Wesley L. Jones -Church Auditing Department Report
F. Michael Watson -Statistical Report, 2001
- Total Membership -11,394,522
- Number of full-time missionaries - 60,850
- Satan hath desired to have you. ... But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.
- It is a sobering reminder to each of us that knowing to do right, even ardently desiring to do right, is not enough. It is often very hard to actually do what we clearly know we should do.
- True conversion is the fruit of faith, repentance, and consistent obedience.
- President Hinckley can't be there as a friend for every new member. But you can be there for at least one.
- The Holy Ghost is a comforter and a guide. But it is also a cleansing agent. That is why service in the kingdom is so crucial to enduring. When we are called to serve, we can pray for the Holy Ghost to be our companion with assurance it will come. When we ask in faith, a change can come into our natures both for the welfare of our souls and to strengthen us for the tests we all must face.
- There are limits on what friends can do to help the ones who must endure. It is the new members who must pray. It is they who must rely on the strength they will receive in answers to their prayers. They must choose for themselves in faith to be baptized, trusting in their perfect friend, the Savior. They must choose in faith in Him to repent, to be humble and contrite.
- "Receive the Holy Ghost." And that choice must be made not once, but every day, every hour, every minute. Even when the Holy Ghost comes and inspires them what they should do, doing it or not is a choice.
- With faith and obedience practiced long enough, the Holy Ghost becomes a constant companion, our natures change, and endurance becomes certain.
- First, we must love them.
- "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."
- Second, we must listen.
- Third, we must be an example.
- Fourth, we must testify of the truth.
- One of the sneaky ploys of the adversary is to have us believe that unquestioning obedience to the principles and commandments of God is blind obedience. His goal is to have us believe that we should be following our own worldly ways and selfish ambitions. This he does by persuading us that "blindly" following the prophets and obeying the commandments I not thinking for ourselves. He teaches that it is not intelligent to do something just because we are told to do so by a living prophet or by prophets who speak to us from the scriptures.
- "Latter-day Saints are not obedient because they are compelled to be obedient. They are obedient because they know certain spiritual truths and have decided, as an expression of their own individual agency, to obey the commandments of God. ... We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see."
- Another of the adversary's deceptions is to have us believe that the wisdom and the learning of the world is the only source of knowledge we should follow.
- "Desiring to receive instructions" is more than a willingness to listen. When our desire to receive instruction is a greater force than our comfort in remaining as we are, we become teachable.
- First, we need to start with a willingness to be instructed.
- Second, we need to put ourselves into a proper frame of mind and heart.
- Third, we must be obedient to the instruction we receive.
- "Blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom."
- If persons are simply seeking a satisfying social experience, they might be disappointed in a particular ward or branch and seek other associations. There are satisfying social experiences in many organizations. If they are simply seeking help to learn the gospel, they could pursue that goal through available literature. But are these the principal purposes of the Church? Is this all we are to receive from the gospel of Jesus Christ?
- What we get depends on what we seek. Persons who attend Church solely in order to get something of a temporal nature may be disappointed.
- Persons who attend Church in order to give to their fellowmen and serve the Lord will rarely be disappointed.
- Our Church does not have a monopoly on good people, but we have a remarkable concentration of them.
- Many ignore consecration because it seems too abstract or too daunting. The conscientious among us, however, experience divine discontent because of progression mixed with procrastination. Hence, loving counsel is given with the confirmation of this direction, encouragement to continue the journey, and consolation as we experience individually the inherent degrees of difficulty.
- Spiritual submissiveness is not accomplished in an instant, but by the incremental improvements and by the successive use of stepping-stones. Stepping-stones are meant to be taken one at a time anyway.
- We may, for instance, have a specific set of skills which we mistakenly come to think we somehow own. If we continue to cling to those more than to God, we are flinching in the face of the consecrating first commandment. Since God lends us "breath ... from one moment to another," hyperventilating over these distractions is not recommended!
- A stumbling block appears when we serve God generously with time and checkbooks but still withhold portions of our inner selves, signifying that we are not yet fully His!
- Brothers and sisters, our individual worth is already divinely established as "great"; it does not fluctuate like the stock market.
- Other stepping-stones remain unused because, like the rich, righteous young man, we are not yet willing to confront what we yet lack. A residue of selfishness is thereby exposed.
- Ironically, inordinate attention, even to good things, can diminish our devotion to God.
- The first commandment I snot suspended just because of our vigorous pursuit of a lesser good, for we do not worship a lesser god.
- Jesus never, never, never lost His focus!
- AS you and I develop additional love, patience, and meekness, the more we have to give God and humanity. Moreover, no one else is placed exactly as we are in our opportune human orbits.
- Granted, the stepping-stones take us into new territory which we may be very reluctant to explore. Hence, the successful users of the stepping-stones are powerful motivators for the rest of us. We usually pay more attention to those we quietly admire.
- Frankly, it is our prospective selves we betray by holding back whatever the "part."
- The greatest happiness in God's generous plan is finally reserved for those who are willing to stretch and to pay the costs of journeying to His regal realm.
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
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