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"...what is property unto me?" (D&C 117)

"Let them repent of all of their sins, and their covetous desires, before me, saith the Lord; for what is property unto me, saith the Lord...Have I not made the earth? Do I not hold the destinies of all the armies of the nations of the earth? " (emphasis added) Doctrine and Covenants 117:4, 6

faith is always pointed toward the future (Holland)

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

"I stand at the door and knock" (Revelation 3:20; Kimball)

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.  Revelation  3:20 Elder Spencer W. Kimball, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, told the following story about Revelation  3:20 : “Holman Hunt, the artist, felt inspired to capture this stirring scripture on canvas. One day he was showing his picture of ‘Christ Knocking at the Door’ to a friend when the friend suddenly exclaimed: ‘There is one thing wrong about your picture.’ “‘What is it?’ inquired the artist. “‘The door on which Jesus knocks has no handle,’ replied his friend. “‘Ah,’ responded Mr. Hunt, ‘that is not a mistake. You see, this is the door to the human heart. It can only be opened from the inside.’ “And thus it is. Jesus may stand and knock, but each of us decides whether to open. The Spirit is powerless to compel a man to move. The man himself must take the initiative (The Miracle of F

Lessons from Jonah and the great fish, the omniscience and omnipotence of God (Jonah; D&C 3; Joseph Smith; Maxwell)

15  So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.   17  Now the  Lord  had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish  a three  days and three nights. Jonah 1:15, 17 Consider what this incident from the life of Jonah teaches us about the Lord, about His omniscience and His power to accomplish His purposes.  The great fish that swallowed Jonah would have been "prepared" many, many years previously by the Lord, whether through His use of evolution, genetics, etc. or otherwise.  In other words, we may safely assume that this fish was NOT just magically "poofed" out of nowhere just prior to its appearance in the water at the moment it swallowed Jonah.  Rather, it was born and grew to maturity, over the course of many years... In addition, consider the fact that this "great fish" was in the exact place and at exactly the right time to be able to swallow Jonah, save Jon

The Lord of the Universe (Maxwell)

...At Christmastime...we celebrate a special star that announced Jesus' birth at Bethlehem. Thus, the so-called "little star of Bethlehem" was actually very large in its declaration of divine design! It had to have been placed in its precise orbit long, long before it shone so precisely! Persuasive divine design is underscored in what the Lord has said: "All things must come to pass in their time" (D&C 64:32). His overseeing precision pertains not only to astrophysical orbits but to human orbits as well. This is such a stunning thing for us to contemplate as to our obligations to "shine as lights" within our own orbits and personal responsibilities! (See Philippians 2:15.) In Jesus there is a unique blend of both meekness and majesty. Though the Lord of the Universe, Christ was meekly willing to live in this world, which he created under the Father's direction. In Paul's words, he agreed to reside on earth as a person of no reputation (s