Latest / Scripture Central / ”Stand Forever” Ep. 5 | God’s Greatest Gifts | Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge

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”Stand Forever” Ep. 5 | God’s Greatest Gifts | Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge · Scripture Central

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  This is what I call the saddest story ever told.
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  There was once a good and very wise father.
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  He loved his children more than anyone has ever loved his
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  children. They were dazzled by the cheap
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  tinsel and glitz of the world away from home rather than the
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  priceless gifts of their amazing father.
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  By rejecting the gifts of their Father, the children really
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  rejected Him. If the heavens weep over the
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  wickedness of God's children, imagine the tears that flowed
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  when God did not spare His only begotten and innocent Son.
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  Were you there? Did you know?
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  Did you weep? You see, He is not only Christ's
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  Father, He's our father too. Welcome back.
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  My name is Larry Corbridge and this is the Stand Forever
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  series. This is episode 5.
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  The title of this episode is God's Greatest Gifts.
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  In the last episode, we discussed what I call ABC, which
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  seems to me at least to be the central message of the Old
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  Testament and what God taught Adam and Eve in the Garden of
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  Eden and his children through all time.
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  This is essentially what it is a only God can bless you.
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  Only he can cause your heart to beat and give you breath.
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  Only He can preserve and protect you.
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  Only He can give you strength to bear up the burdens of life.
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  Only He can give you power, knowledge, peace and joy.
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  Only He can forgive your sins, heal you, change you, forge your
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  godly soul. Only He can bring you back into
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  His presence. Only He can bless you.
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  Second part. He will do all of that and much
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  more if you remember Him to keep His commandments.
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  Therefore, the conclusion, obviously remember him to keep
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  his commandments. It's the only intelligent thing
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  to do now, from the beginning of time, God has repeatedly invited
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  his children to trust him. As I've said before, not instead
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  of everyone and everything else, but above anyone or anything
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  else he said, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
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  We also observed a critical broad problem, and that is that
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  we obviously don't keep God's commandments all the time.
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  We don't live perfectly, and the consequences of disobedience are
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  severe. We make mistakes, and when we
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  do, we suffer. Bad things happen.
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  Worst of all, we may withdraw ourselves from the Spirit of the
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  Lord, which is God's presence in this world, and before we know
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  it, we are left unto ourselves, separated from God and His
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  power. And as I've also said before,
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  that is what King Benjamin characterized as our awful
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  situation. It is the worst of all, the
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  essential problem in life. The essential problem in life is
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  separation from God our Father. Without God, chaos, darkness,
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  and death prevail. But before we can understand the
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  worst chaos, darkness and death, we must first understand the
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  best God's greatest blessings, the greatest gifts He offers to
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  his obedient children. Because without those gifts,
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  only the natural state remains chaos, darkness and death.
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  This is what I call the saddest story ever told.
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  There was once a good and very wise father.
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  He loved his children more than anyone has ever loved his
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  children. Everything he did was for them.
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  Because of His great love and wisdom, He sent His children
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  away from home when they were old enough and sufficiently
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  prepared to learn on their own. It gave them many marvelous and
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  unique gifts, masterfully prepared for their growth and
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  development away from home. All of the Father's gifts were
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  truly extraordinary, carefully and painstakingly prepared by
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  Him, but three were the greatest.
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  They were the spring from which flowed all others.
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  Although the gifts were many, they all had one thing in
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  common. They were designed to invariably
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  endow his children with power and joy.
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  But here the story takes an awful turn.
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  What should have been the greatest story ever told became
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  the most tragic because most of the children ignored their
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  father's marvelous gifts. They were dazzled by the cheap
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  tinsel and glitz of the world away from home rather than the
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  priceless gifts of their amazing father.
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  By rejecting the gifts of their father, the children really
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  rejected him. The Father was profoundly hurt,
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  more than we can imagine, and his foolish children were weak
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  and miserable, having refused or neglected the very gifts that
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  would have brought power and enduring joy.
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  And that may or may not be the end of the story.
