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Matthew 28; Mark 16: Luke 24; John 20-21 May 7, 2013 - Nancy Baird

Quotes For Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20-21

Nancy Baird

“I’ve heard lessons, sermons and class comments seeking to explain why Mary was forbidden to touch the resurrected Lord. But she wasn’t.  The original Greek meaning is:  “Don’t cling to me,” or, as the JST puts it, “Hold me not.”  “And, in fact, the Greek verb implies that she was ALREADY clinging to him. The Savior doesn’t tell her not to hold on to him but to stop doing so.”  
                    

                                       Daniel Peterson, Deseret News, April 5, 2012, 11.

"I hate to meet a man whom I have known ten years ago, and find that he is at precisely the same point, neither moderated, nor quickened, nor experienced, but simple stiffened:  he ought to be beaten."
                    Interpreters Bible, Vol. 5, 503.

Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.

Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

Born of the one light, Eden saw play.

Praise with elation, praise every morning;

God's recreation of the new day.

                        Christian hymn, 1931

“Just to be is a blessing.  Just to live is holy.”
                    Abraham Heschel

 “How ‘present’ are we?  If we eat an apple, could we taste the rain, tell what dirt it was planted in, what part of the country it came from.  That would be being completely present.”
                    

                                               Li-Young Lee, Poets & Writers.

“Accidents and natural disasters often cause people to feel that life is fragile.  In my experience, life can change abruptly and end without warning, but life is not fragile…the body is an intricate design of checks and balances, elegant strategies of… survival…true in age as it is in youth…a tenacity toward life…at the intracellular level…the drive to live is strong even in the most tiny of human beings.”
                                                Rachel Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom, 7-8.

“I felt, I knew, that there is infinitely more to light than we realize.  That soft luminosity filtering through the curtains was love itself.”
                    

                                                Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, 4.

 “Heaven walks among us ordinarily muffled in such triple or tenfold disguises that the wisest are deceived and no one suspects the days to be gods.”
                   

                                                Ralph Waldo Emerson



  

Matt28;Mark16;Luke24;John20-21 - Nancy Baird - May 7, 2013(Audio)

Matthew 27-28; Mark 16; Luke24; John 20-21 April 30, 2013 - Diane Adair

Quotes - Matt 27-28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20-21

Diane Adair

"If the Atonement is the foundation of our faith, and it is, then no one should be content with casual acquaintance of this doctrine.  Instead, the Atonement should be paramount in our intellectual and spiritual pursuit."      

                                      John Taylor

"There must be some reason why Christ was allowed to suffer and to endure; why it was necessary that He should give up His life a sacrifice for the sins of the world…In these reasons all the world and we are intimately concerned, there is something of great importance in all this to us.  The whys and wherefores of these great events are important to us all."              

                                                                                       Elder Tad Callister

"…as a grateful people to reach out with a spirit of forgiveness and an attitude of love and compassion toward those we have felt may have wronged us.  We have need of this…it is the very essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He taught it.  He exemplified it as none other…In the time of His agony on the cross, with vile and hateful accusers before him, they who had brought Him to this terrible crucifixion, He cried out 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do'.  None of us is called on to forgive so generously, but each of us is under a divinely spoke obligation to reach out with pardon and mercy."
                                                  President Gordon B. Hinckley

"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?'  The loss of mortal support He had anticipated, but apparently He had not comprehended this.  Had He not said to His disciples, 'Behold the hour is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to His own, and shall leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me and the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please Him'…That the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His spirit, the support of His personal presence.  It was required; indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill  nor done wrong, not touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind--us, all of us--would feel when we did commit such sins.  For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone.  But Jesus held on.  He pressed on.  The goodness in Him allowed faith to triumph even in a state of complete anguish.  The trust He lived by told Him in spite of His feelings that divine compassion is never absent, that God is always faithful, that He never flees nor fail us.  When the uttermost farthing had been paid, when Christ's determination to be faithful was as obvious as it was utterly invincible, finally and mercifully, it was finished. "       

