Saturday, October 17, 2015

144,000 -- Fulness of the Priesthood


Joseph Smith
            “At this time Joseph Smith was not willing to discuss the temple ordinances of conferral of the fulness of the priesthood, of marriage for time and eternity, or of sealing children to parents; nevertheless, he indicated that the conferral of the fulness of the priesthood was a ‘sealing…on top of the head’, of which the phrase ‘sealed in their foreheads’ was symbolic. Furthermore, Joseph Smith here taught that it was through the ordinance of conferral of the fulness of the priesthood that men could be qualified to be a part of the special missionary force of the last days which would number 144,000 high priests (D&C 77:8-11, 14). When Cornelius P. Lott and his wife received these ordinances on 4 February 1844, the Prophet indicated that ‘the selection of the persons to form that number had already commenced.’ He had already conferred these blessings on at least 17 men” (History of the Church, 6:196 and Wilford Woodruff Diary, under date given) (The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph, compiled and edited by Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, 297).


I Am a Child of God --Modified for Fallen Man


I am a child of God
(Adapted from Paul Sutorius by H. Curtis Wright)

I am a child of God.
That’s only half the view:
If I don’t shed the natural man
I’m sunk, and so are you.

Lead me, guide me, reconcile me,
Chasten me on earth:
Help me overcome the Fall;
Grant me the second birth.

I am a child of God.
That doesn’t clear the slate:
I’m carnal, sensual, devilish in
A lost and fallen state.

Save me, change me, rearrange me,
Gracious God above:
Cleave unto my broken heart;
Bestow redeeming love.

I am a child of God.
Yet I’ve become His child
Through faith in His Beloved Son’s
Redemption undefiled.

Lead me, guide me, justify me,
Cleanse me, make me pure;

Help me love as thou hast loved,
Or I cannot endure.