes and holds ready in case he is called on spontaneously in a zone conference—is John 11:35: “Jesus wept.” Elders, here is a second option, another shortie that will dazzle your mission president in case you are called on two zone conferences in a row. It is Luke 17:32, where the Savior cautions, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Hmmm. What did He mean by such an enigmatic little phrase? To find out, I suppose we need to do as He suggested. Let’s recall who Lot’s wife was. The original story, of course, comes to us out of the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, when the Lord, having had as much as He could stand of the worst that men and women could do, told Lot and his family to flee because those cities were about to be destroyed. “Escape for thy life,” the Lord said, “ look not behind thee  . . . ; escape to the mou

“When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that … [God] is able to make a way out of no way, and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.” - The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,  ed. Clayborne Carson (2007), 534; quoted in “The Refining Fire of Grief,  Ensign , Feb. 2013, 59