Worth of Souls

This scripture has been on my mind alot lately... maybe because it's taped to my computer :) heh heh

Anyway, I think it's important to share.... even more important to know.

"The worth of souls is great in the sight of God." -D&C 18:10

We lived with God as His spirit children before we came to earth. Jer. 1: 5

We are created in God's image. Gen. 1: 27 Acts 17: 28-29

He has a plan and a purpose for each of us.

He loves you!

Do we realize who we are?

"You are unique and you are not lost in the crowd. You are known and loved by your Father in Heaven." - (See Doctrine and Covenants, Section 76:24)

"Discover the beauty within. Real sparkle is not something you put on. It comes from the heart." - (See 1 Samuel 16:7)

"With the Lord's help, you are strong enough." (See Joshua 1:9)

The Grandeur of God

I've been thinking about the greatness of our Father in Heaven, how amazing His creations are, our relationship to Him and the miracle of life itself.

As I reflect upon this I can't help but recal what Moses experienced when He talked face to face with God....Moses Chapter 1

"And God spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is not this endless?

"And, behold, thou art my son; wherefore look, and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end, and also my words, for they never cease."

"he beheld also the inhabitants thereof, and there was not a soul which he beheld not; and he discerned them by the Spirit of God; and their numbers were great, even numberless as the sand upon the sea shore."

"And it came to pass that Moses looked, and beheld the world upon which he was created; and Moses beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created; of the same he greatly marveled and wondered."

"And he beheld many lands; and each land was called earth, and there were inhabitants on the face thereof." "And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed."

Look at the size of the earth compared to the sun... isn't it amazing how small we are!!!!

"And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine. And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come;"

Isn't this a beautiful picture?! The Milky Way Galaxy has 200 -> 400 billion stars Dwarf galaxies contain around 10 billion stars whereas giant galaxies can contain upwards of a trillion stars.
"...and there is no end to my works, neither to my words."

This image was from the hubble telescope a view in space the size of a fingernail. There are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe.

These are not individual stars, these are GALAXIES!! And it's only a sliver of the sky!!

The most amazing thing about all of this is after God showed Moses His glory, the expanse of the universe, His greatness and power..... God said....

"For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

God is our Father, we are His children, His spiritual offspring created in His image. He wants us to be happy, to be one with Him as Christ is, to become like Him.

How completely humbling and wonderful it is to know that I am a daughter of God and to know God sent His Son to atone for me! I will praise Him all my days!

God Bless You, Alicia

Read what a modern-day apostle has to say about the Grandeur of God here.

Some Things I Do Know With Certainty

There are many things I don't know nor do I have the answers to. But there are some things I do know with complete certainty.

I know there is a God. Before we came to earth, we lived with God. He is the Father of our spirit. Everyone who has ever lived or will live on this earth is a spirit son or daughter of God.

I know God is loving, kind, compassionate, merciful, just and true.

I know His work and His glory is to have His children return home to Him. But there are two things that separate us from being able to return to His presence. The first is sin. The second is death. Since we cannot cleanse ourselves from sin anymore than we can raise ourselves from the dead, we needed a Savior. A Savior is someone who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

I know Jesus Christ was and is that Savior who makes it possible to return to our Father. Through His Atonment we can be cleansed from sin and live beyond the grave. Jesus is God's Son. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever beliveth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

I know Jesus came to redeem us and show us the true character of our Eternal Father. He said, "I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."- John 5:30

I know that after our Savior's death; Jesus, the Risen Lord, appeared to many that He loved in life and also ministered to the "other sheep" (John 10:16) in ancient America. (We have this record.) God has spoken to prophets anciently and He speaks through living prophets today.

I know God lives, I know Christ is His Son and our Savior, I know we are God's children and that He loves us. I know God wants us to come back home to Him and He has provided a way. I know this with all of my heart and with every fiber of my being.

I have hope in Christ. It is through Him that I am able to return to my Father in Heaven. I am so thankful for the gift of God's Son. I am so thankful for the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!

May God bless each and everyone of you!
Alicia

Happy Father's Day

This is a really great video about a wonderful dad. My husband and I watched this together. We were both in tears.

I love stories like these!

To watch this awesome Father's Day Video, click on this link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhqRMP9meMc

Happy Father's day to my wonderful dad, to my sweet father-in-law and to my very wonderful husband.

I am so blessed to have such great men and fathers in my life!!

Of course I can't forget gratitude for the Father of us all, MY HEAVENLY FATHER.
I love this song by Cherie call about our Father in Heaven, entitled "Names". I think it's perfect for Father's Day. It's the first song on my playlist if you want to listen.

