I was reading an LDS Living magazine an article which I will link here about the church handbook updates. The article went on to list new additions and changes and what caught my eye was this change:
An added section titled “Seeking Information from Reliable Sources” counsels Latter-day Saints to be wise in their pursuit of truth. “Seek out and share only credible, reliable, and factual sources of information,” the text says. “Avoid sources that are speculative or founded on rumor. The guidance of the Holy Ghost, along with careful study, can help members discern between truth and error (see Doctrine and Covenants 11:12; 45:57). In matters of doctrine and Church policy, the authoritative sources are the scriptures, the teachings of the living prophets, and the General Handbook.” (emphasis is theirs, not mine)
Two things broke my heart when reading that. First, the General Handbook has been placed on equal footing with scripture (see the last sentence). There is no mention of consulting the Lord and seeking His spirit to obtain your answer. I think the argument could be made that, "we have living prophets and they wrote the handbook and prophets write scripture so, there you go." I have multiple concerns with that argument so I ask you, does it read like divine scripture to you? To me, it reads more like Exodus 21. Exodus 21 comes after Exodus 20 where Moses invites the children of Israel up the holy mount to meet their God face to face.
Remember their response?
"And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." (v.19)
They wanted a prophet, not God Himself, so they got what they desired. God is good - He truly gives you the desire of your heart.
If you pay attention to Exodus 20 and Israels rejection of an intimate relationship with God...the chapters following Exodus chapter 20 get gnarly....rules that make my head quite perplexed and sometimes shocked. As I've pondered on those chapters where God writes an ancient handbook of instructions I came to the conclusion that they didn't want God, they wanted what they wanted. "Hey Moses, what about if a man steals an ox, or a sheep, and like - they kill it, or sell it...what rules do we have? Or like, if a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten and shall put in his beast, and like - you know, he feeds in another man's field, how should we handle that one? Or like, what do we do if a man shall deliver unto his neighbor money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man's house - what do you say we do?" You get the gist.
Like the current handbook of instruction, if we aren't willing to engage with the Lord directly, then we must be commanded in all things. Are we so distant from the Lord that rulebooks and guidelines are considered equal to Holy Scripture with no mention of Seeking the Lord and His Righteousness? We are the chosen people, right? We know the way to salvation? Yet, we are modern day children of Israel saying, "President Nelson, if I want to take a picture in the chapel after sacrament meeting, what should I do? If I feel prejudice towards someone, is that okay with the church? How should I dress and groom myself? Can I be cremated and still be resurrected?" You get the gist.
Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. (Jeremiah 17:5)
President Joseph Smith read the 14th chapter of Ezekiel–said the Lord had declared by the Prophet, that the people should each one stand for himself, and depend on no man or men in that state of corruption of the Jewish church–that righteous persons could only deliver their own souls–applied it to the present state of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints–said if the people departed from the Lord, they must fall–that they were depending on the Prophet, hence were darkened in their minds…”The second thing that is heartbreaking is the blindness and hardheartedness and refusal of members to not only see where we are at, but to see it as a problem at all. If we are at the point where we need rules, rules, and more rules, we are so far strayed from the spirit we claim to be in possession of. From the words of the hymn, 'Let the Holy Spirit Guide':
TPJS p.237
9 And their meetings were conducted by the church after the manner of the workings of the Spirit, and by the power of the Holy Ghost; for as the power of the Holy Ghost led them whether to preach, or to exhort, or to pray, or to supplicate, or to sing, even so it was done.
One of my favorite Book of Mormon moments is in Mosiah 26 when King Mosiah gives Alma authority over the church. In this chapter, the children of the people who listened to King Benjamin were too young to understand the words of King Benjamin and so they grew up not believing in Christ and were causing many to commit sin. Alma was deeply troubled. He didn't know what they had done personally but many witnesses came testified against them.
Alma had a conundrum. He was, "troubled in his spirit." And so what did he do? He went to King Mosiah and essentially said, "Help! You take this one." And King Mosiah, being a great leader said, "Behold, I judge them not; therefore I deliver them into thy hands to be judged."
Alma is stressed out, troubled to the max. He has the weight of grievous sins of the church members on his mind and heart. Things in the church were going so well since King Benjamin died. This was all too much. And Alma had been a sinner himself at one time in King Noah's court. How can he judge them. Alma's relief and answer could only come from one source and it wasn't a handbook of instruction on do's and don'ts and how to's...
13 And now the spirit of Alma was again troubled; and he went and inquired of the Lord what he should do concerning this matter, for he feared that he should do wrong in the sight of God.D&C 58: 26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.
