Combining gospel scholarship and true life experience, Robert L. Millet, discusses how the "ordinary" Church member can come to experience the joy of true Christian living. Based on the book by the same title, this recorded presentation looks deeply into the implications of the Christ-centered life and points to its inestimable blessings.
Robert L. Millet, professor of ancient scripture and former dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University, holds a master s degree in psychology from BYU and a Ph.D. in religious studies from Florida State University. He is a popular speaker and prolific writer whose other books include Lost and Found: Reflections on the Prodigal Son; Grace Works; and More Holiness Give Me. He and his wife, Shauna, have six children and live in Provo, Utah.
This is a short Robert Millet book, packed with AMAZING quotes. The following are some quotes that I enjoyed from this audiobook.
--In a world with so many pressing needs, with so many enterprises that beckon for a leader or for followers, it's essential we spend our days laboring in primary causes. It would be tragic indeed to finish our lives and then realize the majority of our waking moments had been spent in secondary causes. Only 4 months after the Watergate scandal had become public elder McConkie spoke in General Conference. "In view of all that prevails in the world, he said, it might be easy to center our attention on negative or evil things, or to dissipate our energies on causes and enterprises of doubtful worth and questionable productivity.
I am fully aware of the divine decree to be actively engaged in a good cause; of the fact that every true principle which works for the freedom and blessing of mankind has the Lord’s approval; of the need to sustain and support those who espouse proper causes and advocate true principles—all of which things we also should do in the best and most beneficial way we can. The issue, I think, is not what we should do but how we should do it; and I maintain that the most beneficial and productive thing which Latter-day Saints can do to strengthen every good and proper cause is to live and teach the principles of the everlasting gospel.
--Permanent change is in Christ the person, not in programs. Christ can impact society only to the degree that he's allowed to impact individual souls. As President Ezra Taft Benson observed, “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ would take the slums out of people, and then they would take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”
--On being inconvenienced Millet discusses the 7th Chapter of Mark "And from thence Jesus arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid." The account continues by explaining that a certain woman found that Jesus and pleaded for Him to heal her daughter . Our Lord appears to be tired, weary, in need of rest and peace and solitude. The Joseph Smith passage is most instructive, "… and would that no man should come unto him. But he could not deny them; for he had compassion upon all men." It's inconceivable that the Redeemer of the world couldn't hide himself if He wanted to . He's the God of the Universe with power over the elements. It's unthinkable that He couldn't conceal himself in some way EXCEPT that his compassion for his brothers and sisters would not allow him to do so. Our Savior was willing to be inconvenienced. And so must we be if we are to become as He is.
--Elder Boyd K Packer told of an experience he had while in the military. Having been stationed for a time in Japan elder Packer explained, "I boarded a train in Osaka for Yokohama and a ship that would take me home. Brother and Sister Sato came to the station to say good-bye. Many tears were shed as we bade one another farewell.
It was a very chilly night. The railroad station, what there was left of it, was very cold. Starving children were sleeping in the corners. That was a common sight in Japan in those days. The fortunate ones had a newspaper or a few old rags to fend off the cold.
On that train, I slept restlessly. The berths were too short anyway. In the bleak, chilly hours of the dawn, the train stopped at a station along the way. I heard a tapping on the window and raised the blind. There on the platform stood a little boy tapping on the window with a tin can. I knew he was an orphan and a beggar; the tin can was the symbol of their suffering. Sometimes they carried a spoon as well, as if to say, “I am hungry; feed me.”
He might have been six or seven years old. His little body was thin with starvation. He had on a thin, ragged shirt-like kimono, nothing else. His head was shingled with scabs. His one jaw was swollen—perhaps from an abscessed tooth. Around his head he had tied a filthy rag with a knot on top of his head—a pathetic gesture of treatment.
