Inspiring Talk - Being Brave - Jack Christensen

We have a great radio station:  102.7 FM program:  Sounds of Sunday (out of Manti).  The following talk was given by Jack Christensen:  Being Brave - Following True Prophets aired on 102.7 on April 26, 2009
http://midutahradio.com/sounds_of_sunday

I was so impressed by this talk that I listened to it again and wrote it out here so I could have a copy.

Seek for you to please pray for me, Ask Heavenly Father that speaker will have Holy Ghost, also pray for you that you will have gift and power of Holy Ghost and I’ll make you a promise: If you pray for me that I can have the spirit and pray for yourself that you can have the spirit you will hear what I say better than I say it: it will sound better, it will taste sweeter, it will last longer, and your entire life can be altered this 35 minutes if we can communicate spirit to spirit and let a member of the Godhead bear witness to the divinity of the things you will hear this day. 2 Ne 33:1 when a man speaketh by holy ghost, carries it into the hearts of man. I am not ashamed to say I know my Redeemer lives. Echo words of apostle Paul: I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If people think you’re a geek for your testimony, so what? Wouldn’t you rather be a happy geek than an unhappy cool-dude? Absolutely nothing wrong with being good and clean and pure and holy as the angels. I’m not talking about being holier than thou, I’m talking about being holy and having the spirit of the lord as our guide in all that we do.

Poem: Woman wrote shortly after writing this after a severe case of cancer. Cancer that ravished her body was horrible, but maybe not as hard as being abandoned by her husband and leaving her to raise all of her children alone.
“I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car wearing beautifully tailored clothes with my hair expertly done and with long perfectly manicured finger nails. I want to drive up to the pearly gates in a station wagon that has boy scout equipment in the back seat. I want there to be grass stains on my shoes from mowing a neighbors lawn. I want there to be a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want there to be a little dirt under my fingernails from helping 4-Hrs plant a garden. I want there to be children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks, and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the lord to know that I was really here, and that I really lived.”

When you pass out of this existence, will the Lord really know that you were here and that you really lived, I mean really lived, not just the pseudo living of so much of the world trying to gain all these possessions, things, notoriety, I’m talking about really living by having your lives intertwined with other people and with God Almighty and with his prophets. When I die I’m sure they put on my tombstone, I got to go” It’s the theme of my life, Always Rushing I don’t have time to hardly do anything else. Some of you want to be Bishops: He Laughs: I hope you get it, you deserve it. When he was called to be Bishop 2nd time the Stake President asked: Do you know I love you, Do you know the Lord loves you?
Only way to get courage: ask for it –I believe it is a spiritual gift. Let God and others know we are really here
You must share it, because it is absolutely true:

Henry B. Eyering’s Father died of a horrible case of bone cancer: had to be watched 24 hours a day in the end: In the last stages of his life. Elder Eyering was sitting next to his Father’s bed. His dad crawls out of bed and kneels. Immediately General Authority Son says, Dad! What are you doing. He says, I’m gonna pray if that’s okay. Son: Well, it’s not okay, you’re in no position to get on your knees to pray. Heavenly Father will understand if you pray to him on your back in your bed. No, I need to kneel when I pray: Son: It’s okay, in your condition to pray in your bed. Heavenly Father understands. With bone Cancer all you have to do to break a bone, is have sheets rub you wrong, sneeze, or hit floor wrong. Dr. Eyering would not get up off his knees. Son: what is so important that you have to kneel to pray. Dad= I want to know why when I’ve been so faithful every day of my life every day I have lived the commandments and I want to know why as this life comes to an end why my father would make me suffer so unbearably when I’ve been so faithful - it’s so unbearable. Son: I think you better pray from your knees. After Prayer:  Son:  Dad, did you get the answer that you sought? Dad: I learned that God needs Brave Sons and I must be brave.

God needs brave sons and he needs brave daughters and you and I simply have 1 choice. We must be Brave! Because the God of all the Universe and his holy son need you and me to be brave at a time when it’s never been needed more. Is it scary to stand for truth and righteousness? Yes! Frightening to stand before you and testify boldly? Our Father needs us. Being Brave in the World we live in is not an easy task.

