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"Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken." Amos 5:14
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Immortality vs Eternal Life

“Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich.”

D&C 6:7

I still feel very new to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lately, I have felt like my “radar” is off. How do I know what I’m supposed to do? What do I want most in life?

Again and again I have to tell myself, “I want to live with my family forever.” If I can keep that focus it helps me make better choices.

I was listening to a worldwide devotional by President Russell M. Nelson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He described his role as prophet in the following way

My responsibility is to educate and prepare you…for your immortal experience—meaning, how to gain eternal life.

Choices for Eternity

What’s the difference between immortality and eternal life? In 2006, Elder Jospeh B. Worthlin differentiated between them in the following way:

[All] are given a priceless and incomprehensible gift: immortality. Because of Jesus the Christ, [the good shepherd] we will live forever. We are immortal.

Eternal life, however, is something altogether different. Immortality is about quantity. Eternal life is about quality.

To use a metaphor, immortality is how long the dinner lasts. Eternal life is what is on the menu and who is with us at the table.

Eternal life is “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (D&C 14:7). P9


“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9)…

However, eternal life does not come automatically.

We must purge our hearts of evil and fill them with the desire to do good continually. Our Heavenly Father, with love that is scarcely within our power to comprehend, desires more than just our immortality. He desires each of us to partake of this greatest of all gifts: eternal life.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
“What Is the Difference between Immortality and Eternal Life?” Liahona. 2006 November.

The desire to do good continually is not easy, but there is hope. We may feel lost and incabable, but we do not have to do it alone. We have a Savior who knows and loves us and a Heavenly Father, who wants each of us to return back to Him. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles discussed one parable and how it brings hope. He stated,

To me, the parable of the lost sheep is one of the most hopeful passages in all of scripture.
Our Savior, the Good Shepherd, knows and loves us. He knows and loves you.
He knows when you are lost, and He knows where you are. He knows your grief. Your silent pleadings. Your fears. Your tears.
It matters not how you became lost—whether because of your own poor choices or because of circumstances beyond your control.
What matters is that you are His child. And He loves you. He loves His children….


What Must We Do?…

Surely… [we must] do more than simply wait to be rescued.


While our loving Father desires that all of His children return to Him, He will force no one to heaven.

God will not rescue us against our will (Emphasis added)…


So what must we do?
His invitation is simple:
“Turn … to me.”
“Come unto me.”
“Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you.”


This is how we show Him that we want to be rescued.


It requires a little faith. But do not despair. If you cannot muster faith right now, begin with hope.
If you cannot say you know God is there, you can hope that He is. You can desire to believe. That is enough to start.


Then, acting on that hope, reach out to Heavenly Father. God will extend His love toward you, and His work of rescue and transformation will begin.


Over time, you will recognize His hand in your life. You will feel His love. And the desire to walk in His light and follow His way will grow with every step of faith you take.
We call these steps of faith “obedience…”

[O]bedience is a cherished concept in the gospel of Jesus Christ because we know that “through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel…

Obedience is the lifeblood of faith. It is by obedience that we gather light into our souls…..

[O]bedience is not so much the process of bending, twisting, and pounding our souls into something we are not. Instead, it is the process by which we discover what we truly are made of (emphasis added)…

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

In 1974, Elder Delbert L. Stapley Of the Council of the Twelve, counseled us to “walk uprightly before the Lord and…keep his laws and commandments. It is the only way we can find our way to the eternal life that God has held out to the faithful of his people…[O]ur God gave this promise: “… if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.” (D&C 14:7.) “Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich.” (D&C 6:7.)

Joseph B. Wirthlin responded with scripture to the following q:

“What is the work and glory of God? “To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39; emphasis added)…

[M]an is placed upon the earth to learn, be tested, and gain experience.


Because of the sacrifice of the Son of God, the hour will come when “all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28–29).