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  Your Eternal Father loves you more than anyone has ever loved
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  another. All He does is for you and His
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  children. He offers you and all His
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  children everywhere supernal gifts, but most of His children
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  neither received nor rejoice in His marvellous gifts, and as a
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  result they are weak and unhappy, and heaven weeps with
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  them. Can you imagine the sadness and
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  disappointment of our Father if we do not accept His magnificent
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  gifts? When His children ignore Him
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  after all He is done? Enoch saw that not only Heavenly
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  Father, but the whole of the heavens weep when we refuse or
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  neglect His precious gifts. In light of the great gifts our
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  Father offers and the inconceivably high price paid to
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  make them available. Some of the saddest words in all
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  of Scripture are these, and I think you know what they are.
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  For what does the profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him,
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  and he received not the gift? Behold, He rejoices not in that
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  which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver
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  of the gift. So what are the greatest gifts?
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  Our Father offers all of His children everywhere from the
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  beginning of time, His Son, His Spirit, and His life.
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  Those are God's greatest gifts to his children.
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  To accept and receive those gifts is the best of all human
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  conditions. What is the inconceivably high
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  price paid to make them available?
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  The creation? The Fall, the Atonement of Jesus
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  Christ, and all the gods have done and do to bring to pass the
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  immortality and eternal life of man.
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  Ether records in the gift of His Son.
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  Hath God prepared a more excellent way?
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  Words cannot describe, nor can we conceive or measure the
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  height, the breadth, the depth of the gift of God's own Son.
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  Borrowing the words of Mormon, no tongue can speak, neither can
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  there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men
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  conceive anything so great and marvelous as Jesus Christ, the
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  Son of God, by whom salvation and all good things are
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  possible, as John famously recorded.
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  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
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  that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
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  everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into
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  the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
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  might be saved. To contemplate the magnitude of
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  the gift of God's Son, we need only think of Abraham and Isaac.
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  Can there be anything more horrific, anything more
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  repugnant, more unthinkable than a parent who either takes the
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  life of his own child or stands by and allows it to happen?
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  Occasionally we hear of such reports and our heads spin and
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  disbelief and revulsion. Usually such cases involve
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  impairment. Otherwise how could how could a
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  parent conceive, much less commit, such a heinous,
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  indescribably depraved act? And then we have Abraham.
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  Many of us struggle with the events that laid Abraham to
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  place his beloved son Isaac on the altar and raise his knife
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  only to be stopped by an Angel of God.
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  How could he do that? While we are relieved by the
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  saving intervention at the last moment, we remain troubled
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  because of what was required of Abraham and his willingness to
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  do it. I guess we admire obedience at
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  any cost, but we remain unsettled by the terrible prize
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  that was asked in the first place.
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  Even understanding that Abraham learned something about Abraham,
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  even recognizing he demonstrated he would not withhold anything
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  from God, not even his son. We are troubled and find it hard
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  to understand. And maybe, maybe that's the
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  point. Maybe the Abhorrence parched the
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  veil ever so slightly on the horror of Gethsemane, and we
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  glimpsed the awful choice another Father and another son
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  had to make when there was no intervention for them.
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  Maybe Abraham is a bridge at a distance.
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  We may understand the history of God not sparing his son, but not
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  really relate emotionally thinking.
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  Such things are things of gods. And when we think that God his
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  son not sparing, sent him to die, we can scarce take it in.
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  But then we think of Abraham, and we take it in.
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  If we dare, we can relate to Abraham, if not on the level of
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  his obedience, at least on the level of his abhorrence and
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  horror. We can't imagine his revulsion,
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  his pain and anguish, and the depth of his sorrow, offering
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  his own son, his son of miraculous birth, his own child
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  as a sacrifice. And well, we should revolt, and
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  our sensibilities cry out with offense, because just then, just
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  then we may feel a trace of the revulsion and the offense
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  suffered by both father and son who did not shrink from those
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  terrible and triumphant redeeming hours.
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  Feeling for Abraham and Isaac, we may begin to feel for God our
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  Father and his beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
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  If the heavens weep over the wickedness of God's children,
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  imagine. Imagine the tears that flowed
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  when God did not spare his only begotten and innocent Son.
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  Were you there? Did you know?
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  Did you weep? Abraham is a bridge to a son
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  whose will was swallowed up in the will of his father.
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  Abraham is a bridge to the broken heart and the love of a
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  father, not only for his son, but for all of his children.
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  You see, He is not only Christ's Father, He is our Father too.
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  Were it not for the gift of His Son, all other good gifts would
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  be foreclosed and out of reach. The gift of God's Spirit, the
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  gift of knowledge, the gift of life.
