“What If Love Were Our Only Motive?”
RUSSELL T. OSGUTHORPE
Mar. 8, 2011 • BYU Devotional
“Pure Love: The True Sign of Every True Disciple of Jesus
Christ”
Elder Massimo De Feo
April 2018 General Conference
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Blessings of the Book
of Mormon—
President Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) said:
“The Book of Mormon brings men to Christ through two basic
means. First, it tells in a plain manner of Christ and his gospel. …
“Second, the Book of Mormon exposes the enemies of Christ.
It confounds false doctrines and lays down contention. (See 2 Ne. 3:12.) It
fortifies the humble followers of Christ against the evil designs, strategies,
and doctrines of the devil in our day. The type of apostates in the Book of
Mormon are similar to the type we have today. God, with his infinite
foreknowledge, so molded the Book of Mormon that we might see the error and
know how to combat false educational, political, religious, and philosophical
concepts of our time” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1975, 94–95; or Ensign, May
1975, 64).
Elder F. Burton Howard of the Seventy shared how his
reading Alma 26 as a young missionary impacted his testimony of the
truthfulness of the Book of Mormon:
“I was reading again the twenty-sixth chapter of Alma and
the story of Ammon’s mission. I read out loud, as I sometimes do, trying to put
myself in the position of the characters in the book, imagining that I was
saying or hearing the words, that I was there. Once more I went over the
report, and, with a clarity which cannot be described and which would be
difficult to comprehend by one who has not experienced it, the Spirit spoke to
my soul, saying, Did you notice? Everything that happened to Ammon happened to
you?
“It was a totally unexpected sentiment. It was startling in
its scope; it was a thought that had never occurred to me before. I quickly
reread the story. Yes, there were times when my heart had been depressed and I
had thought about going home. I too had gone to a foreign land to teach the
gospel to the Lamanites. I had gone forth among them, had suffered hardships,
had slept on the floor, endured the cold, gone without eating. I too had
traveled from house to house, knocking on doors for months at a time without
being invited in, relying on the mercies of God.
“There had been other times when we had entered houses and
talked to people. We had taught them on their streets and on their hills. We
had even preached in other churches. I remembered the time I had been spit
upon. I remembered the time when I, as a young district leader assigned by the
mission president to open up a new town, had entered, with three other elders,
the main square of a city that had never had missionaries before. We went into
the park, sang a hymn, and a crowd gathered.
“Then the lot fell on me, as district leader, to preach. I
stood upon a stone bench and spoke to the people. I told the story of the
restoration of the gospel, of the boy Joseph going in to the grove and the
appearance of the Father and the Son to him. I remembered well a group of
teenage boys, in the evening shadows, throwing rocks at us. I remembered the
concern about being hit or injured by those who did not want to hear the
message.
“I remembered spending time in jail while my legal right to
be a missionary in a certain country was decided by the police authorities. I
didn’t spend enough time in prison to compare myself to Ammon, but I still
remember the feeling I had when the door was closed and I was far away from
home, alone, with only the mercies of the Lord to rely on for deliverance. I
remembered enduring these things with the hope that ‘we might be the means of
saving some soul’ (Alma 26:30).
“And then on that day as I read, the Spirit testified to me
again, and the words remain with me even today: No one but a missionary could
have written this story. Joseph Smith could never have known what it was like
to be a missionary to the Lamanites, for no one he knew had ever done such a
thing before” (“Ammon: Reflections on Faith and Testimony,” in Heroes from the
Book of Mormon [1995], 124–25).
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Elizabeth Haven Barlow, Mormon Pioneer,
"With courage bold, let us
stand, putting our trust in the Lord, which alone will disable the power of
darkness to flee before us. Be of good cheer amidst opposition. Faint not on
the way. I know the path is very narrow and straight for weary pilgrims like
us. And only here and there do we find a traveler to accompany us on our
journey, but the Lord will conduct us safely to the end"
Monday, April 2, 2018
President Howard W. Hunter, December 2002
“This Christmas,
mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it
with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your
loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy.
Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of
someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a
child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and
then speak it again.”
5 Ways Life Would Be Radically Different If Christ Never
Made His Atonement
by Brother Tad R. Callister, excerpted from "The
Infinite Atonement"
One Sunday morning our teenaged son stood with two other
priests to administer the sacrament, as they had done on many prior occasions. They
pulled back the white cloth, but to their dismay there was no bread. One of
them slipped out to the preparation room in hopes some could be found. There
was none. Finally our troubled son made his way to the bishop and shared the
concern with him. A wise bishop then stood, explained the situation to the
congregation, and asked, "How would it be if the sacrament table were
empty today because there were no atonement?" I have thought of that
often—what would it be like if there were no bread because there had been no
crucifixion, no water because there had been no shedding of blood? If there had
been no Atonement, what would the consequences be to us? Of course, the
question is now moot, but it does put in perspective our total dependence on
the Lord. To ask and answer this question only heightens our awareness of, and
appreciation for, the Savior. What might have been, even for the
"righteous," if there had been no atoning sacrifice, stirs the very
depths of human emotion.
First, there would be no resurrection, or as suggested in
the explicit language of Jacob: "This flesh must have laid down to rot and
to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more" (2 Nephi 9:7).
Second, our spirits would become subject to the devil. He
would have "all power over you" and "seal you his" (Alma
34:35). In fact we would become like him, even "angels to a devil" (2
Nephi 9:9).
Third, we would be "shut out from the presence of our
God" (2 Nephi 9:9), to remain forever with the father of lies.
Fourth, we would "endure a never-ending torment"
(Mosiah 2:39).
Fifth, we would be without hope, for "if Christ be not
risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. . . . If in
this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable"
(1 Corinthians 15:14, 19).
On one occasion I was asked to speak at a graveside service
for a fine man who had passed away. Prior to the service, I met with the family
at the mortuary. It was obvious from those in attendance that the deceased was
greatly loved and missed. For a few moments, as the family gathered round the
casket, I tried to offer some words of counsel and comfort. We then had a word
of prayer and all departed for the graveside service. I lingered long enough,
however, to see the bereaved widow walk over to the casket for the last time,
gently kiss her beloved companion's forehead, and say, "Goodbye, darling,
I love you." How senseless life would be if that goodbye were forever. Yet
such would be the case without the Savior.
If there had been no Atonement, the rising of every sun
would be a reminder that for us it would one day rise no more, that for each of
us death would claim its victory, and the grave would have its sting. Every
death would be a tragedy, and every birth but a tragedy in embryo. The culmination
of love between husbands and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters
would perish in the grave, to rise no more. Without the Atonement, futility
would replace purpose, hopelessness would be exchanged for hope, and misery
would be traded for happiness. If there were no Atonement, Elder Marion G.
Romney declared, "The whole purpose for the creation of earth and our
living upon it would fail."6 President David O. McKay quotes James L.
Gordon in this regard: "A cathedral without windows, a face without eyes,
a field without flowers, an alphabet without vowels, a continent without
rivers, a night without stars, and a sky without a sun—these would not be so
sad as a . . . soul without Christ."7 The contemplation of such a world as
this would be the most despairing thought that could ever darken the mind or
sadden the heart of man. But fortunately, there is a Christ, and there was an
Atonement, and it is infinite for all mankind.
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