Today’s guest blogger is my 14-year-old daughter, Sophie. Her name literally means “wisdom.” I think she is aptly named. As I was thinking of what I would include in my talk I thought about what Jesus did on the sabbath day. I was looking at scriptures when I came across Luke 13: 10-17. It says, “10 And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of…
“For behold, he said: Thou art angry, O Lord, with this people, because they will not understand thy mercies which thou hast bestowed upon them because of thy Son.” (Alma 33:16.) And then, not so suddenly, it dawned on me that salvation is not about changing how God feels about me. It’s about changing how I feel about God and myself, which are synonymous. It’s discovering that loving God means loving myself. Jesus claimed complete identity with God. (John 10:30-39;…
So many of us walk away from church on Sunday feeling heavier instead of lighter. So many of us leave with troubled hearts, filled with the heavy burden of not measuring up, feeling that we will never be good enough or that we should always do better. But this can’t be what Jesus intended for his church. Jesus said he came to give us peace, not to take it away. (John 14:27.) Jesus came to help us feel unburdened and…
It is time for men and women of good will, from all walks of life, and from all faith traditions to set aside their theological differences and become built to love. It’s time to quit being like the Levite and the priest—with our noses so buried in tradition and theology that we overlook or pass by the wounded and the weary along the roadsides of life. We must become more like the Samaritan, who demonstrated pure love. (See Luke 10:25-37.)…