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  Because of Christ's resurrection and atonement, He is as He said.
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  The Lord is as He said, the door.
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  He is the door to every other good gift.
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  If you want anything else worth having, you have to go through
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  the door. So let's now talk about the gift
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  of God's Spirit. Heavenly Father's greatest gift
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  is the gift of life in all of its dimensions, its physical
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  life, spiritual life, and especially eternal life.
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  You might think everyone whose heart beats accepts and rejoices
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  in the gift of life, but not so, because there is a big
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  difference between existing and living.
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  Nothing in this life is of greater worth than the supernal
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  gift of the Holy Ghost, the fountain of spiritual life.
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  It is the source of joy, happiness, peace, knowledge,
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  strength, guidance, confidence, love, and every other good
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  thing. It is the power by which we may
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  be changed and made strong, wherein we are weak.
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  It is the Holy Spirit of promise, the power by which
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  marriages and families are bound together eternally.
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  It is the power by which the Lord makes Himself manifest to
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  those who believe in Him. And then quoting the Scripture.
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  Therefore it is given to abide in you the record of heaven, the
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  comforter, the peaceable things of immortal glory, the truth of
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  all things, that which quickeneth all things, which
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  maketh alive all things, that which knoweth all things and
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  hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice,
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  and judgment. President Dallin H Oakes taught
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  this, saying by participating weekly and appropriately in the
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  ordinance of the sacrament, we qualify for the promise that we
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  will always have His spirit to be with us.
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  That spirit, he said, is the foundation of our testimony.
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  It testifies of the Father and the Son, brings all things to
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  our remembrance and leads us into truth.
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  It is the compass to guide us on our path.
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  This gift of the Holy Ghost, President Wilfred Woodruff
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  taught, is the greatest gift that can be bestowed upon men.
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  Elder Bruce R Mcconkey said this men ought above all things in
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  this world to seek for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
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  There is nothing as important as having the companionship of the
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  Holy Ghost. There is no price too high, no
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  labor too onerous, no struggle too severe, no sacrifice too
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  great, if out of it all we receive and enjoy the gift of
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  the Holy Ghost. When asked by Martin Van Buren,
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  then the President of the United States, how Mormonism differed
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  from other religions of the day, the Prophet Joseph Smith is
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  reported to have said we differ in the mode of baptism and the
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  gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands.
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  All other considerations, he said, are contained in the gift
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  of the Holy Ghost. Jesus said to his disciples, If
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  you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray
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  the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that he
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  may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom
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  the world cannot receive, because it seeketh Him not,
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  neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you
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  and shall be in you. And then continuing, he said,
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  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
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  send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all
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  things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
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  On the same occasion the Lord said further, But when the
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  Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father,
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  even the spirit of truth which proceedeth forth from the
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  Father, he shall testify of me. The gift of the Holy Ghost is
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  never earned. We are never entitled to it.
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  It is always a gift. We can't have it on our own
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  because of our mistakes. When Jesus appeared to his
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  disciples, including Thomas, he said peace be unto you.
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  As my Father has sent me, Even so send I you.
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  And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto
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  them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. They were worthy then, but they
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  did not receive it, the gift of the Holy Ghost, until it was
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  given on the day of Pentecost. Our transgressions cut us off
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  from the presence and power of God.
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  But even with the gift of God's Son, the gift of His atonement,
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  even with redemption and worthiness, and even with
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  obedience to God's commandments, the gift of the Holy Ghost is
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  still a gift from Heavenly Father.
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  It is not something we earn. The phrase is so common we gloss
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  over the gift part, but it is always a gift.
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  Every good thing depends on getting and keeping the power of
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  the Holy Ghost in our lives. Everything depends on that.
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  So finally, let's talk about the gift of God's life.
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  While God's Spirit is the greatest gift in this life, in
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  the grand scheme of things, eternal life is the greatest of
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  all the gifts of God. God's work and God's glory is to
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  bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
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  Job asked, If a man dies, shall he live again?
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  The answer is yes, yes, but the next important question is where
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  and in what conditions. Most of what has been revealed
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  about eternal life is about how to get there rather than what to
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  expect when we do. That may seem odd at first
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  blush, but on further reflection we shouldn't be surprised.
