Mormon Musings

When asked why Abraham was commanded to go to Mount Moriah and offer his only hope of posterity, President Hugh B. Brown, an Apostle, said, ‘Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham.’ The Lord already knew what Abraham would do, but Abraham didn’t know the depth of his own faith in God until he was actually stopped from making the sacrifice in the very act of performing it. It was then that Abraham realized how far he was willing to go in the service of his God. This was a growth lesson for Abraham.

If I have a fear, it is that the principle of sacrifice may be slipping away from us. This principle is a law of God. We are obliged to understand it and practice it. If being a member of this Church becomes too easy, testimonies will become shallow, and the roots of testimony will not go down into the soil of faith as they did with our pioneer forefathers.   Elder M. Russell Ballard

5  And men are instructed sufficiently that they  a know  good from evil. And the  b law  is given unto men. And by the law no flesh is  c justified ; or, by the law men are  d cut  off. Yea, by the temporal law they were cut off; and also, by the spiritual law they perish from that which is good, and become miserable forever.   6  Wherefore,  a redemption  cometh in and through the  b Holy   c Messiah ; for he is full of  d grace  and truth.   7  Behold, he offereth himself a  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  b none  else can the  c ends  of the law be answered.   8  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,  a save ...

"You that have not passed through the trials, and persecutions, and drivings of this people, from the beginning, but have only read of them, or heard some of then related, may think how awful they were to endure, and wonder that the Saints survived them at all.  The thought of it makes your hearts sink within you, your brains reel, and your bodies tremble, and you are ready to exclaim, 'I could not have endured it.'   I have been in the heat of it, and I never felt better in my life; I never felt the peace and power of the Almighty more copiously poured upon me than in the keenest part of our trials.  They appeared as nothing to me .  I hear people talk about their troubles, their sole privations, and the great sacrifices they have made for the Gospel's sake.  It never was a sacrifice to me.  Anything I can do or suffer in the cause of the Gospel, is only like dropping a pin into the sea; the blessings, gifts, powers, honor, joy, tr...