“It is now common practice in most evangelical churches to offer the people, especially the young people, a maximum of entertainment and a minimum of serious instruction. It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God. One can only conclude that God's professed children are bored with Him, for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games and refreshments.”
― A.W. Tozer, Man: The Dwelling Place of God
“I want the presence of God Himself, or I don't want anything at all to do with religion... I want all that God has or I don't want any.”
― A.W. Tozer
“The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has not done deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.”
― A.W. Tozer
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" - Heb. 10:19Among the famous sayings of the Church fathers none is better known than Augustine's, "Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee."
I love Thee so, I know not how My transports to control; Thy love is like a burning fire Within my very soul.I have risked the tedium of quotation that I might show by pointed example what I have set out to say, that God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterious and deep as that nature is. Such worship as Faber knew (and he is but one of a great company which no man can number) can never come from a mere doctrinal knowledge of God. Hearts that are "fit to break" with love for the Godhead are those who have been in the Presence and have looked with opened eye upon the majesty of Deity. Men of the breaking hearts had a quality about them not known to or understood by common men. They habitually spoke with spiritual authority. They had been in the Presence of God and they reported what they saw there. They were prophets, riot scribes, for the scribe tells us what he has read, and the prophet tells what he has seen.
Lord, how excellent are Thy ways, and how devious and dark are the ways of man. Show us how to die, that we may rise again to newness of life. Rend the veil of our self-life from the top down as Thou didst rend the veil of the Temple. We would draw near in full assurance o f faith. W e would dwell with Thee in daily experience here on this earth so that we may be accustomed to the glory when we enter T by heaven to dwell with Thee there. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Speak
by
Bethany Worship
Ruth here: I recently watched a YouTube video of a young man who died and went to heaven. I wasn't interested in watching it but I had a couple hours of stacking wood to do and since it kept appearing in my YouTube feed, I clicked on it and listened. I'm glad I did. What I got from it was vital for me. The young man said that in God's presence you only desired to do His will. You awaited His every command. THAT is what this life is about. You are given free will, we all are. And we sure do use it to it's fullest. But it's time to put off the prodigal and stand at the Throne...seeking His Will in all things.
If interested, I will attach a link to that man's experience. I want to give a disclaimer - I don't think anyone is an expert on heaven. I listened to his experience. It was accurate and real to him and it taught me things because I left out judgment.
Link here:
Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him; imperfect it may be, but a true work nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow.
We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. "No man can come to me," said our Lord, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him," and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: "Thy right hand upholdeth me."
The doctrine of justification by faith -- a Biblical truth -- has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be "received" without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is "saved," but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with little.
God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.
You and I are in little (our sins excepted) what God is in large. Being made in His image we have within us the capacity to know Him. In our sins we lack only the power. The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart's happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead. That is where we begin, I say, but where we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the awful and mysterious depths of the Triune God neither limit nor end.
To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be instantly understood by every worshipping soul:
Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking. Moses used the fact that he knew God as an argument for knowing Him better. "Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight"; and from there he rose to make the daring request, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." God was frankly pleased by this display of ardor, and the next day called Moses into the mount, and there in solemn procession made all His glory pass before him.
David's life was a torrent of spiritual desire, and his psalms ring with the cry of the seeker and the glad shout of the finder. Paul confessed the mainspring of his life to be his burning desire after Christ. "That I may know Him," was the goal of his heart, and to this he sacrificed everything. "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may win Christ."
Hymnody is sweet with the longing after God. "His track I see and I'll pursue," sang our fathers only a short generation ago, but that song is heard no more in the great congregation. How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Thus the whole testimony of the worshipping, seeking, singing Church on that subject is crisply set aside. The experiential heart-theology of a grand army of fragrant saints is rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture which would certainly have sounded strange to an Augustine, a Rutherford or a Brainerd.
In the midst of this great chill there are some, I rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with shallow logic. They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, "O God, show me thy glory." They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.
I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.
Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.
If we would find God amid all the religious externals we must first determine to find Him, and then proceed in the way of simplicity. Now as always God discovers Himself to "babes" and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond.
When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other than God Himself. The evil habit of seeking God-and effectively prevents us from finding God in full revelation. In the "and" lies our great woe. If we omit the "and" we shall soon find God, and in Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly longing.
We need not fear that in seeking God only we may narrow our lives or restrict the motions of our expanding hearts. The opposite is true. We can well afford to make God our All, to concentrate, to sacrifice the many for the One.
