Marci and
I were asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting, but Marci got sick and
so the Bishopric asked the missionaries to speak with me and they took up all
the time. I simply bore my testimony and sat down. This is the talk I was to
give..... I have included portions of the talk that Marci was to give.
Based on
a Talk by Russel M Nelson “Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into our lives”
As my wife and I discussed POWER we asked each
other “what is Power?” There are many kinds of Power….political power, muscle
power, electrical power, horsepower, social power and God’s power – the
greatest of all powers. What is the
power we need now in this life? What power from Christ?
I believe that we are witnesses to the Power of God
in the sustaining of President Nelson and how he has been renewed physically in
his role as Prophet and President of the church. We heard wonderful testimony
from his wife 2 weeks ago when she gave us a little insight into the living
with a modern Prophet.
We may need additional power in different ways,
because we are all different from each other.
In many instances more power is better. In the
world of horsepower, the saying is “There is no replacement for displacement”
meaning that the bigger the motor or size and stroke of the piston, the better
and for many types this is true, but in other areas this is not true. I like to
ride dirt bikes and this is not true for dirt bikes. The power must be useable,
tractable and manageable. A large displacement motor on a tight, slow single
track trail can be rough, tiring and difficult to control. Typically a smaller
motor and lighter bike will be a better tool to use in this application. There
is no dirt bike that is perfect for all types of riding. I compare this to the
customized power that our Heavenly Father and His Son can give us. He can
provide the perfect power we need for every application in our lives.
In 3rd Nephi Christ was preparing to leave the
Nephites because they were tired and weak and were not understanding all of
what he had been teaching. He told them to go to their homes and prepare for
the morrow.
5 And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus
spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they
were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him
to tarry a little longer with them.
6 And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled
with compassion towards you.
7 Have ye any that are sick among you?
Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed,
or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted
in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion
upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.
This is
the Power of our Savior.
From Marci’s talk
“At the end of the day,
Satan doesn’t need to convince us to openly rebel against God, he’s perfectly
content with getting us to ignore God, to be apathetic towards Him and our
circumstances. If he can’t get us to sin at least he can get us to sit in
stagnation. If he can’t turn us into a sinner, he’ll do his best to turn
us into a sitter. Life is an uphill drive, but putting the car in neutral
is just as good as putting it in reverse. If he can’t incite us to
rebellion, he’ll try to surround us, cut us off from the scriptures, prayer,
church, love, compassion, feeling, honesty, charity “and thus the devil
cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell”.”
How can we bring the power of Jesus Christ into our
lives?
·
Seek Him
·
Obey Him
·
Ask Him
We learn of him… and we continue to learn of
Him....
·
through
the daily study of His words through Prophets (scriptures, conference talks,
lessons, etc)
·
by doing
His will and exercising faith in Him and in ourselves, because we are in his
image and are His disciples
·
by going
through Him to our Father in prayer and utilizing His Atonement in our lives to
overcome our weakness.
We exercise sincere faith to be like him and he
will help us. (from Pres Nelson)
“Faith in
Jesus Christ propels us to do things we otherwise would not do. Faith that
motivates us to action gives us more access to His power.
We also increase the Savior’s power
in our lives when we make sacred covenants and keep those covenants with precision.
Our covenants bind us to Him and give us godly power. As faithful disciples, we
repent and follow Him into the waters of baptism. We walk along the covenant
path to receive other essential ordinances.
And gratefully, God’s plan provides
for those blessings to be extended to ancestors who died without an opportunity
to obtain them during their mortal lives.
Covenant-keeping men and women
seek for ways to keep themselves unspotted from the world so there will be
nothing blocking their access to the Savior’s power.”
From Marci’s talk…
“…Our covenants bind us
to Him and give us Godly power. There is a strength and increased sense
of perspective that comes with regular Temple attendance. I love how he
used the word “with precision”. That immediately jumped out at me when he
said it. The word precision is not one I have associated with covenant
keeping, yet it opens my understanding to a new way of thinking about my
accountability in the exactness of my fulfillment of my binding promises
to God. There are times when nothing is blocking access to the Holy Spirit in
my life; could I seek more often to keep unspotted from the world, extending
the amount of time from moments to hours or even days, and so recognize that
the Savior's power is being drawn into my life more fully? “
(I
believe that this is why we are promised increased power in our lives by
attending the temple. My wife has been attending the Temple every week for
several years and has a tremendous testimony of this. She has inspired me to
attend each week and I have felt the increased power to be a better person.)
She
continues...To help us understand this focus and diligence,
President Nelson uses the example of the woman who stretched her hand out to
touch the hem of Jesus' clothes, knowing she would be whole. He reminds
us that this "faithful, focused woman needed to stretch as far as she
could to access His power." Because drawing the power of Jesus
Christ into our lives is conditional, he continues with these three "when"
statements followed by three promises –
When
you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a
drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ
will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He
can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your
life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do.
"When
you spiritually stretch beyond anything you have ever done before, then His
power will flow into you…”
When
will we reach up in this way? What are we willing to do to draw the power of Jesus Christ into our lives?
Who could we become, what could we do if His power flowed into each of us?
Let us be more focused on moving beyond the still waters of complacency, to do more, to serve more, to search out the scriptures and learn more, to pray more diligently, to love more, to be more like our Savior and to utilize His redeeming power in our lives. As we tap into His power and increase our understanding we become more capable, more willing, more focused, and more enabled to be of service to one another and to our Father in Heaven, as our Savior taught us.”
Brothers and Sisters – THIS IS HIS CHURCH
I was
impressed with Sister Nelsons talk a few weeks ago. She reminded us of this.
Everything belongs to Christ. This is His Church
·
His
Doctrine
·
His
Covenants
·
His
Ordinances
·
His
Priesthood
·
His
Apostles
·
His
Prophet
To extend this....His ward, His
Bishop.
This church building is not a new car show room.
This is a mechanics garage. Some of us need frame off restorations, some need
the engine rebuilt or a new wiring harness we are just not able to see each
other up on the lift or all apart waiting for renewal, but I hope you all know
that we all need the Savior power and deliverance from death and hell. I bear testimony that Jesus Christ is our
master mechanic, the Savior of us all and will restore us as we:
·
Seek Him
·
Obey Him
·
Ask Him
TESTIMONY
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