Names
(Cherie Call)

He's been known throughout time by so many names
Creator of worlds and the ruler of all
And I do not disagree with the ones I have heard
Like The First and The Last, and Wonderful
Eternal and Endless, Provider and King,
And His Majesty
But when I think of the hundreds of prayers that I've prayed
There are so many more that I'd add to these, like

Mathematician, Concert Musician, Master Physician
and Listening Friend
Who knows all about cars, and my fragile heart
So the best name would still have to be
Heavenly Father

When I'm helping a friend He has sharpened my mind
When I've asked that my lips could say all the right things
He can part the Red Sea and still keep me from shaking
When I've prayed that my hands could hit all the right strings
He has always been there to handle the big things
But He can still find a way
To help me with tricky equations and dark twisty highways
And children with fevers
I know I can pray to the

Mathematician, Concert Musician, Master Physician
and Listening Friend
Who knows all about cars, and my fragile heart
So the best name would still have to be
Heavenly Father

And isn't it just what a father would do
Helping His children with all that He knew
And then using His wisdom to step back sometimes
On some of the answers we're just meant to find for ourselves

So we can be mathematicians, concert musicians,
Mothers, physicians, and listening friends
And we can learn about cars, and we can heal broken hearts
With the love that we've learned first hand
From a Heavenly Father

Copyright 2002 Cherie Call, all rights reserved
Designed by RealisticWeb.com


MY DADDY

MY FATHER IN-LAW

MY CUTE HUSBAND

Nothing

Last night, my husband and I watched "Life After People" a History Channel Documentary. It shows theoretically what would happen to our planet if humans were to suddenly disappear. Fascinating stuff.

I found it very interesting that all man made things would eventually decay and disappear and the things made by God would thrive. It made me think of how powerless we really are as human beings and how much we take for granted.

This morning I woke up with this show still fresh in my mind.

I recalled the account where Moses spoke with God face to face...

"Moses looked, and beheld the world upon which he was created; and Moses beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created; of the same he greatly marveled and wondered.

(below is a picture taken by the Hubble Telescope of galaxies... not individual stars but galaxies!!! ... and this is just a sliver of space!!!)
And the presence of God withdrew from Moses, that his glory was not upon Moses; and Moses was left unto himself. And as he was left unto himself, he fell unto the earth.
And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed." Moses 1:8-10

The Prophet, Helaman compares man's power with God's power and states:

"O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth. (Now you might think, that's a harsh thing to say....Why are we less than the dust of the earth? Helaman is not being rude here... he is just stating a fact. We are less than dust because of the principle of obedience.)
Helaman explains his point....

"For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God." (see God can command the elements including the dust to move and it does... most people don't move when God commands them to.)

If we are nothing then... where is the good news?

The good news is... to God we are everything... WHY?... because we are His children.

"And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.
And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words.
For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." - Moses 1:39

This is what our Father in Heaven works for! This is what He glories in and what He cares most about.... for His children to receive immortality and eternal life... and how is that obtained? Only in and through the atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He makes it possible to all mankind.

We have no power without Him but the good news is that when we choose Him to guide us and let Him "Father us"... there is nothing that He will ask of us that we can't do.

When the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary. He promised Mary that "with God, nothing shall be impossible."- Luke 1:37

And the prophet, Ammon states:

"I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in His strength I can do all things." - Alma 26:12

This is just a little something I've been thinking about.

"Do you pray to Allah?"

I help watch my friend Meher's little girl almost every day. Every time before we eat we always say a prayer. One day my little friend, Lamis said, "I don't pray like you, I pray to Allah." (Her family practices Islam.) I said, "It's ok Lamis you don't have to pray with us." I could see the question in her eyes..."Who do you pray to?" .......I answered, "Lamis I know we don't pray in the exact same way but we do pray to the same God, so I guess you could say we pray to Allah too."

That was pretty much all I said to her but I have since thought about that situation....

Allah means "One true God." God is the Father of all our spirits, He is also the Father Who Jesus Christ prayed to. Now when we pray we don't address Him as "Allah", we say "Father in Heaven". And we close our prayers "in the name of Jesus Christ," His Son. But we pray to our Father, the one true Father of us all.

Our first article of faith is, "We believe in God, the Eternal Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost."

Jesus prayed to our Father in Heaven: "O Father, glorify thou me… with the glory which I had with thee before the world was… That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me… For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:5, 23–24.

He prayed:

“O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these [the disciples] have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:25–26. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” John 17:24.

As He took upon Himself the sins and sorrows of this world Christ prayed:

“Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

Elder Robert D. Hales said of this sacred moment, "He was not talking to Himself or relying on His own strength. He was calling upon His Father, God Omnipotent, to sustain Him and allow Him to do His Father’s will; and His Father sent an angel “from heaven, strengthening him.”Luke 22:43.

