Friday, January 24, 2014

Post 47y: "Bind Up Their Wounds" is the Title of the October 2013 General Conference Address of President Henry B. Eyring, the First Counselor to the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will Feature that Speech in this Blog Post of mine. He speaks from much Personal Experience Throughout His Entire Life, about the Great Blessings Received While Serving Others!

The Following Blog Description Explains Why My Blog is named: "Four Books of Scripture Testify of Jesus Christ!


Jesus the Christ -by Del Parson

WELCOME, NEW AND REGULAR 
VIEWERS OF THIS BLOG: In this 
and in every additional post of this blog 
you will be led on a carefully and 
prayerfully planned exciting and inspiring 
journey as you prepare by means of a 
guided study of the four sacred books of 
scripture I am shown holding above.  
Devoted Study of them will assist you in 
becoming more righteously happy now 
and more fully prepared for eventual 
After-Mortality Eternal Endeavors on 
your part, along with your loved ones and 
countless other mortals who are seeking 
to qualify as our Heavenly Father's worthy
children. 

Those enabling Books of Scripture were brought about through the love and 
wisdom of the Heavenly Father of our 
Immortal Spirits which now inhabit our mortal bodies; and were a key part 
of the Restoration of the Gospel, 
and of the establishment of The Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
through the Prophet Joseph Smith early 
in the Nineteenth Century. 

Leading out in all of this, was 
of course, 
Our Heavenly Father's Only Begotten
who is our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer,
Jesus Christ (who initially was our 
eldest spirit brother and is the only one 
of us our Heavenly Father will have ever sired into mortality)

Jesus accomplished His Infinite Atonement, the Ultimate Mortal 
Sacrifice, along with His infallibly 
witnessed Resurrection. He is our 
Redeemer and Savior who opened 
the way for each of us to learn with 
certainty through those four books
of scripture, and through the 
inspired teachings of His prophets, seers and revelators of our day 
and those authorized by them
that some time after our mortal 
deaths, because of His Atonement 
and Resurrection, and depending 
on the level of individual 
righteousness to which we each 
attain, through His grace, we can 
eventually experience Eternal Life 
in our own Resurrected Bodies, 
which in the case of those who fully 
heeded all of His scriptural guidance 
and the guidance of His authorized 
living servants, there will be full 
possession of Godly capabilities! 

J. Neil Birch

To Access This Blog's Index, Please Scroll Down To the Fifth 
Paragraph From the End of This Post! For Those of You Who May 
Be In a Hurry to Access it, Here it is now: Neil Birch's Blog Index.

****

TODAY'S THEME:

I, J. Neil Birch, Author of this Blog Post as you have 
been informed in my Introduction, have chosen this 
week to feature an October 2013 General Conference 
talk given by President Henry B. Eyring, First Counse-
lor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ 
of Latter-day Saints in Which He Speaks on the Subject of:
"Bind Up Their Wounds." 
First, I desire that you learn about President 
Eyring's background: http://www.lds.org/church/
leader/henry-b-eyring

Now I invite you to listen to the recording of President
Eyring's Talk:  

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/bind-up-their-wounds?lang=eng

You are next invited to thoughtfully and prayerfully read through 
the printed version of Elder Holland's talk in which you will come 
across,  each of  the three referencnotes he has inserted through
which he,  (with some additional assistance from this blogger 
through the means of the Internet which facilitates this and all blogs, 
along with a very special LDS video) and gives us inspired guidance:

Bind Up Their 

Wounds

First Counselor in the First Presidency

Henry B. Eyring
I pray that we may prepare 
ourselves to give whatever 
priesthood service the Lord 
may set before us on our 
mortal journey.

All of us are blessed with responsibility for others.
To hold the priesthood of God is to be held responsible
by God for the eternal lives of His children. That is real,
that is wonderful, and at times that can feel
overwhelming.
There are elders quorum presidents listening tonight
who know what I mean. Here is what happened to one
of you. It has likely happened to many of you—and
more than once. The details may vary, but the
situation is the same.
An elder you do not know well asked for your help. 
He had just found out that he had to move his wife 
and young baby boy today from the apartment 
where they have been living to another one nearby.

He and his wife had already asked a friend if they 
could borrow a truck for the day to move their 
household and personal belongings. 

The friend loaned them the truck.The young father 
began to load all they owned into the truck, but in the 
first few minutes, he hurt his back. The friend who 
loaned the truck was too busy to help. The young 
father felt desperate. He thought of you, his elders 
quorum president.

By the time he asked for help, it was early afternoon.
It was the day of an evening Church meeting. You had
already promised to help your wife with household
projects that day. Your children had asked you to do
something with them, but you hadn't gotten to it yet.

