The Wisdom in Hot Chocolate

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were discussing their lives at a class reunion. They decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired, who was always an inspiration to them.

During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work, lives and relationships.

Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups. Some cups were porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite. He invited each to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor shared his thoughts.

“Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.”

“While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.”

“The cup that you are drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.”

“What each of you really wanted was hot chocolate. You did not want the cup . . . but you consciously went for the best cups.

“And soon, you began to eye one another’s cups.


"Now friends, please consider this . . .

“Life is the hot chocolate . . . your job, money and position in society are the cups.”

“They are just tools to hold and contain life.”

“The cup you have does not define, nor does it change, the quality of life you are living.”

“Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us.”

Always remember this . . . . . . . . . . God brews the hot chocolate,
He does not choose the cup.

The happiest people don't have the best of everything.

They just make the best of everything that they have!!

Live simply . . .
Love generously . . .
Care deeply . . .
Speak kindly . . .

Leave the rest to God. ~ and remember ~ The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

Enjoy your hot chocolate!!

How the Book of Mormon Was Written

I like this video presentation of some of the material facts regarding the translation of the Book of Mormon. Regardless of the facts presented the ultimate challenge rests between you and God. According to the Book of Mormon, you can ask God if the book is from Him and He will answer your prayer. Then there will be no more doubt, you will know. The Book of Mormon is the word of God.

Remember to Thank the Lord

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around... We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels.

My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, ' This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received. ' I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section. The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them." I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section, my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed." How is it that there is no work going on here? ‘I asked. "So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments" "How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked.. "Simple,” the angel answered. Just say, "Thank you, Lord. "

"What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked. "If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. "

"And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity."

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day. "

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...You are ahead of 700 million people in the world."

"If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world."

"If your parents are still alive and still married ...you are very rare."

"If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair..."

Ok, what now? How can I start? If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all. Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you care to, forward this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are

ATTN: Acknowledge Dept. "Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful people with whom to share it.”

If you have read this far, and are thankful for all that you have been blessed with, please leave a comment about something you are thankful for. I thank God for everything, especially all my family and friends!!

The Message of the Restoration

The Only True God & Jesus Christ Whom He Has Sent

An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ

Grace or Works?

There has been a battle among Christian religions regarding the place of grace and works as they relate to salvation. I have heard extreme explanations regarding both. One denomination believes that with a simple declaration of faith that the grace of God will save a person, nothing else. One the other extreme there are some that say that you need to doing all manner of good works in an effort to earn your salvation, somehow working your way to heaven. I feel that any extreme takes you away from the truth.
I believe that both grace and works are necessary in our Heavenly Father's great Plan of Salvation. That is why both grace and works are discussed through out the scriptures. But what do we mean by grace and what do we mean by works?
Grace in this context refers to a gift from God through no merit of our own. Works refers to the deeds done by people while living their lives. So how does this fit together? If you have to do good deeds then there would seem to be some form of merit earned but Grace is a gift through no merit of our own. Here is how is works in my mind...
Jesus died so that we could live again (resurrection). Every person born into this work will die and every person, whether good or evil, male or female, old or young, etc., will be resurrected. It is a free gift to every member of Adam's family, a gift from God through no merit of our own. Therefore it is through the Grace of Jesus that we are saved from death through the miracle of resurrection. It turns out that those who believe this are absolutely right but they generally forget to explain what we are saved from and mistaken think that we are saved from hell (a hot place of fire and brimstone, or something like that).
After we are resurrected we will stand before God to be judged for our works, whether they be good or whether they be evil. Those who have done what Jesus asked of them, repented of their sins and strived to live a "Christian" life will be rewarded with a place at the right hand of God and will gain entrance to "heaven." Those who have rejected the teaching of Jesus and been evil will be rewarded for their deeds with a place on the left hand of God; these people will realize too late that they could have been blessed by following Jesus and will be in a state of anguish which can be termed a "hell."
This is the part that most people don't fully understand, the reward system relating to your works and deeds in life. Obviously no one has ever been perfect except Jesus so no one can qualify for the right hand of God on their own. But because Jesus suffered the atonement for our sins, those who accept Jesus can be forgiven and have their sins washed away. This is done when one declares their faith in Jesus, are baptized for the remission of their sins, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (which will tell them all things that they should do), and exercise their faith in Jesus by trying their best to live their lives as Jesus would have them do (good deed and works). These people receive the highest reward and will be with people like Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Those who live okay or mediocre lives also are reward for the good that they did do but they don't deserve to be rewarded the same as the great prophets of old; these people are already going to be resurrected and they will be blessed in heaven but not to the same degree and those who completely followed Jesus. Finally, those who might be termed evil have done some good in their lives and deserve some measure of blessing however small that may be.
There are a relatively few that will truly deserve "hell" and have disqualified themselves for any blessing at all. This group is so small compared to the rest of humanity that I won't spend time discussing it now.
So we can discover that neither the grace only group nor the works are necessary groups are absolutely correct. We can only be saved by the grace of Jesus. And if we truly have faith then our works and our deeds will be manifested through out our lives.

