Plan of Salvation
Football and Life
In the night I received a wonderful lesson on life from the Holy Spirit. I was taken back to one of my most miserable times of youth. It had to do with football.
My father played football in college. Both of my brothers played high school football. Obviously, it was expected that I would play football. I knew that I had to do it, so as a little boy I took the family football out into a field and kicked it around. It didn’t act like a ball ought to act. It was perverse, and there was no controlling it. It couldn’t be thrown straight, and it never went where it should when I kicked it. Worse yet, I had no idea why it needed to be thrown or kicked. I had never been to a football game, and no one had ever told me anything about its purpose or how it should be played.
The Most Important Words
It occurs to me that some of the most important words all seem to begin with “Re.”
The Redeemer made Redemption from sin possible.
The Restoration taught us how to Repent.
The Plan of Redemption
I noticed something rather astonishing.
In the Church we do a lot of talking about t he plan of salvation. This is because of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon mentions the plan 30 times, and gives it six different names. It is “the great plan of salvation” (Alma 42:5), “the great and eternal plan of deliverance from death” (2 Nephi 11:5), “the plan of restoration” (Alma 41:2), “the great plan of happiness” (Alma 42:8), “the plan of redemption” (Alma 42:13), and “the great plan of mercy” (Alma 42:31).
Life Plan
My mother was always singing. She sang as she worked. One song that she sang made me sad. It was about a boy and a girl who never met because there was a mountain between them. “They never met, they never will; ’cause she lived on the morning side of the mountain, and he lived on the evening side of the hill.”
Read MoreGod Will Not Be Thwarted
It is estimated that there are about 7,000 languages in the world. Many others have gone extinct. The question is asked, “Why so many? How did this happen?”
Read MoreChrist Is God
Several years ago Marjorie was invited by one of her piano students to attend her baptism in another church. The baptism was to be done following the pastor’s Easter sermon. Marjorie found the pastor and the sermon interesting. He was dressed in an Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts. He said that he had been reading the Bible, and had come to the conclusion that he thought that Jesus was a God.
Read MoreThe Plan
We must be grateful to Corianton. We are blessed with a great deal of valuable knowledge because of his mistakes. Corianton was the young son of the prophet Alma. He succumbed to temptation, and was thereafter subjected to a 4-chapter lecture from his father. Alma recorded what he taught Corianton, and thus we have some of the best teachings in all of scripture concerning the spirit world, the resurrection of the dead, the seriousness of sexual sin, what happens at death, the Judgment, the necessity of repentance, and a knowledge of the plans that are in place to return us to the presence of God.
Read MoreEssential to the Plan
I read an article that I wrote several years ago about Zoram. ( See “Zoram” in I Have No Greater Joy). I ended the article with the statement that he was “essential to the plan.” I have been turning that statement over in my mind.
Read MoreStrait and Narrow
We speak about walking the strait and narrow. The scriptures say a good deal about the “strait and narrow path.” (2 Ne. 31:18-19). This is an interesting phrase. On the surface it seems redundant since strait, as it’s spelled, means narrow. It’s a phrase used by the Savior when He taught both the people of Jerusalem and also the Nephites. He said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad the way, which leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat;
Read MoreThoughts Upon a Grandchild
Life and creation are miracles
That I have contemplated
The Plan of Deliverance
Alma, interestingly, in just two chapters of his book, uses five different names for God’s plan. He calls it “the plan of restoration” in Alma 41:2
Read MoreTake Alternate Route
In my front yard are nearly three feet of snow. My neighbor, who has faithfully measured each snowfall, tells me that we have received a total of 63 inches.
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