When I saw him and he saw that I was awake, he waved his can. He was begging. In pity, I thought, “How can I help him?” Then I remembered. I had money, Japanese money. I quickly groped for my clothing and found some yen notes in my pocket. I tried to open the window. But it was stuck. I slipped on my trousers and hurried to the end of the car. He stood outside expectantly. As I pushed at the resistant door, the train pulled away from the station. Through the dirty windows I could see him, holding that rusty tin can, with the dirty rag around his swollen jaw.
There I stood, an officer from a conquering army, heading home to a family and a future. There I stood, half-dressed, clutching some money which he had seen but which I could not get to him. I wanted to help him, but couldn’t. The only comfort I draw is that I did want to help him.
Perhaps I was scarred by that experience. If so, it is a battle scar, a worthy one, for which I bear no shame. It reminds me of my duty!"
--Millet tells the story of a flight that crashed in January of 1982 into the Potomac River. The actions of one passenger, a balding man in his early 50's. Each time the ring of the helicopter was lowered he passed it along to another passenger who was waiting for rescue. By the time it was finally time to pick him up he had disappeared below the ice. The unknown man was described by one in these words, "His selflessness is one reason the story held national attention, his anonymity was another. The fact that he has gone unidentified invests him with a universal character. For awhile he was every man, and thus proof, as if one needed it, that no man is ordinary. Still he couldn't have imagined such a capacity in himself only minutes before his character was tested. He was sitting in an ordinary plane among the ordinary passengers, dutifully listening to the stewardess telling them to fasten their seatbelts and saying something about the no smoking sign. So our man relaxed with the others, perhaps he started to read or to doze, or to regret some harsh remark made in the office that morning. Then suddenly he knew the trip would not be ordinary. Like every other person on that flight he was desperate to live, which makes his final act so stunning. For at some moment in the water he must have realized that he would not live if he continued to hand over the rope and the ring to others. He had to know it. No matter how gradual the effect of the cold In his judgment he had no choice. When the helicopter took of with what would be the last survivor, he watched everything in his world move away from him and he deliberately let it go.
--President Hugh B. Brown observed, "Religion has too often spent a large portion of its effort on doings apart from the real business of life. One of life's problems is to establish a deep understanding of man's relationship to his fellow man. Every man's religion should have practical issue. Not merely emotional responsiveness, which delights in hearing the gospel, but lacks diligence in living it. We must remember that religion is action, not diction. Let us pray that God will deliver us from our dullness of conscience, from a feeble sense of duty, from thoughtless disregard of others, and from all half-heartedness in our work. . . .
--People really matter. God is in the people business, and we really should be too.
--Julia Ward Howe who told a senator on one occasion, “I am in need of help for a very special person”?
“Julia, I am so busy”, he said, “I can no longer concern myself with individuals.”
She replied, “That’s remarkable. Even God hasn’t reached that stage yet.” (See Richard Evans’ Quote Book, p. 165.)
--"It is a serious thing", C.S Lewis has written, “ to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which,if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship...There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit..."
--Millet talked about sexual sin in discussing what happened in 2 Samuel with David's son, Amnon and his Step Sister Tamar from the scriptures it reads: 10 And Amnon said unto Tamar, Bring the meat into the chamber, that I may eat of thine hand. And Tamar took the cakes which she had made, and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother.
11 And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he atook hold of her, and said unto her, Come lie with me, my sister.
12 And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not aforce me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this bfolly.
13 And I, whither shall I cause my ashame to go? and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee.
14 Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her. (The next verse is the clencher, the punch line, the lesson for the ages.)
15 ¶ Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone.
--As the apostle Paul testified, there is a sacred sealing a binding tie associated with the love of Charity. "I am persuaded", he wrote to the Romans, "that neither death, nor life nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers nor things to come. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 38-39)
--We are not always called upon to live the whole law of consecration and give all of our time, talents, and means to the building up of the Lord's earthly kingdom. Few of us are called upon to sacrifice much of what we possess, and at the moment there is only an occasional martyr in the cause of revealed religion.
But what the scriptural account means is that to gain celestial salvation we must be able to live these laws to the full if we are called upon to do so.
