Reaching Our Goals

Reaching Our Goals
- talk by Grandpa

Each of us has certain desires or needs, greatest of which is the desire for exaltation with our Heavenly Father. Yet, I’m, sure that each of us feels frustrated and often thinks that this goal is beyond our reach.
The Lord said to Moses, ”This is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” Have you ever stopped to consider that this is also our individual work and glory to gain this immortality and eternal life by being obedient to the things that our Heavenly Father wants us to do?
But how can we really be obedient? Obedient to the point of obeying all of our Father’s laws and commandments?

I really believe that each of us is asking a simple question. “How can I strengthen my will power so that I can do the things that I would like or ought to do?”
Undoubtedly each of us often thinks that we would like to really live all of the commandments. You know the feeling! You make a resolution. But how do you know your going to stick to it? That’s what I’d like to discuss today and give you a few special rules to establish in your life. And these rules not only apply to the desires of gaining eternal life, but to all the in-between goals of this life.

You know, you can do anything you really want to do. Let me repeat- YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU REALLY WANT TO DO.
When Sir John Hunt stood at the foot of Mount Everest, he did not expect to reach its summit by some sort of magic or in one leap. He had mapped his climb by stages, one day at a time. Each day he ascended as high as he had planned for that day. The day two members of his team- Hillary and Tenzing- finally stepped up to the summit was the climax of many days, and the last step was the top one of many climbing steps.
What we are setting out to do is much more spectacular and sometimes just as arduous as climbing Mt. Everest, but we apply the same principles. There is no magic or sudden leap to reach our goals. We advance step by step.

What is step #1? Make sure you want it enough.
A well-known man once announced that he would like to be a United States Senator from his state. His friends immediately swung into action to get him before the public. They arranged for all sorts of meetings before all sorts of clubs and associations.
But he started to pick and choose. He wanted to take the ones that were convenient, and to avoid the ones that were not. He wanted what you might call a comfortable campaign.
He soon had no campaign at all. It ended when one of his close advisors made the comment, ”Fred, you’ll never be a Senator. You don’t want it badly enough!”
We often say that a man can get what he wants. We should add one word. Any man can get what he wants if he wants it enough!
Take a look at what you say you want. You set a goal. How much do you want it? When you want anything badly enough that you go after it with all that you have? This is the simple and practical principle behind winning the will. You can see this principle at work everywhere and at all levels of purpose.
Let a man become sold on the idea of some achievement which will bring him fame and fortune, and he will hold to it come hail or high water. When Cyrus Field started to lay the first transatlantic cable, Lord Clarendon said to him, “Suppose you don’t succeed? Suppose you make the first attempt and fail- your cable is lost in the sea- then what will you do?” Field answered, ‘Charge it to profit and loss and go to work to lay another.”

Now come back to your own wish. Do you want it enough?
Think it through until you are convinced in your own mind why it is important to you, and benefits you will derive from it.
You are now at the first big moment of this exercise. Pause a minute to make sure you are starting right. The steps to be taken are linked like a chain. No one of them stands alone. You can strengthen your will power only if you take all steps in order.
You started out by saying that you would like to do the thing you have set your wish upon. You have examined this desire of yours and found out why it arose in you and what it can do for you. It should now mean enough to you so that you definitely and firmly desire to do it.
You say to yourself, “I will do it.”
You say this sincerely and with your whole heart. You mean it. You give yourself a mandate. You do all this because you want to. You are sold on the idea that this is something you want enough to go after it. You have taken the first step- Make sure you want it enough.

#2 Believe you can do it. Sounds like a quotation from a pep talk. You have a right to say, “You tell me-‘believe I can do it’, but how do I get this faith in myself?” That’s the key question of this second step.
Frank Kingdon, famous personnel consultant, tells this story. “Some years ago a young man presented himself at my door in Boston. His clothes were threadbare and his shoes cracked. Poverty was written all over him. My first thought was that he wanted a handout. But there was something about him that immediately drove away this idea. I invited him in, and began to talk to him.
“I’m going to be a doctor,” he said. “I wondered if you could help me get a job to pay my medical school expenses.” He might as well have said that he was going to buy The Boston Light. He had arrived in Boston that morning. He had less than five dollars in his pocket. He did not have a change of clothes. His shoes were in such bad shape that I forced him against his will to take a pair of mine.
“I explained to him how long it would take for him to get a medical degree, and how much it would cost. With what tact I could summon, I pointed out that the whole idea was fantastic. I suggested alternatives that might be within his reach.
He listened patiently and courteously. He was as respectful as he could be. But my words made no breach in his mind. He wanted to be a doctor. He believed he could be a doctor. A doctor he was going to be. And that was that.
With admiration bordering on astonishment I saw that young man put himself through medical school, marry in the process and come out with honors.”
When a man once becomes genuinely convinced that he can do what he wants to do, doubt can find no corner of his mind in which to lurk. There is no room in it for thought of failure. He assumes success and goes after it with all the assurance in the world.

