(9/30/00)
"I pray that God will give each of us the courage and desire to strive for a
pure heart, a willing heart, an understanding and loving heart. May we take the
seeds offered to all of us, plant them, and nourish them that we may help
harvest the matured fruit of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we can do this, when
the final judgment is made and our hearts are measured by the Lord, our
measurements will not be found deficient." —
"The Measure Of Our Hearts", Elder Marvin J. Ashton, General Conference, October
1988
(10/1/00)
"The gospel is so very simple when we understand it properly. It is always
right, it is always good, it is always uplifting. Obedience to gospel
principles brings forth joy and happiness. Disobedience has a day of
reckoning and will only bring forth heartache, misery, strife, and
unhappiness." — "And Why Call Ye Me,
Lord, Lord, and Do Not the Things Which I Say?", Elder L. Tom Perry, General
Conference, October 1984
(10/2/00)
"When we are called before the bar of God to give an accounting of our
performance, I think it unlikely that any of us will be commended for wearing
out our lives in an effort to find some morsel of history, incomplete in its
context, to cast doubt on the integrity of this work. Rather, I believe we will
be examined on what we did to build the kingdom, to bring light and
understanding of the eternal truths of the gospel to the eyes and minds of all
who are willing to listen, to care for the poor and the needy, and to make of
the world a better place as a result of our presence."
— "Questions and Answers", President Gordon
B. Hinckley, General Conference, October 1985
(10/3/00)
"Some think that our ultimate judgment and reward will be based on how many
laws and commandments we keep and how many we do not keep. While in a sense
this is true, it misses the broader and spiritual purpose for keeping the
commandments. When I was younger, I lived to play basketball. It was on my
mind constantly. I spent countless hours practicing. Gradually I began to go
through the moves automatically, without thinking about them. Physically and
mentally I had become conditioned to do certain things by instinct. I had
practiced them until they became natural to me. In like manner, we keep the
commandments and teachings of the gospel in order to condition us
spiritually. It is not a matter of how many laws we keep and how many we do
not keep. We keep the commandments because they are the laws that govern the
Spirit. The Spirit in turn will sanctify us, condition us spiritually, and
eventually prepare us to live in the kingdom where God is."
— "The Spirit Giveth Life", Elder Loren
C. Dunn, General Conference, April 1979
(10/4/00)
"All of us have made wrong turns along the way. I believe the kind and
merciful God, whose children we are, will judge us as lightly as he can for
the wrongs that we have done and give us the maximum blessing for the good
that we do." — James E. Faust, October
1996 Conference (November Ensign) pg. 53
(10/5/00)
"If you feel confident in the presence of your parents, peers, and priesthood
leaders, you can sense how you will feel when you have the confidence and
acceptance of the Savior." — M. Russell
Ballard, Ensign, Nov. 1990 (October Conference) page 36
(10/6/00)
"That judgment will consider not only your actions, but also your innermost
intent and heartfelt desires. Your everyday thoughts have not been lost.
Scriptures speak of the 'bright recollection' (Alma 11:43) and 'perfect
remembrance' (Alma 5:18) that your mind will provide in times of divine
judgment." — Elder Russell M. Nelson,
Ensign, Nov. 1990 (October Conference) page 75
(12/17/04)
"Ah! the light breaks. There is a record kept-and surely there is one.
One group is receiving its reward now; the other is laying it up in heaven;
and out of the books which are written and shall be written shall the dead
be judged. (See Rev. 20:12.)
Then the Lord gives his word, which he cannot break, for surely 'I, the
Lord, am bound when ye do what I say.' (D&C
82:10; italics added.) And here is the Lord's promise: 'And they shall
be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and
I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.' (Mal.
3:17.) Surely, it is very difficult not to be partial to your own son
who is working for you, if he does a good job. I presume there is nothing
wrong in feeling that way about your own son. The Lord seems to think
not." - Hartman Rector Jr., "That
Ye May Have Roots and Branches," Ensign, May 1983, p. 26-27
(12/19/04)
"To most of us, autumn is a time of thanksgiving, when we acknowledge
the Source of our blessings, and we kneel before him and give thanks. Our
sincerity may not be gauged wholly by the words we use, the tone of our
voice or the regularity of our kneeling.
"If someone does us a great favor, one which we cannot fully repay, we
sometimes express the wish that some day we may have an opportunity to show
our gratitude in some tangible way. What would our benefactor think of
us-what should we think of ourselves-if such an opportunity should appear
and we neglected or refused to embrace it? Suppose he should ask us to do
some little favor for him, something, say one-tenth as valuable as his
service to us, would we refuse the favor or complain that it was too much or
too difficult? If we did, we should expect all who knew the facts to list us
among the ingrates, and in case of future need, embarrassment and shame
would make a new appeal to the benefactor, if not impossible, at least
humiliating and probably fruitless.
"But the gratitude which is worthy of us will not be prompted by 'a
lively sense of favors to come'-it should be akin to the charity of which
the apostle wrote which 'seeketh not itself.' Real gratitude is compounded
of many virtues and is productive of others. It is to be found among those
who were named by the Master as 'blessed,' the poor in spirit, the meek, the
merciful, the pure in heart, the oppressed. Blessed is he who has a thankful
heart and a contrite spirit. To him the windows of heaven are opened until
he is unable to contain his blessings. But it will take more than words to
open those windows.
"In spite of our losses, our trials, our hardships, our bereavements,
each one of us has reason to be thankful for the blessings of the past
year." - Hugh B. Brown, "The Eternal Quest" [Salt Lake City:
Bookcraft, 1956], p. 208-209
(12/21/04)
"'And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books
were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, * * *
every man according to his works.' (Revelation
20:12-13.) Thus it is stated clearly that we are to be judged by our
works, by our accomplishments, by what we do and not wholly or primarily by
what we say. Concerning this important matter Jesus the Son of God himself
has said: 'Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven.' (Matthew 7:21.)"
- J. Reuben Clark, Jr., "Conference Report," April 1934, p. 108
(10/14/05)
"I have been puzzled that some scriptures command us
not to judge and others instruct us that we should judge and even tell us how to
do it. But as I have studied these passages I have become convinced that these
seemingly contradictory directions are consistent when we view them with the
perspective of eternity. The key is to understand that there are two kinds of
judging: final judgments, which we are forbidden to make, and intermediate
judgments, which we are directed to make, but upon righteous principles....
"I speak of the final judgment. This is that future occasion in which all of us
will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to be judged according to our
works (see 1 Ne. 15:33;
3 Ne. 27:15;
Morm. 3:20;
D&C 19:3)....
"In contrast to forbidding mortals to make final judgments, the scriptures
require mortals to make what I will call “intermediate judgments.” These
judgments are essential to the exercise of personal moral agency....
"We must, of course, make judgments every day in the exercise of our moral
agency, but we must be careful that our judgments of people are intermediate and
not final." - Dallin H. Oaks, "'Judge
Not,' and Judging," Ensign, August 1999, p.7
2/6/10
“At the final
day the Savior will not ask about the nature of our callings. He will not
inquire about our material possessions or fame. He will ask if we ministered to
the sick, gave food and drink to the hungry, visited those in prison, or gave
succor to the weak. When we reach out to assist the least of Heavenly Father's
children, we do it unto Him. That is the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
- Joseph B. Wirthlin, “The Great Commandment,” CR
October 2007