Latest / Scripture Central / ”Stand Forever” Ep. 13 | The Way—Choose Christ | Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge

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”Stand Forever” Ep. 13 | The Way—Choose Christ | Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge · Scripture Central

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The Lord Jesus Christ is not one-dimensional.
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He cannot be rightly reduced to a few qualities that fit our own
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personal agenda by making God in our own image.
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To become like the Lord is more than worthiness.
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It is to incorporate into your being His qualities, all of
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them. Your most important creation is
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and will ever be you. Who are you and who will you
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become better than? Choose who you want to be is
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choose to follow Christ. There is nothing of greater
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importance in all eternity than the Atonement of Jesus Christ,
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except for possibly. Who is your God?
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Do you make God in your own image?
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What is? What is your greatest work in
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life? Another question, if God is
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merciful and if and if you can always repent and be forgiven,
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then why not do whatever you want now and repent later?
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Are you living a church centered or Christ centered life?
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Those are some of the questions we will consider in this episode
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titled Jesus Christ is the Way Choose Christ.
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Hello, my name is Larry Corbridge and this is episode 13
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of the Stand Forever series. In the last episode, we observed
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the characteristics that distinguish us from all other
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forms of life are intelligence and potential.
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We said the hallmark of intelligence is rational
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behavior, thought, and rational choices.
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We concluded the supreme expression of intelligence, the
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crowning achievement of every rational being, is to choose
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best, and the best choices are to receive the gifts of God's
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Son, God's Spirit, and God's life, and then help others do
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the same. Those are and have always been
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and will always be the best choices through all sections of
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the River of Life. There is a tendency, it seems to
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me, to oversimplify at times, Christ by reducing him to one or
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more select attributes of his character and make those
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attributes the North Star. As I said before, a false God
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can be a principle, even a true principle, or it can be 1 aspect
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of the character of Christ. But if that principle or
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attribute becomes the North Star rather than Christ as a whole,
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it becomes a false God. Consider, for example, order.
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God's house is a House of order. Chaos is the natural state of
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things, and divine instant instincts push against chaos to
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create order. Order is a godly attribute, but
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it is not the whole of godliness, and if maintaining
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order and control becomes one of the highest priorities, you will
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feel life is out of whack whenever things spin out of
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control as they do and will. More than maintaining control
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and order, which is a noble objective, we should strive to
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know and follow Christ in all his dimensions.
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Christ is also the Prince of Peace.
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He said, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you not as
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the world giveth, give I unto you.
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Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
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He also said in me ye might have peace.
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But he also said, Think not that I am come to send peace on
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earth. I came not to send peace, but a
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sword. Another example, John said God
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is love and love of course is embedded in the 1st and 2nd
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great commandments. Love is at the very heart of the
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gospel and character of Jesus Christ.
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But He is much more than only love and His gospel is more than
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sunshine and roses. John did not say God is only
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love. On two occasions the Lord
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cleared the temple of money changers and merchants by force.
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He used a braided whip in in at least in the first instance.
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On another occasion he said to some of the Pharisees, Ye are of
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your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
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On another occasion he said, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
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hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed
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appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's
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bones, and all uncleanness. Not to diminish love in the
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least, but if order, love, peace or tolerance, or whatever single
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attribute you may choose to define Christ becomes the North
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Star, it becomes a false God. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
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one-dimensional. He cannot be rightly reduced to
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a few qualities that fit our own personal agenda, turning things
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on on their head by making God in our own image.
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One of the reasons for the restoration of the Church of
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Jesus Christ in our day is precisely because, in the Lord's
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words, every man walketh in his own way and after the image of
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his own God, whose image is in the likeness of the world.
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One of the many things we all have in common is inevitable,
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inescapable death. Life is a miracle with with each
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beat of your heart, but one day it will stop.
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And when it does, what will you have accomplished?
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When you look back over the course of your life, what will
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have been your greatest work, your most important creation?
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I'd like to suggest your greatest work, your most
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important creation is and will ever be you, Brigham Young said.
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The greatest and most important labor we have to perform is to
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cultivate ourselves. You have a choice.
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You can decide what you will do with your life.
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You can choose what kind of person you will become.