Jesus testified all throughout His mission that He was about His "Father's business". Upon the cross when He was crucified, He said, "It is finished,”John 19:30 and “cried with a loud voice, … Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” Luke 23:46

After Christ rose again from the grave and appeared to Mary Magdalene He said "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." John 20:10–18 Later Jesus appeared to Stephen standing next to Heavenly Father. He also appeared to Joseph Smith standing next to His Father.

Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are one in purpose, one in heart and one in mind, as we should be with them.... But they are separate, distinct and individual beings.

I know that we have an Eternal Heavenly Father. He is the Father of all of us. He is loving, He is powerful, He is merciful, He is Omnipotent, He is Eternal and it is to Him that we pray. Jesus Christ is His Son. Our Heavenly Father so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. I know that it is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we are made free from sin and death and able to return to God.

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3: 14-16

As sure as I know we have a loving Heavenly Father Who hears and answers our prayers. I know we have a Savior, the Son of God. Who willingly submitted to the Father and "laid Himself on the alter" for our sakes, to pay our price. And because of Christ's sacrifice and resurrection, we can return to God. What a wonderful message, it gives me so much hope. I know this to be true!!

The Only True God and Jesus Christ

This is a talk given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles in Oct 2007 in a world-wide broadcast to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The talk is entitled, "The Only True God and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou Hast Sent."

".... there is one thing we would not like anyone to wonder about—that is whether or not we are “Christians.”

By and large any controversy in this matter has swirled around two doctrinal issues—our view of the Godhead and our belief in the principle of continuing revelation leading to an open scriptural canon. In addressing this we do not need to be apologists for our faith, but we would like not to be misunderstood. So with a desire to increase understanding and unequivocally declare our Christianity, I speak today on the first of those two doctrinal issues just mentioned.

Our first and foremost article of faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”2 We believe these three divine persons constituting a single Godhead are united in purpose, in manner, in testimony, in mission. We believe Them to be filled with the same godly sense of mercy and love, justice and grace, patience, forgiveness, and redemption. I think it is accurate to say we believe They are one in every significant and eternal aspect imaginable except believing Them to be three persons combined in one substance, a Trinitarian notion never set forth in the scriptures because it is not true.

Indeed no less a source than the stalwart Harper’s Bible Dictionary records that “the formal doctrine of the Trinity as it was defined by the great church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries is not to be found in the [New Testament].”3

So any criticism that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not hold the contemporary Christian view of God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost is not a comment about our commitment to Christ but rather a recognition (accurate, I might add) that our view of the Godhead breaks with post–New Testament Christian history and returns to the doctrine taught by Jesus Himself. Now, a word about that post–New Testament history might be helpful.
In the year A.D. 325 the Roman emperor Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea to address—among other things—the growing issue of God’s alleged “trinity in unity.” What emerged from the heated contentions of churchmen, philosophers, and ecclesiastical dignitaries came to be known (after another 125 years and three more major councils)4 as the Nicene Creed, with later reformulations such as the Athanasian Creed. These various evolutions and iterations of creeds—and others to come over the centuries—declared the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be abstract, absolute, transcendent, immanent, consubstantial, coeternal, and unknowable, without body, parts, or passions and dwelling outside space and time. In such creeds all three members are separate persons, but they are a single being, the oft-noted “mystery of the trinity.” They are three distinct persons, yet not three Gods but one. All three persons are incomprehensible, yet it is one God who is incomprehensible.

We agree with our critics on at least that point—that such a formulation for divinity is truly incomprehensible. With such a confusing definition of God being imposed upon the church, little wonder that a fourth-century monk cried out, “Woe is me! They have taken my God away from me, . . . and I know not whom to adore or to address.”5 How are we to trust, love, worship, to say nothing of strive to be like, One who is incomprehensible and unknowable? What of Jesus’s prayer to His Father in Heaven that “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”?6

It is not our purpose to demean any person’s belief nor the doctrine of any religion. We extend to all the same respect for their doctrine that we are asking for ours. (That, too, is an article of our faith.) But if one says we are not Christians because we do not hold a fourth- or fifth-century view of the Godhead, then what of those first Christian Saints, many of whom were eyewitnesses of the living Christ, who did not hold such a view either?7

We declare it is self-evident from the scriptures that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are separate persons, three divine beings, noting such unequivocal illustrations as the Savior’s great Intercessory Prayer just mentioned, His baptism at the hands of John, the experience on the Mount of Transfiguration, and the martyrdom of Stephen—to name just four.

