Rubie’s talk June 28, 2015
The Holy Ghost Testifies of the Truth of All Things
Moroni 10:5 says, “And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye
may know the truth of all things.”
During the Ogden Temple Open
House, I was able to see the beautiful temple on the inside. When I was in the temple I felt the spirit so
powerful that I started to cry. The
spirit was telling me that I made a good decision to go and visit the temple. The spirit was also telling me God loves me
and wants me to learn more about him.
The spirit was telling me that the temple is a good place to be and I
should come back when I am old enough.
I also feel the Spirit when I
serve other people. The spirit tells me
if Jesus was here that is what He would be doing. Serving is what Heavenly Father wants us to
do. The Spirit helps me to know that
when I am serving others, I am serving God.
I really love the story that
President Uchtdorf shared a couple of years ago in General Conference about the
town that had a large statue of Christ at its center. During World War 2, the town was bombed and
the statue was damaged. The hands on
that statue of Christ were damaged. The
people decided to leave the statue without the hands and they put up a sign
that said, “You are My hands.”
I feel the power of the Holy
Ghost when I am faithfully serving others.
The Holy Ghost helps me to know the truth that God is my Heavenly
Father, that Jesus is His Son, and that I am a daughter of Heavenly Father. I even feel the power of the Holy Ghost right
now as I’m saying this talk.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.
Eric gave this talk on Sunday May 8:
Question: What would happen if you tried to put your
shoes on before your socks? (Pause)
It
wouldn’t work very well. Most socks do
not fit over your shoes.
Sometimes things must be done in a
certain order.
Look at
these letters. These letters form a
word, but can you read it? Now look at
the word like this. If you know how to
read, you can see this word says Faith.
The
first principles and ordinances of the gospel, according to Article Faith 4,
are: first, faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, second, repentance, third baptism by immersion for the remission
of sins, and fourth the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Each of these principles and ordinances lead
me to Jesus Christ.
According
to this Article of Faith, it is important that we have Faith in Jesus Christ
before anything else. Elder Dallin H.
Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “The first principle of the
gospel is not ‘faith.’ The first principle of the gospel is ‘Faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ’.
There
is a scripture story that I love that teaches me about faith in Jesus. It is a story about a King and three brave
men, all with really strange names. The
king's name is Nebuchadnezzar and the three men were known as Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. They lived in a
place called Babylon and the three men worked for the king and had important jobs.
One day the king decided to build a huge statue made of gold
that stood 90 feet high. That is as tall
as 15 men all standing one on top of the other to make a tall tower.
King Nebuchadnezzar then made an announcement. "People, when you hear the music, you
must bow down and worship the statue because I have said so. Whoever does not obey and worship the statue
will immediately be thrown into a fiery furnace."
As you know God does not want us to worship anything or
anyone other than Him.
Why would we want to pray or worship something that isn't
real, something that can't answer our prayers or help us? To worship a big pile of gold like the one
that king Nebuchadnezzar set up is silly.
The gold can't hear, see, or care about anything or anyone.
So the next time the music played everyone stopped what they
were doing and they bowed down to worship this idol. Everyone that is, except for Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. Some of the
king's workers (that were jealous that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had such
good jobs) saw that they would not bow down to the image so they immediately
ran to tell the king.
When king Nebuchadnezzar heard the news he was very
angry. He immediately ordered that
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought to him to explain their actions.
The men were brought before the king and Nebuchadnezzar said
to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you will not
bow down and worship the image of gold that I have made? Just in case there was a mistake I will give
you another chance. When the music plays
again you will be ready and bow down to the image, and if you don't this time
you will be thrown into a fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to save you?"
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego looked at each other and
replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we did not make a mistake nor will
we apologize for not bowing down. If we
are thrown into the furnace, the God we worship will save us, and he will
rescue us. But even if he doesn't, we
want you to know, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold
you have set up."
That made Nebuchadnezzar even more mad. Right away he ordered the furnace to be heated
way hotter than it usually was and commanded some of the strongest soldiers to
take Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to throw them in the fire.
The soldiers took the three men just as they were straight
to the furnace. The men were wearing all
their clothes including robes, their shirts and pants underneath that, and
turbans on their heads. These things
would catch fire very easily in the fire.
As the soldiers were pushing the men into the furnace the
flames of the fire killed the soldiers, because the fire was so hot and
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell into the hot, hot furnace.
Then king Nebuchadnezzar jumped to his feet in amazement and
asked his advisors, "Weren't there only three men thrown into the
fire?" They replied, "O, yes
king." He said, "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire,
untied and unhurt, and the fourth looks like some kind of angel!"
Nebuchadnezzar then came as close as he could to the furnace
and shouted in the doorway, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, follower of
the Most High God, come out! Come
here!"
So the three men walked out of the furnace without any
burns, no hairs on their head burned, all their clothes perfectly fine, and no
smell of fire on them at all.
At that moment Nebuchadnezzar knew that they worshipped a
real God not some fake statue. God had
sent an angel to protect them from harm, and even more importantly he realized
that they truly believed and trusted in God.
They were willing to die rather than serve or worship any god except
their own God.
So from that day on the king made an announcement that all
the people, people of all languages could not say anything bad about Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego's God or they would be badly punished.
The king then gave the three men even better jobs than they
already had.
Elder Oaks in a conference talk
taught: The scriptures teach us that faith comes by hearing the word of God.
That word, which comes to us by scripture, by prophetic teaching, and by
personal revelation, teaches us that we are children of God, the Eternal
Father. It teaches us about the identity and mission of Jesus Christ, his Only
Begotten Son, our Savior and Redeemer. Founded on our knowledge of those
things, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is a conviction and trust that God knows
us and loves us and will hear our prayers and answer them with what is best for
us.
The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego does not mean that having faith in Jesus will keep us from harm. They even said if God didn’t save them from
the fire they would still believe in Him and worship Him. Sometimes bad things will still happen to us
even though we have faith in Jesus. But
our faith in Jesus will help us get through those bad things.
Last
week I had an accident at school, someone threw a whiteboard and it hit me in
the forehead above my eye. I used my
faith in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father to help me be calm when I was so
afraid to get stitches. My mom and I
said a prayer and sang primary songs.
The Holy Ghost calmed me and helped me to remember a calming technique
my school teacher showed me of snapping my fingers and counting. The wound is healing nicely. Also having faith in Jesus let me forgive my
classmate who threw the white board.
I have
faith that Jesus was born, was crucified, and resurrected. I have faith that He helps us in this life.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