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Do you think about that? Do you think about and plan for
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what you want to become or who you want to become?
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Who are you and who will you become?
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By this I I I don't mean are you or will you be a cowboy, a
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lawyer, a surfer, homemaker, engineer, computer programmer,
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accountant, or anything of the sort.
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I don't refer to what kind of car you will drive or what kind
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of clothes you wear, what kind of house you live in, or what
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kind of family you will raise. I mean, when all of that is
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removed and there you are standing alone, who will you be?
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I mean you what personality, what strengths, knowledge,
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presence, qualities, virtues and character will you have?
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What will you look like? What will you sound like?
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What will it be like to be around you?
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Who? Who will you be?
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We plan many things in life. Most of us live in a house built
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from a plan. Someone first envisioned the
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house in her mind and a plan was then put to paper.
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We plan our time and days, weeks, years and beyond.
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We have meal plans, meeting plans, financial plans,
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production plans, marketing plans, and travel plans.
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Every intentional creation of both God and man is the product
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really of the same. Process starts with an idea,
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then a vision of what can be, and then a plan, and then the
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work to bring it about. But have you planned your
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greatest work? Have you envisioned who you will
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become? Do you plan for what kind of
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person you want to become? Can you see in your mind who you
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want to be? Do you know as you consider what
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kind of person you want to become, what choices do you
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have? The choices are maybe more
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limited than what you might think.
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Here are most of the choices, but overall they are simply a
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choice between the qualities of light or the qualities of
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darkness. Do you want to be powerful or
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weak? Certain and confident or afraid
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and insecure? Comfortable with yourself or
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arrogant and abrasive? Do you want to be filled with
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light or darkness? Do you want to have peace or
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conflict within, Generous or selfish?
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Influential or inconsequential? Do you want to be free or a
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slave, happy or miserable? Do you want to be kind and
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loving or mean and cruel? Honest or dishonest?
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Do you want to be forgiving or hard and unforgiving?
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Knowledgeable or ignorant? Do you want to be a person of
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faith or doubt and fear? Trustworthy or unreliable?
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Hardworking or lazy? Do you want to be cheerful or
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despondent? The 1st of each of these
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choices, as I said, is an attribute of light.
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They are incorporated into your character as you choose to
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follow Christ. As you consider the question of
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what kind of person you will become, you must understand the
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dynamic process of life. You not only can change, but you
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do change all the time, mentally, physically,
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emotionally, and spiritually. Up until recently, science held
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that brains do not change after childhood.
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We now know, however, that not to be true.
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The brain is not hardwired by adulthood and can be rewired by
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changing habits and thinking differently.
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The ability of the brain to change is referred to as
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neuroplasticity. To recognize physical changes
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requires really little more attention than occasionally
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looking in the mirror. But you are also evolving
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emotionally and spiritually. All those changes are either for
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better or worse, depending on what you are doing and how you
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are thinking. Sometimes people do not believe
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they can change. They excuse their failures and
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weaknesses by saying that's just the way I am.
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I'm just a short tempered impatient person or whatever.
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I can't get up in the morning. That's just the way I am.
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That's that's my nature or I'm just shy, that's all.
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That's just who I am. I'm just not very strong.
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I'm not really a spiritual person or whatever it may be.
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To believe that weaknesses and deficiencies in your character
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are unchangeable is to reject the central truth of the plan of
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salvation. You are not etched in stone.
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You are a dynamic, changing, evolving being.
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You are always changing. You never stay the same.
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You cannot stand still. You are right now the sum total
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of what you have thought, seen, heard, said and done.
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What you think, say, do, here and see causes you to change for
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good or evil, to become either stronger or weaker, to either
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internalize the qualities of light or the qualities of
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darkness. Therefore you are responsible
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for who you are, and you are are responsible for who you will
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become. Do you know what kind of person
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you want to become? Do you do you see in your mind
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who you want to be? Do you know Jesus asked a
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similar but perplexing question? He said what manner of men IE to
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be. He was speaking then to his
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Nephite disciples, and so He asked about men.
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But the question applies to us all.
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And so He asks what manner of men and women IE to be.
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Then answering his own question, he said, Even as I am president.
