Latest / Scripture Central / ”Stand Forever” Ep. 10 | The Way—Purpose, Direction, and Destination | Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge

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”Stand Forever” Ep. 10 | The Way—Purpose, Direction, and Destination | Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge · Scripture Central

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  No one drifts into heaven. Many people, it seems, have no
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  idea where they are going, and those who do may be going in the
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  wrong direction or multiple directions.
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  It doesn't matter how fast you are going, if you're going in
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  the wrong direction or if you're trying to go everywhere, which
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  ultimately leads to nowhere. Look to where you want to go,
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  not where you think you will fall.
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  And I looked, I beheld the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the
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  people, judged of the world, and lifted up upon the cross and
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  slain for the sins of the world. You go where you look.
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  So where are you looking? Hello and welcome back.
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  My name is Larry Corbridge and this is episode 10 of the Stand
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  Forever series. In previous episodes we
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  considered the essential problem in life, meaning separation from
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  God, our father, resulting in chaos, darkness and death.
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  In the last episode we looked at the Lord Jesus Christ broadly
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  through the eyes of the Apostle John.
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  We got a glimpse of Christ as as the solution, the way offsetting
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  chaos, the truth offsetting darkness, and the life
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  offsetting death. In this and many of the coming
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  episodes, we will focus on Christ as the Way.
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  We will then account for Christ as the truth, and after that
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  Christ as the life. Few things are more important
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  than purpose and direction. They change the natural state of
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  things, creating order out of chaos.
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  Many people, it seems, have no idea where they are going, and
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  those who do may be going in the wrong direction or multiple
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  directions. It doesn't matter how fast you
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  are going, if you're going in the wrong direction or if you're
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  trying to go everywhere, which ultimately leads to nowhere.
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  Meaningful purpose and intentional direction are as
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  vital to physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health
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  as good nutrition and exercise. They enhance resilience and
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  survival in extremely harsh and threatening conditions and
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  reduce the risk of stroke, heart attack and dementia.
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  Purpose is the why. And if you don't understand the
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  why, all the what's make little difference.
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  It seems that we're pretty good at telling each other what to
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  do. And again, I'm not being
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  critical with this, but we tell each other to be honest, to tell
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  the truth, avoid pornography, forgive love, keep the word of
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  wisdom, serve a mission, pay tithes and offerings, accept
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  callings, magnify callings, make your bed and clean your room.
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  But we we may not be as good at explaining why.
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  A young father talking about overcoming addictions after a
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  failed marriage and years of trying said progress was slow at
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  first as I did not fully understand what was required of
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  me to fully repent. I was merely trying to avoid
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  sin. That's the what?
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  Rather than fighting to change my heart and become a new
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  creature. That's the why.
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  Purpose is destination, and you can't arrive at a destination if
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  you don't know what it is or how to get there.
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  You can't go where you don't know.
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  No one drifts into heaven. The currents of life don't flow
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  and the winds don't blow in that direction.
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  The astounding accomplishment to putting a man on the moon was
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  not the result of manning a spaceship, lighting the fuse and
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  randomly launching it into space, hoping perchance to
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  transport his crew to some Celestia body, safely land, and
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  then bring them home again. When Neil Armstrong stepped foot
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  on the moon, no one said wow, that was lucky.
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  Who would have guessed? Rather, the destination was
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  clear. There was never a question, It
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  was always the moon, the destination was fixed, and it
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  was always the moon, and the course was plotted to go there.
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  Our potential reaches beyond the moon, and while thankfully our
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  life course is not nearly as complicated as a lunar landing,
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  it still requires the same simple process.
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  Fix the destination, identify one's current location, and then
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  chart the course between the two.
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  To chart a course, you must know where you are.
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  We'll call point A and where you want to go point B and then plot
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  the line in between. Noel Pika's Pace was a silver
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  medalist in the 2014 Winter Olympics in the skeleton
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  competition. As you probably know, a skeleton
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  is a small bobsled used for racing down a frozen track head
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  first. It has no steering mechanism.
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  When she was asked how to steer the sled, she simply said you go
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  where you look. I have learned by sad experience
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  the same holds true for mountain biking.
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  You go where you look. If there is a rock in the trail,
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  that must be avoided at all costs.
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  If there is a steep slope or Cliff over which you hope to not
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  sail, the likelihood of hitting the rock or launching into space
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  is greater if you focus on it. It is counterintuitive because
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  our instincts are to lock on the threat with laser like focus,
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  but the more fixed you become on the obstacle or danger, the
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  greater the likelihood of a of disaster.
