What Must I Do?

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What Must I Do?

• www.kevinhinckley.com

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A Little Poem

• Mothers are people who cook things,
• Like breakfast or lunch or a snack
• Dexterous people who hook things
• Which button or zip up the back.
• Mothers are people who blow things,
• Balloons and kisses and noses
• Green-thumbish people who grow things,
• Like ivy and puppies and roses.
• Mothers are people who send things,
• Like letters and strawberry tarts
• Magical people who mend things,
• Like blue jeans and elbows and hearts.

• Mothers are people who find things,
• Like mittens and homework and germs
• Fussbudget people who mind things,
• Like cusswords and snowballs and worms.
• Mothers are people who sweep things,
• Like porches and cobwebs and rugs
• Softhearted people who keep things,
• Like artwork, report cards, and hugs.
• Mothers are people who nurse things,
• A boy or a girl or a spouse
• And, all in all, there are worse things
• Than mothers to have in your house.

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Prophet Joseph Smith

• A religion that does not require the sacrifice of
  all things never has power sufficient to produce
  the faith necessary unto life and salvation"
  (Lectures on Faith 67).

Why?
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Elder Neal A. Maxwell

• the absence of gross sins in our lives can
  lull us into slackness concerning seemingly
  small sins.
• For instance, the tendency to strike back
  whenever we are offended makes us brusque and
  rude, as if others were functions, not as
  brothers and sisters.
• Thus, excess of ego is like a spreading, toxic
  spill from which flow all the deadly sins Small
  sins spread like that, too.
• (Deny Yourselves of All Ungodliness, Ensign,
  May 1995, 66)

Question Does an unwillingness to sacrifice, on
our part, qualify as a large sin or small sin?
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Mark 10

• there came one running, and kneeled to
  him, and asked him, Good Master, what
  shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
• Jesus Saith Thou knowest the commandments, Do
  not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal,
  Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour
  thy father and mother.
• And he answered and said unto him, Master, all
  these have I observed from my youth.
• Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto
  him, One thing thou lackest go thy way, sell
  whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and
  thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come,
  take up the cross, and follow me.
• And he was sad at that saying, and went away
  grieved for he had great possessions

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Joseph F. Smith

• The difficulty with the young man was
  that he had great possessions, and he
  preferred to rely upon his wealth rather than
  forsake all and follow Christ
• No man can obtain the gift of eternal life unless
  he is willing to sacrifice all earthly things in
  order to obtain it. (Gospel Doctrine, 261)

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Jesus continues His lesson

• And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his
  disciples, How hardly difficult shall they that
  have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
• And the disciples were astonished at his words.
  But Jesus saith unto them, Children, how hard
  is it for them that trust in riches to enter into
  the kingdom of God!
• It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
  a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the
  kingdom of God.
• And they were astonished out of measure, saying
  among themselves, Who then can be saved?
• And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is
  impossible, but not with God for with God all
  things are possible

Neal Maxwell Jesus counseled us, too, concerning
materialism and "the deceitfulness of riches",
and of how hard it is for those who trust in
riches and materialism to enter into the kingdom
of God. . . . Can those who are diverted by
riches or the search for riches and thus fail to
discern the real purposes of life be safely
trusted with greater dominions which call for
even greater discernment? (Thanks Be to God,"
Ensign, July 1982, p. 53)
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Doctrine and Covenants 56

• Behold, thus saith the Lord unto my peopleyou
  have many things to do and to repent of for
  behold, your sins have come up unto me, and are
  not pardoned, because you seek to counsel in your
  own ways.
• And your hearts are not satisfied. And ye obey
  not the truth, but have pleasure in
  unrighteousness.
• Wo unto you rich men, that will not give your
  substance to the poor, for your riches will
  canker your souls and this shall be your
  lamentation in the day of visitation, and of
  judgment, and of indignation The harvest is
  past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not
  saved!

1828 Dictionary A virulent, corroding ulcer or
any thing that corrodes, corrupts or destroys
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Joseph F. Smith

• God is not a respecter of persons. The
  rich man may enter into the kingdom of heaven
  as freely as the poor,if
• -he will bring his heart and affections into
  subjection to the law of God,
• -his heart upon the truth, and
• -his soul upon the accomplishment of Gods
  purposes, and not fix his affections and his
  hopes upon the things of this world.
• (Gospel Doctrine, 260-61)

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President Kimball

• Few men have ever knowingly and deliberately
  chosen to reject God and his blessings. Rather,
  we learn from the scriptures that because the
  exercise of faith has always appeared to be more
  difficult than relying on things more immediately
  at hand, carnal man has tended to transfer his
  trust in God to material things.
• Therefore, in all ages when men have fallen under
  the power of Satan and lost the faith, they have
  put in its place a hope in the "arm of flesh" and
  in "gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron,
  wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear,
  nor know" -- that is, in idols.
• Whatever thing a man sets his heart and
  his trust in most is his god and if his god
  doesn't also happen to be the true and living
  God of Israel, that man is laboring in
  idolatry. (The False Gods we Worship)

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Elder Featherstone

• There was a Filipino woman in Manila. I was
  standing in my office, and I looked down to see
  her walking on two very heavily calloused knees
  dragging two crippled legs behind her going to
  the temple. I called downstairs to Bishop Santos
  and asked him how long it would take him to find
  and buy a new wheelchair. He said it would take a
  little over an hour. I asked him, "Will you go
  out and buy a new wheelchair and take it over to
  the temple? You'll see a woman coming out walking
  on her knees. I'd like you to present it to her."
• He left and came back with the wheelchair and put
  it behind a pillar of the temple. As the woman
  came out, he went up to her and asked, "Do you
  have a wheelchair?"
• She began to weep and said, "No. I used to, but
  it wore out and fell apart. I'll never be able to
  afford another one as long as I live."
• He replied, "How would you like a wheelchair?"
• This wonderful woman cried. Bishop Santos went
  behind the pillar and pulled out the wheelchair,
  and they lifted her up into it. I watched as they
  wheeled her across the street to the patron
  housing. (Things too Wonderful for Me, (BYU
  Speeches)