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David O McKay summed it up this way, saying the highest of all
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ideals are the teachings and particularly the life of Jesus
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of Nazareth, and that man is most truly great.
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Who is most Christ like. What you sincerely in your heart
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think of Christ will determine what you are and will largely
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determine what your acts will be.
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By choosing Him as our ideal, we create within ourselves a desire
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to be like Him, to have fellowship with Him again.
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That's President McKay, a woman speaking to youth advised.
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Decide who you want to be and go for it.
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That advice isn't all bad. It's better, of course, than
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being knocked around by the circumstances of life, never
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going anywhere or never accomplishing much.
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But the world offers no one equal to your full potential or
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worthy of your highest emulation.
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If you look around in the world for a star to emulate, you will
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fall far short of your real potential.
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One of the reasons for the restoration is to part the night
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clouds and reveal the North Star.
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Better than choose who you want to be is choose to follow Christ
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from the beginning of time. God has repeatedly invited us to
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put Him first. Trust in Him, not instead of
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everyone and everything else, but above anyone and everything
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else. Trust in God the Eternal Father,
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in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
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Therein is strength, wisdom, clarity, confidence, power,
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knowledge, light, intelligence, sustenance, fulfillment,
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meaning, faith, Lovejoy, and peace.
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God gave to Moses 10 commandments.
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The first is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
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The second commandment thou shalt not make unto thee.
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Any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in
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the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
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the water under the earth, reinforces the first commandment
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to have no other gods before the Lord God of Israel.
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The Old Testament is especially replete with denunciation of
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idol worship. An idol is not only made of
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stone or wood, and a false God or false Christ, as I said
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before, can be something other than a person.
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And if a person, it need not be one who claims to be Christ or
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the object of worship. A false God may be an idea, even
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a good idea, a principle, even a true principle, a lifestyle or
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obsession on anything or anyone above or before God the Father
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and she's Jesus Christ. It includes anything or anyone
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that becomes the basis. Listen to this.
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It includes anyone that becomes or anything that becomes the
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basis for making choices above God our Father and the Lord
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Jesus Christ or distracts from worship of them.
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So who is your God? What God do you worship?
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It's really not all that complicated to tell.
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It's easy to tell your God is simply the standard by which you
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make choices. It's that simple.
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It is the standard by which you decide what you see, hear, say
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and think and do, and the standard for measuring also the
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past. If you see what you see, hear
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what you hear, say what you say, think what you think, and do
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what you do based on what is easiest, you worship the God of
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comfort and ease. As a result, that God will give
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you what He has to offer, hollow comfort, empty ease, and no
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more. If you make decisions based on
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recognition, acceptance, and praise of others, you worship
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the great God of popularity. As a result, that fickle God
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will jerk your chain one way and then another and give what
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little he has to offer. Fleeting popularity, which
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vanishes like the morning dew, but no more.
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If you do what you do based on the bottom line, whatever will
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generate the greatest monetary gain, You worship the God of
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wealth. That God will give you all he
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has to offer. Fleeting wealth and possessions,
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but no more. If you do what you do based on
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the belief that people prosper only by their own industry and
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intelligence. That everything came to be
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haphazardly out of nothing, by nothing, for nothing.
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If you believe in nothing, then nothing is your God and nothing
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will give you nothing. If you make decisions based on
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your own self-image or what you want to do, what best satisfies
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your opinions and desires, then you worship the God of self and
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you and you will make of you whatever you can, but far, far
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less than your full potential. If you do what you do to please
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others, a spouse, a parent, or someone else, that person is
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your God, and who knows what he or she will give you.
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If you make decisions primarily based on a single virtue or
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bellwether principles such as tolerance, love, or joy, then
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you worship apart, but not the whole.
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That God, however good it may be, will give you what she can,
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but far less than the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ
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and far less than your full potential.
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If you make decisions based on self gratification, you worship
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the God of the flesh who will reward you with a flash of
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pizzazz followed by an endless void.
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If you make choices based on walking the line between right
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and wrong, maybe walking up to the line but not crossing over,
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you, then walk in the middle, somewhere in between weak and
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strong, somewhere in between light and dark.
