Today Chelsea and Drew Lords spoke in Sacrament meeting. They were followed by brother Gerr of the High Council.
Chelsea told some stories of incredible forgiveness.One of the stories was about how some Amish people forgave the man who murdered or injured 10 of their young girls and helped the man's family with the funeral. She determined, that based on the immediate forgiveness of the Amish towards this man and his family, that forgiveness is an attitude that we carry with us when we remember our Savior's forgiveness which He mercifully extends to us.
Drew reminded us that repentance is change, not just a check list of items we go through. He reminded us that since none of us are perfect, we all have the opportunity to repent (today). If we don't know what to repent of the Lord will show us if we ask Him.
Brother Gerr was kind enough to send us his talk:
The Healing Power of
the Atonement
31 Yea, I
would that ye would come forth and aharden
not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the bday of your csalvation; and
therefore, if ye will repent and dharden
not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought
about unto you.
32 For behold, this alife is the time for men to bprepare to meet God;
yea, behold the day of cthis life is the day for men to
perform their dlabors. Alma 34:31-32
Teachings of
Amulek to the Zoramites
I am grateful that the Lord still has
confidence in me to continue serving as a stake High Councilor and be able to
serve in the 16th ward. This
wonderful ward. You have been blessed
with a wonderful bishop. I’m grateful for this opportunity to speak to
you this day. I have prayed that the
Holy Ghost will bless me in my deliverance of my message and you to receive and
learn from it..
When I was a
bishop several years ago a young lady who just moved into my ward came into my
office after the block meetings and said “I smoke and I drink and there’s
nothing you can do about it”. Over the
course of several months, which turned into years, I counseled and worked with
this sister along with many others in our ward. We all helped this sister begin the journey
back on the road to recovery.
In the
moment this sister took those steps into my office, she began a journey of
repentance, humility and hope. She took
those steps because of the words of Alma 42:30 this had become a reality in her
life:
30 O my son…
let the justice of God, and his mercy, and his long-suffering have full
sway in
your heart; and let it bring you down to the dust in humility.1
If the
Atonement of Christ has “full sway in your heart,” it means that because of
your faith in Christ, His eternal doctrines of justice, mercy, and grace will
rule your heart and govern your deepest desire and commitments fully and
completely. If the Atonement of Christ
has “full sway in your heart,” then you may truly “follow the Son, with full
purpose of heart” 2 This is
what guides us when we decide we need to repent, change, pressure of life upon
us, or we need to knock on the bishops door and talk.
Brothers and
sisters, think about your own life.
Think about the paths you have walked.
Have you felt the power of the Atonement in your life? Does the doctrines of justice, mercy, and
grace rule your heart? Do you follow the
Savior with full purpose of heart? I
pray the Holy Ghost will teach you what you need to do now to follow the Lord
Jesus Christ with full purpose of heart.
THE
ATONEMENT
I want to
begin with the Atonement itself. I’d
like to follow the Savior during those fateful hours when He suffered and died
for us and rose again.
We go first
to the garden, then to the cross, and finally to the tomb. These three places are holy places, of
experience, truth, and glory. Connected,
they define a path each of us must walk if we are to follow Him.
The Garden
Beginning in
Matthew 26:36 this tells about the events in the garden
Following
the Last Supper, Jesus went with the eleven apostles to a garden on the Mount
of Olives called Gethsemane. Leaving the
other eight at the entrance, He took Peter , James, and John a little further
and then left them as well. In those
first moments in the garden, He began to feel the great weight of burden He was
called to bear. He “began to be
sorrowful and very heavy”4 as
the sins of His people and their pains, sicknesses, and infirmities pressed on
Him.5
As the
sorrow and suffering, the grief and affliction of all human experience, and the
terrible punishment for our sins bore down upon Him, He fell on His face and
prayed:
Father, if
thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine,
be done.6
The pain and
agony was so intense it caused the Son of God, “the greatest of all, to tremble
because of pain---and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink.”
7 But He did not
shrink. Three times He prayed the same
prayer, and three times He took the same action----He submitted His will to the
will of the Father; He suffered and endured.