The psychological secret is this. You can think only one thought at a time. You cannot think success and failure at the same time. Prove this to yourself:
Try for the next two minutes not to think of the word hippopotamus. Go on, try it! Don’t think of hippopotamus. No good? It’s not surprising. Nobody can do it. There is only one way not to think about it. That’s to think of something else.
Name the books of the Old Testament, or the prophets before Moses, or the presidents of the Church since Joseph Smith. Stop—were you thinking of hippopotamus? Of course not, you were thinking of something else.
You can think of one thing only at a time
Now, you know what you want.
You know why it is important to you.
If it is important enough, you can do it.
Put this idea firmly into your mind. Then steer by it as a pilot steers by his compass. Hold it in your mind and doubt will have no chance to enter your thoughts.
Build up your belief in yourself.
Fill your mind with thoughts of success.
Get started- Assume you are succeeding.
Make sure you want it enough.
Believe you can do it.

Now you are ready for step three.
Take one step at a time.
Begin with a simple idea.
You can perform only one act at a time.
Keeping yourself going comes down to keeping yourself going through your next thought, and your next act, your next five minutes, your next hour.
Looking at it from the other point of view, it means not yielding to the next impulse to turn aside and quit. These impulses come one at a time. You overcome them one at a time. Do you believe that you can keep the resolution you have made to the Lord for the next 5 minutes? Do you believe you can resist your next impulse to quit? You have answered “yes” to both questions. Very well, you have already said, “I believe I can.”
Two children were in swimming. The girl, seven years old, could not swim, but was using an inner tube to keep afloat. It sprung a leak, filled with water, and carried her down. The boy, nine years old, swam to her, and managed to get her on his back, and started to swim back with her. He got her to the shore. The little girl, telling the story afterward, said that every time he thrust out his arm to take a stroke, she heard him mutter to himself, “I think I can, I think I can.”
He brought her in one stroke at a time.
Believing that you can do anything comes down to believing you can take the next stroke, believing you can control yourself for the next 15 minutes, believing you can hold your will for the next hour.

The Chinese have a saying that the longest journey begins with the first step. This is the step that turns your face in the direction you want to go and gets you started.
We can follow up the Chinese saying with the further that, no matter how long the journey; it consists of taking one step after another. When you get down to it, we are only applying the same principle we applied in believing in yourself. We agreed that we could think only one thought at a time. What we are saying now is that we can perform only one act at a time.
If we are going on that journey we mentioned, there is only one immediate next step. Does that step take us nearer the goal? We can’t go forwards, then backwards, or forwards and sideways and expect to make progress. Each single step we make either advances or retards us. One minute at a time, one hour at a time, one day at a time, one step at a time will get you from where you are to where you want to be.
Remember, you just take one step at a time.
An eager young man said, “I wish I could learn to speak in public, but somehow I can’t seem able to get to my feet.” His friend said to him,” You may not be able to make a speech, but I’m sure that you can make a motion. At the next meeting of your club, make the motion to adjourn. Then at the next meeting make another motion. Get used to hearing your voice saying once sentence in public. No matter how bashful you are, you can get one sentence out. Then you will get two.”
You make speeches one sentence at a time. Build yourself up as a speaker one sentence at a time. You are not going to be a Winston Churchill overnight. But here’s news to you. He wasn’t either. His maiden speech in the House of Commons was no great shakes. He was nervous, fighting his natural speech impediment, and knowing everybody there was cm0paring him with his famous father. But he made that one speech. The man whose voice rallied a nation in its finest hour was one who had come speech by speech from that faltering beginning to superb oratorical power.

