Scholarship and Faith: Insights from My BYU Experience
The unique and synergistic environment of scholarship and faith at BYU has further connected those important life lessons to significant eternal truths regarding repentance and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the wise use of agency, and how Christ makes weak things become strong.
There Must Needs Be a Christ
The Spirit will help you remember that our potential is beyond our present capacity. We cannot attain it in our current condition and we cannot attain it on our own. We need help. We need a helper. We need Jesus, who is our Helper.
Agency, Accountability, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ: Application to Sexual Assault
Being “an example of the believers,” living a life of kindness and compassion, keeping your covenant “to mourn with those that mourn,” and serving others can all have powerful effects on those around you.
Of Starfish and Destinies
In time, you will one day look down at the shoreline of your life and see it washed clean, purified, and sanctified, and in the water’s reflection you will see the image of Christ in your countenance.
“Daddy, Is Jesus Real?” Overcoming Fear through Faith in Christ
Faith leads to repentance of our past mistakes. But all of us need to follow up necessary repentance with belief—a belief in God and a belief that, though we all sin, the Atonement of Jesus Christ can and will save us.
“Walk in Newness of Life”
So you see, the rigorous change required by the gospel of Jesus Christ is not meant to be disheartening or exhausting; it is exciting and exhilarating! The plan of salvation is the ultimate adventure.
Faith to Forgive Grievous Harms: Accepting the Atonement as Restitution
This is a very strong statement: if we refuse to forgive, there remaineth in us the greater sin. How can this be? As I hope to explain, our salvation is conditioned on forgiving others because when we refuse to forgive, what we are really saying is that we reject, or don’t quite trust, the Atonement. And it is our acceptance of the Atonement that ultimately saves us.
The Miracle of Forgiveness
I have seen some individuals who have confessed and forsaken their sins with a broken heart and a contrite spirit and yet are unable to accept the forgiveness that comes through the Atonement … They do not understand the miracle of forgiveness or the wonderful gift of grace that the Atonement is.
His Grace Is Sufficient
Grace is not achieved somewhere down the road. It is received right here and right now. It is not a finishing touch; it is the Finisher’s touch.
God Did Not Put Us Here to Fail
You and the Lord, working together, can accomplish anything. Never forget—God did not put us here to fail.
Faith, Hope, and You
Hope is a most powerful influence in our lives. Yes indeed, we do live in a troubled and challenging world. But we live in one of the greatest periods of time in all the history of the entire world.
Lessons from Liberty Jail
Every one of us, in one way or another, great or small, dramatic or incidental, is going to spend a little time in Liberty Jail—spiritually speaking.
Finding Strength in Christ
Accept Christ’s invitation to come to Him and begin your own journey and experience of seeing the Atonement’s influence on your weaknesses.
The Power of Deliverance
Your experience in enduring well in the trials of life by drawing on God’s power of deliverance can bring you the assurance you need to find peace in this life and confidence for the next.
“The Very Root of Christian Doctrine”
When we come to have some sense of what Christ has done for us—and, in particular, what He has suffered for us—our natural reaction as children of God is to want to show our gratitude and love by giving our lives to Him, by obeying Him.
“Look Forward with an Eye of Faith”
Remember the great gifts of mortality: the physical body, additional light, and the eternal family. These gifts are sacred. May the Lord bless you during this wonderful phase of life that is yours to live so that you may receive all three of these great promises in their fulness.
Moral Agency
It is because of the Atonement of Christ that we can recover from bad choices and be justified under the law as if we had not sinned.
“And Always Remember Him”
With the instruction to “always remember Him,” the Lord does not want some form of general, always-sort-of-in-the-back-of-the-mind kind of remembering.
“A Wonderful Flood of Light”
What a blessing it is to be living in a day when we are privileged to have such “a wonderful flood of light” by which we may live. I testify to you of the truthfulness of the restored gospel and that we are led by a living prophet of God.
Loose Him and Let Him Go
I pray that the . . . the power of the Atonement in Lazarus, Sonya, Raskolnikov, Theany Reath, and Kats Kajiyama and millions of others will give us courage to “stand forth” and to allow our graveclothes to be removed; and that we might also be both the healers and the healed, the unbinders and the unbound.
