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I put some of this talk in another thread, but will add here: Quote:
Latter-day Saints believe that all human beings are God’s children and that He loves all of us. He has inspired not only people of the Bible and the Book of Mormon but other people as well to carry out His purposes through all cultures and parts of the world. God inspires not only Latter-day Saints but also founders, teachers, philosophers, and reformers of other Christian and non-Christian religions. The restored gospel holds a positive relationship with other religions. Intolerance is always a sign of weakness. The Latter-day Saint perspective is that of the eleventh article of faith: “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may” (Articles of Faith 1:11).
http://rsc.byu.edu/archived/global-mormonism-21st-century/20-church-cross-cultural-world This quote from the Lorenzo Snow manual was the topic of our lesson yesterday in Relief Society and I really liked it. Quote:There are those among us who are recognized as members of this Church who take a vast amount of pains to be favorably known by those around them, but whose real character, or the inwardness so to speak, of such people, is veiled or disguised. … Now this prayer that I [refer] to—“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”
I love that passage as well, mom3. I remember it in yesterday’s Elders’s Quorum lesson. Nice mom3, thanks for sharing it It’s worth reading the whole talk from Elder McConkie. http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1570 August 18, 1978
CES Religious Educators Symposium address “All Are Alike
unto God”
Bruce R. McConkie
Quote:
I would like to say something about the new revelation relative to the priesthood going to those of all nations and races. “He [meaning Christ, who is the Lord God] inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile” (2 Nephi 26:33).These words have now taken on a new meaning. We have caught a new vision of their true significance. This also applies to a great number of other passages in the revelations. Since the Lord gave this revelation on the priesthood, our understanding of many passages has expanded. Many of us never imagined or supposed that they had the extensive and broad meaning that they do have.
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We have read these passages and their associated passages for many years. We have seen what the words say and have said to ourselves, “Yes, it says that, but we must read out of it the taking of the gospel and the blessings of the temple to the Negro people, because they are denied certain things.” There are statements in our literature by the early Brethren which we have interpreted to mean that the Negroes would not receive the priesthood in mortality. I have said the same things, and people write me letters and say, “You said such and such, and how is it now that we do such and such?” And all I can say to that is that it is time disbelieving people repented and got in line and believed in a living, modern prophet. Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world.
We get our truth and our light line upon line and precept upon precept. We have now had added a new flood of intelligence and light on this particular subject, and it erases all the darkness and all the views and all the thoughts of the past. They don’t matter any more.
It doesn’t make a particle of difference what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year, 1978. It is a new day and a new arrangement, and the Lord has now given the revelation that sheds light out into the world on this subject. As to any slivers of light or any particles of darkness of the past, we forget about them. We now do what meridian Israel did when the Lord said the gospel should go to the Gentiles. We forget all the statements that limited the gospel to the house of Israel, and we start going to the Gentiles.
I also find this talk a useful indication of how our leaders receive guidance for the church, even on matters as ‘big’ as the priesthood ban. I don’t want to trivialise it, but that sounds very much like the way a Bishopric is taught to seek inspiration about a new calling. They discuss it, then pray, then feel good about it. They create the frame of reference for the question. It’s true that this describes a more intense experience, but the structure is the same.
http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1570August 18, 1978
CES Religious Educators Symposium address “All Are Alike
unto God”
Bruce R. McConkie
Quote:
Well, in that setting, on the first day of June in this year, 1978, the First Presidency and the Twelve, after full discussion of the proposition and all the premises and principles that are involved, importuned the Lord for a revelation. President Kimball was mouth, and he prayed with great faith and great fervor; this was one of those occasions when an inspired prayer was offered. You know the Doctrine and Covenants statement, that if we pray by the power of the Spirit we will receive answers to our prayers and it will be given us what we shall ask (see D&C 50:30). It was given President Kimball what he should ask. He prayed by the power of the Spirit, and there was perfect unity, total and complete harmony, between the Presidency and the Twelve on the issue involved.And when President Kimball finished his prayer, the Lord gave a revelation by the power of the Holy Ghost. Revelation primarily comes by the power of the Holy Ghost. Always that member of the Godhead is involved. But most revelations, from the beginning to now, have come in that way. There have been revelations given in various ways on other occasions. The Father and the Son appeared in the Sacred Grove. Moroni, an angel from heaven, came relative to instructing the Prophet in the affairs that were destined to occur in this dispensation. There have been visions, notably the vision of the degrees of glory. There may be an infinite number of ways that God can ordain that revelations come. But, primarily, revelation comes by the power of the Holy Ghost. The principle is set forth in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 68, that whatever the elders of the Church speak, when moved upon by the power of the Holy Ghost, shall be scripture, shall be the mind and will and voice of the Lord.