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  Quoting from the Scriptures, the glory of the telestial surpasses
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  all understanding, and the glory of the terrestrial excels in all
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  things. The glory of the telestial, even
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  in glory and in power, and in might and in dominion, and the
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  glory of the celestial, excels in all things, where God, even
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  the Father, reigns upon His throne forever and ever.
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  If the glory of the telestial surpasses all understanding, how
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  can we expect to conceive, much less describe, greater things
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  than that? The rich man asked, Good Master,
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  what good things shall I do that I may have eternal life?
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  On another occasion a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him,
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  saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
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  The wonder is given, we don't comprehend eternal life.
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  No one asks what is it? Rather, the question is always,
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  what must I do to get there? While we do not comprehend it,
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  eternal life is a given. Despite its mystery, its reality
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  and anticipation are largely unquestioned, implanted in the
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  hearts of God's children. Eternal life is the quality of
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  life that our eternal Father lives.
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  It is the alternative to spiritual death.
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  It is life eternally. Whosoever believeth in him, the
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  Scriptures say meaning Christ should not perish but have
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  eternal life. It is more than immortality,
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  more than perpetual existence, Jacob said.
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  Remember, to be carnally minded is death.
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  To be spiritually minded is life eternal.
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  The Spirit of God is life, and God's presence on earth.
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  Eternal life is the fullness of that life forever.
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  We also know that the same sociality which exists among us
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  here will exist among us there only It will be coupled with
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  eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.
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  Jesus prayed, saying, And this is life eternal, that they might
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  know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou has
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  sent. A fullness of joy is everlasting
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  life in the Society of God. It is to know them as we know
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  one another. It is to be fit for their
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  presence, to be like them and see them as they are.
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  An integral part of eternal life is the continuation of the
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  family life and the power of procreation throughout eternity.
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  Family is not a mortal convention.
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  It is not a lower law, rather it is the pattern of heaven.
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  Jesus said be therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is
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  perfect. The standard there, the model,
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  is not only perfection but also parenthood.
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  Be like your Father. And So what is He?
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  What is he like? He is first and foremost
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  apparent, a very good parent to perfect Father and Eternal
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  Father. If we learn enough about being a
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  good spouse and parent while here, we will be permitted to
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  live as husband and wife, wife, father and mother throughout
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  eternity as Eternal Fathers and mothers.
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  Family is the pattern of heaven. Elder Joseph B Worthland taught
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  this, saying what is the work and glory of God to bring to
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  pass the immortality and eternal life of man?
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  I will explain the difference he said, between these two ends,
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  immortality and eternal life. Bringing to pass immortality is
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  essentially a work of creation. God speaks and worlds are formed
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  at the culmination of this work. Man is placed upon the earth to
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  learn, be tested, and gain experience.
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  Because of the sacrifice of the Son of God, the hour will come.
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  All that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come
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  forth. They that have done good unto
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  the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto
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  the resurrection of damnation, the just as well as the unjust,
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  are given a priceless and incomprehensible gift,
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  immortality. Because of Jesus Christ, we will
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  live forever. We are immortal.
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  Eternal life, he said, however, is something altogether
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  different. Immortality is about quantity.
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  Eternal life is about quality. To use a metaphor immor.
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  Immortality is how long the dinner lasts.
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  Eternal life is what is on the menu and who is with us at the
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  table. If immortality is God's word,
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  then eternal life is God's glory.
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  A long quote, but so very well said.
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  Immortality and eternal life are inextricably linked together,
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  quantity coupled with quality, not one without the other.
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  President Ezra Taft Benson said this.
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  Yes, life is eternal. We live on and on After Earth
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  life, even though we oftentimes lose sight of that great basic
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  truth. It is, he said, a great truth.
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  And what are three score and 10 years on earth to all eternity
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  with God. Eternal life is to return to our
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  Father in the fullness of His glory and live as He lives
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  forever. It is to return home for good.
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  God's greatest gifts offered to all His children everywhere from
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  the beginning of time, are the gifts of His Son, His Spirit,
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  and His life. They constitute the best of all
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  human conditions. Without God and His supernal
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  gifts, only the natural state remains chaos, darkness, and
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  death. They constitute the worst of all
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  human conditions. We will explore those conditions
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  in greater depth in the next few episodes.
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  Again, the essential problem in life is separation from God our
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  Father and His great gifts.