Mormon Musings

"There is NEVER a time when the spirit is too old to approach God.  All are within the reach of pardoning mercy, who have not committed the unpardonable sin".   Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith p. 191 (emphasis added); as quoted by President Boyd K. Packer in October 1995 General Conference

I have born-again Christian friends who say to me, “You Mormons are trying to  earn  your way to heaven.” I say, “No, we are not earning heaven. We are  learning  heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are practicing for it.” They ask me, “Have you been saved by grace?” I answer, “Yes. Absolutely, totally, completely, thankfully—yes!” Then I ask them a question that perhaps they have not fully considered: “Have you been  changed  by grace?” They are so excited about being saved that maybe they are not thinking enough about what comes next. They are so happy the debt is paid that they may not have considered why the debt existed in the first place. Latter-day Saints know not only what Jesus has saved us from but also what He has saved us for. As my friend Brett Sanders puts it, “A life impacted by grace eventually begins to look like Christ’s life.” As my friend Omar Canals puts it, “While many Christians view Christ’s s...

http://mormonthoughts.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/point-of-safe-return/

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose...What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?...Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:28,31,35, 37-39 "... I will not forget thee, O house of Israel.  Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; they walls are continually before me." Isaiah 49: 15-16; 1 Nephi 21:15-16 "... I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not...

"Wherefore,  redemption  cometh in and through the Holy Messiah ; for he is full of grace  and truth.  Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.  Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it up again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise. Wherefore he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe on him shall be saved.   And because of the intercession for all, all men come unto God; wheref...