                                                                                                                 Jeffrey R. Holland

"On some days we will have cause to remember the unkind treatment He received, the rejection He experience and the injustice He endured.  When we too, then face some of those difficult times  we can remember the Jesus had to descend below all things before He could ascend above them, and that He suffered pains and afflictions of every kind that He might be filled with mercy and know how to succor His people in their infirmities.  To those who stagger or stumble, He is there to strengthen us.  In the end He is there to save us, and for all of this He gave His life.  However dim our days may seem, they have been darker for the Savior of the world.  In fact, in a resurrected otherwise perfected body, He has chosen to retain for the benefit of His disciples the wounds in His hands and in His feet and in His side…signs, if you will, that painful things happen even to the pure and perfect; signs, if you will, that pain in this world is not evidence that God doesn't love you…it is the wounded Christ who is the captain of our soul--He who yet bears the scars of sacrifice, the lesions of love and humility and forgiveness.  Those wounds are what He invites young and old, then and now, to step forward and see and feel.  Then we remember with Isaiah that it was for each of us that our master was despised and rejected…a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…all this we could remember when we are invited by a kneeling young priest to remember Christ always…"                  

                                                                                                                      Jeffrey R. Holland

"Out of the darkness and horror of Calvary came the voice of the Lamb saying, 'Father into Thy hands I commend my spirit'…And the dark was no longer dark, for He was with His Father.  He had come from God and to God He had returned.  So also to those who walk with God in this earthly pilgrimage know from blessed experience that He will not abandon His children who trust in Him.  In the night of death His presence will be better than a light and safer than a known way."    

                                                                                         President Thomas S. Monson


"How much there is incident to the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord which ennobles and exalts faithful women.  They wept at the cross, sought to care for His wounded and lifeless body, and came to His tomb to weep and worship for their friend and master.  And so it is not strange that we find a woman, Mary of Magdalene, chosen and singled out…to be the first mortal to see and bow in the presence of Jesus.  Mary, who had been healed of much and who loved much, saw the risen Christ…"    

                        Bruce R. McConkie

Matt27-28;Mark16;Luke24;John20-21-Diane Adair- April 30, 2013(Audio)

Matthew 26-27; Mark 14-15; Luke 22-23; John 17-19 April 23, 2013 - Nancy Baird

QUOTES FOR MATTHEW 26-27; MARK 14-15; 

LUKE 22-23; JOHN 17-19

Nancy Baird

Viktor Frankl, in "Man's Search for Meaning," writes of being in a Concentration Camp - Auschwitz - and of "the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread...

They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing:  the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances...in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone...Dostoyevski said once, "There is only one thing I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.""   

                                                                                                                 104-105.

"So the false self of the fallen apostle slipped away.  It was enough...he saw no more enemies, he knew no more danger, he feared no more death...flinging the fold of his mantle over his head, he, too, like Judas rushed forth into the night...but not as Judas, into...outer darkness...but [instead] to "meet the morning dawn."..If the angel of Innocence had left him, the angel of Repentance took him gently by the hand...this broken-hearted penitent...and...his old shame, his old weakness, his old self, was doomed to that death of godly sorrow which was to issue in a new and nobler birth."

                                                                           

                                                 Frederic Farrar, The Life of Christ, 604.

"Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction.  Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness..."

                                                                           

                                                                     Malcom Muggeridge

  Matt26-27,Mark14-15,Luke22-23,John17-19- Nancy Baird - April 23, 2013(Audio)

Matthew 26-27;Mark 14-15; Luke 22-23; John 17-19 April 16, 2013 - Diane Adair

Quotes - Matt 26-27; Mark 14-15; Luke 22-23, John 17-19

Diane Adair

"Divine mercy can best be applied by Him who knows these things that only He can know…The quiet moments of courage in the lives of His flock.  The un-noticed acts of Christian service, the unspoken thoughts which can be credited in no other way except through perfect judgment…The self assigned gatekeeper is Jesus Christ, who awaits us out of a deep divine desire to welcome us as much as to certify us…If we acknowledge Him now, He will lovingly and gladly admit us then."
         

                                                                             Neal A. Maxwell

"The hours that lay immediately ahead would change the meaning of all human history.  It would be the crowning moment of eternity.  The most miraculous of all the miracles.  It would be the supreme contribution to a plan designed from before the foundation of the world for the happiness of every man, woman, and child who would ever live in it.  The hour of atoning sacrifice had come.  Gods own Son, His only Begotten Son in the flesh, was about to become the Savior of the world."

            

                                                                             Jeffrey R. Holland

"Jesus is the Father's gift to all men.  In offering His Son as He did, our Father in Heaven has shown us our truest example of pure love.  Out of His divine love came a willingness to endure the sacrifice of His Son.  The incomparable suffering in Gethsemane; the abuse by Jews and Romans; the mockery of a trial; the pain and horror of a crucifixion.  Why?  Because our Father in Heaven loves us and knew that we could return to Him only through the Atonement of Jesus."  

