Previous post preamble; teachings from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s book “Trusting Jesus”. . .
“In that little story is something of danger in our day. It is that in our contemporary success and sophistication we, too, may walk away from the vitally crucial bread of eternal life; we may actually choose to be spiritually malnourished, willfully indulging in a kind of spiritual anorexia. Like those childish Galileans of old, we may turn up our noses when divine sustenance is placed before us. Of course the tragedy then as now is that one day, as the Lord Himself has said, “In an hour when ye think not the summer shall be past, and the harvest ended,” and we will find our “souls [are] not saved” (Jeremiah 8:20, Doctrine and Covenants 45:2). ~Jeffrey R. Holland, Trusting Jesus (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2003), 9-11
continuing. . .”I have wondered if someone reading this might feel he or she or those they love are too caught up in the “thick of these things,” are hungering for something more substantial and asking with the otherwise successful young man of the scriptures, “What lack I yet?” (Matthew 19:20). I have wondered if someone reading this might be wandering “from sea to sea,” running to a fro” as the prophet Amos said (Amos 8:12), wearied by the pace of life in the fast lane or in trying to keep up with the Joneses refinance. I have wondered if any have picked up this book hoping to find an answer to a deeply personal problem or to have some light cast on the most serious questions of their heart. Such problems or question often deal with our marriages, our families, our friends, our health, our peace—or the conspicuous lack of such cherished possessions.
It is to those who so hunger that I address these thoughts. Wherever you live, and at whatever point in age or experience you find yourself, I declare that God has through His Only Begotten Son lifted the famine of which Amos spoke. I testify that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life and a Well of Living Water springing up unto eternal life. I declare to those who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and especially to those who are not, that our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Firstborn Son did appear to the boy prophet Joseph Smith and restored light and life, hope and direction, to a wandering world, a world filled with those who wonder, “Where is hope? Where is peace? What path should I follow? Which way should I go?”
Regardless of past paths taken of not taken, we wish to offer you “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). We invite you to join in the adventure of the earliest disciples of Christ who also yearned for the bread of life—those who did not go back but who came to Him, stayed with Him, and recognized that for safety and salvation there was no other way to whom they could ever go (see John 6:68).
. . . . It seems that the essence of our mortal journey and the answers to the most significant lessons in life are distilled down to these very brief elements in the opening scenes of the Savior’s earthly ministry. One element is the question put to every one of us on this earth: “What seek ye? What do yo want?”‘ The second is His response to our answer, whatever that answer is. Whoever we are and whatever we reply, His response is always the same: “Come,” He says lovingly. “Come, follow me.” Wherever you are going, first come and see what I do, see where and how I spend my time. Learn of me, walk with me, talk with me, believe. Listen to me pray. In turn you will find answers to your own prayers. God will bring rest to your souls. Come, follow me. ~Elder Jeffrey R. Holland . . . . is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint (the above from his book, Trusting Jesus, (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2003), 11-13.
To see the first part of this post, click on the link at the top.
