Eyring - The True and Living Church - April 2008

President Eyring speaks about characteristics of the church that make it the Lord's church.  This is not the church that some man came up with.  It is the church of Jesus Christ and in it are priesthood keys to act in God's name.  This makes us different from every other church.

• This is the true Church, the only true Church, because in it are the keys of the priesthood. Only in this Church has the Lord lodged the power to seal on earth and to seal in heaven as He did in the time of the Apostle Peter. Those keys were restored to Joseph Smith, who then was authorized to confer them upon the members of the Quorum of the Twelve.

Because we have the truth, we each should evaluate our lives.  President Eyring gives us two things that this evaluation should include.

• Each of us must make an individual evaluation. First, we need to measure the depth of our gratitude for membership in the true Church of Jesus Christ. Second, we need to know by the power of the Holy Ghost in what ways we can do better in keeping the commandments.

He encourages us to sustain the leaders of the church.  He says he knows the power in this since his call to the First Presidency.  He says he knows that Saints praying for him has strengthened him and that those same prayers include President Monson.

• It would be wise to determine to sustain with our faith and our prayers all those who serve us in the kingdom. I am personally aware of the power of the faith of members of the Church to sustain those who have been called. In the last few weeks I have felt in powerful ways the prayers and the faith of people whom I do not know and who know me only as someone called to serve through the keys of the priesthood. President Thomas S. Monson will be blessed by your sustaining faith. His family will likewise have blessings poured out upon them because of your faith and your prayers. All those who were sustained by you today will be sustained by God because of their faith and yours.

Sustaining our church leaders also means that we serve when we are asked to.  Blessings come into the lives of those that serve in the church.

• Every member will have opportunities to sustain through service given in the name of God. The Church is a powerful force for the blessing of its members and all people across the earth.

He speaks about the temple and the blessings that come from temple worship.  He speaks about eternal relationships and gives a personal example of how knowing he has an eternal family has blessed his life.

• It is through the Church and the ordinances which are in it that the blessings of the sealing power reach into the spirit world.
• The thought and the hope that I can have eternal relationships carries me through the trials of separation and the loneliness which are part of mortal existence.
• I am at a stage in my life when, because of great distances, I cannot come to know well grandchildren and, in time, great-grandchildren. There are also people who have never had the opportunity for marriage and parenthood who have the same yearning as I do to somehow be close to family. Because of the restoration of the knowledge of eternal families, we are more hopeful and more kindly in all our family relations. The greatest joys in this life center in families, as they will in the worlds to come. I am so grateful for the assurance I have that if we are faithful, the same sociality which we enjoy here in this life will be forever with us in the world to come, in eternal glory.

He gives this short but true statement about God's presence in our lives.

• Those who never give up will find that God never gave up and that He will help them.

Finally, President Eyring speaks about moments in his life that he has felt the assurance that this is the Church of Jesus Christ.  He uses three distinct moments from his life to share how he has come to know the church is true.

• My testimony that this is the true and living Church began in my childhood. One of my earliest memories is of a conference meeting held not in some place like this but in a rented room of a hotel. A man was speaking whom I did not know, nor do I know his name today. I knew only that he was someone sent to our little district in the mission field by someone who held the priesthood. I do not know what he said. But I received a powerful, certain witness before I was eight, even before I was baptized, that I was hearing a servant of God in the true Church of Jesus Christ. It was not the rental room nor the size of the congregation, which was small, but it was a witness that I had been blessed at that moment to be in a meeting of the true Church.
• When I moved with my family to the organized stakes of the Church in my teen years, for the first time I felt the power of priesthood quorums and of a loving bishop. I still remember and can feel the assurances that came when I sat in a priests quorum next to a bishop and knew that he had the keys of a true judge in Israel.
• That same witness came early in my life on two Sundays, one in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the other in Boston, Massachusetts. In each case I was present on the day that a stake was organized from a district. Seemingly ordinary men whom I knew well were called as stake presidents. I raised my hand on those days as you did today and had a witness come to me that God had called His servants and that I would be blessed by their service and for sustaining them. I have now felt that same miracle countless times across the Church.

I have always had that personal testimony that the gospel is true.  One of those moments in my life was when a friends father pasted away unexpectedly.  I had that burning knowledge that his great man was sealed to his family for time and all eternity.  I felt the power of covenant making and keeping.  God has a plan for us in life.  It is to bless us with all He has.  Those full blessings can only be found as a member of His church.

Can you tell me about when you first felt the assurance that you were part of the Church of Jesus Christ?  If you would take a minute to leave a comment and share, we would all love to hear your experience.  Hit the comment box below and leave us a short message.