Tag: New Testament

 “On some days we will have cause to remember the unkind treatment He received, the rejection He experienced and the injustice He endured.  When we too, then face some of those difficult times that come to us we can remember that Jesus had to descend below all things before He could ascend above them, and that He suffered pains and afflictions of every kind that He might be filled with mercy and know how to succor His people in their infirmities.  To those who stagger or stumble, He is there to strengthen us.  In the end He is there to save us, and for all this He gave His life.  However dim our days may seem, they have been darker for the Savior of the world.  In fact, in a resurrected otherwise perfected body, our Lord…has chosen to retain for the benefit of His disciples the wounds in His hands and His feet and His side…signs, if you will, that painful things happen even to the pure and perfect; signs if you will that pain in this world is not evidence that God doesn’t love you…It is the wounded Christ who is the captain of our soul…He who yet bears the scars of sacrifice, the lesions of love and humility and forgiveness.  Those wounds are what He invites young and old, then and now, to step forward and see and feel.  Then we remember with Isaiah that it was for each of us that our Master was despised and rejected…a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…All this we could remember when we are invited by a kneeling young priest to remember Christ always.”  Jeffrey R. Holland

“For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the second coming of the Lord…God has saved for the final inning some of His strongest and most valiant children who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly.  That is where you come in.  Make no mistake about it.  You are a marked generation.  There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time than there is of us.  Never before on the face of this earth have the forces of evil and forces for good been so well organized.  Now is the great day of the devil’s power.  But now is also the great day of the Lord’s power, with the greatest number of priesthood holders on the earth.  Each day we personally make many decisions showing the cause we support.  The final outcome is certain–the Forces of righteousness will finally win.  But what remains to be seen is where each of us personally, now and in the future will stand, and how tall we will stand.  Will we be true to our last days and fulfill our foreordained missions?  Great battles can make great heroes and heroines.  You will never have a better opportunity to be valiant in a more crucial cause than in the battle you face today and in the immediate future.  Some of the greatest battles you will face will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul.  Each of us has his or her own battlefield.  The tactics which the enemy will use against us will vary from time to time.  Satan will seek to exploit our weaknesses.  So we must be alert to the devil’s devious designs, the subtle sins, and the clever compromises as well as the obvious offenses.  We must remember that the devil seeks to make all men miserable like unto himself.  We must also remember that the Lord loves us and seeks for us the fullness of joy which He enjoys.  We must choose whom we will serve.”