Our Divine Worth

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Our Divine Worth

• Cypress Texas Stake

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Little Boys

• A little boy was in a relative's wedding.
• As he was coming down the aisle, he would take
  two steps, stop, and turn to the crowd.
• While facing the crowd, he would put his hands up
  like claws and roar.
• So it went, step, step, ROAR, step, step, ROAR,
  all the way down the aisle.
• As you can imagine, the crowd was near tears from
  laughing so hard by the time he reached the
  pulpit.
• When asked what he was doing, the child sniffed
  and said, "I was being the Ring Bear."

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Julie
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Judgment Day??

• Obedience (Assets)
• Minus
• Sins (Liabilities)
• Negative(Telestial?)

Break Even (Terrestrial?)
Positive (Celestial?)
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Prophet Moroni, Gifts

• Moroni 10
• And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye
  deny not the gifts of God, for they are many and
  they come from the same God

• Ether 1227
• And if men come unto me I will show unto them
  their weakness.

To Bless And Serve
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Elder C.S. Lewis

• Imagine yourself as a living house. God
  comes in to rebuild that house.
• At first, perhaps, you can understand what
  He is doing. He is getting the drains right and
  stopping the leaks in the roof and so on you
  knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are
  not surprised.
• But presently He starts knocking the house about
  in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem
  to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The
  explanation is that He is building quite a
  different house from the one you thought of-
  throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra
  floor there, running up towers, making
  courtyards.
• You thought you were going to be made into a
  decent little cottage but He is building a
  palace.
• (Mere Christianity p. 176) 

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Apollo 13
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Elder Bruce Hafen
Elder Bruce Hafen
Fallen, Natural Man
At-One-Ment
Divine Gravity
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Elder Bruce Hafen
Elder Bruce Hafen
President Eyring All of us can remember times in
our lives when we felt a pull to be better than
we were, to rise higher. The feeling may have
come at about the same time we had the thought
"There must be something better in life than
this."
Make Covenents Repent Trust
The feeling that you are meant to be better,
perhaps in a way you haven't yet discovered,
comes from our Heavenly Father. The opposing
thought, that the upward pull is an illusion,
comes from the adversary, who wants us all to be
miserable, as he is.
Divine Gravity
Fallen, Natural Man
At-One-Ment
Heavenly Father does more than allow you to feel
that upward pull. He has provided a way to rise
higher, almost beyond our limits of imagination,
not by our own powers alone, which would not be
nearly enough, but through the power of the
atonement of his Son,
(Making Covenants with God, BYU Devotional, Sept
1996)
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Gifts of God
Remember Our Weaknesses and Imperfections do not
exist to embarrass or ruin our lives. They are
meant to bless us by teaching us to rely more on
the Lords Tender Mercies. And His grace really
Is sufficient for usif well let it!

• Moroni 10
• And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye
  deny not the gifts of God, for they are many and
  they come from the same God

• Ether 1227
• And if men come unto me I will show unto them
  their weakness.
• I give unto men (and women) weakness that they
  may be humble
• and my grace is sufficient

To Bless And Serve
To Humble and Bless us
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The Apostle Peter

• And Jesus constrained his disciples to
  get into a ship,
  andhe went up into a mountain, apart,
  to pray.
• And the ship was tossed with the
  waves for the wind was contrary.
• And in the fourth watch of the night,
  Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
• And when the disciples saw him walking
  on the sea, they were troubled, saying,
  It is a spirit and they cried out for
  fear.
• But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be
  of good cheer it is I be not afraid.
• And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be
  thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
• And he said, Come.
• And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he
  walked on the water
• But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was
  afraid and, beginning to sink, he cried, saying,
  Lord, save me.
• And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand,
  and caught him
• And when they were come into the ship, the wind
  ceased. (Matt 14)

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Julie
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Questions for Julie

• Is God your Heavenly Father?
• Does He love you more than you can know?
• Does He want you to be happy?
• Does He want you to Pray?
• Is He anxious to answer you?
• Does He know exactly what you need?
• Does He know what is going to happen to you in
  the future?
• If all this is true, then what, exactly, are you
  asking for?