As the agony
grew even more intense, and angel of the Lord appeared to comfort Him; but the
incredible pain of “body and spirit” did not diminish. “His anguish for the wickedness and the
abominations of His people”8 pressed down on Him so powerfully that
He bled at every pore.9 The
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ spilled out in great drops like the oil
of olives crushed in an olive press.10
The Cross
In the house
of the high priest and in the palace of Pilate, the Roman governor, Jesus was
tried on false charges and condemned to death as the only perfectly innocent
man. The people who attended these
judgments scorned Him, mocked Him, spit upon Him, struck Him, and scourged Him
with cruel lashes.11 In the
words of Isaiah, “He is despised and rejected of men….He was oppressed, and he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.”12
Condemned to
die by crucifixion, Jesus was rejected by His own, cast out, and led by Roman
soldiers to Calvary “as a lamb to the slaughter.”13 There they drove nails through His
hands and feet and lifted Him up on the cross.
All morning
long Jesus endured the pain of the cross, but the end was not yet. About noon, the sky became very dark. In those moments the agony and torment of the
garden returned in full force. This time
the Father withdrew His Spirit. In utter
anguish of soul, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?”14 But He did not shrink. He held on, until, at last, the suffering was
complete.
Again He
cried with a loud voice, “Father, it is finished, thy will is done.”15 “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.”16
And then He died.
The Tomb
The terrible
hours on Calvary came to an end, but the work of the Atonement continued. As we follow the Savior, our focus shifts to
the tomb where His body lay and to the spirit prison where He went to minister.
With
permission from Pilate, Joseph of Arimathaea, a disciple of Jesus, took His
body from the cross, “wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own
new tomb.”17 Christ’s body
lay in a tomb “hewn out [of] rock”18
protected by a large,
sealed stone and guarded by Roman soldiers.19
In His
spirit body, however, He continued His ministry. He appeared in the Spirit World in power and
glory20 to the captives who
had been faithful.”22 He
organized and sent “his forces”23 to the unrighteous and then returned to the
tomb to complete His redemptive work.
Having died
a physical death and having suffered and conquered everything else mortal life
contains, Jesus “received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with Him.”24 With that power, the Lord Jesus Christ
returned to the tomb and broke the bands of death. Jesus took up again His physical body,
quickened by celestial glory. He became
“the first fruits of them that slept,”25
full of glory and power to redeem, to save, to justify, and to
bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
Over the
next 40 days the resurrected Lord met with His disciples and taught them
“things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”26 Then He ascended into Heaven, there to take
His rightful place on the right hand of God the Father. The infinite, perfect Atonement was complete.
FOLLOWING
THE SAVIOR
The Garden
of Gethsemane, the cross on Calvary, and the tomb of Arimathaea----three places
and experiences that define the most important thing that has ever happened or
will ever happen---the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. The atoning sacrifice and the glorious
resurrection took place over the course of several hours in the meridian of
time. If we could gain the perspective
of the eternities, we would see in those hours a great light bursting into the
darkness of evil, sin, suffering, chaos, and death---a great light spreading
across all time and space, filling the universe, carrying all that is good,
penetrating every soul---the light of Christ!
Can we ever forget Brother
Young’s testimony? “God is Good!”
That
glorious light and the blessing of immortality come as free gifts from the
Atonement of Christ. He “descended below
all things---that he might be in all and through all things”27 “the light and the life of the world;
yea, alight that is endless, that can
never be darkened; yea, and also a life
which is endless, that there can be no more death.”28
But there is
so much more! Christ suffered the punishment of eternal justice for our sins
and brought to pass the great plan of mercy for all who repent.
Alma
said:----mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the
atonement….
For behold,
justice exerciseth all His demands, and also mercy claimeth all which is her
own; and thus, none but the truly penitent are saved.29
My brothers
and sisters, all who repent and come unto Christ have access to His saving
mercy. Jesus is the Savior, the
redeemer. As often as we repent, He
forgives us.30 His blood “cleanseth us from all sin.”31
Through His
grace and His power we may be “in Christ…a new creature”.32
Again Alma
taught: Marvel not that all mankind…must
be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to
a state of righteousness, being redeemed
of God, becoming His sons and daughters.
And thus
they become new creatures…33,34
This is the
power and majesty of the Atonement of Christ.
In every way, now and forever, Jesus has all power to heal, to save, to
cleanse, to lift up, to transform. He
is, in very fact, “the way, the truth, and the life.35
How do we
make the atonement complete in our lives?
How do we follow the Savior into the Garden of Gethsemane? On the Cross
and to come forth from the tomb.
