Seven of Everything

About eight years ago, I accepted a priesthood assignment to go down to Lake Jackson Texas, south of Houston, and work all day to clean up fallen trees. There were about 400 men from the Austin/Round Rock area that went to that area to help remove trees from the local residents yards. Many areas did not have power. There were over 500 men from Mormon Helping Hands as well as other volunteers, along with probably around 100 chainsaws in use all day. I was put in charge of a group of nine people; we worked at four houses and cleared out around 10 fallen trees and major limbs, half of which were larger than my arm span in diameter. One had fallen against a house and damaged the roof. My group worked from about 10 - 5:30, or so, and it was a major success. At church the next day several people who had gone down were surprisingly not sore. My reaction was that they did not have enough faith - they didn't work hard enough. But then I realized that the opposite is more likely the cas

One of the ten commandments is "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee . " This commandment is the premise for a topic that occupies my mind often. Respect for authority is a gospel principle that applies to all areas of life. Family authority Government authority Church authority At certain periods for life School authorities Employment authority The obedience of the two thousand stripling warriors saved their own lives and the lives of many others as well as the freedom of their country . There is only one authority that trumps all the others and it is God's authority. But God usually works with the other authorities. When the underlings are faithful to God, He inspires the leaders. If they are not acting according to His will he deals with them in His own manner and it is not for us to usurp authority or take it upon ourselves to correct the situation without direct inspiration t

The Gift of Prophecy A prophet is any person who has the gift of prophecy. The gift of prophecy is a gift of the spirit, and therefore, can be received only by those who have been given, and received, the gift of the Holy Ghost. The gift of the Holy Ghost is received as part of baptism. Baptism has two parts - water and fire. Receiving the Holy Ghost and keeping it with you constantly is the baptism of fire, a continual process of cleansing and remitting sins. As Moses said "Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them ! " God would, if we would do what He has asked in order to receive His spirit. Some may mistake this scripture, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy , " to mean that to testify of Jesus makes one a prophet. But the opposite is true, in order to truly testify of Jesus with power we must have the spirit testify to us of this truth. This is the spirit of prophecy. The Calling of