When the Lord divided Canaan among the tribes of Israel Levi received no share of the land. God said to him simply, "I am thy part and thine inheritance," and by those words made him richer than all his brethren, richer than all the kings and rajas who have ever lived in the world. And there is a spiritual principle here, a principle still valid for every priest of the Most High God.
The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever.
O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
I'd Rather Have Jesus
by
Selah
Today one of our dearest friends, and as only God could orchestrate - our blood relative, stopped by. He is one of the most humble, Christlike people we know. His love of the Lord is all you see when you talk to him. Before he left, he encouraged me to keep writing and so today I wanted to post a writing of one of my favorite authors, A.W. Tozer.
In a world where we skim read news articles and listen to Youtube and Audiobooks at x1.5 speed, please slow down and don't read it until you can drink in his words...they pierce the soul as he gets right to the heart of the matter.
The Pursuit of God
In this hour of all-but-universal darkness one cheering gleam appears: within the fold of conservative Christianity there are to be found increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. They are eager for spiritual realities and will not be put off with words, nor will they be content with correct "interpretations" of truth. They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water.
This is the only real harbinger of revival which I have been able to detect anywhere on the religious horizon. It may be the cloud the size of a man's hand for which a few saints here and there have been looking. It can result in a resurrection of life for many souls and a recapture of that radiant wonder which should[Pg 8] accompany faith in Christ, that wonder which has all but fled the Church of God in our day.
But this hunger must be recognized by our religious leaders. Current evangelicalism has (to change the figure) laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel. But God be thanked that there are a few who care. They are those who, while they love the altar and delight in the sacrifice, are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the continued absence of fire. They desire God above all. They are athirst to taste for themselves the "piercing sweetness" of the love of Christ about Whom all the holy prophets did write and the psalmists did sing.
There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They minister constantly to believers who feel within their breasts a longing which their teaching simply does not satisfy.
I trust I speak in charity, but the lack in our pulpits is real. Milton's terrible sentence applies to our day as accurately as it did to his: "The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed." It is a solemn thing,[Pg 9] and no small scandal in the Kingdom, to see God's children starving while actually seated at the Father's table. The truth of Wesley's words is established before our eyes: "Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is a proof of this."
Thanks to our splendid Bible societies and to other effective agencies for the dissemination of the Word, there are today many millions of people who hold "right opinions," probably more than ever before in the history of the Church. Yet I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. To great sections of the Church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the "program." This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us.
Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless[Pg 10] and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.
This book is a modest attempt to aid God's hungry children so to find Him. Nothing here is new except in the sense that it is a discovery which my own heart has made of spiritual realities most delightful and wonderful to me. Others before me have gone much farther into these holy mysteries than I have done, but if my fire is not large it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame.
Book: The Pursuit of God
Author:
A. W. Tozer
Chicago, Ill.
June 16, 1948
Different
by
Micah Tyler
I was having a soul piercing conversation with my best friend last week. The writing I will post below was written by her at my request because I never want to forget the things she was teaching me. I know it will be of value to every reader because what she wrote was pure revelation from the Lord.
Spiritual Gifts and Blessings
Nearly ten years ago I listened in amazement as a young woman, only seventeen, described what it meant to her to be “Highly favored of the Lord.” She was an incredible soccer player who played the forward, goal shooting position for her High School soccer team. It came in a burst of enlightenment one day while she was practicing, that she was thankful for both of her legs, their strength, developed agility, and their ability to follow through quickly the commands of her mind. But, when she needed to make a goal, she “favored” her right leg. She trusted that leg to accomplish her literal and figurative goal. It made her think about how she wanted to be favored by the Lord, and be trusted to follow through with whatever His goal may be. That has stuck in my mind and I want to hug her every time I remember that and the way her inspiration has expounded in my mind as well.
Later, while serving as our ward Relief Society president, I had the challenge of watching over and caring for nearly 160 women and their families. It was a daunting and overwhelming task. I need God and my Savior constantly to hold me up. I created anxiety for myself by thinking that a good president would wander the neighborhood with a wagon of lasagna’s and cleaning supplies to be able to help anyone in need at a moment's notice. I made myself sick, but what I was taught by the Master Teacher was simple. It came as a pure and peaceful revelation that I needed to, “Send Rebecca.” This situation needed a Laura, or a Marie, or a Jessica. These 160 women didn’t need me 24/7, they needed the gift, the blessing, and sometimes the powerful weapon the Lord sent in the form of their neighbor and friend. I found myself appreciating on a whole other level the spiritual gifts these beautiful women had been given. I could rely on this person to help with kids, this person to make a meal, or this person to sit and merely abide with someone in need. These were not felt to be burdens to these women because it was what felt natural and easy to them to give. Expressed as a flowing out of the gift they had received as a gift from God.