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  The far better strategy is to force yourself to look down the
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  trail beyond the obstacle or threat.
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  You will likely maneuver around it, but if not, it is much more
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  likely you will keep your balance and bounce over it.
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  Focus is a big deal now. Listen to this.
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  Look to where you want to go, not where you think you will
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  fall. That is true in life as well as
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  skeleton racing and mountain biking.
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  Most people lock onto obstacles and don't look down the trail.
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  You go where you look. Look up beyond the obstacles to
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  better things. Expect more.
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  Expect much more than merely avoiding and solving problems.
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  One man learned to look down the trail beyond the obstacles.
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  He said about his triumphs over pornography, that he, in his
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  words, didn't have a pornography problem, rather a life problem.
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  He said I needed to learn to change the way I viewed the
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  world and my relationships and the gospel.
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  He said he learned only the Lord could heal and strengthen him
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  and that his again in his words, his motivation and focus should
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  be righteousness and integrity before the Lord rather than
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  adapting his behavior to please others or self gratification.
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  This freed him from what he said was the need to seek the
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  approval of others and to please the Lord.
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  Instead you go where you look. Elder Benjamin MZ Tai described
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  how one man was able to overcome an addiction by looking beyond
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  the addiction to a higher purpose of keeping the Spirit in
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  his life. Elder Tai said this for 20
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  years. Brother Wang Zhu Kong struggled
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  with alcohol, cigarettes, and compulsive gambling when
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  introduced to Jesus Christ and his restored Gospel.
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  Brother Wang desired to change for the sake of his young
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  family. His greatest challenge was
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  smoking. A heavy chain smoker, he had
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  tried to quit many times, unsuccessfully.
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  One day these words from the Book of Mormon lodged in his
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  mind, say Elder Time. These are the words with a
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  sincere heart, with real intent. Though previous attempts had
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  failed, he felt perhaps he could change with help from Heavenly
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  Father and Jesus Christ. With sincerity and real intent,
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  Brother Wong acted with faithful determination and found that as
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  he focused more on the new habits he wished to develop,
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  such as studying the Book of Mormon, he focused less on the
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  habits he wanted to lose, continuing on with other Thais.
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  Recalling his experience 15 years later, he remarked, I
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  don't remember when I exactly when I quit smoking, But as I
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  tried hard every day to do the things I knew, know I needed to
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  do to invite the Spirit of the Lord into my life and kept doing
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  them, I was no longer attracted to cigarettes and have not been
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  since. That's the end of that quote.
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  It is one thing to focus on addiction, the obstacle or
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  problem, but it is quite another to focus on God, who alone can
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  resolve it. Those are two different
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  approaches. The first approach is futile
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  because it ignores God. The second taps into power
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  beyond your own. You can struggle to change your
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  behavior, but only God can change your nature.
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  Addictions and many of life's other problems are not causes,
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  but consequences. They are not the disease, but
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  symptoms of a central, systemic, more deadly disease, the failure
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  to center 1's life on God, the source of meaning, the source of
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  light, life, joy, peace and power, the ultimate solution to
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  life's problems. Life's problems, it seems to me,
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  are not overcome by hammering them into the ground.
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  You can pummel a monster with your biggest stick until you
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  think it dead, only for it to rise again and eat you alive
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  when you turn your back to walk away.
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  The truth is and has always been, You can't do it alone.
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  Though try you might. The truth is and has always
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  been, only God can preserve, prosper, prepare, protect,
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  perfect and bless you. The essential problem in life is
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  separation from God our Father. Some people say if you think you
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  have problems, lower your expectations.
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  I've laughed at that advice in the past.
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  If your kids fighting quarrel, for example, be happy they're
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  not robbing banks. If you have a bad day at work,
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  be grateful you have work. Things can always be worse.
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  But maybe, just maybe, we should flip it around.
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  Maybe it should be. If you think you have problems,
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  look up and raise your expectations.
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  Seek not so much to overcome your problems, rather to walk
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  with God. Whatever your problems may be.
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  That's the better strategy. Alma talked a lot about looking
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  forward. He asked, For example, do you
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  look forward with an eye of faith to stand before God, to be
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  judged? I saying to you, Can you imagine
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  yourselves that you hear the voice of the Lord saying unto
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  you in that day, Come unto me, you blessed, can you look up,
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  having the image of God engraving upon your countenance.
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  Later he adds that these words, and thus if you will not nourish
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  the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit
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  thereof, you can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life.