You’ve taken these steps:
Made sure you wanted it enough.
Believed you could do it.
Took one step at a time.
Now you are ready for step 4:
Put yourself on the spot.

When Jack Dempsey fought Carpentier at Boyle’s Thirty Acres in New Jersey, one of the boxers in the preliminary bouts was a fellow who had some reputation as a pugilist (boxer) in the Marines. The sportswriters who mentioned him at all wrote him off as a ringman of little promise. The truth of the matter was that he had hurt his hands, and a boxer with brittle hands is not for the big time.
Unless, of course, he does something about his hands. This is precisely what this man did. It so happened that he had decided to become heavy weight champion of the world.. He wanted this enough to do what he had to do to get there. He had unbounded faith in his ability to get there. He took the first step. He bought two rubber balls and put them in his pockets. Day after day he took those balls, one in each hand, and squeezed them for five minutes at a time every time he had the chance, for fifteen minutes when he could, for longer if the opportunity came. Always persistent. Never letting up.
At the same time he worked regularly at punching the heavy bag- lightly at first, then more and more aggressively as his hands became stronger. When he decided that his hands could stand it, he put himself on the spot. He signed up for a professional bout. He won it. He added to his exercise, not only strengthening his hands, but building his whole frame. Now he put himself on the spot again. He fought an opponent higher in the rankings. He won.
He went on with this career, putting himself on the spot with the leading contenders for the title and disposed of them. In 1926, he defeated Dempsey for the heavyweight crown. He defeated him again in the return match, and retired as the undefeated champion. (Gene Tunney)
Unless a man exposes himself to defeat periodically, as Gene Tunney or any other boxer must, he cannot prove to himself or the world that he is a champion. As you go after what you want, you can give yourself that extra test periodically by putting yourself on the spot. You strengthen your will and your power by creating situations in which you have to call on it for extra effort.

You are now ready for the last step:
Achieve the habit.

Do anything once and you will do it more easily the second time. Do it twice and the third time you will do it more easily. Keep on doing it again and again, and you will find yourself repeating it without any conscious effort at all. You will be doing it automatically. You will have formed the habit.

There comes the day in every boy’s life when he shouts from his bicycle, “Look, Mom, no hands!” There used to be a teacher at Harvard who was a sort of pied piper among professors. His students literally followed him out of the classroom and down the street to continue the discussions he started. His name was William James. In the university catalog he was listed as a professor of philosophy and psychology. His true vocation was to demonstrate what a human being really could be like.
James put this whole business of forming habits into the language that makes it clearest for many people. He wrote, “ The greatest thing in all education (which he referred to as the training for the living) is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. “
For this we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and as carefully guard against growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous.
In the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided initiative as possible. Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habit you aspire to gain.
What he is really saying is that we should do the things that take us toward our goal over and over until it becomes easier to do them than to do any of the things which would divert us from what we really want. James would explain it like this:
Hundreds of years ago some Indians up in the hills decided to trek to the seashore. They went down in the spring and returned in the autumn. The next year, they decided to repeat the trek. They followed the same path, for though they had passed that way only once, they could detect in the way the new grass was growing where they had trodden the old grass the year before. The third year the path was even plainer.
Then white men built roads from the hills to the sea. They followed the same path. Today, when you drive to that seashore your follow the highway which once was the path of a single trek.”

Just as the feet of the Indians left their mark in the wild grass, so every sensation, and action leaves a trace in the billions of cells of the brain. We are spinning our own fates, says James, good or evil, never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or vice leaves its ever so little scar.
Habit protects men, increases their skills, adds to their pleasure, and improves their social relationship in all kinds of situations. Watch your habits develop. The only way to acquire a habit- the habit of will power, the habit of success- is to keep doing it until it becomes habitual.
As you set yourself one goal after another, and train your will to reach them, you are strengthening your will power as a whole. You do not train and develop your muscles by saying, “I want strong muscles.” You do it by having your muscles work at it. The same principle applies to will power. You will not develop will power by saying, “I am going to be a man of decision.” You do it by making one decision after another, by reaching one goal after another. The will holding itself to one purpose- that of reaching the final goal.
As you form one good habit at a time, you become a man of efficient habits. As William James has put it in a famous sentence, “Sow an action and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.” But the series begins with that first single action.
God lives, and we through will power can sow an action, sow a habit, sow a character so that by obedience to His laws and commandments we can reap the destiny of being as He is. This is my testimony, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Grandpa's Patriarchal Blessing- February 7, 1943