(Orange) New Testament Institute Manual, pg. 161, 1978

"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of our lives than they can.  He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace."
                        

                                                                        President Ezra Taft Benson

Matt26-27;Mark14-15;Luke22-23;John17-19-Diane Adair-April 16, 2013(Audio)

John 14-17 April 9, 2013 - Nancy Baird

Quotes For John 14-17
Nancy Baird

Spring is a happiness so beautiful,
so unique,
so unexpected
that I don't know what to do
with my heart.

Emily Dickinson

"Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime."           

                           Martin Luther

"The Spirit of God, speaking to the spirit of man, has power to impart truth with greater effect and understanding than the truth can be imparted by personal contact, even with Heavenly Beings.  Through the Holy Ghost, the truth is woven into the very fiber and sinews of the body so that it cannot be forgotten." 

Joseph Fielding Smith, quoted by Dallin Oaks, at the Mission Presidents seminar, 2001.

"God has given us a whole sea of his word." 
                         Martin Luther

"The sea grows always greater, nobody can paint it."
            The painter, Tintoretto

"The things of God are of deep import, and time and experience and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out.  Thy mind, O Man [and we made add O Woman as well], if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost Heavens, and search into and contemplate the lowest...abyss."    

Joseph Smith, from Liberty Jail, after being there five months.  In John Welch, BYU Studies, vol. 50, #3, 64-66.

"The Christian ethics is the ethics of inexpressible joy."  
            Theodor von Haering, 1909.  Interpreter's Bible, 720.
                "The mind is its own place, and in itself
                Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."
                    John Milton,   Paradise Lost, Book I,II, 254-55
           
                "Which way I fly is hell; myself am Hell."
                            Book IV, I, 69.

"Blessedness is not something added to goodness.  It is goodness."
                Spinoza, (1600's) Ethics.

                             

John 14-17 - Nancy Baird - April 9, 2013(Audio)

Daily Thought

Daily Thought

Five Principles of Gospel Learning

  President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles teaches five basic principles that should guide Latter-day Saints in their pursuit of gospel knowledge.

1. Vital instruction is not hidden, but repeated. “Instruction vital to our salvation is not hidden in an obscure verse or phrase in the scriptures. To the contrary, essential truths are repeated over and over again.”
2. Knowledge should be balanced. “Every verse, whether oft-quoted or obscure, must be measured against other verses. There are complementary and tempering teachings in the scriptures which bring a balanced knowledge of truth.”
3. The Lord is consistent. “There is a consistency in what the Lord says and what He does, that is evident in all creation. Nature can teach valuable lessons about spiritual and doctrinal matters. The Lord drew lessons from flowers and foxes, from seeds and salt, and sparrows and sunsets.”
4. The scriptures sustain each other. “Not all that God has said is in the Bible. Other scriptures—the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price—have equal validity, and they sustain one another.”
5. The Holy Ghost can make things plain. “While much must be taken on faith alone, there is individual revelation through which we may know the truth. ‘There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding’ (Job 32:8). What may be obscure in the scriptures can be made plain through the gift of the Holy Ghost. We can have as full an understanding of spiritual things as we are willing to earn.”

 

Avoid Deception
 President Packer also adds this caution: “There is an adversary who has his own channels of spiritual communication. He confuses the careless and prompts those who serve him to devise deceptive, counterfeit doctrine, carefully contrived to appear genuine.

“I mention this because now, as always, there are self-appointed spokesmen who scoff at what we believe and misrepresent what we teach.”

Learn from His Friends

President Packer also shares this experience: “As a young seminary teacher, I learned a valuable lesson from our principal, Able S. Rich. He told me, ‘If you really want to know what a man is, and what he believes, do not go to his enemies. Go to the man himself or to his friends. He does not confide the thoughts of his heart to his enemies. His friends know him best; they know his strengths and his weaknesses. They will represent him fairly. His enemies will misrepresent him.’”

Learn from Doctrine

President Packer also promises Latter-day Saints that if they will remain faithful they will continue to learn.

“As a grandfather who has lived a long time,” he says, “I counsel you to have faith. Things have a way of working out. Stay close to the Church. Keep your children close to the Church.

“In Alma’s day ‘the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it … had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God’ (Alma 31:5).

“True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.”

 

Easter Presentation March 26, 2013 - Diane Adair

Easter Presentation

Diane Adair

The more we study, pray, and ponder the awesome Atonement, the more we are willing to acknowledge that we are in His and the Father’s hands. Let us ponder, therefore, these final things.