Elder Pace: The time has come to stand with you own testimony and not lean on others. Children say: I know church is true, I love my mom and dad. What I feel in here. At Age 6, this is what his daughter knew for sure: That this is the true church, and that she loved her mother and father. So do you! You know this church is true. Some of you will say No I don’t. The reason I know it’s true, the blood of Israel is coursing through your veins. You have believing blood. You think you’re here in the final hours of the Earth’s history as a member of the church by accident? I think not! You know it’s true. Here’s the challenge. It’s not enough to know it’s true. You and I must be true to the church. We’ve got to progress beyond 6 year old testimony, beyond knowing the church is true and being true to the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. Elder Pace continues: We need to progress to the point of knowing we are true to the church. We also need to progress in our capacity to receive personal revelation. It is one thing to receive a witness that Joseph Smith saw God the father and Jesus Christ. It is quite another to have confidence in your ability to receive revelation to which you are entitled. Different type of revelation. Knowing you need to go on a mission, maybe you need to gain that testimony for yourself.

In this Quest: Richard G Scott: His wife just passed away from Cancer and his daughter said even though he is an apostle when he comes home to an empty house, it’s almost unbearable. And then to have to get up and talk in general conference was brutal: Elder Scott:  “Most important principle I can share: Anchor your life in Jesus Christ your redeemer Make your eternal father and his beloved son your most important priority in your life. More important than life itself, more important than a beloved companion or children or anyone on earth. Make His will your central desire. Then all that you need for happiness will come to you. It will happen, you will not be able to force it any more than you can force a bean to sprout before it’s time.

5 things to never forget: True Principles
1. Please Do Not under any circumstances fall under damnable false doctrine that says I can live my life any way I want now and go clear it up with my Bishop a little later. Please don’t procrastinate your repentance.
D&C 1:33 And he that repents not, from him shall be taken, even the light which he has received; for my Spirit shall not always strive with man, saith the Lord of Hosts.
Alma 34:35 For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked.
You will loose the spirit of the Lord. Jacob 4:13 For the spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not.  Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly , for the salvation of our souls.   Without the spirit, we can’t see things as they really are and they really will be.
If you have the spirit of the Lord I promise you you will fall into strict harmony and obedience to Prophets words. Spirit of the Lord helps me to see clearly. If you loose the spirit of the Lord you do dumb, dumb things.
Angry: Loose the spirit of the Lord.
Why do you keep going on when you feel terrible? Because you don’t have the spirit of the Lord to see things as they really are. It takes guts and courage to go repent.
Elder Packer: Don’t let any of their flock go to their graves w/out ordinances of temple.
Oaks: When we are young we sometimes behave as if there is no tomorrow. We will continue to associate with some of the same people that are witness to and participants in some of our teenage pranks or transgressions. What do people remember? Sometimes they don’t remember all the good things, they remember the bad things.
You young men, the girl you are dating may be your wife, but probably she will not. Possibly she will end up being the wife of your Bishop or Stake President.
And then when your Bishop or Stake President asks you if there’s anything you need to clear up with the proper authority …..knowing you dated His wife, I hope you can say, no.
Young women: The fellow you are dating may end up to be your husband but more likely, he will not. He may end up being the husband of your sister or your best friend. He may even be a counselor in your bishopric or an employee. Conduct yourself today so that your tomorrows are not burdened by embarrassing memories. I beg you to not procrastinate your day of repentance:
1. You may not live long enough to repent!
2. Sin is highly Addictive
There are so many people who want to quit, so addicted and in such a rut!
Alma to Corrianton: Alma 39:9 My Son, Repent and forsake your sins: Go no longer after the lusts of your eyes.  He adds: No lusts of eyes or ears. Movies, TV, suggestive and leud, Magazines and Books. Don’t pollute your minds, the mind is never the same after filth has passed through it.
Don’t see R-rated movies.

2.  You are different: You are Young Men  and Young Women of the Abrahamic Covenant. You are the children of the covenant, therefore, you and I are different from the rest of the world. Does it take courage to not see or listen to that which would take the spirit of the lord away from us!
Hinckley: 35 yr old man letter addicted to Pornography. Ashamed, introduced as a child. Exposure in early age. I have no freedom. Lost freedom because unable to overcome. Trap. Please, please please plead to avoid and eliminate. Pray for me. Courage and strength to overcome. This is neither happiness nor peace to surrender to things that degrade and destroy. Turn off TV when these things on. Avoid as you would a foul disease. There is too much of goodness to see, to destroy character and willpower to go to destructive rot.
To let the Lord know we were really here, we can’t do these things.

3. Be in scriptures every single day.
Drench ourselves in the living water to gain the strength that can come from miraculous powers of Book of Mormon.

4. Pray
I don’t mean say our prayers: I mean Pray.
Romney: All is holy where this man kneels.
I assure you however, the spirit of the lord will never direct a man to take a position in opposition to the first presidency of this church.

5. Follow the Prophets and Apostles.
Maxwell: Though we have rightly applauded our ancestors, those of us who prevail today will have done no small thing. The special spirits today will be praised by those who pulled handcarts.