The just as well as the unjust are given a priceless and incomprehensible gift: immortality. Because of Jesus the Christ, we will live forever. We are immortal.
Eternal life, however, is something altogether different. Immortality is about quantity. Eternal life is about quality.

What Is the Difference between Immortality and Eternal Life? Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

We will all live as immortals because of Jesus Christ and His atoning Blood and sacrifice. Eternal life is described as “the greatest of all gifts,” for those who love God. Loving God means being obedient and keeping His commandments, “if ye love me keep my commandments”

The desire to be obedient and do good continually is not easy, but there is hope. We may feel lost and incabable, but we do not have to do it alone. We have a Savior who knows and loves us and a Heavenly Father, who wants each of us to return back to Him. As we repent daily and strive to become better each day, little by little, grace for grace, we can become better and work toward eternal life.

Elder Uchtdorf emphasized that no matter where we’ve been, or what we’ve done, we can be rescued by the Savior. He stated,

You Are Worthy of Rescue

[M]y dear friends, I testify that God sees us as we truly are—and He sees us worthy of rescue.

You may feel that your life is in ruins… You may be afraid, angry, grieving, or tortured by doubt. But just as the Good Shepherd finds His lost sheep, if you will only lift up your heart to the Savior of the world,

He will find you.
He will rescue you.
He will lift you up and place you on His shoulders.
He will carry you home…

We can have confidence and trust that our loving Heavenly Father can and will rebuild us. His plan is to build us into something far greater than what we were—far greater than what we can ever imagine. With each step of faith on the path of discipleship, we grow into the beings of eternal glory and infinite joy we were designed to become.
This is my testimony, my blessing, and my humble prayer in the sacred name of our Master, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home. May 2016 Liahona.

I believe these words are true. And if we can no more than desire to be obedient or believe, God will work with us one step at a time, if we turn to Him and ask Him for help. Stop Believing you can do this alone. You simply cannot. This is why we have the Savior. Through him and his atoning blood and sacrifice we can choose to change, permanently so we can gain eternal life and live with God again.



See also

We Can Live with God Again

Pursuit of the Eternal

The Lord is seeking men [and women] like Nehemiah—… who fulfill the oath and covenant of the priesthood. He seeks to enlist unfaltering souls who diligently go about the work of building the kingdom of God—those who, when faced with opposition and temptation, say in their hearts, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”
When faced with trial and suffering, they respond, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”
When faced with ridicule and reproach, they proclaim, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”
Our Heavenly Father seeks those who refuse to allow the trivial to hinder them in their pursuit of the eternal. He seeks those who will not allow the attraction of ease or the traps of the adversary to distract them from the work He has given them to perform. He seeks those whose actions conform to their words—those who say with conviction, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.”

We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. exerpt taken from April 2009 General Conference address, “We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down.”

What if you learned that the Savior had already returned to this earth?

So, now a question as I conclude: What if you learned that the Savior had already returned to this earth—that He, as part of His Second Coming, had already met with some of His true followers in several marvelous, large gatherings (See Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man (1982), 575) —gatherings about which the world, including CNN and the blogosphere, knew nothing. If you found out that the Savior was already on the earth, what would you desperately want to do today, and what would you be willing and ready to do tomorrow?

I pray that this year you will have some moments of anguishing desperation that will propel you further along the path to becoming the man or woman you were born to be. Your true self is spectacular! Never settle for less. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

© 2015 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. English approval: 11/15. “Becoming the Person You Were Born to Be.”

Wendy Watson Nelson

Is there a God?

4th June 2022 10am

Do you think you’re crazy? I’m here to tell you, you are not alone. But I’m also here to tell you, you are not crazy.

You know that feeling inside the pit of your stomach? Where something feels…cringy…? Many may refer to it as your gut feeling or gut instinct.

Well, I ignored this feeling and eventually I was deceived because of my choice to forego any cringy or “something doesnt feel right” feeling.

