Seven of Everything

I was asked to give a talk (sermon) at church last Sunday on Things as They Really Are by Elder Bednar an apostle of Jesus Christ given back in May. Here is the beginning of my talk: In “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles declare that as spirit sons and daughters of God we “accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize [our] divine destiny as heirs of eternal life” (“ The Family: A Proclamation to the World ,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102; or Liahona, Oct. 2004, 49). My mind has often wondered in recent years - What can we do now that we could not do then? - specifically: What can we do with our physical bodies that we could not do as spirits? Why is it so beneficial for us to have a physical body in our progression? This leads to the question: What could we do then that we cannot do now? We know the answer to this one - almos...

This is one of the original sets of seven that I found several years ago. It is one of the fundamental sets that is very accurate to the seven structure. I originally saw it in Alma 36 . Then I saw it in a Sunday School lesson that I taught, in the additional teachings section ; this was taken from a conference talk by Richard G Scott called Finding Forgiveness , which takes from the book Miracle of Forgiveness by Spenser W Kimball . The full process of repentance 1 Recognition of sin 2 Sorrow for sin 3 Abandonment of sin 4 Confession of sin 5 Restitution for sin 6 Obedience to all the commandments 7 Forgiveness for sin Recognition of sin - We will not choose to change if we do not know that we have sinned. Alma was brought to recognize his sin by an angel . We need to actively repent, and in order to do this, we need to study the words of the prophets and seek the inspiration of the spirit to learn how we need to improve. We can seek it out or be brought to recognize our sin but ...

I would like to connect the gospel with the allegory of the olive tree, the sacrament prayer and your life to see if I can help the spirit inspire you to live better. When we were born we died spiritually because of the fall of Adam; that is, we left God's presence to come to earth. The Lord caused that we should die physically, symbolic of that spiritual death and the second spiritual death that should come except we live by certain conditions. Those conditions were taught to us and shown to us by Jesus Christ and his prophets and faithful saints. In the allegory of the olive tree the Lord compares the tree to the house of Israel or to you who are of the house of Israel . In the allegory the Lord talks about what He does to bless you and help you come back to Him. He starts out with your spiritual fall and what He does to keep you from falling further ( v4 ). Then talks about how He puts thorns in your side (wild branches) to inspire you to rely on your roots - your covenants ma...

To some it is difficult to tell what the dividing line is between heaven and hell. Here I am not talking to Christians as a whole, I am talking to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: The question 'what is the dividing line between heaven and hell?' is answered by many members of this church as the celestial kingdom. That is where God the Father dwells. That is where faithful members of this church go. Some say that it is the only kingdom that requires baptism. All those who do not dwell with God the Father are in hell. Other people would say - its not that easy - heaven is the celestial kingdom and hell is outer darkness but there are two kingdoms in between. Well, as far as the scriptures are concerned there is no in between; either one goes to heaven or to hell. Others would say that the dividing line is between the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms because everyone that goes to the telestial kingdom are the murderers, whoremongers and liars. Those wh...

The old English word gospel means good news, we've all heard that. It comes from Latin's explanation of its own word evangelium (bona adnuntiatio), borrowed from Greek euangelion (or euangelos) , which may be from Hebrew bisser which is bring (good) news - good is implied. But despite the etymology of the word there is a scriptural definition. Christ when He came to the American continent defined doctrine and defined gospel - His doctrine and His Gospel. The doctrine is the witnessed facts - Christ is the Son of God as witnessed by all members of the Godhead, God. God the Father is the literal Father of Christ and the Father of all mankind as witnessed by God. As our Father He loves us and gives us commandments with promise: repent and believe in Christ and we shall be saved or in other words inherit the kingdom of God. That is the doctrine of Jesus Christ upon which the gospel is founded . The gospel is more than just news, it is the doing of the witnessed doctrine. It is ref...

Fasting is a practice in many religions across the world. It is practiced by animals in nature and also by each of us when our bodies require it (fever or other sickness). In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fasting is defined as abstaining from food and water for a period of time, typically two meals or twenty four hours. It is practiced monthly accompanied by a worship service whose purpose is for the members of the congregation to strengthen each other spiritually as well as temporally. In all scripture, fasting is mentioned as a regular practice, as well as for special occasions where assistance is requested from God. It is also a commandment from God with many blessings for obedience to the law of the fast. These blessings also come with obedience to other commandments in conjunction with this law, like obedience to the law of the gospel and prayer. Some of the blessings mentioned in Isaiah 58 are directly related to health: "Then shall thy light break for...

Do you ever get the feeling that if God truly loved us He would find some way to talk to us again? Guide us again? Do you ever read the scriptures and wonder why God favored the people of the bible more than the people of today? They talked of gifts: gifts of healing, tongues, visions and revelations. Tongues, where whole congregations understood what was being spoken and were enlightened and enlivened by the word of God. And yet today there is not much talk of visions and revelations. I hear people say that God doesn't speak to men any more because he said all that needs to be said. What time on earth needed the voice of God more than we need it now? There is also talk of faith and miracles in the scriptures. There was the large exodus and a major defeat of many cities and a large nation under the command of God. Many nations were miraculously destroyed attempting to attack or defeat God's people without a sword being raised. There were many blessings of unity, health and pros...