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: It is not important that I should have no possessions, but if I do I must keep them as though I had them not, in other words I must cultivate a spirit of inward detachment, so that my heart is not in my possessions."
--There is a dimension of the Atonement of Christ that perhaps does not receive the attention that we might have given it. A doctrine taught perhaps most forcefully in the writings of the Apostle Paul. We speak a great deal, and appropriately so about how Jesus Christ died for us. Equally important though and often overlooked is the eternal verity that Christ desires to live in us. Christ's act of dying for us is terribly important, but for Him to come and live in us is another matter entirely.
-- Suppose there was a home inhabited by two kinds of people. Those that are deaf and those that can hear. One day a man, that can hear, goes into the living room, turns on the stereo and listens to some enjoyable music. After awhile he really gets into the music and begins to tap his toe and snap his finger. A man who is deaf looks in the doorway and sees the man sitting on the couch presumably enjoying what he's doing, tapping his toe, snapping his finger. The deaf man asks himself, "I wonder what in the world he's doing?" But because the man on the couch really seems to be enjoying himself, the deaf man goes and sits down and observes him a bit longer. Presumably everyone, even those who cannot hear, has some sense of rhythm. So the deaf man begins tapping and snapping his finger in time with this other man. The deaf man thinks to himself, "this is not much fun, but he surely seems to be enjoying it." So now there are two men sitting on the couch snapping their fingers and tapping their toes and smiling. The plot thickens when the third man enters the room who can hear, looks in through the door and sees the two people sitting. What does he conclude? Both of the men on the couch are obviously having the same experience but nothing could be farther from the truth, for only one of them hears the music. Life in Christ is hearing the music. Yes we must strive to do what is right, yes we should do our home teaching, even when we are not eager to do so...that doesn't mean that we must always remain that way. We may change, we can change, we should change. And it is the Lord who must and will change us.
--Story of wife sterilizing jars. Why does she sterilize the jars? To put them on the shelf, and then, what? Like us they are not doing much just sitting on the shelf, they must be filled. It isn't enough to have the Lord, through His spirit clean us out, He must fill us. That word fill is used repeatedly in scriptures.
--Ephesians 5:17-18. Don't be drunk with wine but be drunk with the spirit. Being drunk means you are under the control of the substance. Let that substance be the spirit. Being drunk you surrender yourself to it's influence both mind and spirit.
--Elder Glenn L. Pace put it this way: “We should all be striving for a disposition to do no evil, but to do good continually. This isn’t a resolve or a discipline; it is a disposition. We do things because we want to, not just because we know we should. . . . Sometimes we overlook the fact that a spiritual transformation or metamorphosis must take place within us. It comes about through grace and by the Spirit of God, although it does not come about until we have truly repented and proven ourselves worthy. We can be guilty of being so careful to live the letter of the law that we don't develop our inner spiritual nature, and fine tune our spiritual communication to the point that we may receive purification and sanctification. My conclusion is that we will not be saved by works if those works are not born of a disposition to do good, as opposed to an obligation to do good.”
--2 Corinthians 5
--One of the eternal ironies of the atonement is that in Gethsemane and on Golgotha, our Lord and Savior, He who had never known sin, never taken a backward step or spiritual detor, became the great sinner. The Lord not only changes our nature, but he offers to exchange with us. He takes the sin, he imputes to us His righteousness. That is the only way we can become righteous in eternity.
--Being made into a new creation is like a caterpillar...
Dare I say, a very '90s version of a Millet book. Great doctrinally based, practical wisdom to living your religion in its plain truth. I think this would have been very helpful for me as a missionary or a new High School grad or something. But, at this point it's not quite the most earth shattering. He has expanded on many of the topics in other books and speeches so much of what this said was repetitive to me. Still very good.
Wow, that was a really beautiful book to start the year off right! I’ve chosen my “word” of the year that I do every year and my word is going to be “Christ” this year. I need to learn more about Jesus and have more peace and compassion in my life. This was a beautiful reflection of one man’s ideas on the Savior, with many modern applications. Highly recommend!