When the unimaginable burden began to weigh upon Christ, it confirmed His long-held and intellectually clear understanding as to what He must now do. His working through began, and Jesus declared: “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.” Then, whether in spiritual soliloquy or by way of instruction to those about Him, He observed, “But for this cause came I unto this hour.” (John 12:27.)

Later, in Gethsemane, the suffering Jesus began to be “sore amazed” (Mark 14:33), or, in the Greek, “awestruck” and “astonished.”

Imagine, Jehovah, the Creator of this and other worlds, “astonished”! Jesus knew cognitively what He must do, but not experientially. He had never personally known the exquisite and exacting process of an atonement before. Thus, when the agony came in its fulness, it was so much, much worse than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined! No wonder an angel appeared to strengthen him! (See Luke 22:43.)

The cumulative weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and future—pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atonement. (See Alma 7:11–12; Isa. 53:3–5; Matt. 8:17.) The anguished Jesus not only pled with the Father that the hour and cup might pass from Him, but with this relevant citation. “And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me.” (Mark 14:35–36.)

"Willing to Submit" - Elder Neal A. Maxwell, May 1985

EasterPresentation - Diane Adair - March 26, 2013(Audio)

Daily Scripture

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

Psalms 147:3

Matthew 25; Luke 12 March 19, 2013 - Nancy Baird

Quotes For Matthew 25; Luke 12

Nancy Baird

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?"
                        Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day"

"There is a tide in the affairs of men." 
                Shakespeare,  Julius Ceasar, Act IV, Scene 3.)


"When you look back on a lifetime and think of what has been given to the world by your presence...inevitable you think of your art, whatever it may be, as the gift you have made to the world in acknowledgment of the gift you have been given, which is the life itself...That work is not an expression of the desire for praise or recognition...but the deepest manifestation of your gratitude for the gift of life."
 Stanley Kunitz, from The Wild Braid


"That one talent that is death to hide."
    John Milton,  b. 1655.  In despair over his blindness that was preventing him from being able to present a "true account" of himself to his Maker.


"You should paint like a man coming over the top of the hill singing."      
    Robert Henri, American painter, quoted by George Will, Deseret News, March 14, 2013.



Matt25;Luke12 - Nancy Baird - March 19, 2013(Audio)

Happy Birthday Relief Society

March 17, 1842

"Charity Never Faileth"

171 Years Strong

This great circle of sisters will be a protection for each of you and for your families. The Relief Society might be likened to a refuge—the place of safety and protection—the sanctuary of ancient times. You will be safe within it. It encircles each sister like a protecting wall.

Boyd K. Packer

 

You are now placed in a situation where you can act according to those sympathies which God has planted in your bosoms. If you live up to these principles how great and glorious!—if you live up to your privilege, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates. … If you will be pure, nothing can hinder.

Joseph Smith

“We are part of a grand whole. We need each other to make our sisterhood complete. When we reach out to clasp the hands of our sisters, we reach to every continent, for we are of every nation. We are bonded as we try to understand what the Lord has to say to us, what He will make of us. We speak in different tongues, yet we are a family who can still be of one heart.”

Elaine L. Jack

Twelfth Relief Society General President

“You are members of the greatest women’s organization in the world, an organization which is a vital part of the kingdom of God on earth and which is so designed and operated that it helps its faithful members to gain eternal life in our Father’s kingdom.”

Joseph Fielding Smith

As a new Relief Society presidency, we have sought the Lord earnestly to know what essential things He would have us put in our Relief Society handcart to continue moving His work forward. We have felt that Heavenly Father would first have us help His beloved daughters understand the doctrine of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As we do so, we know our faith will increase, as will our desire to live righteously. Second, as we have considered the critical need to strengthen families and homes, we have felt that the Lord would have us encourage His beloved daughters to cheerfully cleave to their covenants. When covenants are kept, families are strengthened. Finally, we feel He would have us work in unity with the other auxiliaries and with our priesthood leaders, striving to seek out and help those in need to progress along the path. It is our fervent prayer that each of us will open our hearts and let the Lord engrave in them the doctrines of the Atonement, covenants, and unity.

Linda Burton

General Relief Society President

“Little did the original members of the organization realize … how great their beloved Society would become.”