A blessing given by Samuel H. Hurst, Patriarch, upon the head of Leon Harley Jackson, son of Henry Leon Jackson, and Ina Vivien George, born December 16, 1926 at Salt Lake City, Utah.
Brother Leon Jackson: Responding to your request, and by the virtue of the Holy Priesthood, I place my hands upon your head and give unto you a Patriarchal Blessing. You are desireous of knowing the things that will be of the greatest worth to you while here upon the earth, and also have sealed upon your head the covenants to which you are heir through birth. You are of the royal blood of the House of Israel, and particularly that of Joseph who was sold into Egypt by his brethren, for you came through the loins of Ephraim, he who received the greater blessings from their father as they pertain to the spiriual things. This made you heir to the Priesthood, therefore, continue on in well doing until through your worthinness you attain the highest order of the Priesthood, for it is within your power to attain the highest blessings that the Lord has for any of His children, but rember you must seek for them.
I bless you that you may have the gift of faith. Without this gift you can never attain the highest things that are available to you. During the course of your days upon the earth, you shall be tried and tested in the same spirit in which you are given examinations in school, even that you may have opporunity of proving your worth, thereby placing yourself in position to merit the rewards of those who overcome. In your day, distress shall be manifest in the world as never before in it's history. Pestilence and earthquakes, and other disturbances of the elements shall become prevalent, but they shall have no ill effects upon you providing you cultivate and develope a faith in the Lord and rely upon Him under all circustances and conditions. For the Holy Ghost shall be your guide and companion, and as you learn to detect His whisperings you shall be kept securely in the paths of safety and honor.
It shall be your privilege to preach the gospel to many people and teach them the way of life. You shall receive joy in your ministery, for the inspiration of the Almighty shall bear tiestimony in your soul that you are engaged in the work of your Redeemer. In the due course of time, you shall take unto yourself one of the choice daughters of Zion as a companion who shall be an inspiration to you in your ministery and shall bear you sons and daughters, that your name shall be perpetuated in the earth, thus you become a partaker of the blessings that were given to that weregiven to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and become a companion of God in His work of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. So long as you are true and faithful to your covenants, and honor every calling you receive in the Holy Priesthood, your table whall never lack the necessities of life, nor your home be found wanting in things pertaining to the spirit of God.
I seal you up against the poswer of the destroyer, that your life upon the earth may not be shortened, but that you may live according to the will of your Heavenly Father, and perform every labor that in His wisdom is essential to exaltation in His kingdom. In the morning of the holy resurrection you shall come forth an eternal immortalized being, to dwell with your loved ones, enjoying their love and fellowship through-out all eternity.
These blessings I seal upon your head through your worthiness, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
Approved by Samuel H. Hurst- Patriarch

Worth of Souls (part of)

Have your ever asked yourself, "Just how important am I as an individual?" I've found in my research upon this subject that nearly every man and woman who has lived, has experienced this feeling, and has at some time in their life tried to deal with the question.

We often look at someone who has greater wealth, or greater knowledge, or better looks, or better attributes and think how insignificant we really are. But that isn't so in the sight of our Heavenly Father.

David the Psalmist in his 8th Psalm wrote," What is man, O Lord, that thou art midful of him, or the Son of man, that thous visitist him? For thou has made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor. Thous made him to have dominion over the works of they Lamb: thou hast put all things under his feet. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.

Shakespeare exclaimed,"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals

And Gladstone penned ,"Man himself is the crowning wonder of creation: the study of his nature the noblest study the world affords."

Have you ever wondered- is there anyone else just like me? Thr Lod, through the Prophet Joseph Smith spoke to Oliver Cowdry and David Whitmer in the 18th Section of the D&C.

" Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God; For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. And he hath risen again from the dead that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance. And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth. Wherefore, you are called to call repentance unto this people. And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bringsave it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" (D&C 18: 10-16)

Remember the worth of souls (an individual) is great in the sight of God.

Luke 15 is the parable of the ninety and nine.

Now that we have a little better insignt into the what and how and importance of man, lets take a little closer look at this matter of the individual and how he or she interacts one with another.