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And even if you don't cross the line, you will worship the great
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God of mediocrity walking with the crowd.
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But if you make decisions looking to the Lord as your
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guide, then and only then you worship Him, then and only then
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is He your God. He will give you all.
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He and the Father have every good thing forever.
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A character like His that will endure throughout eternity,
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Peace, glory, dominions, power, infinite capacity, knowledge,
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light and intelligence of fullness, of joy, the
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continuation of family and posterity throughout eternity,
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and every other good thing in this life and eternity.
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To worship at the altar of any other God is folly.
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Which is not to say you shouldn't be influenced by other
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good people, principles and persuasions which you can't
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avoid anyway. The Lord said thou shalt have no
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other gods before me. He didn't say Thou shalt have no
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other God but me. The commandment is to put God
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first, not at the exclusion of everything and everyone else, as
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I said, but paramount, above and beyond everything and everyone
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else. First faith in the Lord Jesus
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Christ. Choose best.
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Choose Christ. As an active member of the
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Church of Jesus Christ, it seems to me it's easy to live a church
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centered life, maybe more than a Christ centered life, and and
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not fully realize it at the time.
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It is easy for the church to become the one thing or even the
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North Star. To be clear, this is not to
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diminish the importance of the church in the least.
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One cannot fully live a Christ centered life as he intends
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without the church he established for that very
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purpose. But we may look beyond the mark,
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blind to Christ or unawares, making him a lesser light.
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Christ and his church are overlapping circles, but they're
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not concentric. A little girl stands at the
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podium to bear her testimony. What does she say?
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I'd like to bear my testimony. I know the church is true.
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That's fine. I'm really not critical of that.
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I'm I'm just struck by what I've never heard a child say.
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I'd like to bear my testimony. I know Jesus Christ is the Son
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of God. I know if we follow him, we will
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be happy. And if we forget and make
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mistakes, we can be forgiven because He paid for our sins.
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I've never heard that testimony from a child.
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Maybe you have. I hope to hear it someday.
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One of the patterns that emerge from serving on the Restoration
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and Cancellations Committee was the tendency of centering one's
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life on the Church of Jesus Christ rather than Christ.
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A man has doubts about the church.
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He expresses his doubts to his wife and she shares her faith.
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He persists in what gave rise to the doubts in the 1st place and
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not surprisingly concludes the church is not true.
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He becomes bitter and angry thinking that friends, family
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and teachers throughout his life all duped him.
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He next concludes there is no God and then he's unfaithful to
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his wife. He decides he was cheated out of
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all the pizzazz of a swinging single.
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Having married at a young age, which with beliefs so different
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than what he has now adopted, he leaves his wife and family in
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his mind to be free. A divorce follows.
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Church membership was withdrawn, whether at his request or at the
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initiative of local leaders. This example that I've offered
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is couched in the context of a man, a husband, and a father,
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but it's not unique to men. It could just as well be a
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woman, wife and mother. The pattern is the same either
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way. It does not.
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I'm not saying it occurs in every instance, but it is by far
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and away prevalent enough to be a pattern.
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The rule are not the exception. It plays out over and over and
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over again. It is stunning how quickly and
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negatively failure of 1's testimony of the church effects
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every other aspect of life. Usually when one's testimony of
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the church is shaken, everything else falls to the ground as
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well. That should not happen.
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The fact that the failure of testimony of the church often
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leads so quickly to disbelief in God, the abandonment of family
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and principles of eternal truth, including fidelity and marriage,
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providing for a family and raising them in light and truth
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suggests a church centered life rather than a Christ centered
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life. And how quickly thinking is
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muddled when the Spirit withdraws.
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If one has a testimony of the church founded on the rock of
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Revelation, he will not likely fall away.
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But if one also has a testimony of God the Father and Jesus
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Christ, he should at least remain true to spouse and family
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even when belief in the church is shaken.
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The mistaken belief that church is not true does not logically
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lead to the conclusion that there is no God, and that right
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and wrong, truth and error, dissolve away altogether.
