Mormon Musings

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 pi...

“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).

Jesus, our Perfect Exemplar, was astonishingly exemplary even in the hours surrounding the awful but glorious Atonement. The intrigue of Pilate and Herod, for instance, who had earlier been "at enmity" but who "made friends together" because of Jesus, presented opportunities for Jesus to "shrink" from going through with the Atonement (Luke 23:12; D&C 19:18). Herod, who had been desirous "to see [Jesus] of a long season," "hoped to have seen some miracle done by him" (Luke 23:8). Yet Jesus, under heavy questioning from Herod, "answered him nothing" (Luke 23:9; see also Mosiah 14:7). Jesus' integrity and intellect were not for sale! Amid temptation, he maintained his integrity--even in the midst of an opportunity that a lesser individual would have seized to reduce his suffering and to increase the praise of men. Ironically, when Jesus' enemies came for him, the Light of the World, they came with lanterns and t...

One writer recently observed that the relativistic forces at work: should warm every atheist's heart. For if God is a socially conscious political being whose views invariably correspond to our own prejudices on every essential point of doctrine, He demands of  us no more than our politics require.  [H] ow would our worship of  [this kind of being]   constitute more than self-congratulation for our own moral standards? The writer continued: As an atheist, I like this [kind of] god. It is good to see him every morning while I am shaving.  [Eugene D. Genovese, "Pilgrim's Progress," The New Republic,  11 May 1992, p. 38] Elder Neal A. Maxwell, BYU Devotional, August 1992 http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=625

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth of falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a cliff. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it? C.S. Lewis

For now, though we can mercifully see something of our eventual possibilities, you and I are aware of our present limitations. Tolkien wrote wisely: It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.  [Gandalf in J. R. R. Tolkien,  The Return of the King  (New York: Ballantine Books, 1965), p. 190] Hence we desperately need the gospel's wisdom not only for eternity, but also "for the succour of those years wherein we are set," in order "to do what is in us." Enoch obtained revelation and reassurance and gratefully exclaimed of God, "Yet thou art there" (Moses 7:30). This is what you and I want to know of him: Does he know me, love me, and care for me? We can have the same reassurance given to Enoch. How in...