From my personal experiences and from listening to ladies I love, I realized that we often are dissatisfied with what we have been given and what it is we give. A powerful teacher wishes they were softer and gentler. The quiet ministering angel that softly cares for a sick friend feels bad that they aren’t able to speak truth with the fire someone else has. What I have been thankful to learn in that each person, with their unique gift, is powerful. It is needed. They are Highly Favored. To imitate another’s gift, or berate ourselves for the lack we have, has to be a sin because of the sickness we bring upon our own souls. It isn’t healthy or helpful. What is life changing is to ask God to show us what gift He has given us. “What is it you love about me?” “What is the gift you have given me to accomplish my work?”
In the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy visit Narnia. Mr. Tumnus, the faun Lucy befriends, tells her that since the White Witch took control “it has been winter but never Christmas.” Cold without the warmth Christmas or Christ, brings. As the White Witches power begins to wane, and Aslan is on the move, the winter starts to thaw and for the first time in memory Father Christmas comes and gives the kids true gifts they will need for the upcoming battle. They were not given toys but tools. He gives Peter a Sword, named Rhindon and a shield. Susan received a bow and quiver of arrows, and a horn that is later heard in the battle against the witch. Edmund wasn’t there and missed the gift that was given then, but when he returns doesn't miss out on the battle or the crowns with their new titles in the throne room. Little Lucy receives a small dagger and a “Magical healing cordial”. I want to be “Peter the Magnificent” in the story! He is brave and true and fights valiantly in the battle against the witch. Who I resemble more in real life is Lucy. Lucy watches the battle from the hill tensley. She isn’t an active participant in the battle. I don’t remember her killing anyone or heroically sweeping in and saving one of her loved ones with warfare brilliance. Instead, as the battle fades she goes to work helping everyone she can with her healing elixir. She is more like a nurse who is just as needed in a battle, rather than the general or soldiers. Nothing lacking and equal courage and strength needed for each. The tasks are different, the goals are different, the people are different, so it is necessary the Gifts are also different.
What are your gifts? What strengths have you been given that aid the Body of Christ and even the Battle of or for Christ? Whatever it is, it is needed. It is favored, you are favored to do the work that suits your spirit. Admire other gifts and other people, but don’t allow it to take away from yours, but allow it to be mutually enriching. Don’t look down on anyones’ gifts, that points to lack of knowledge or understanding. Don’t dilute or weaken your own gift by dismissing it as lame or unworthy. Whatever your gift is, wield it now in practice. Strengthen it with use and gratitude.
I believe that we will all be called upon when we are needed to fulfill whatever it is we do best because of what The Giver of all Good Gifts, has given us. Your name will be called when that weapon is needed by the Great General to accomplish His work. Great or small, flashy or quiet, each is beautiful and essential to Him that created you and your gift.
You Are My All in All
by
David Phelps
"The giving of the white stone with the new name is the communication of what God things about the man, to the man. The true name is one that expresses the character, the nature, the being, the meaning of the person who bears it. It is the man's own symbol, his soul's picture in a word, the sign which belongs to him and no one else."
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch....you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow. (Isaiah 62:1-2)
In the book of Ephesians, Paul wrote, "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name" (Eph. 3:14-15). God has called you by name. Your name. "After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun" (Rom. 8:30 MSG).
You'll notice that in scripture, when a person encounters God, they are often given a new name, handed a parcel of heaven, and told what is written on their white stone. This isn't an event that happens in the eternities, it is a gift awaiting you now...the kingdom of God is NOW (Luke 17:21)! It is the manifestation of the soul's journey from the false self and the fig leaves we've hidden behind, to the true self. A person's name is the soul's picture of who and what they are intended to become. And the process of initiation is the journey a person must take with God if they are to become their true name. Receiving your new name from the Lord won't be obtained via a volunteer who gives the same name en masse through a ritual or ordinance. Rituals and ordinances are given by God for one purpose: to point the recipient to the real thing which awaits the faithful.
God is constantly inviting us to, like Adam and Eve, come out from hiding behind the false self and begin the ever-deeper journey of knowing and becoming who we were meant to be. At the center of God's saving work, His restoration work, is a restoring of our identity, our name. He is whispering to us the answer to the soul's deepest question: Who am I?
Isaiah 56:5 To them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial, and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.
Isaiah 62:2 The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; and you will be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will designate.
Revelation 3:12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my new name.
"Who Am I?"
by
Casting Crowns
*Many of the thoughts in this post come from the book: Becoming a King by Morgan Snyder. This book is well worth the read.