“In the Strength of the Lord”
As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed.
Feeling the Atonement
If we are constantly seeking to know the breadth and depth of His atoning love and how very personal it really is, our seeking will not be in vain.
The Weight of the World
May we be an instrument in God’s hands to make the burdens of others last for “but a small moment.” Let us lift up the hands of those whose hang down, that they may “endure it well.”
The Intimate Restoration
"I am amazed that even though Christ understands perfectly my imperfections, he also loves me perfectly. Divine charity is the most fundamental intimate restoration."
Vast and Intimate: The Atonement in the Heavens and in the Heart
The Atonement is intensely individual, reaching to every single soul, and it is universal, reaching to all creation. In both of these aspects, planetary and personal, the Atonement overcomes separation of every kind.
The Great Plan of Redemption
Bruce L. Brown testifies that modern prophets have revealed and will continue to reveal important truths about the great plan of redemption.
One by One
The Savior performed the Atonement for each of us, one by one. We can develop n individual relationship with Him through prayer, study, and loving others.
The Three A’s: Atonement, Agency, and Accountability
We all have the need to know the processes by which we recoup what we could be and could have, had we chosen more wisely. So these are the three basics: Atonement, Agency, and Accountability.
The Ultimate Paradox
When Nephi saw in vision the condescension of both the Father and the Son in offering the Son as the Lamb of God, he could only describe the love in superlative phrases as “beauty . . . exceeding of all beauty; . . . the whiteness of the driven snow. . . . Precious above all. . . . The most desirable above all things. . . . And the most joyous to the soul” (1 Nephi 11:8–9, 22–23). That…
“In Him All Things Hold Together”
Oh, how we adore Jesus for his atonement! For his free gift of immortality to all!
Believing Christ: A Practical Approach to the Atonement
Many of us are trying to save ourselves, holding the Atonement of Jesus Christ at arm’s distance and saying, “When I’ve done it, when I’ve perfected myself, when I’ve made myself worthy, then I’ll be worthy of the Atonement.
Come unto Christ
I bear you my testimony that God lives. He is your Father. You want to go home. You want to be with him. The only way you can be with him in the way you want to be is to become clean and spotless.
Why a Savior Is Necessary, and Why Only Jesus Christ Could Qualify
Not to recognize and appreciate the atonement is the greatest of all ingratitude; to ignore Christ is the height of folly; to obey him is the greatest happiness. The greatest display of wisdom that we can demonstrate on this earth is to follow the Lord and to keep his commandments.
There Is Always Hope
Reverberating through all eternity, all creation exults: “In Christ there is always hope.” I know whereof I speak.
The Healing Power of Christ
I gained an appreciation for my value as a human being by realizing what it cost him to purchase my salvation.
The Atonement and Our Part in It
Elder A. Theodore Tuttle discusses the Atonement and our part in it. We must take important steps to fully access the Savior's Atonement.
“Who Then Can Be Saved?”
Doubtless much more is available to all of us than any of us is presently enjoying.
The Olive Press
Drawing parallels between the olive press and the events in Gethsemane, Truman G. Madsen invites us all to reflect on the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The Gift That Matters Most
Tonight, I have come to testify in behalf of Jesus Christ. How you accept him and how valiant you are in your testimony of him will have an enormous compounding impact upon the Church.
The Three Pillars of Eternity
God grant that we may all believe and know and understand the great eternal verities by which salvation comes and that, believing and knowing and understanding, we may so live as to gain eternal life.
For Ye Are Bought with a Price
The scriptures say that we are "bought with a price." We forever owe our love and devotion to Jesus Christ for His ransoming sacrifice.
The Atonement of Jesus Christ
The atonement of Jesus Christ saves us from the effects of the Fall and from our own transgressions. Understanding it gives us hope to repent and improve.
The Atonement
Jesus Christ’s atonement for our sins was an eternally necessary sacrifice for us that we could not have completed for ourselves.