The Savior
made a covenant with His Father. Deep in
the drama of the Garden of Gethsemane and the agony of Calvary lies a covenant,
a promise that Jesus made to His Father.
In the great Council in Heaven, God the Father asked, “Whom shall I
send? Whom shall I send to be the Savior
to atone for the sins of the world, to overcome all things and to bring to pass
the great plan of happiness? Jesus
answered, “Here am I, send me.” Father
thy will be done and the glory be thine forever.
Throughout
the Saviors life and ministry this promise guided Him, inspired Him in
everything he did. He taught His
disciples, and any who would listen, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of
the Father,” and he did exactly that to the very end of His life.
Because
Jesus was true and faithful to His covenant with the Father, there is order,
truth, and justice in God’s universe, no
unhallowed hand can stop the work of salvation, and no force or power can take
away what God has guaranteed. The
promises are true. Though Satan may promote disorder and chaos and try to wreak
destruction, justice and truth will prevail.
The covenant
Jesus made with the Father is a pattern for us if we will follow Him. Think of the covenants we made at baptism? In the temple? Do we strive to honor, live and keep these
covenants we have made? Are we preparing
our selves each week as we come to church and partake of the sacrament to
repent of our sins and renew our covenants we made at baptism. Are we focusing on our reverence by arriving
early to church, and preparing ourselves for the sacrament?
Elder Robert
C. Oaks said: “Carefully consider the words of the sacrament prayers(when we
say amen to the prayers, we are committing to comply with the elements in the
prayers—willing to take upon ourselves the name of Christ, always remembering
Him and keeping His commandments)”
Recognize
your weaknesses and come prepared through repentance to partake of the
sacrament
Sing the
sacrament hymn and think about the meaning of the words.
Review the
meaning of the sacrament prayers in your mind
Think of
Christ’s great love for you and of your love for Him.
Think of
blessings for which you are grateful,
for the good you did in serving,
and following the prompting of the Holy spirit.
Review your
activities of the past week to determine if you have kept your sacramental
covenants
Ask for the
Lord’s help and commit to overcome a weakness during the coming week.
When Lehi
partook of the fruit, his soul “was
filled with exceedingly great joy. Let
this be the joy we experience when we partake of the Sacrament
The Second
Pattern: Christ Pure Love
The Savior
endured the agony of the garden and the cross because of the promise He made to
His Father and because of His pure and perfect love for us. The depth of that love is awesome to
behold. The Savior endured unfathomable pain,
suffering, and agony. Here was all the
awful punishment that justice required for the sins of each and every one of
His people. Here was the blade of
justice fully unsheathed—bare, sharp, terrible.
Here was the sum total of all human experience. Remember, He descended below all things.
But here,
too, was mercy in all its compassion and the power of the Holy One in all His
strength, Indeed, through the depths of His suffering, Jesus became the mighty
in mercy—mighty to forgive, to heal, to redeem, and to justify. If we turn to Him and repent and call on Him
for help, we have access to His mercy, His grace, and His power.
Again here
is the pattern for each of us if we are to follow Him. The Savior calls on us to come unto Him, take
His yoke upon us, and learn of Him. When
we take upon ourselves the Savior’s yoke , we join with Him and learn to do His
work the way He would do it.
Think about our service in the ward, among our
neighbors, our friends and our families.
Are you prepared to sacrifice and serve with love? Fulfill your duties in Home and visiting
teachings, doing missionary work,
sharing your testimony, serving in the
temple and doing temple work for those who have accepted the gospel.
It is my
prayer that His love and His mercy will have “full sway” in your heart so you
might love one another and serve one another all the days of your lives.
Walking in
the Newness of Life:
Temples are
where many sacred ordinances occur and
are also a source of peaceful refuge from the world. Even those who visit temple grounds can feel
this peace.
I would like
you to read the talk given by Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles. Personal Peace: The Reward of
Righteousness April 2013 Conference.
The Savior
is the source of true peace. Even with the trials of life, because of the
Savior’s Atonement and His grace, righteous living will be rewarded with
personal peace. In the intimate setting of the Passover chamber, the Savior
promised His Apostles that they would be blessed with the “Comforter, which is
the Holy Ghost” and then uttered these important words: “Peace I leave with
you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”30
Then just before His Intercessory Prayer: “These things I have spoken unto you,
that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be
of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”31