Let me explain. Hi, if this is your first read of my journal entries, welcome. I’ve struggled with an onslaught of addiction and behaviors that really don’t show my appreciation and gratitude for what I have been given in life. My choices have lead me down some dark paths. I believed I had finally found the way out, and I did! But just as I thought I was at my strongest point in life, through a spiritual, temporal, and emotional lens, I was hard-core blindsided because I didnt listen to the “cringy-something-doesnt-feel-right” feeling.

I had an influence in my life who quoted scripture, prophets, and claimed to be receiving revelation and promptings from the spirit, and this was someone I considered to be a close friend. Someone I’ve known over the last 5+ years. We went to church together, we worshiped together, we cried and laughed together. This was someone I trusted.

This experience taught me a potential pattern of philosophies of men mingled with scripture. This could also be repharased as philosphies of friends mingled with scripture. Especially if used to persuade, manipulate or brag about ones spirituality and ability to receive constant revelation, as if they have am open conduit from heaven and God is speaking to them 24/7.

I thought I was a bad person because I wasn’t receiving constant revelation like this person. On may 17th she called and claimed she felt prompted to call me. I was in the middle of listening to a podcast from a locap therapist. I thought he had some good tools he was teaching the listener, so I wondered if I was being led astray and my friend was here to teach me truth.

I told her I only had 5 minutes to talk. I had left her a voicemail to apologize about something I had done, and she said Heavenly Father wanted her to tell me that His spirit had withdrawn from me, and that I didn’t owe her an apology, I owed Him and apology. This didn’t make sense because I had already asked for forgiveness. So I wondered if maybe I wasnt sincere, so then I believed what she said because I have an addiction and struggle daily! I truly thought she was talking with God and He was telling her these things, even though I reasoned against it several times.

So she portrayed God as continously talking to her. She spoke as if Heavenly Father were really talking to her, and even thought “something didn’t feel right” I thought it was because I was, for lack of a better word, not worthy and not able to have the God’s Power in my life.

BEWARE THE PHILOSOPHIES OF MEN MINGLED WITH SCRIPTURE

I’d like to say I have the truth, but really truly the only way to truth is through the Savior. I am just a person, and I can’t lead you. Only through Christ, the Lord omnipotent can truth be received.

I thought I was being lead to truth through another person, and thus experience REALLY hurt.

In 2016, I decided to leave Amy habits and behaviors behind. This was hard! I had to move and get rid of things that tied my mind back to people and situations that caused triggers and flashbacks to painful memories.

During this process I had to leave friends behind, but I also prayed for a new friend. A true friend. And along came, *Diana. We weren’t bosom buddies at first, but over time we shared a lot of spiritual knowledge and quests together. Our lives seemed to parallel one anithers in regard to trial hardship and other spiritual pursuits.

We’ve been in each other’s lives for the last 6 years. I definitely felt connected to her, perhaps more so than to my husband. THIS WAS NOT OKAY. And I wondered about thus off and on again. I just felt more spiritually connected to Diana. She often shared “revelations” and “promptings” she was receiving. It seemed she had a continual conduit of knowledge from the heavens.

I felt inspired by her, but at times… something didn’t feel right in the pit of My stomach. That gut instinct seemed to signal something was off, especially since this past March of 2022.

She bore her testimony about the Savior, and I just remember feeling…uncomfortable. I thought this meant there was something wrong with me! I remember being taught that spirit recognizes spirit, and “bad” is uncomfortable around “good.”

Well, I still have many habits that take me away from Christ, so I thought, there was something wrong with me because of my addictions. So I began to mistake the cringey feeling for this idea that Diana’s better than me and I’m worse than her. I felt shame, guilt, all manner or yucky feelings!

She repeatedly discussed revelation and promptings she received from Heavenly Father. She often asked if we could pray together. Can you see how I placed too much trust in someone based on what I was seeing over what I was feeling?

“Something doesn’t feel right” is an indicator that SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT. So. Trust that feeling. Eventually I allowed myself to be deceived. This was a hard lesson to learn. Are you ready for the story?