Amy Brown Lyman

Eighth Relief Society General President

Matthew 26; Luke 22; John 13 March 12, 2013 - Diane Adair

                                  

QUOTES for Matt 26; Luke 22; John 13
Diane Adair

Note - Diane Taught the lesson for March 26, 2013 today (3/12/13)



"The sacrament…most often repeated ordinance in the church…with so very much at stake this ordinance commemorating our escape from the angel of darkness should be taken more serious than it often is…it should be a powerful, reverent, reflective moment it should encourage spiritual feelings and impressions…as such it should not be rushed…it is not something to get over so that the real purpose of Sacrament Meeting could be pursued…this the real purpose of the meeting…and everything that is said or sung or prayed in these meetings should be consistent with the grandeur of this sacred ordinance to remember…on some days we will have cause to remember the unkind treatment that our Savior received, the rejection He experienced and the in justice oh the injustice He endured when we too face some of that.  His life we too can remember that He too was troubled on every side but not distressed, perplexed, but not in despair…persecuted, but not forsaken cast down, but not destroyed…when those difficult times come to us we can remember that Jesus had to descend below all things before He could ascend above them…and that He suffered pains and afflictions of every kind that He may be filled with mercy and know how to succor His people us, to run to our aid..to relieve us from pain…to those who stagger or stumble He is there to steady and strengthen in the end.  He is there to save us and for all this He gave His life…however dim our days seem they have been darker for the Savior of the world…in fact in an otherwise perfected body our Lord of the sacrament table has chosen to retain for the benefit of His disciples the wounds in His hands and feet and side signs if you will that painful things happen even to the pure and perfect.  Signs if you will, that pain in this world is not evidence that God does not love you…it is the wounded Christ who is the captain of our souls, He who yet bears the scars of sacrifice."
                                                                           Jeffrey R. Holland


"To reap the benefits of love, we must be specific, action must be taken.  The hungry man must not be pitied he must be fed.  The lonesome boy/girl needs not just a quick smile she needs someone to walk with arm in arm."
                              Marvin J. Ashton


This is the talk Diane referred to by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - "This Do in Remembrance of Me"
"This Do in Remembrance of Me" - October General Conference 1995 - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland



Matt26;Luke22;John13; - Diane Adair - March 12, 2013(Audio)

Daily Thought - That We Might “Not . . . Shrink” (D&C 19:18)

Matthew 21-23; Mark 11-12; Luke 19-21 March 5, 2013 - Nancy Baird

QUOTES FOR MATTHEW 21-23; MARK 11-12; LUKE 19-21

Nancy Baird

"All the members of the Sacerdotal order that could be found were put to death.  [Annas] and Jesus, the son of Gamala, underwent frightful insults; their bodies were deprived of sepulture, an outrage unheard of among the Jews.  Thus perished the son of the principal author of the death of Jesus. [Caiaphas, who would have been dead by then]. This was the end of the Sadducean sect, a sect often haughty, selfish , and cruel...Profound was the impression when those aristocrats, so highly respected, were seen cast naked out of the city, given up to the dogs and the jackals.  It was a world which disappeared."   
                          The Life of Christ, Farrar, quoting Renan (1873), 738.

"It is difficult, if not impossible, to teach doctrine without personality."
                            David O. McKay   

"Mark became Peter's interpreter and wrote down accurately, but not in order, all that he remembered of the things said and done by the Lord.  For he had not heard the Lord or been one of his followers, but later, as I said, a follower of Peter..." 
                            Eusibius, quoting from Papias (A.D.120), 129.

"Take all away from me,
but give me ecstasy."
            Letters of Emily Dickinson, 426.


The French are a frugal people who have learned to give so that the recipient feels good in receiving.  Sidney Harris says:  "One of the loveliest examples is a note that Corot the painter sent to his friend Daumier who was nearly blind and facing eviction on his 65th birthday:  'Friend, I have a little house at Valmondois which I could not for the life of me think what to do with.  Suddenly I thought to give it to you.  Liking the idea I have had your ownership legally confirmed.  I had no idea of doing you a good turn.  The whole scheme was carried out to annoy your landlord.  Ever yours, Corot.'  And Daumier wrote gratefully in reply:  'You are the only man from whom I could take such a present and not feel humiliated.'"
                                               private files, Nancy Baird


Matt21-23;Mark11-12;Luke 19-21 - Nancy Baird - March 5, 2013(Audio)

Salt Lake Olympus Stake Relief Society Women's Conference 2013

Women's Conference 2013

 

SL Olympus Stake Women's Conference - February 23, 2013(Audio)

