I was Blind and Now I See!

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I was Blind and Now I See!

• www.kevinhinckley.com

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Headlines-and comments

• CNN--Scientists Lake Superior Warming
  Rapidly
• Warmer? In the Spring? No Way!
• Oregonian State Police Looking for New
  Troopers
• Quick, start with the doughnut shop!
• The Kansas City Star Police Chief Asks Public
  for Tips
• Wouldnt it be easier to just give him a higher
  salary?
• Los Angeles Times Researchers have finally
  solved one of the great canine mysteries Why are
  small dogs small?
• Uh, cuz if they werent, theyd be big dogs?
• CNN Bird dies, Cheney plane unharmed
• Not content with shooting lawyers, he also hates
  wildlife as well
•  

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Question

• By earthly standards, does our membership in
  the church come at a price?

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John 9

• And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was
  blind from his birth.
• When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground,
  and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the
  eyes of the blind man with the clay,
• And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of
  Siloam,He went his way therefore, and washed,
  and came seeing.
• The neighbours said, Is not this he that sat
  and begged?
• Some said, This is he others said, He is like
  him but he said, I am he.
• Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes
  opened?
• He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus
  made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto
  me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash and I
  went and washed, and I received sight.
• They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime
  was blind.
• Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he
  had received his sight. He said unto them, He put
  clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see.
• Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is
  not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath
  day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner
  do such miracles? And there was a division among
  them.
• They say unto the blind man again, What sayest
  thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He
  said, He is a prophet.

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John 9 Continued

• Then again they said unto him, Give God the
  praise we know that this man is a sinner.
• He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or
  no, I know not one thing I know, that, whereas I
  was blind, now I see.
• Then said they to him again, What did he to thee?
  how opened he thine eyes?
• He answered them, I have told you already, and ye
  did not hear wherefore would ye hear it again?
  will ye also be his disciples?
• Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his
  disciple but we are Moses' disciples.
• The man answered and said unto them, Why herein
  is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from
  whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
• Now we know that God heareth not sinners but if
  any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his
  will, him he heareth.
• Since the world began was it not heard that any
  man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.
• If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
• They answered and said unto him, Thou wast
  altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us?
  And they cast him out. (excommunicated him)

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Question

• Even as members of the Church, can we also be
  blind?
• How do we help others see?
• Can children learn the church without knowing
  light and truth? Can they be lifelong members
  and still be blind?

DC 9340 I have commanded you to bring up your
children in light (no blindness) and truth
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Elder Holland

• When crisis comes in our livesand they
  willthe philosophies of men interlaced with
  a few scriptures and poems just wont do.
• Are we really nurturing those we teach in a
  way that will sustain them when the stresses of
  life appear?
• Or are we giving them a kind of theological
  Twinkiespiritually empty calories? President
  John Taylor called such teaching fried froth,
  the kind of thing you could eat all day and yet
  finish feeling totally unsatisfied. (A Teacher
  Come from God, Ensign, May 1998, 27)

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Lectures on Faith

• We have now clearly set forth how it was,
  that God became an object of faithand we
  have seen that it was human testimony, and
  human testimony only, that excited this
  inquiry
• It was the credence they gave to the testimony of
  their fathers, this testimony having aroused
  their minds to inquire after the knowledge of
  God the inquiry always terminatedin the most
  glorious discoveries and eternal certainty.

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Light and Truth

• DC 133
• And also it is an imperative duty that we
  owe to all the rising generation, and to all
  the pure in heart
• For there are many yet on the earth among
  all sects, parties, and denominations, who
  are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men,
  whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are
  only kept from the truth because they know not
  where to find it
• Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our
  lives in bringing to light all the hidden things
  of darkness, wherein we know them and they are
  truly manifest from heaven
• For example
• Do our children know how to repent (and seek the
  light) or just how to stop what theyre doing?

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Friends of Elder Holland

• How do you tell a sixteen-year-old girl she
  is going to die? Straightforwardly, with
  tears, with love and determination to
  continue as normally as possible. That's how.
  Time? Maybe two months.
• Soon after she returned home, Suzanne went on
  a family trip to Disneyland, her favorite
  place. She attended a four-day forensic meet in
  Salt Lake, she auditioned and received a part in
  the high school musical, she asked a young man to
  the sweetheart ball and danced all evening
  without crutches on a newly acquired artificial
  leg. She carried a full load at school and,
  despite a record winter for snow and ice, rarely
  missed a day. There began to be shoulder pains,
  shortness of breath, then loss of appetite, but
  Suzanne would take nothing but aspirin because
  pain pills might interfere with her school
  activities.
• On 15 March she began a three-week tour of the
  South with her grandmother. The pace of the tour
  and her increasing loss of strength made her
  extremely tired. Breathing became so difficult it
  was impossible for her to lie down. But still it
  was only aspirin and determination to see the
  trip through to Disneyworld. On 27 March her
  father flew to Miami Beach to bring her home. Her
  condition was critical. They arrived home early
  in the morning on the 28th. She had her first
  pain pill that afternoon and passed away in her
  sleep that night. On 29 March the rest of the
  group reached Disneyworld.
• These are my childhood friends, Stan and Barbara.
  I grew up with them, and my daughter has not had
  cancer. But theirs has and she's gone. And how do
  you tell a child that life isn't entirely a
  Disneyworld?
• Will there be times in your life or theirs that
  they will need the substance of the gospel in a
  way that only you can teach it?
• (That Our Children May Know)