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But that is what usually happens when people turn away from the
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church. Often all the wheels fall off
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again. One cannot fully live a Christ
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centered life without the Church He established for that very
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purpose. His Church, with the fullness of
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His gospel, His priesthood and ordinances giving way to the
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blessings of His atonement, the Spirit of God, the privilege to
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engage in His work, and ultimately the gift of God's
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life are essential elements of living a Christ centered life.
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However, one may be more influenced by the next
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assignment meeting, the next service project, or the next
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activity or other church responsibility than looking unto
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Christ in every thought, remembering Him always, and
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doing all things in His name. He is the Lord God.
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Let us take His name and always remember Him to keep His
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commandments and build up His Kingdom, that we may always have
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His Spirit to be with us. Finally, to become like the Lord
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is more than worthiness. When we refer to Christ, we most
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commonly use the title Savior, and there is of course nothing
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wrong with that. He is the Savior and Redeemer of
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all mankind. That is at the very heart of who
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He is and what He did for us, but it is not the whole of it.
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He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end and every
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good thing in between. Although He refers to Himself as
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the Bread of Life, the light of the world, the Good Shepherd,
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the Way, the Truth and the Life, and so on, he didn't use the
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term of Savior or Redeemer to describe himself as recorded in
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the Gospels of the New Testament.
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This is not piling on titles and accolades, but remembering He
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did and does much more for us than atone for our sins.
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The immeasurable greatness of the Atonement should not obscure
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all else He did and is. Salvation is in the name of
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Jesus Christ, which is Christ as a whole, the sum of His parts.
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Salvation is not in the Atonement alone, or Savior, or
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Redeemer, or Bread of Life, Light of the World, Prince of
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Peace, Advocate, or any other name.
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Rather, salvation as is in the name of Jesus Christ, all of
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Him, the sum total, all He did, and all He does for us all.
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He is every part of Him. President Russell M Nelson
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summed up the role of Christ as Savior and the way when he
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simply said our Savior is the divine exemplar who marked the
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path that we are to follow. Jesus Christ not only came to
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atone for our sins, He also came to show us the way.
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He is not only the Savior, but also the way the consequences of
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following Christ are more than only becoming clean.
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To become like the Lord is more than worthiness.
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It is to incorporate into your being His qualities, all of
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them. All the qualities of godliness,
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not just purity. When we speak of repentance and
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forgiveness, we often say the Lord's forgiveness is complete.
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It washes away or remits our sins.
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Though our sins may be a scarlet, they may be as white as
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snow. If we repent, all of that is
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true, foundationally true. We also say our sins are washed
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away, forgiven as though they never occurred.
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But here we must be careful. That statement, though true in a
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way, gives rise to a serious misunderstanding.
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It is true if we repent, we are washed clean and made worthy
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again because of Christ's intervention on our behalf,
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which He can do having a tone for our sins.
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It is also true we may be worthy again to have God's Spirit, but
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it is not true. It is not true that forgiveness
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makes everything else all better.
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Damaged reputation, self esteem, and consequently one's ability
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to exercise faith are not necessarily restored even with
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forgiveness. Forgiveness is not forgetting,
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and the more there is to forget, the more difficult it is to
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believe in one's worthiness or recover a good reputation, or
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for others to forgive us. Forgiveness does not restore
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broken trust and damaged relationships resulting from
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sin. If a divorce follows, and if and
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a family is destroyed or a child is born out of wedlock, God's
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forgiveness of the sins giving rise to those consequences
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doesn't change any of that. The collateral damage remains.
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Without the atonement of Jesus Christ, there would be.
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Now listen to this. Without the atonement of Jesus
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Christ, there would be no hope for anyone.
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Chaos, darkness and death would prevail.
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But it is folly to believe every consequence of sin is absolved
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because of God's forgiveness. That reality is in part the
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awfulness of sin. Elder BH Roberts said this.
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The severity of the Atonement should impress men with the fact
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that we live in a world of stern realities, that human actions
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draw with them tremendous consequences that may not be
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easily set aside if the actions in which they have their origin
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are wrong. We do live in a world of stern
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realities, and there can be tremendous consequences that
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flow from sin that may not be easily set aside even with
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repentance and forgiveness. Sin, for example, rarely effects
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only the Sinner. There is almost always
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collateral damage. A woman commits adultery and her
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husband is devastated. He does not forgive her and a
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divorce ensues. They both repent, she of her
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infidelity and he of his refusal to forgive.