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  And what is the fruit to which we should look forward?
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  The gifts of God's Son, His Spirit and His life.
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  You go where you look, look to the Lord.
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  Nephi wanted to understand the meaning of the tree of life.
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  In response, both the spirit of the Lord and then an Angel
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  repeatedly invited Nephi to look, and each time he looked he
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  saw the Lord. So here's probably 5 examples of
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  this one. The Spirit said unto me, Look,
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  and I looked, and I beheld the tree, and the beauty thereof was
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  far beyond, yeah, exceeding of all beauty, precious above all
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  2. The Angel spake unto me, saying,
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  Look, and I looked, and I beheld the Virgin again, bearing a
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  child in her arms. And the Angel said unto me,
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  Behold the Lamb of God, yeah, even the Son of the Eternal
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  Father, 3. And the Angel said unto me,
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  Look, and behold the condescension of God.
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  And I looked, and beheld the Redeemer of the world.
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  Four. And he spake unto me again,
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  saying, Look, And I looked, and I beheld the Lamb of God going
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  forth among the children of men. And then 5 The Angel spake unto
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  me again, saying, Look. And I looked, and I beheld the
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  Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people, judged of the
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  world, and lifted up upon the cross, and slain for the sins of
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  the world. From the beginning of time God
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  has endeavored to help us see the truth that we are dependent
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  on Him. Turn to Him, look to Him.
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  Yes, of course, do all that you can do, but rely on Him.
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  And then in, in the Lord's words, fear ye not stand still
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  to see the salvation of the Lord, for the Lord shall fight
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  for you. Look beyond the problem, Look
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  down the trail to see where you want to go, and deliberately
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  move in that direction. Focus on better things than the
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  problem alone. Lift your sights and want more,
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  much more than merely overcoming problems.
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  Look to God your Father, choose Him and receive His Son and His
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  Spirit and His life. You go where you look, so where
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  are you looking? Great achievement is the result
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  of having, again, as I said, a destination point B, getting a
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  fix on where you are now, point A, and then plotting the line in
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  between and staying on course. While hiking one day with the
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  sun, we lost the trail. We continued bushwhacking
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  without a trail because we knew where we were going.
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  Although we lost the trail, we weren't lost because we knew
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  where we were, where we were going in the direction to get
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  there. Eventually we reconnected with
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  the trail. Knowing where you are headed and
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  the direction to get there is essential to any journey.
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  Otherwise we wander. So what is?
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  What is point B? What is the destination?
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  What is your purpose? Life purpose is different from
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  meaning or meaningfulness. Improving your your golf game
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  can give your life meaning, but that is different from purpose.
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  And the question is not as simple as what purpose you may
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  choose. The better question is, does
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  life have a purpose independent of whatever you may individually
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  ascribe to it and if so, what is it and do you align with it?
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  People say life is a journey. Enjoy the journey.
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  Good advice. But life is also about getting
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  to the end, reunion with God and receiving the gifts of God's
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  Son, God's Spirit and God's life and helping others do the same
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  and in that process become more like the Lord.
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  Or more concisely, we could say it is to partake of the fruit of
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  the tree of life and help others do the same.
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  That's the destination. And with that, by the way, with
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  that we solved the traveling salesman problem described in I
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  think it's episode 6 about chaos.
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  Reducing the stops from so many down to 1 and life becomes
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  simple. Not in the sense of easy, but
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  rather in the sense of uncomplicated.
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  Many of us are either drifting to nowhere or living fragmented
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  lives trying to go in too many directions.
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  Trying to determine the best route to just anywhere or
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  everywhere is the same as charting a course to nowhere.
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  It is the natural state of chaos.
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  The real problem is not finding the best route in life, but
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  reducing the number of destinations to the most
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  important one. Instead of asking what is the
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  best route to many destinations, ask what is the single best
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  destination. That makes the calculation of
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  the best route easy, because the shortest distance between two
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  points, where you are point A and where you want to go point
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  B, may be as simple as a straight line between the two.
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  Your purpose can be of your own making, finding your own truth
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  as a self determining agent, doing your own thing, marching
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  to the beat of your drum, or in the Lord's words, every man
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  walking in the image of his own God.
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  Or your purpose can be the one you were born to reach, reunion
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  with God, receiving the gifts of God's Son, God's Spirit and
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  God's life and helping others do the same and in that process
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  become more like the Lord. That is point B.
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  That is the destination. In the next episode, we will
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  consider how happiness and joy figure into the destination.
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  I hope you will join me then.