I imagine in my mind that there are 3 main influences that affect me as an individual. First is the effect of other individuals in shaping my life or trying to shape my life, either directly or indirectly, by force or by love. Second is the effect that I personnally influence my life by. And third by the influence that I personally have on shaping the life of someone else.

Let me give you a good example: 1)Sarah Hine (Sorry! He didn't write the story and I don't know who she is.) 2) President Howard W. Hunter

The Holy Ghost- A Guide to All Truth

Guide to All Truth- A talk by Leon H. Jackson
While preaching in the wilderness of Judea, John the Baptist declared, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Matt. 3:11)
Sometime later, in speaking to his disciples of the Holy Ghost, Jesus said: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall give it unto you.” (John 16:13-15)
How does one receive the Holy Ghost and the baptism of fire, spoken of by Christ? What are the functions of the Holy Ghost? And how may he alter our lives?
Lorenzo Snow- June 1836
What are the reasons why Lorenzo Snow received a baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost? He understood that the scriptures promised those who obeyed the gospel that they would be baptized with the Holy Ghost. His assurance in the scriptural promise was such that he expected to receive this baptism. He desired to receive it. He was honest and mature in his spiritual desires and was baptized by one having authority.
John the Baptist came preaching “the preparatory gospel; which gospel is the gospel of repentance and of baptism, and the remission of sins, and the law of carnal commandments…” If those principles and the ordinances that terminate in baptism for the remission of sins constitute the preparatory gospel, the question may be asked, For what does it prepare man? Among other things, the preparatory gospel prepares him for the gifts, endowments, and blessings of the Holy Ghost. It is in the manifestations of the Holy Ghost that the gospel is given to man.
To see the nature and importance of the baptism of the Holy Ghost it is necessary to understand that the Holy Ghost is a spirit-being of glory and power. One of his special functions is to bear witness to the divinity of Jesus Christ. When his power and influence is visibly manifested to man, it has the appearance of a divine fire. Thus on the day of Pentecost the power of the Holy Ghost appeared as cloven tongues of fire. This was the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is sometimes called the baptism of fire, or the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire.
If baptism of water is an actual immersion of the earthly element, the baptism of fire, must in like manner, be an actual immersion in the heavenly element of glory. Both baptisms are essential to man’s salvation. By the first, man’s sins are washed away; and by the second, he is purified from the effects of sin and filled with the light and truth of God’s glory.
Having promised his disciples the Holy Ghost, Jesus later “breathed on them, and saith unto them, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22) It is apparent from the scriptures that he also gave the apostles power to give the Holy Ghost to others. For instance, when Philip, who held the lesser Priesthood, converted and baptized many people in Samaria, he sent for Peter and John, “who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost”. The record continues, “Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost”. Likewise, when Paul found some at Ephesus who professed to be disciples, he inquired, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” When they confessed that they knew nothing about the Holy Ghost, Paul had them rebaptized. “And when Paul had laid his hands upon them,” the scripture states,”the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake with tongues and prophesied”.
The Book of Mormon also states that to the Nephite Twelve, Jesus gave power to give the Holy Ghost to others. Of the procedure they were to follow in doing so, Christ said: “Ye shall call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer; and after ye have done this ye shall have power that to him upon whom ye shall lay your hands, ye shall give the Holy Ghost; and in my name shall ye give it, for thus do mine apostles" (speaking of the apostles in Palestine).
The Book of Mormon gives explicit examples of the extent to which man may receive the divine endowments of the Holy Ghost in the gospel. Some time prior to Christ’s appearance upon the western hemisphere, two faithful Nephite missionaries were laboring among the Lamanites when they were thrown into prison. Because of their faith, the Lord intervened in their behalf when the Lamanites came to kill them, and the Lamanites found “that Nephi and Lehi were encircled about as if by fire, even insomuch that they (the Lamanites) durst not lay their hands upon them…. Nevertheless,” the record continues, “Nephi and Lehi were not burned; and they were as standing in the midst of fire and were not burned.”
Having beheld this marvelous manifestation, the Laminites began to exercise faith in God. As they did, they were given an endowment similar to that which Nephi and Lehi received. The record states,”…behold they saw that they were encircled about, yea every soul by a pillar of fire. And Nephi and Lehi were in the midst of them; yea, they were encircled about; yea, they were as if in the midst of a flaming fire, yet it did not harm them, neither did it take hold upon the walls of the prison, and they were filled with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory. And behold, the Holy Spirit of God did come down from heaven and did enter their hearts, and they were filled with fire, and they could speak forth marvelous words.”
The question may be asked, what about us today? Can we receive the Holy Ghost in the same measure as the Nephites did?
The New Testament teaches that all who believe in Jesus Christ, repent of their sins, and are baptized for the remission of sins should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is the message of the gospel that Christ’s apostles taught. On the day of Pentecost, Peter declared, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." The gift of the Holy Ghost was to be given to as many as the Lord should call to embrace the gospel. Peter made no exceptions.
Unless man receives the manifestations and blessings of the Holy Ghost, he does not receive the positive benefits and powers of the gospel. Joseph Smith stressed this point when an inquirer asked, “May I not repent and be baptized and not pay any attentions to dreams, visions, and other gifts of the Spirit?” In his reply the Prophet likened the endowments of the Spirit to the food man must partake to sustain the physical body and cause it to grow, concluding that in like manner, the manifestations of the Holy Spirit are necessary to sustain man in righteousness and mature the divine nature or glory of God, within man.
By receiving the Holy Ghost, man is placed upon that path that leads to the full endowments of God’s glory in the world to come. Nephi wrote, “For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost. And then are ye in this straight and narrow path which leads to eternal life.”
By definition, eternal life consists of being endowed with the glory of the highest degree in the celestial Kingdom. When man is given the full endowments of the Holy Spirit so that he is glorified in the celestial world, he thereby possesses eternal life. To attain eternal life, man must receive the Holy Ghost and continue to partake of its divine fruits, gifts, and powers until he goes on to receive the highest rewards in the Celestial Kingdom.
The baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost constituted a major difference between the old covenant that God established with Israel through Moses and the new covenant that Christ brought. Here may be seen on the one hand, the challenge that confronts those who believe in Christ, and the other hand, the blessings they are offered. Speaking of the covenant of the gospel, Jeremiah prophesied that the time would come when God would make a new covenant with his people. Of the new covenant, he quoted the Lord as saying, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.”
The apostle Paul spoke of this new covenant and declared that each individual who embraced it became a living epistle of Christ, “written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone (as was the old covenant God gave to Israel by Moses), but in the fleshy tablets of the heart.
Nephi declared that God “is the same yesterday, today, and forever,’ and that the Holy Ghost “is the gift of God unto all those who diligently seek him, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come." By receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and applying the laws of the gospel in our lives, we may all be sanctified by the powers of the Holy Spirit and develop such a spiritual union with Christ that his glory and power will be manifested in all we do. This is what it means to follow Christ, for he is a divine being in possession of the glory and power of his Father; and it is his desire to develop his divine truth and power in man. The basic channel through which the truth and power of God’s glory is given to man, is the gift of the Holy Ghost.
In the name of Jesus Christ- Amen