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Let's assume they are both forgiven and made clean before
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God through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
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As glorious as redemption is, certain collateral consequences
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remain. They are a part both remarried
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and their children don't have their mother and father in their
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home. A man becomes involved with
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pornography and eventually loses his job, his wife and family.
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He commits A felony, serves time in prison, and is registered as
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a sex offender. Eventually he changes the
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direction of his life. He gets on course and he
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repents. He may well have been forgiven
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of all his sins, made clean and worthy through the atonement of
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Christ, but he still must deal with a broken family and a
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criminal record. Nothing in this life will change
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those facts. Another man was unfaithful to
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his wife many years ago. She was unwilling to forgive.
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He lost his membership in the church and although he repented
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and was rebaptized, he remained inactive in the church for many
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years because of his guilt and the bitter feelings of his wife.
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She has since forgiven him and they are both active, worthy
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members of the church, but all their children are inactive in
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the church. When we are forgiven, God's
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forgiveness does not instill automatically within us all the
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strength and power, all the character and knowledge, all the
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trust and good name, all the confidence and faith that could
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have otherwise been ours had we been obedient in the 1st place.
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It also does not resolve, as I said, all of the collateral
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damage. The idea of play now and pay
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later or rebel now and repent later is a common idea, but a
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terrible, terribly bad one. Another man said.
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I convinced myself I would be able to cease sexual sins when I
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wanted to repent of the transgressions committed.
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He was wrong. That mentality would have merit
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if the only issue were worthiness and if you could
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always repent and be forgiven. But the issue is not simply are
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you worthy, rather who are you and who are you becoming?
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Everything you do and experience plays into that.
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Forgiveness stops the backward slight of sin, but it does not
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propel you forward to where you would have been had you never
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sinned in the beginning. There is nothing in Scripture to
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suggest forgiveness is a substitute for righteousness so
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as to instill immediately and magically within you all that
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you would have otherwise become had you chosen more wisely to
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begin with. As Jacob said, all remember the
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awfulness and transgressing against that holy God, and also
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the awfulness of yielding to the enticing of that cunning one.
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Remember, he said, to be carnally minded is death, To be
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spiritually minded is life eternal.
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Remember, we must remember the awfulness of sin.
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You may leave, live a life of deceit, for example, and later
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repent, but neither repentance nor forgiveness will make of you
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an honest person. Redemption will not instill in
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your soul that godly quality we call integrity.
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You may repent of a lifetime of impatience and temper and be
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forgiven, but forgiveness will not make of you a patient and
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temperate person. Character is forged one choice
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at a time, choosing to follow Christ and and not only because
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God Forgives your sins. There is nothing of greater
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importance in all eternity than the atonement of Jesus Christ
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except for possibly obedience in the 1st place.
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When God declared the purpose for the creation of the earth,
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he didn't say we will prove them herewith to see if they will
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repent. Rather He said, And we will
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prove them here with to see if they will do all things
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whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.
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Jesus Christ is the Redeemer, He is the Savior, but He is also
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the way. He came not only to save us from
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our sins, He came also to show us how to act and what to do in
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the 1st place. We all make mistakes in this
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life. We all sin.
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We all fall terribly short. There would be no hope for any
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one of us without Christ the Redeemer, without Christ the
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Savior, without the crowning achievement of his infinite
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Atonement. But we can't sit on our hands
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thinking all will be well in the end when we repent.
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That is a false and vain and foolish doctrine.
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We must do our part now, choose better and better, until we
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learn to choose best before the night of darkness wherein there
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can be no labor performed. The supreme expression of
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intelligence, the crowning achievement of every rational
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being, is to choose best, to make choices that will produce
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change and growth within us, to become more like the Lord Jesus
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Christ and our Heavenly Father. To choose best is to follow
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Christ. Choose best, choose God our
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Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Thank you for joining me.
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In the next episode 14, we will consider whether there is
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something you can do that will make everything else better.
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That can also be done while doing everything else and not at
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the exclusion of everything else.
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Because there is one thing. I hope you will join me then to
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discover what is the one thing.