Luke 16-19; John 11 February 26, 2013 - Diane Adair

LUKE 16 - 19; JOHN 11

Diane Adair

No quotes for today's class

DVD - Finding Faith in Christ

Luke16-19;John11;- Diane Adair - February 26, 2013(Audio)

Matthew 20; Luke 12-14 February 19, 2013 - Nancy Baird

QUOTES FOR MATTHEW 20; LUKE 12-14

Nancy Baird

"A good illustration of the pride of rabbis is the conduct of Rabbi Simeon ben Shetah, who when invited to dinner by King Jannaeus (104-79 B.C.), placed himself between the king and queen, saying, 'Exalt wisdom and she shall exalt thee, and make thee to sit among princes.'" 
                    Dummelow, A Commentary, 757.

"Not his body alone [was healed], but the soul - whose value was so infinitely more precious, just as its diseases are so infinitely more profound..."   
                    Farrar, The Life of Christ, 441.

"It is as if these benefits were falling into a deep silent grave."
                    Farrar, The Life of Christ, 440.

(Speaking of the parable of the prodigal son, in which is illustrated) "the deepest mysteries of divine compassion -- the joy that there is in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.  Where, in the entire range of all human literature, sacred or profane, can anything be found so terse, so luminous, so full of infinite tenderness?... [including] the consequences of sin, yet so merciful..."  
                    Farrar, The Life of Christ, 325, 326).

"Many parents do not know that even children, even very small children, have a need to feel autonomous. There is thinking now that this is kind of a basic part of human nature, and it begins very early in infancy."  
            "Moms Who Direct Play Lose Child's Attention, Deseret News, Feb. 11th, 

Matt 20; Luke 14-17 - Nancy Baird - February 19, 2013(Audio)

Matthew 19; Mark 10-12; Luke 12-14,19 February 12, 2013 - Diane Adair

Quotes - Matthew 19; Mark 10-12; Luke 12-14, 19

Diane Adair

"When we reject council which comes from God, we do not choose to be independent of outside influence.  We choose another influence whose purpose is to make us miserable and whose motive is hatred.  We reject the protection of a perfectly loving, all powerful, all knowing Father in Heaven whose whole purpose is to give us eternal life, to give us all that He has, and to bring us home again to the arms of His love."
                                             Henry B. Eyring


"The time has come for us to stand a little taller, to lift our eyes, and strengthen minds to a grater comprehension and understanding of the grand millennial mission of the church.  This is a time to be strong; it is a time to move forward without hesitation…It is a time to do what is right regardless of the consequences.  It is a season to reach out with kindness and love to those in distress and to those who are wandering in darkness and pain.  It is a time to be considerate and good, decent and courteous toward one another…In other words to become more Christ-like."                                       

                                                                                     President Gordon B. Hinckley

"Because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path…we do not have to do so.  His solitary journey brought great company for our version of that path--the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in Heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends.  All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel.  Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are.  Truly the redeemer of us all said:  I will not leave you comfortless:  My Father and I will come to you and abide with you.  My other plea is that these scenes of Christ's lonely sacrifice, laced with moments of denial and abandonment and at least once, outright betrayal must never be reenacted by us.  He has walked alone once.  Now, may I ask that never again will He have to confront sin without our aid and assistance, that never again will He find only unresponsive onlookers when He sees you and me along His Via Dolorosa in our present day…may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear…may we stand by Jesus Christ at all times and in all things and in all places that we may be in even until death, for surely that is how He stood by us.
                              

                                                                                              Jeffrey R. Holland

"Oh, it is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father loves us--even with all our flaws!  His love is such that even should we give up on ourselves, He never will.  We might see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today.  Our Heavenly Father see us in terms of forever…The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation.  It takes us as men and women of the earth and refines us into men and women for the eternities…The gospel of Jesus Christ has the answers to all of our problems…The gospel does not come from man.  The doctrine of the Church is not someone's best guess as to the meaning of ancient scripture.  It is the truth of heaven revealed by God Himself.  I testify that Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw.  He truly looked into the heavens and communed with God the Father and the Son and with angels."
                                                                    President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the second coming of the Lord…God has saved for the final inning some of His strongest and most valiant children…That is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God…Make no mistake about it---you are a marked generation.  There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time than there is of us…"   

                                                                                                       President Ezra T. Benson



"When we hear the transcendent truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, hope and faith begin to blossom inside of us.  The more we fill our hearts and minds with the message of the risen Christ, the greater our desire is to follow Him and live His teachings…The more we are filled with the Spirit of God, the more we extend ourselves to others.  We become peacemakers in our homes and families, we help our fellowmen everywhere, and we reach out in merciful acts of kindness, forgiveness, grace and longsuffering patience…This is the peaceable way of the follower of Jesus Christ…Now is the time to adjust your lives to be able to have a temple recommend and use it.   Now is the time to have meaningful family home evenings, to read the word of God and to speak to our Heavenly Father in earnest prayer.  Now is the time to fill our hearts with gratitude for the Restoration of His Church, for living prophets, the Book of Mormon, and the priesthood power that blesses our lives.  Now is the time to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, become His disciples, and walk in His way.
                    

