“. . . salvation is not a cheap experience,” said Elder Jeffrey Holland. “Salvation never was easy. . . . How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him?”
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sunday Morning Radio in Spanish Fork, Utah
I love that the radio station I listen to, plays ‘church music’ on Sundays. They also have some early morning programs that include talks, like ‘The Spoken Word’ or talks from Firesides and Conference Meetings.
This morning Ed Pinegar and Jeffrey Holland were two of the speakers that I listened to. I was impressed with points made in both talks, and would like to share one point from each.
Brother Pinegar talked on twelve ‘weak areas’ wherein we’re easily led astray. One of them was pornography. He made several points about the subject, but the one that impressed me the most was that which he explained when he told about how he had once mentioned in a meeting how strongly he had felt the spirit. After the meeting a young man came up to him and said, “I didn’t feel the spirit at all” and wondered why, when Brother Pinegar had. He responded by asking the young man if he’d ever been involved in pornography - to which the young man finally answered “yes”, adding that he was having a difficult time getting the images out of his mind. Brother Pinegar then reminded him that the spirit cannot dwell in unholy places.
In Brother Holland’s talk, entitled “Pray for the Children”, he talked about how parents sometimes feel it’s okay - for various reasons - to ‘relax’ in their commitment to church activity and Gospel principles, regardless of their testimonies. He reminded parents that the children would follow their actions and that a ‘deathbed confession’ to their child, wherein they admitted that they really knew all along that the church was true, wouldn’t be near as helpful as a life of righteous example. He talked about examples of a parent who ‘slacked off’, followed by a child who considered himself agnostic, followed eventually by a grandchild or great-grandchild who had never heard of the church, but was ‘searching for something’ - not knowing that his family had once possessed the very thing that he had been looking for.
This was topped off by a re-broadcast on television this afternoon, of the Tabernacle Choir’s program of Spirituals, which featured a cool soloist. So in addition to the snow, Spanish Fork does have some things to offer that I didn’t get in Hawaii!
This morning Ed Pinegar and Jeffrey Holland were two of the speakers that I listened to. I was impressed with points made in both talks, and would like to share one point from each.
Brother Pinegar talked on twelve ‘weak areas’ wherein we’re easily led astray. One of them was pornography. He made several points about the subject, but the one that impressed me the most was that which he explained when he told about how he had once mentioned in a meeting how strongly he had felt the spirit. After the meeting a young man came up to him and said, “I didn’t feel the spirit at all” and wondered why, when Brother Pinegar had. He responded by asking the young man if he’d ever been involved in pornography - to which the young man finally answered “yes”, adding that he was having a difficult time getting the images out of his mind. Brother Pinegar then reminded him that the spirit cannot dwell in unholy places.
In Brother Holland’s talk, entitled “Pray for the Children”, he talked about how parents sometimes feel it’s okay - for various reasons - to ‘relax’ in their commitment to church activity and Gospel principles, regardless of their testimonies. He reminded parents that the children would follow their actions and that a ‘deathbed confession’ to their child, wherein they admitted that they really knew all along that the church was true, wouldn’t be near as helpful as a life of righteous example. He talked about examples of a parent who ‘slacked off’, followed by a child who considered himself agnostic, followed eventually by a grandchild or great-grandchild who had never heard of the church, but was ‘searching for something’ - not knowing that his family had once possessed the very thing that he had been looking for.
This was topped off by a re-broadcast on television this afternoon, of the Tabernacle Choir’s program of Spirituals, which featured a cool soloist. So in addition to the snow, Spanish Fork does have some things to offer that I didn’t get in Hawaii!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