Great Granddad and Claire

Grandpa's Songs

Grandpa’s Songs
O My Father
O’ my Father, thou that dwellest
In the high and glorious place,
When shall I regain thy presence
And again behold Thy face?
In thy holy habitation did my spirit once reside?
In my first primeval childhood
Was I nurtured near thy side?

For a wise and glorious purpose
Thou hast placed me here on earth,
And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth.
Yet oft times a secret something
Whispered, “You’re a stranger her.”
And I felt that I had wandered
From a more exalted sphere.

I had learned to call thee Father
Thru thy Spirit from on high,
But until the key of knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heavens are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason, truth eternal
Tells me I’ve a mother there.

When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal courts on high?
Then, at length when I’ve completed
All you’ve sent me forth to do
With your mutual approbation
Let me come and dwell with you.
Eliza Snow


Be Still My Soul
Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side:
With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake;
All now mysterious, shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them, while he dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: The hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed, we shall meet at last.
Katharina von Schlegel

God Be With You Till We Meet Again
God be with you till we meet again;
By his counsels guide, uphold you;
With his sheep securely fold you.
God be with you till we meet again
God be with you till we meet again;
When life’s perils thick confound you,
Put his arms unfailing round you.
God be with you till we meet again.
God be with you till we meet again.
Keep love’s banner floating o’er you;
Smite death’s threatening wave before you.
God be with you till we meet again.
Jeremiah Rankin