You also knew that the members of your quorum,
particularly the most faithful, the ones you usually
called on to help, were likely to be in the same time
bind that you were in. The Lord knew you would
have such days when He called you to this position,
so He gave you a story to encourage you. It is a
parable for overloaded priesthood holders.

We sometimes call it the story of the good Samaritan.
But it is really the story for a great priesthood bearer
in these busy, difficult last days.

The story is a perfect fit for the overtaxed priesthood
servant. Just remember that you are the Samaritan
and not the priest or the Levite who passed by the
wounded man.
You may not have thought of that story when you
faced such challenges. But I pray you will when such
days  come again, as they surely will.
We are not told in the scriptures why the Samaritan
was traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.
It is not likely that he was taking a stroll alone since
he must have known that robbers waited for the
unwary. He was on a serious journey, and as was
customary, he had with him a beast of burden as well
as oil and wine.

In the Lord’s words the Samaritan, when he saw the
wounded man, stopped because “he had compassion.”
More than only feeling compassion, he acted. Always
remember the specifics of the account: 1
The Good Samaritan -by Walter Rane














1  Luke 10:33-35   And [he] went to him, and bound 
up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him 
on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took 
care of him.
“And on the morrow when he departed, he took out 
two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto 
him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest 
more, when I come again, I will repay thee.”

Now, I Neil Birch, the blogger, insert at this 
point in this engaging and inspiring talk an LDS 
video (from a series of videos entitled: "Life of Jesus 
Christ Bible Videos" depicting this scriptural event: 

(In this video version of this event no one was 
accompanying the Samaritan although there could 
have been in actuality as Elder Eyring seemed to
indicate was a possibility, in his General Conference talk!)
http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/parable-of-the
-good-samaritan?lang=eng

Now we return to Elder Eyring's talk:

You and the priesthood bearers you are called to lead
can have at least three assurances. First, the Lord will
give you, if you ask, the feelings of compassion He feels
for those in need. Second, He will provide others, like
the innkeeper, to join with you in your service. And
third, the Lord, like the good Samaritan, will more than
recompense all who join in giving help to those in need.
You quorum presidents likely have acted on those
assurances more than once. You asked others of the
Lord’s priesthood to help, with confidence that they
would respond with compassion. You were not afraid
to ask those who have responded most often in the past
because you knew that they feel compassion easily.
You asked them, knowing that in the past they have felt
the Lord’s generosity when they chose to help. You
asked some already heavily burdened, knowing that
the greater the sacrifice, the greater the compensation
they will receive from the Lord. Those who have helped
in the past have felt the overflowing gratitude of the
Savior.

You may well have been inspired not to ask someone to
help load and then unload that truck. As a leader you
know your quorum members and their families well.

The Lord knows them perfectly.
He knows whose wife was near the breaking point
because her husband was unable to find time to do what
she needed done to care for her needs. He knows which
children would be blessed by seeing their father go one
more time to help others or if the children needed the
feeling that they matter to their father enough for him
to spend time with them that day. But He also knows
who needs the invitation to serve but might not appear
to be a likely or willing candidate.
You cannot know all your quorum members perfectly
well, but God does. So, as you have done so many times,
you prayed to know whom to ask to help serve others.
The Lord knows who will be blessed by being asked to
help and whose family will be blessed by not being asked.
That is the revelation you can expect to come to you as
you lead in the priesthood.
I saw that happen when I was a young man. I was 
the first assistant in a priests quorum. The bishop 
called me one day at my home. He said that he 
wanted me to go with him to visit a widow in great 
need. He said he needed me.

As I waited for him to pick me up at my home, I was
troubled. I knew the bishop had strong and wise
counselors. One was a famous judge. The other ran a
large company and would later become a General
Authority. The bishop himself would someday serve
as a General Authority. Why was the bishop saying
to an inexperienced priest, “I need your help”?

Well, I know better now what he might have said to
me: “The Lord needs to bless you.” At the home of the
widow, I saw him, to my amazement, tell the woman
that she could get no help from the Church until she
filled out the budget form he had left with her earlier.
On the way home, as he saw how shocked I was, he
chuckled at my surprise and said, “Hal, when she gets
control of her spending, she will be able to help others.”

On another occasion my bishop took me with him to
the home of alcoholic parents who sent two frightened
little girls to meet us at the door. After he visited with
the two little girls, we turned away and he said to me,
“We can’t change the tragedy in their lives yet, but they
can feel that the Lord loves them.”

On another evening he took me to the home of a man who
had'n’t come to church in years. The bishop told him how
much he loved him and how much the ward needed him.
It did'n’t seem to have much effect on the man. But that
time, and every time the bishop took me with him, it had
a great effect on me.