With these New Testament sources and more8 ringing in our ears, it may be redundant to ask what Jesus meant when He said, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.”9 On another occasion He said, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”10 Of His antagonists He said, “[They have] . . . seen and hated both me and my Father.”11 And there is, of course, that always deferential subordination to His Father that had Jesus say, “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.”12 “My father is greater than I.”13

To whom was Jesus pleading so fervently all those years, including in such anguished cries as “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me”14 and “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me”?15 To acknowledge the scriptural evidence that otherwise perfectly united members of the Godhead are nevertheless separate and distinct beings is not to be guilty of polytheism; it is, rather, part of the great revelation Jesus came to deliver concerning the nature of divine beings. Perhaps the Apostle Paul said it best: “Christ Jesus . . . being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”16

A related reason The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is excluded from the Christian category by some is because we believe, as did the ancient prophets and apostles, in an embodied—but certainly glorified—God.17 To those who criticize this scripturally based belief, I ask at least rhetorically: If the idea of an embodied God is repugnant, why are the central doctrines and singularly most distinguishing characteristics of all Christianity the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the physical Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? If having a body is not only not needed but not desirable by Deity, why did the Redeemer of mankind redeem His body, redeeming it from the grasp of death and the grave, guaranteeing it would never again be separated from His spirit in time or eternity?18 Any who dismiss the concept of an embodied God dismiss both the mortal and the resurrected Christ. No one claiming to be a true Christian will want to do that.

Now, to anyone within the sound of my voice who has wondered regarding our Christianity, I bear this witness. I testify that Jesus Christ is the literal, living Son of our literal, living God. This Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer who, under the guidance of the Father, was the Creator of heaven and earth and all things that in them are. I bear witness that He was born of a virgin mother, that in His lifetime He performed mighty miracles observed by legions of His disciples and by His enemies as well. I testify that He had power over death because He was divine but that He willingly subjected Himself to death for our sake because for a period of time He was also mortal. I declare that in His willing submission to death He took upon Himself the sins of the world, paying an infinite price for every sorrow and sickness, every heartache and unhappiness from Adam to the end of the world. In doing so He conquered both the grave physically and hell spiritually and set the human family free. I bear witness that He was literally resurrected from the tomb and, after ascending to His Father to complete the process of that Resurrection, He appeared, repeatedly, to hundreds of disciples in the Old World and in the New. I know He is the Holy One of Israel, the Messiah who will one day come again in final glory, to reign on earth as Lord of lords and King of kings. I know that there is no other name given under heaven whereby a man can be saved and that only by relying wholly upon His merits, mercy, and everlasting grace19 can we gain eternal life.

My additional testimony regarding this resplendent doctrine is that in preparation for His millennial latter-day reign, Jesus has already come, more than once, in embodied majestic glory. In the spring of 1820, a 14-year-old boy, confused by many of these very doctrines that still confuse much of Christendom, went into a grove of trees to pray. In answer to that earnest prayer offered at such a tender age, the Father and the Son appeared as embodied, glorified beings to the boy prophet Joseph Smith. That day marked the beginning of the return of the true, New Testament gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the restoration of other prophetic truths offered from Adam down to the present day.

I testify that my witness of these things is true and that the heavens are open to all who seek the same confirmation. Through the Holy Spirit of Truth, may we all know “the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He has] sent.”20 Then may we live Their teachings and be true Christians in deed, as well as in word, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

NOTES1. Isaiah 29:14.2. Articles of Faith 1:1.3. Paul F. Achtemeier, ed. (1985), 1099; emphasis added.4. Constantinople, A.D. 381; Ephesus, A.D. 431; Chalcedon, A.D. 451.5. Quoted in Owen Chadwick, Western Asceticism (1958), 235.6. John 17:3; emphasis added.7. For a thorough discussion of this issue, see Stephen E. Robinson, Are Mormons Christian? 71–89; see also Robert Millet, Getting at the Truth (2004), 106–22.8. See, for example, John 12:27–30; John 14:26; Romans 8:34; Hebrews 1:1–3.9. John 5:19; see also John 14:10.10. John 6:38.11. John 15:24.12. Matthew 19:17.13. John 14:28.14. Matthew 26:39.15. Matthew 27:46.16. Philippians 2:5–6.17. See David L. Paulsen, “Early Christian Belief in a Corporeal Deity: Origen and Augustine as Reluctant Witnesses,” Harvard Theological Review, vol. 83, no. 2 (1990): 105–16; David L. Paulsen, “The Doctrine of Divine Embodiment: Restoration, Judeo-Christian, and Philosophical Perspectives,” BYU Studies, vol. 35, no. 4 (1996): 7–94; James L. Kugel, The God of Old: Inside the Lost World of the Bible (2003), xi–xii, 5–6, 104–6, 134–35; Clark Pinnock, Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God’s Openness (2001), 33–34.18. See Romans 6:9; Alma 11:45.19. See 1 Nephi 10:6; 2 Nephi 2:8; 31:19; Moroni 6:4; Joseph Smith Translation, Romans 3:24.20. John 17:3.