                                                                                               President Dieter F. Uchtdorf


"In considering such beauty of the at-one-ment…we are reminded that this relationship between Christ and His Father is one of the sweetest and most moving themes running through the Savior's ministry.  Jesus' entire being, His complete purpose and delight, were centered in pleasing His Father and obeying His will.  Of Him He seemed always to be thinking:  to Him He seemed always to be praying.  Unlike us, He needed no crisis, no discouraging shift in events to direct His hopes heavenward.  He was already instinctively, longingly looking that way."                    

                                                                                                 Jeffrey R. Holland

Matt 19;Mark 10-12;Luke 12-14,19 - Diane Adair - February 12, 2013 (Audio)

Daily Thought

  How can we expect to strengthen families or help others unless we first have written in our own hearts a deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ and His infinite Atonement? Tonight I would like to share three principles of the Atonement that, if written in our hearts, will increase our faith in Jesus Christ. It is my hope that understanding these principles will bless each of us, whether we are new to the Church or lifelong members.

Principle 1: "All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ."

Principle 2: There is power in the Atonement to enable us to overcome the natural man or woman and become true disciples of Jesus Christ.

Principle 3: The Atonement is the greatest evidence we have of the Father's love for His children.

Linda K. Burton - Relief Society General President

Is Faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ Written in Our Hearts?

General Relief Society Meeting, September 29, 2012

 

 

Luke 10; John 9-10 February 5, 2013

 QUOTES FOR JOHN 9 - 10; LUKE 10

                    Nancy Baird                         

"Some vainly imagine that...gifts and blessing were obtained not by external observances, or external works, but merely through faith and repentance, through mental operations independent of physical. External works, or outward ordinances...[are] inseparably connected with inward works, with faith and repentance.  "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5).""   
               Lorenzo Snow, Teachings of Presidents of the Church, 49.


"The most striking conclusion to be drawn from the state of Germany today, from the stories of the refugees from behind the Iron Curtain, even from the present behavior of former concentration camp inmates, is precisely how hard it is permanently to destroy most people psychologically."
               David Reisman, in 1954, quoted in The New Yorker, 2012.


 "It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."
               Attitcus Finch, to his children, Jem and Scout, in To Kill a Mockingbird.


"It is easy, in the world, to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."       
              from Emerson's essay on "Self-Reliance"

"She dressed each morning with care for the act of poetry." 
              Michael Longley, about Emily Dickinson

"To understand the imagery, it must be remembered that Eastern folds are large open enclosures into which several flocks are driven at the approach of night.  There is only one door, which a single shepherd guards, while the others go home to rest.  In the morning the shepherds return, are recognized by the doorkeeper, call their flocks round them and lead them forth to pasture."  
              Dummelow, Commentary, 1908, 791. 


[When sorrow comes to us] "in any case we shall have to bear the pain..."  [But can we see that possibility]  "which it puts within our reach!  In us too, through our loss, our pain, our sorrow, our particular disability, whatever it may be, the works of God might be made manifest."
             Arthur John Gossip, Interpreter's Bible, 8, 612.


John 9-10; Luke 10 - Nancy Baird - February 5, 2013 (Audio)

John 7-8 January 29, 2013 - Diane Adair

                                Quotes from John 7-8                        
                                        Diane Adair


"The temple was a place of learning for the Savior…it was very much a part of His life"

James E. Faust


"In the ordinances of the holy temple we more completely and fully take upon us the name of Christ."

Elder David Bednar


"Come!  Come to the House of the Lord.  Here is found rest for the weary, peace for the soul."