Purpose and Intent

It would be wonderful if there was one place we could look for pure truth, pure religion. And we are fortunate to have such a source...God! If you ask God any question He will always answer you completely truthful. The catch is that you need to speak to God and you need to be able to understand His answers.
Most people don't speak to God face to face on a daily basis (or any regular basis for that matter). Most religions teach some form of communication, prayer, mediation, etc., but even with those methods in use the answers from God aren't always interpreted exactly correct. The result is that we continue to gather partial truths here and there. And we somehow feel that with these partial truths we can make definite statements of fact. In reality we mix truth and religion with the philosophies of men. We use the partial truths to get started and then we mixed in our improvised theories to fill in the gaps of knowledge and truth that we don't know or understand.
This blog is for me to share my truths as purely as possible, leaving as many philosophies of men on the sidelines. But as a disclaimer, I have not reached all knowing status and so I may be prone to some error in exact truth or religion. Therefore, these ideas are my own, these beliefs are my own and you (as a reader) should do all you can to research out the truths and then go directly to God and ask Him for the ultimate answers regarding truth and religion.

Testimony

I know that God (our Heavenly Father) lives, that Jesus is the Christ (the promised Messiah), that Joseph Smith is/was a prophet of God in our dispensation and that President Thomas S. Monson is our living prophet today.

I know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for us called the Plan of Salvation. That plan started before we were born when all of us lived as spirit children with our Heavenly Father. Every one born into this world accepted this plan, that we would come to earth to receive our physical bodies, learn through experience to control these bodies and follow the teachings of our Heavenly Father, eventually die and be able to return to live with Him again.

I know that Jesus is the Christ, our promised Messiah. Every person will eventually die and every person will sin (make mistakes). Jesus Christ was born of his mortal mother (the virgin) Mary but his father is our Heavenly Father. From his mother Jesus inherited the ability to die; from his Father he inherited the power over death. As the only sinless man to ever walk this earth He was the only person who could perform the atonement, a payment for the sins of all men and women who will believe and accept him as their savior. Jesus was then taken by wicked men and crucified on Calvary's Hill; 3 days later He rose from the dead and broke the bands of death for all mankind. Because of His supreme sacrifice every man, woman and child will be resurrected and live again. Salvation comes to everyone because "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ." However, the condition forgiveness of sins depends on our own willingness to accept the teachings of Christ and the plan of salvation.

Joseph Smith, as a boy of 14 years, was called to be a prophet of God in our day. God has always had prophets through which He gives inspiration and guidance. In the old days some of these prophet's words were written down and preserved from generation to generation. We have a small collection of these writting in our book known as the Holy Bible. However, each generation faces different challenges and a loving Heavenly Father would not abandon His children so He calls new prophets to lead and guide His people. It is no more difficult for you and I to believe that God talks to people today as it was in the times of Moses, Abraham or even in Jesus' day. The message always sounds fantastic to the people who first receive it. But those who accept it find their lives are blessed out of proportion to their ability to give heed to the words of the Lord's chosen leader. Joseph Smith is such a man, such a prophet. He saw God (our Heavenly Father) and Jesus Christ and was chosen to do a very important work - to restore the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

That prophetic mantel has been passed to other righteous men and now rests on the shoulders of our current prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. Jesus said that "by their fruits ye shall know them" and we can see the fruits of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints through out the world. While any individual member will still make mistakes, the church is seen helping people change their lives, become better people, and make a difference in communities around the world.

This blog has been established so that I can share my thoughts, feelings, ideas and testimony. I can make no claim the absolute knowledge and truth but I can share the things that I know to be true. Just as any true religious leader will tell you, find out for yourself if these things are true. God is no respecter of persons and He wants everyone to return to Him. He will answer your prayers if you are sincere in your desire to know AND you are willing to accept what He tells you in your heart (through changing your life, thoughts and ideas).

I have not seen God nor have I seen any of His angels. However, I have felt His undeniable witness that these things are true. The Holy Ghost was whispered to my heart that these things are true: God lives, Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith is/was a prophet of God, and Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today.

(Pictures courtesy of LDS.org)