Skip to main content

"Five Truths": President Russell M. Nelson Devotional - September 17, 2019

Here are my notes from the devotional address given today at BYU by Russell M. Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Five Truths

  1. You are sons and daughters of God.  God chose to be part of his battalion during the climax between truth and error.  Help to gather God’s elect
  2. Truth is truth.  Some things are simply true. God is the arbiter of truth, not social media and not those disaffected from the Church. Eternal laws affected us whether we believe it or not.
  3. God loves every one of us with infinite, perfect love.  Our reason for being on earth is to qualify to live with him forever.  Because of deceptive tricks and traps, the covenant path would not be easy to stay on.  Thus, Christ’s atonement helps us to stay on the path in a way we could never do on our own. Strong connection between God’s love and his laws. We are never too far away in the universe for God to stop loving us (height, depth, principalities, etc.)  There must be laws to govern the beating heart, because:
    1. All blessings predicated on obedience to law  (DC 130)
    2. To every kingdom there is a law given (DC 88)

He learned he could touch the heart and it will still continue to beat. Could “turn heart on and off” with increase and decrease of sodium and potassium.  It always works, because it is divine law. Divine laws are God’s gifts to his children.  As we abide God’s laws, we more closely approach exaltation. God’s greatest blessings are reserved for those who obey his laws. His laws are due to his infinite love for us.

4.            The Lord Jesus Christ appoints prophets and apostles. Each apostle has been given the ability to feel the love that Heavenly Father has for his children.  There is always a way back.  No sin is so serious as to be beyond Savior’s atoning grace.  Sometimes leaders are criticized for holding firm, defending savior’s doctrine, etc. Leaders are not uncaring as they teach the doctrinal requirements, but NOT teaching would be more uncaring. Prophets are rarely popular. Exaltation is not easy.  Use focused and persistent effort, repenting when we don’t. Leaders cannot modify divine law. 
a.            Marriage: We respect and abide by laws of land, but marriage was ordained by God from the very beginning as between man and woman.  Policy can be adjusted when the Lord so directs. Policy changes are an ongoing part of the restoration. November 2015 policy showed concern for reducing friction between parents and children, wanted to facilitate harmony in the home. Exceptions to the policy could happen, but required First Presidency approval, and in nearly every case the exception was granted.  The policy ended up creating concern and heartache, which grieved the leaders of the Church.  Prayer continued, and policy was adjusted so that bishops could authorized if parents request the baptism and understood that children will be taught sacred covenants. If a baby has been so blessed, they can be baptized.  Homosexual immorality to be treated as heterosexual immorality.  Both policies were motivated by love. 

5.            You May Know for yourself by the whisperings of the Spirit what is true and what is not. It speaks of things as they really are and will be. Seek a confirmation from the spirit that what Pres Nelson has taught us is true. If you ask, you will receive revelation upon revelation. Are we prophets?  Did we receive revelation to formulate policies?  

He gave those in attendance--particularly the younger generation--an apostolic blessing to discern right and wrong, to see deception, with a greater capacity to receive revelation and to feel infinite reach of God’s love for you.



Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for commenting. If you have a Google/Blogger account, to be apprised of ongoing comment activity on this article, please click the "Subscribe" link below.

Popular posts from this blog

School Vouchers: "The Bramble Memo"

$429 million? What? Where? The legislative fiscal analyst for the State of Utah calculated the costs to the public schools over the next 13 years if school vouchers are implemented. It said the costs would be $5.5M in the first year, and $71M in the 13th year. Suddenly, the number I have started seeing thrown around was $429 million, the total costs for vouchers over 13 years. Where did that number come from? Enter the mysterious "Bramble Memo". In the past few days several of us (Jeremy, Utah Taxpayer, Craig, Sara, Urban Koda, Jesse, and me) have (sometimes?) enjoyed a lively discussion about school vouchers in Utah . Jeremy clarified to me the costs of the venture by linking to a copy of the Utah Legislative Fiscal Analyst's Impartial Analysis (LFA) of the costs of Vouchers , found on "The Senate Site". In my previous voucher article, I quoted some of Lavar Webb's article from last Sunday's Deseret News, wherein he stated that those total costs ...
66 comments
Read more

The Inhumanity of Bob Lonsberry: Waterboarding, Concentration Camps, and the the Bataan Death March

KNRS 570 radio talk show host Bob Lonsberry advocated waterboarding and other forms of torture during his show on April 21, 2009. More grotesquely, he was beaming with pride about his advocacy campaign. It's difficult to imagine then, that, by the same rationale, had Lonsberry been a German at the time of Hitler, or a Japanese during the Bataan Death March, that he would not have advocated torture of Jews in the concentration camps or the bayoneting and shooting of American soldiers on the Bataan trail. Torture, Torture, Everywhere! Nearly 80,000 American soldiers were captured by the Japanese in the To contemplate a discussion about whether or not torture is legal or whether it even works, it is first required to come to the conclusion that 'I am a child of God, but my adversary is a monkey'. Phillipines in 1942 and forced to march with no food and very little water for six days. If a man stumbled, if he didn't respond quickly to a command, or if he tried to get wat...
50 comments
Read more

Why Do Liberals Coddle the Radical Islamic Monster?

Many liberals and progressives in the United States and elsewhere support a radical Islamic fundamentalist movement which, if it came to power, would quickly wipe out their liberal progressive ideology. Why then, do so many liberals coddle the monster that would destroy them? The Answer lies in their long-stemmed hatred of Western liberty and free markets. Dick Morris' new revelation of Hillary Clinton's ties to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism provides an excellent backdrop for me to ask the question that Greg Allen of The Right Balance has been asking for quite some time, to wit: If many liberals stand for free sexuality, homosexuality, the use of drugs, binge drinking, and other mindless expressions of individuality, why do so many of them also look the other way when it comes to Islamic fundamentalism? Don't they know that Iran has put to death as many as 4,000 homosexuals? Don't they know that if Islamists come to power they will not only make sexual perversi...
52 comments
Read more