purity

Promises of Calling & Election in JS Lesson 13

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Live in strict obedience to the commandments of God, and walk humbly before Him, and He will exalt thee in His own due time. -Joseph Smith  ((HC 1:408.))

Last week was the Joseph Smith manual chapter 13 lesson for Priesthood and Relief Society entitled, “Obedience: ‘When the Lord Commands, Do It.'”  This was an excellent lesson, and I particularly liked the the last section.  Unfortunately, if most wards’ lessons are like my own, you may not have got to that point in the manual by the end of class.  In my own Elder’s quorum we only made it through the first 3-4 pages of the lesson.  But I believe there are some powerful messages from Joseph in the last 5 pages that could easily be missed. I’m glad that my wife and I read the whole lesson before attending church, or we too would have missed this.  [Read more…]

Temple Imagery in the Parables of Matthew 25 – Part 1

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The Wise and Foolish Virgins - Peter von Cornelius, (German, practiced mainly in Rome, 1783-1867)

In a recent June 2007 Ensign article entitled “Oil in Our Lamps” Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy wrote an excellent commentary on the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 and its connection with our latter-day temple worship and worthiness. As Elder Robbins notes, one way to “liken [these parables] unto us” is to “study them with the temple in mind.” In the parable of the ten virgins Elder Robbins compared the following to the LDS temple: [Read more…]