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Dinner Tonight?
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Essential Questions

• So, why do we pray?
• What are we praying for?

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Pres. Joseph F. Smith

• the education of our desires is one of
  far-reaching importance to our happiness
  in life
• (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed. 1939, 297
• Desires?
• Wait! I know what I what I need- dont I?

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Elder Maxwell

• One might ask, why is it necessary that
  the Holy Ghost prompt us even in our
  prayers? One reason is that only with the
  help of the Holy Ghost can we be lifted
  outside the narrow little theater of our own
  experience, outside our selfish concerns, and
  outside the confines of our tiny conceptual
  cells.
• God sees things as they really are and as they
  will become. We dont! In order to tap that
  precious knowledge during our prayers, we must
  rely upon the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
• With access to that kind of knowledge, we would
  then pray for what we and others should have...
  With the Spirit prompting us, we will not ask
  amiss.
• Prayer, 44-52

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Brother Johnson, 1964The Apostle Paul of Ghana

• As I read the Book of Mormon I
  became convinced that it was really
  the word of God, and sometimes
  while reading I would burst into
  tears. I felt the Spirit as I read. . . .
• One early morning . . . I saw the
  heavens open and angels with trumpets
  singing songs of praise unto God. . . . In the
  course of this I heard my name mentioned thrice,
  "Johnson, Johnson, Johnson. If you will take up
  my work as I will command you, I will bless you
  and bless your land." Trembling and in tears I
  replied, "Lord, with thy help I will do
  whatsoever you will command me."
• From that day onward, I was constrained by that
  Spirit to go from street to street . . . to
  deliver the message which we had read from the
  Book of Mormon. . . . I did exactly as the Lord
  commanded me . . . and immediately our
  persecutions started.
• Brother Johnson also reported that at a time of
  great trial early in his ministry, his deceased
  brother appeared to him in a dream and said
• "Don't worry. . . you have chosen the only true
  church on earth . . . and I am now investigating
  your church." I was surprised. I never knew that
  the Church extended to another world. It was my
  brother who brought that knowledge to me.
• He said that if I didn't believe him, he would
  sing a song from my church, and he sang "Come,
  Come, Ye Saints." That was the first time I had
  heard that hymn. He said, "Don't leave the
  church, my brother. . . . Please see that I am
  baptized."

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Brother Johnson Continues

• It was my brother who enlightened me about
  baptism for the dead and brought it to my
  knowledge. . . . Most of my relatives
  appeared to me in dreams saying,
• "Reverend Johnson, do you know you have a
  work to do for us? Our great grandsons and
  daughters will be in your church soon. See
  that we are baptized." . . .
• I learned these doctrines before the missionaries
  arrived. Nothing they taught us seemed strange.
  They simply confirmed what we had heard. . . .
  Each time the Lord addressed us in dreams, He
  addressed us as Latter-day Saints, even though we
  had not yet become members.
• For 14 years Brother Johnson helped organize 10
  congregations. To strengthen his people against
  trials and persecution, he focused on the early
  history of the Church. He said
• We felt the spirit of the pioneers. . . . We
  gained our strength from the pioneers. We were
  inspired by their works. . . . I would see tears
  falling from the eyes of my members, especially
  when we sang, "Come, Come, Ye Saints." That hymn
  is wonderful. It is my favorite hymn in the
  Church.
• One night at midnight, after many lonely years of
  struggle, Brother Johnson heard a shortwave news
  broadcast from England in which he heard
  President Kimball's announcement that all worthy
  males could receive the priesthood. He burst into
  tears of joy, knowing that the Church would now
  come to Africa.
• E. Dale LeBaron, BYU Devotional, November
  1998