On this occasion, because of the importuning and the faith, and because the hour and the time had arrived, the Lord in his providences poured out the Holy Ghost upon the First Presidency and the Twelve in a miraculous and marvelous manner, beyond anything that any then present had ever experienced. The revelation came to the president of the Church; it also came to each individual present. There were ten members of the Council of the Twelve and three of the First Presidency there assembled. The result was that President Kimball knew, and each one of us knew, independent of any other person, by direct and personal revelation to us, that the time had now come to extend the gospel and all its blessings and all its obligations, including the priesthood and the blessings of the house of the Lord, to those of every nation, culture, and race, including the black race. There was no question whatsoever as to what happened or as to the word and message that came.
I’m aware that some of my family and fellow members would/will disapprove of my investigating of history. This helps:
Quote:
If a faith will not bear to be investigated; if its preachers and professors are afraid to have it examined, their foundation must be very weak.
Journal of Discourses
DISCOURSE BY PRESIDENT GEORGE A. SMITH, DELIVERED IN THE NEW TABERNACLE, SALT LAKE CITY, SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 1871. (Reported by David W. Evans.)
Quote:there are so many “shoulds” and “should nots” that merely keeping track of them can be a challenge. Sometimes, well-meaning amplifications of divine principles—many coming from uninspired sources—complicate matters further, diluting the purity of divine truth with man-made addenda. One person’s good idea—something that may work for him or her—takes root and becomes an expectation. And gradually, eternal principles can get lost within the labyrinth of “good ideas.”-Pres Uchtdorf
NEAL A. MAXWELL wrote:True orthodoxy consists of keeping the doctrines, ordinances, covenants, and programs of the Church and Christian service in proper balance. In this daily balancing process, we are not excused from exercising good judgment—after all that manuals and handbooks can do.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1988/10/answer-me?lang=eng Each of these quotes is great by themselves but together they indicate that part of keeping a healthy balance can be “excercising good judgment” about how to live your life tethered by the spirit to holy principles. “Manuals and handbooks,” “man-made addenda,” and the “labyrinth of ‘good ideas'” must be navigated by the light of the spirit and modified for your individual circumstances. Does not buffet Mormonism by any other name still smell as sweet?
Thanks Roy Not LDS, but these are good and I hope relevant. They’re from Eleanor Roosevelt. “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.”
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”
“It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.”
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Nice. I especially the last one. “We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom. Where a beam is taken away a new one must at once be put there, and for this the rest of the ship is used as support. In this way, by using the old beams and driftwood the ship can be shaped entirely anew, but only by gradual reconstruction.” – Otto Van Neurath
Awesome quote, Ann. Really, truly incredible. I came across the following from Pres. Uchtdorf, from a Worldwide Training Session, while preparing for my Sunday School lesson next week: Quote:“Another topic I would like to discuss is the difference between growth and real growth. We have heard some about this today. In Church terms, growth could be defined as new members. New members come through children baptized at age eight as well as convert baptisms. Real growth, however, is defined as growth in the number of active members.
In some areas of the Church we have dramatic growth in new members, yet active membership remains stagnant or grows only a little. We have some measurable ways to indicate activity in the Church, such as sacrament meeting attendance, ordination to the priesthood at the right age, missionary service, and possession of a current temple recommend. Perhaps the more accurate indicators of real growth in the gospel of Jesus Christ are those that we can’t measure as easily, such as daily prayer, scripture study, family home evening, love at home and for our neighbor, and personal experiences with Christ’s Atonement. These are recorded not by a clerk in Church records but in our hearts and in heaven.
Our missionary efforts are compromised if we baptize God’s children but do not maintain love and friendship with these precious new members who are excited to find fellowship with the Saints and a place of belonging in the household of God.”
I am not sure how I missed this thread, but just noticed it. Thanks everyone for the quotes. Many of them are going into my journal and a few into my scriptures for quick reference!
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