President Thomas S. Monson

John 7-8 - Diane Adair - January 29, 2013 (Audio)

Matthew 17-18;Mark 9; Luke 9 January 22, 2013 - Nancy Baird

                                    QUOTES FOR MATTHEW 17-18; MARK 9; LUKE 9
                                                                    Nancy Baird



"I have a Red Indian friend...When we were once speaking confidentially about the white man, he said to me:  "We don't understand the whites; they are always wanting something - always restless - always looking for something...We can't understand them.  They have such sharp noses, such thin, cruel lips, such lines in their faces.  We think they are all crazy."  
                    Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, 277-78.


[Such things are] "hard only to the hard, incredible only to the incredulous." 
                 (Augustine, in Frederick Farrar, The Life of Christ ,318.


"There are few persons who see that light or even believe in the fuller life, and often after glimpsing it, they turn away to the grosser and more sordid things." 
                    David O. McKay, 1961.


"One can see much in the face of a man [or woman] as the years pass by.  Something happens to the features of the relativist:  a slackness, a weakness, a futility seems to stamp itself on them.  But the man who has stood unflinchingly for great principles shows an increasing firmness, a nobility and a majesty in his face as time goes by."  
                    Interpreter's Bible


"And fellow sojourners on earth.  It is your privilege to purify yourselves and come up to the same glory, and see for yourselves and know for yourselves.  Ask...seek...knock."
                    Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 13.

"Every ...person who lives in this world wields an influence whether for good or for evil.  It is not what he says alone; it is not alone what he does.  It is what he is...Every man has an atmosphere which is affecting every other man.  He cannot escape for one moment from this radiation of his character..."           
 David O. McKay, in M. Catherine Thomas, Light in the Wilderness, 186-187.

A monk feared to leave praying in case he missed a divine manifestation, but could not ignore the hungry souls he usually feeds at that hour.  So he leaves his praying, and feeds the hungry and return to his cell, to find Christ waiting and saying:  "Hadst thou stayed I might have fled."
        Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, "The Theologian's Tale," in Tales of a Wayside Inn.



Matthew 17-18; Mark 9 ;Luke 9 - Nancy Baird - January 22, 2013(Audio)

Matthew 15-16; Mark 7-8; Luke 9 - January 15, 2013 - Diane Adair

Quotes from Matthew 15-16; Mark 7-8; Luke 9 

         Diane Adair

"Jesus' Atonement is the foundation that makes effective and lasting every ordinance performed in the temple."       
                       Richard G. Scott


"During the years of my life, I have gone to my knees with a humble spirit to the only place I could for help.  I often went in agony of spirit, earnestly pleading with God to sustain me….It has been as though I have struggled up an almost real Mount of Transfiguration and upon occasion felt great strength and power in the presence of the Divine.  A special sacred feeling has been a sustaining influence and often a close companion."
                                                                  James E. Faust

Matt 15-16;Mark7-8;Luke 9 - Diane Adair - January 15, 2013 (Audio)

Matthew 14; Mark 6; Luke 9; John 5-6 Nancy Baird - January 8, 2013

                           QUOTES FOR MATTHEW 14;  MARK 6;  LUKE 9;  JOHN 5-6
                                                                  Nancy Baird


"Mockery is the fume of little hearts." 
                Tennyson, Idylls of the King, 1. 628.


"One of the few things I know about writing is this:  spend it all...every time.  Do not hoard what seems good for a later time...give it all, give it now.  The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now.  Something more will arise for later, something better.  These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water...Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you.  You open your safe and find ashes."   
                Annie Dillard, The Writing Life, 79.


"Even as Israel had been miraculously fed during the time of Moses, now was bread provided in the desert by this new prophet."  
                James Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 335.


(Quoting Martin Luther): "...there was never in heaven or earth a more loving, familiar, or milder man, in words, works, and demeanor, especially towards poor, sorrowful, and tormented consciences."
But then Gossip goes on to say: 
    "These aspects of the Master...fill our minds - too exclusively...But the Scriptures makes it plain that those who lived with him were conscious that, along with all that, there was also in him something awesome, tremendous, superhuman, something that awoke in them what was a kind of dread.  That is too apt to be forgotten."     
                Arthur John Gossip, Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 8, 652.

 If we fix our eyes on Jesus, we may walk over swelling waves of disbelief, unterrified in rising winds of doubt.  If we turn our eyes away and instead look at the power and fury of the destructive elements around us, we too shall sink.  If we listen while we are in the deep, IN THE DEEP, in the storms and darkness, we can hear those beautiful words:
                 "Wherefore didst thou doubt?
                   It is I.  Be not afraid."

  

Matt.14;Mark6;Luke9; - Nancy Baird - January 8, 2013(Audio)