Church Services This Week at Sullivan Hollow Second Ward Weber Heights Stake Ogden Utah 01-10-10

The odds of a planet spontaneously creating itself and then being able to produce intelligent life that could survive and thrive are very unlikely.

Who is God?  He is all powerful, all knowing, but the most descriptive attribute is probably father.

God is very intimate and very personal and our lives.

When we comprehend God we begin to comprehend ourselves.-find this quote from Joseph Smith

if you don't see miracles in your life then something about you needs to change.

Sunday School

Moses 4:1-3

  1 And I, the ^aLord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That ^bSatan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the ^cbeginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will ^dredeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely ^eI will do it; wherefore ^fgive me thine honor.

  2 But, behold, my Beloved ^aSon, which was my Beloved and ^bChosen from the beginning, said unto me—^cFather, thy ^dwill be done, and the^eglory be thine forever.

  3 Wherefore, because that ^aSatan ^brebelled against me, and sought to destroy the ^cagency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be ^dcast down;

Doctrine and Covenants 76

  25 And this we saw also, and bear record, that an ^aangel of God who was in authority in the presence of God, who ^brebelled against the Only Begotten ^cSon whom the Father ^dloved and who was in the bosom of the Father, was thrust down from the presence of God and the Son,

  26 And was called ^aPerdition, for the heavens ^bwept over him—he was ^cLucifer, a son of the morning.

  27 And we beheld, and lo, he is ^afallen! is fallen, even a son of the morning!

Abraham 3:27  27 And the ^aLord said: Whom shall I ^bsend? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And ^canother answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will ^dsend the first.

The sacrament prayers remind us each week how to return to him. We learned and retained by repetition.

In John Milton's Paradise Lost he quotes Lucifer as saying, “It is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.”  That may be a very good incite into why Lucifer would propose another plan, especially they one he did, knowing everything he had know.

Satan's plan is still to take our agency.  We have things in our lives that continue to limit our agency (debt, addiction,...)

Sacrament Service

Exodus 20:3-4

  3 Thou shalt have ^ano other ^bgods before me.

  4 Thou shalt ^anot make unto thee any ^bgraven ^cimage, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that isin the water under the earth:

Idols are anything that interfere with us doing our duty. Idols replace thoughts of God in her mind and hearts. Idols replaced God in the way we use our time.

Do we spend more time picking what to wear, watching TV, or checking e-mail than we spend in prayer?

Is it a testimony?  Does it edify others or just give us a venue to vent our emotions? (See also, Is it a prayer, a testimony or a talk?)

From the Bulletin

"The shapes of the idols may have changed since the days of Moses, but the basic principle — allegiance to God above all else — is still the commandment."

President Spencer W. Kimball wrote: "There are unfortunately millions today who prostrate themselves before images of gold and silver and wood and stone and clay. But the idolatry we are most concerned with here is the conscious worshipping of still other gods. Some are of metal and plush and chrome, of wood and stone and fabrics. They are not in the image of God or of man, but are developed to give man comfort and enjoyment, to satisfy his wants, ambitions, passions and desires. Some are in no physical form at all, bur are intangible." Brother Dennis Largey, "Refusing to Worship Today's Graven Images," Ensign, February 1994, 9.