Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins - September 25, 2016

Marguerite H. led us in a lovely review of Elder Bednar's talk "Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins" from last April's conference, with many gardener perspectives of how to become sanctified.

"The ordinances of salvation and exaltation administered in the Lord’s restored Church are far more than rituals or symbolic performances. Rather, they constitute authorized channels through which the blessings and powers of heaven can flow into our individual lives." ("Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins")

"The ordinances of baptism by immersion, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the sacrament are not isolated and discrete events; rather, they are elements in an interrelated and additive pattern of redemptive progress. Each successive ordinance elevates and enlarges our spiritual purpose, desire, and performance. " ("Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins")

Sow to yourselves in righteousness,
reap in mercy;
break up your fallow ground:
for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Hosea 10:12

• What is it like to break up the fallow ground of our souls?
• What is the 'digging bar' of the hard parts of our life?

• How do you sow seeds of righteousness to move toward being holy?
  
• How is the progress going in your life?  How does the weeding go?

Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God. Helaman 3:35

And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Isaiah 58:11

Marguerite told the story of the efforts of Jenny Butchart to restore beauty to a quarry created for cement.  The resulting gardens are now famous, though the process was painstaking.

We all have quarries in our lives.  As we turn to the Savior and break up our fallow ground and sow the seeds of righteousness - we see a miraculous transformation in our lives.