I WAS DECEIVED. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES!

I had felt for several years I needed to see a therapist, but then I would reason against this thought. It wasn’t until I was camping and had a dream that is too personal to share where essentially I came to understand I needed therapy.

I began to move forward by calling and leaving a voicemail on one therapists line, and a got on a waiting list for another therapist. In the meantime I began listening to a podcast from a local therapist. He gave some good tips. And then, my friend called. “I feel prompted to call you ” she said. “Oh. Okay?” I can’t even remember all that she said but at one point she instructed me on how to overcome anxiety which I will not repeat here for sever reasons.

I began doing everything she taught me. Even thought, something felt off. Fast forward to the next day, and I believed I was following a true and correct source of knowledge and instruction.

It wasn’t until my sister in law showed up and i shared with her my “revelations” and before leaving she shared with me what she knew to be true. I felt a burning I’m my bosom. A sure way of knowing what I was receiving was truth. I immediately questioned what I had received… and gasped…”I think I have been deceived….” my sister in law looked concerned. She eventually left.

Later that day I went to see a replica of the tabernacle described in the Bible. As I was there I kept questioning everything… had I been deceived? Somethings not right. But what? At the end of the tour, I entered a chapel building of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and they had the most beautiful music and images of the Savior. Again I felt that same feeling in my chest. Only this time.. it was more of a peaceful feeling that filled my bosom, confirming that this was truth.

I had been deceived. I thought I was receiving light and truth from a correct source. I apologized to several I had potentially lead astray those few days, especially my husband. It was scary. It was truly a scary experience. One that I hope to prevent others from falling for.

I do not have the whole truth. I have bits and pieces. Light and truth can only come from one source. I can only bate witness of what I know and what I believe.

I believe in God. I believe in Jesus Chrsit. I believe that the Savior died for us, so I can live with God and my family again if I live righteously. I have a hope in Christ. I believe in the power of the Holy Ghost. I believe in revelation. I believe that we have living prophets and Apostles that walk the earth today to lead and guide God’s people. I believe Christ’s church has been restored through the prophet, Joseph Smith. I believe all people can come to a knowledge of this truth if they feast upon the words of Christ and experiment to know for themselves. I believe Christ will return to the earth and reign in His glory. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Modern and ancient prophecies fortell 2nd coming of the Lord

Biblical and modern prophecies give many signs of the Second Coming. These include:


The fulness of the gospel restored and preached in all the world for a witness to all nations.


False Christs and false prophets, deceiving many.


Wars and rumors of wars, with nation rising against nation.


Earthquakes in divers places.


Famine and pestilence.


An overflowing scourge, a desolating sickness covering the land.


Iniquity abounding.


The whole earth in commotion.


Men’s hearts failing them.


(See Matt. 24:5–15; JS—M 1:22, 28–32; D&C 45:26–33.)
In another revelation the Lord declares that some of these signs are His voice calling His people to repentance:
“Hearken, O ye nations of the earth, and hear the words of that God who made you. …


“How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, … and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not!” (D&C 43:23, 25).


These signs of the Second Coming are all around us and seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity. For example, the list of major earthquakes in The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2004 shows twice as many earthquakes in the decades of the 1980s and 1990s as in the two preceding decades (pp. 189–90). It also shows further sharp increases in the first several years of this century. The list of notable floods and tidal waves and the list of hurricanes, typhoons, and blizzards worldwide show similar increases in recent years (pp. 188–89). Increases by comparison with 50 years ago can be dismissed as changes in reporting criteria, but the accelerating pattern of natural disasters in the last few decades is ominous…

“In modern revelation we have the promise that if we are prepared we need not fear (see D&C 38:30).”

Preparation for the Second Coming
Dallin H. Oaks of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

We Can Know 4/4

26 May, 2022, 5:33am

We can know God if we will: Obey all His commandments as best we can (see John 14:21–23).

21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him

John 14:21–23

Taken from the Gospel Principles manual by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.