Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Some Things Will Not Resolve In This Life.....


Recognize that some challenges in life will not be resolved here on earth. Paul pled thrice that “a thorn in the flesh” be removed. The Lord simply answered, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” He gave Paul strength to compensate so he could live a most meaningful life. He wants you to learn how to be cured when that is His will and how to obtain strength to live with your challenge when He intends it to be an instrument for growth. In either case the Redeemer will support you. That is why He said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; … For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Friday, October 26, 2012

Spiritual Dead Spots, Why......


So it is with divine communication. The still, small voice, though still and small, is very powerful. It “whispereth through and pierceth all things.” 13 But like my old crystal set, the message may be there but we fail to pick it up. Perhaps something in our lives prevents us from hearing the message because we are “past feeling.” 14 We often put ourselves in spiritual dead spots—places and situations that block out divine messages. Some of these dead spots include anger (resentment, resentment, resentment, self-pity, self-doubt), pornography, transgression, selfishness, and other situations that offend the Spirit.

Messages come to us individually and directly from a divine source and through our presiding officers in the Church.

President James E. Faust, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, Ensign, May, 2004

God Promises a Safe Landing, not a Calm Passage

The will of God never takes you to where the Grace of God will not protect you

Spiritual Dead Spots, Why......


So it is with divine communication. The still, small voice, though still and small, is very powerful. It “whispereth through and pierceth all things.” 13 But like my old crystal set, the message may be there but we fail to pick it up. Perhaps something in our lives prevents us from hearing the message because we are “past feeling.” 14 We often put ourselves in spiritual dead spots—places and situations that block out divine messages. Some of these dead spots include anger (resentment, resentment, resentment, self-pity, self-doubt), pornography, transgression, selfishness, and other situations that offend the Spirit.

Messages come to us individually and directly from a divine source and through our presiding officers in the Church.

President James E. Faust, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, Ensign, May, 2004

God Promises a Safe Landing, not a Calm Passage

The will of God never takes you to where the Grace of God will not protect you

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Our Inner Space.....


“We have work to do to strengthen each other and ourselves.  Tolle likens negative, obsessive, painful thinking to pollution.  Unhappiness, he says, spreads more easily than a physical disease.  The negative entity of one person can trigger and feed on the negativity in others, unless they are immune through being highly conscious.  He asks, ‘Are you polluting the world or cleaning up the mess?  You are responsible for your inner space; nobody else is.’ “
From “Power of Now, p 79, as quoted in Light in the Wilderness, by M. Catherine Thomas, p79

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Forms of Grace, Ask Heavely Father...



With respect to discerning what to do for others, here also the Lord is our model.  We see that he usually avoids doing for us what we can reasonably do for ourselves-what we need to do for ourselves. Much grace is given after or as we do all that we can do (see 2 Nephi 25:23).  He also often waits for us to ask

Here, however, are some forms of grace that people greatly need and that can produce unexpected little miracles:  empathy, patience, tolerance, firmness, forgiveness, listening, kind words, hugs, kisses, smiles, a helping hand, words of encouragement and praise.  These are attributes of godliness; they draw the Spirit into our relationships. 

We remember as well that very powerful grace which is received through the Holy Ghost for another in the form of inspired words, spiritual gifts, and so forth. Notice that these have little to do with unsolicited advice-giving, or taking over because we think another can’t work out his or her own problems with the Lord (or with their family).  We may indeed be called to intervene in another’s life quite directly, but this intervention usually comes most effectively after careful spiritual purification, preparation, and planning.

Spiritual Lightening, M. Catherine Thomas, pp 12-13

Monday, October 1, 2012

How Will We Respond....



Because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Laminites many had become hardened… and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility.
Alma 62:41

It is inevitable that challenges and obstacles and traumas will come into our lives; they are the stuff of which mortality is made.  Hard times come to all of us whether such things will come but when and, more significantly, how we will respond to them.  The question so often asked by the weary or the downtrodden, the answer is simple:  This is what mortality is all about.  More profitable questions that might be asked during times of trial are, What can I learn from this experience? How would the Lord have me respond?  What action and attitude would bring me the greatest insight?  How can I draw lessons from these difficult times that may one day bless the lives of others?  Those who take such an approach find their hearts softened, their trust in the Lord strengthened, and their burdens lighter.

Unloving thoughts about ourselves and others cannot endure in eternity because they do not perceive things as they really are; they are not true and cannot develop Spirit but only unhappiness.
(C. M. Thomas)