There is no way that I can find out whether the bishop
prayed to know which priest would be blessed by going
with him on those visits. He may well have taken other
priests with him many times. But the Lord knew  I would
someday be a bishop inviting those whose faith had grown
cold to come back to the warmth of the gospel. The Lord
knew I would someday be charged with the priesthood
responsibility for hundreds and even thousands of
Heavenly Father’s children who were in desperate
temporal need.
You young men cannot know what acts of priesthood
service the Lord is preparing you to give. But the
greater challenge for every priesthood holder is to give
spiritual help. All of us have that charge. It comes with
being a member of a quorum. It comes with being a
member of a family. If the faith of anyone in your quorum
or your family is attacked by Satan, you will feel
compassion. Much like the service and mercy given by
the Samaritan, you will also minister to them with healing
balm for their wounds in their time of need.
In your service as a full-time missionary, you will go to
thousands of people in great spiritual need. Many, until
you teach them, will not even know that they have spiritual
wounds that, left untreated, will bring endless misery.
You will go on the Lord’s errand to rescue them. Only the
Lord can bind up their spiritual wounds as they accept the
ordinances that lead to eternal life.
As a quorum member, as a home teacher, and as a 
missionary, you cannot help people repair spiritual damage 
unless your own faith is vibrant. That means far more than 
reading the scriptures regularly and praying over them. 
The prayer in the moment and quick glances in the scriptures 
are not preparation enough. The reassurance of what you will 
need comes with this counsel from the 84th section of the 
2
Doctrine and Covenants: 84: 85 Neither take ye thought  
beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds 
continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the 
very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man.

That promise can be claimed only if we “treasure up” the 
words of life and do it continually. The treasuring part of
that scripture has meant for me a matter of feeling
something about the words. For instance, when I have
gone to try to help someone wavering in his or her faith
about the Prophet Joseph Smith’s divine calling, feelings
 come back to me.
That promise can be claimed only if we "treasure up"
the words It is not only the words from the Book of 
Mormon. It is a feeling of assurance of truth that comes
whenever I read even a few lines from the Book of
Mormon. I cannot promise that it will come to every
person infected with doubt about the Prophet Joseph
or the Book of Mormon. But I know Joseph Smith is
the Prophet of the Restoration. I know that the Book
 of Mormon is the word of God because I have
treasured it.
I know from experience that you can get the assurance
of truth from the Spirit because it has come to me. You
and I must have that assurance before the Lord puts us
in the way of a traveler we love who has been wounded
by the enemies of truth.
There is another preparation we must make. It is a
human characteristic to become hardened to the
pains of others. That is one of the reasons why the
Savior went to such lengths to tell of His Atonement
and of His taking upon Himself the pains and sorrows
of all of our Heavenly Father’s children that He might
know how to succor them.
Even the best of Heavenly Father’s mortal priesthood
holders do not rise to that standard of compassion
easily. Our human tendency is to be impatient with
the person who cannot see the truth that is so plain
to us. We must be careful that our impatience is not
interpreted as condemnation or rejection.
As we prepare to give succor for the Lord as His
priesthood servants, there is a scripture to guide us.
It contains a gift we will need for our journey,
wherever the Lord will send us. The good Samaritan
had that gift. We will need it, and the Lord has told us
how we can find it:
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not
charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth.
Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest
of all, for all things must fail—“But charity is the pure
love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is
 found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well
with him.
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the
Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may
be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed
upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus 
Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that
when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope;
that we may be purified even as he is pure.”3
3
Moroni 7:46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if 
ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never 
faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the 
greatest of all, for all things must fail—

 47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it 
endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed 
of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

 48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto 
the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may 
be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed 
upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus 
Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that 
when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we 
shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; 
that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

I pray that we may prepare ourselves to give
whatever priesthood service the Lord may set
before us on our mortal journey. In the sacred
name of Jesus Christ, amen.


NOTES 



  1. _______________________________
  2. As I most often do at the end of each blog 
  3. post, I now  suggest a hymn which I feel
  4. fits appropriately the subject of the post  
  5. studied: "A Poor Wayfaring Man of 
  6. Grief" Page 29 in the LDS Hymn Book
  7. http://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/a-
  8. poor-wayfaring-man-of-grief?lang=eng
  9. Please consider inviting others who may be 
  10. available to sing with you. Live Music is 
  11. provided! All seven verses are recommended!
  12. ____________



  13. DISCLAIMER This website is not owned by or affiliated with the Church 
    Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the Mormon or LDS 
    Church). The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the position 
    of the Church.
    ____________

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    Next To a Little Boy please scroll down to the entry entitled; 
    Priesthood Service. It features a talk of  Henry B. Eyring, First 
    Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ 
    of Latter-day Saints -Post 47y.
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    I deeply appreciate your readership and hope you found
    very beneficial, that which was presented to you in this 
    blog post.

    If you have any questions about what you have read or 
    viewed in this post or in any previous posts of mine, 
    or if you even have a curiosity about the Church of Jesus 
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    Neil Birch


































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