178Th Conference thoughts

Last weekend was the 178Th conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I felt truly inspired last weekend and I wanted to share some of my three favorite talks.


To Heal the Shattering Consequences of Abuse
Elder Richard G. Scott

"It is with a deep desire to define a path to relief that I speak to you who suffer the shattering consequences of mental, verbal, physical, and especially sexual abuse. "

"The rising tide of this vicious, abominable sin may not have touched your life personally. Yet it is pervasive enough in the world that it may have touched someone you love. It frequently causes such profound suffering—that can be overcome—that I want to speak of how healing can be attained. It will be done reverently, for my objective is to help heal and not aggravate painful memories."

"Faith in Jesus Christ and in His power to heal provides the abused with the means to overcome the terrible consequences of another’s unrighteous acts."

"During your journey of recovery, accept His invitation to let Him share your burden until you have sufficient time and strength to be healed."

"If you have been abused, Satan will strive to convince you that there is no solution. Yet he knows perfectly well that there is. Satan uses your abuse to undermine your self-confidence, destroy trust in authority, create fear, and generate feelings of despair. Abuse can damage your ability to form healthy human relationships. You must have faith that all of these negative consequences can be resolved; otherwise they will keep you from full recovery. While these outcomes have powerful influence in your life, they do not define the real you."

"My Words...Never Cease"
Elder Jeffery R. Holland

"Today I would like to address the other major doctrine which characterizes our faith but which causes concern to some, namely the bold assertion that God continues to speak His word and reveal His truth, revelations which mandate an open canon of scripture."

"Continuing revelation does not demean or discredit existing revelation. The Old Testament does not lose its value in our eyes when we are introduced to the New Testament, and the New Testament is only enhanced when we read the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. In considering the additional scripture accepted by Latter-day Saints, we might ask: Were those early Christians who for decades had access only to the primitive Gospel of Mark (generally considered the first of the New Testament Gospels to be written)—were they offended to receive the more detailed accounts set forth later by Matthew and Luke, to say nothing of the unprecedented passages and revelatory emphasis offered later yet by John? Surely they must have rejoiced that ever more convincing evidence of the divinity of Christ kept coming. And so do we rejoice."

" Please do not misunderstand. We love and revere the Bible....the Bible is the word of God."

"Since it is clear there were Christians long before there was a New Testament or even an accumulation of the sayings of Jesus, it cannot therefore be maintained that the Bible is what makes one a Christian. In the words of esteemed New Testament scholar N. T. Wright, “The risen Jesus, at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, does not say, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth is given to the books you are all going to write,’ but ‘All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me."

“We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”

One Among the Crowd
Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander

"In the book of Luke we read of a woman who for 12 long years had suffered from a bleeding condition. She had exhausted her means in search of a medical solution but had found none. In a crowd of people, the woman approached the Savior from behind and touched the hem of His garment. Jesus wanted to know who had touched Him because He felt that power had gone out of Him. The Apostles could not understand the question and asked, “Master, the multitude throng[s] thee and press[es] thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?” The woman then with great fear and trembling confessed that it was she who had approached Him and had been immediately healed. The Savior sent her away in peace, telling her that her faith had made her whole. She was a woman exhausted and impoverished by her difficulties. Though buried among the thronging mass, she resolutely and quietly pressed forward with a single purpose in mind: to come to the Savior, having faith that He had the power to heal her, that He cared about her and would respond to her need. In this one thing she set herself apart from the crowd. The crowd came to see, but the woman came to be healed."

"We all have faith that just a touch will bring healing to our aching souls and relief to our innermost needs."

These three talks touched me deeply. First, knowing the pain that abuse can bring into someones life but being able to over come the hardships. Second, having the world question our beliefs when all we want is to do good and help others. Lastly, to have enough faith in the Lord that my desire to have children will come true.

For information on these talks, go here.