“Pondering on Wise Power Quotes Can Transform Our Thoughts, Actions, Decisions, and Lives in Truly Joyful Ways.”
Bible quote, from Proverbs 23: 7 : “For as he athinketh in his bheart, so is he”.
That is a powerful truth. We can become no better or more joyful than we train our thoughts to be. As we prayerfully with God’s help; work on training our thoughts and actions, we can become more Christ-like and thereby more loving, kind, thankful, and joyful as Jesus Christ taught us all to be.
Our loving Father in Heaven is the source of all real love and joy. When we choose to follow God’s teachings, and pray for His transforming love and peace in our lives, then it comes in miraculous and joyful ways – – – even if the circumstances of our lives are not going well. As we unselfishly serve God’s children, then He blesses us with His love and the other gifts or fruits of the Spirit, that transforms our lives and our relationships.
Many of the positive life-changing power quotes that we share on our website and in our Christ Centered Sports and Games Activities are from the Bible, which is the #1 most read self-help book and book of any kind in the history of the world.
We are so very blessed to have the Bible so readily available to us now. The devil and his team have tried hard to keep the Bible out of our hands throughout history. During the dark ages, many good Christians were burned at the stake, for having a Bible or even parts of it, in their home, and sharing it with their children – – – which was punishable by death. Back when all books had to be copied by hand; the Roman Emperor Diocletian in A.D. 301-304, burned thousands of the copies of the Bible, and commanded that all Bibles be destroyed and decreed that any home with a Bible in it should be burned. In fact, he even built a monument over what he thought was the last surviving Bible. Yet, in spite of wicked government leaders throughout history, trying to destroy all of the Bibles, it became the #1 most read book in the history of the world. The Bible is still banned and severely persecuted against in some countries of the world.
Because of the joyful power for good that a careful and prayerful study of “The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ, brings into our lives and relationships, it has become the #2 most read self-help book and #6 most read book of any kind in the history of the world, with over 193 million copies in print. The Book of Mormon, is another powerful witness that the Bible is true, and that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and we also quote from that great book.
Many millions of us Bible believing Christians who have read it, have come to dearly love and cherish it, and testify that it has the same uplifting spiritual power that the Bible has, and that, like the Bible, it came to us from God through his prophets. And millions of Bible believing Christians, who have never read it, fear it, and believe it to be evil, purely because they are relying on almost 200 years of false negative slander against it, that has been spread by the devil and his team, who want to keep us away from the Word of God, through His prophets – – – just like they tried to keep the Bible out of the hands of the Children of God throughout history whenever they could.
Most of those who spread false slander against the Book of Mormon have no idea about the beautiful truths that it teaches. They are just ignorantly spreading the false slander that has been spread by the devil and his team, without ever doing a prayerful and open-minded study of it to find out what it teaches. Those who do a serious and prayerful study of the Book of Mormon, will come to know that it is from God, through His prophets, and that it has the same positive and uplifting power that the Bible brings into our lives. It will strengthen your faith in both the Bible and in Jesus Christ, as our Savior, and it will straighten out much of the confusion and lack of unity, that exists in modern day Christianity, as God intended it to do. It is undeniable proof that God has not forgotten us, and that He also speaks to us today through His modern day prophets and apostles.
The Book of Mormon is a record of a people who were led away from Jerusalem by God about 600 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. God called prophets from among them. The Book of Mormon contains some of their writings” over about a 1,000 year period from 600 B.C. to about 421 A.D.
If anyone tells you that the Book of Mormon is evil, one thing that you can know for sure, is that they are relying on false slander against it, and they have never read it, or at least not with an open mind and prayerful heart, or they would never come up with such a conclusion.
We also share Power Quotes from other wise and helpful sources, that can help us to make wiser and better decisions, and help us to build more trusting and loving relationships.
Below are some notes that help us to understand, how we can experience real joy and inner peace, even when we are going through extremely hard trials and tests in our lives, – – – if we choose to be Christ Centered.
Our daughter, Laura, sent me a text while we were at the MTC (Missionary Training Center), asking if we had heard Portia speak. Yes, Laura, we had the opportunity to hear her, and it was truly inspiring to hear her story, about how she made some really bad choices that ended up putting her in prison for 4 ½ years. Fortunately, she had some previous experience in the beautiful teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints earlier in her life. Shortly after arriving in prison, she humbly and sincerely prayed saying, “God, I feel so horrible. I have failed everyone; my husband, and children and others. I am so broken.” She felt that she had messed up so badly that her situation was completely hopeless, as she sincerely plead for help. She said that as she was praying, “I immediately felt more inner peace than imaginable.” (that transformed her life). She said that she fasted every Sunday for 4 ½ years in prison.” And she spent a lot of time prayerfully studying about the teachings of Jesus Christ, as recorded by prophets of God, in both the Bible and “The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ” to stay as Christ-centered as possible. At the end of her talk, she said, “I know Jesus Christ now, and I know that He lives and loves every one of us no matter what mistakes we have made in the past.” She talked about how she felt God’s forgiveness and love in her life, and how her husband and children forgave her, and how much joy she has now with the Christ-Centered life that she has chosen.
Every week at the MTC Character of Christ meeting; they have two speakers tell their true story, about how the teachings of Jesus Christ had transformed their lives.
The other speaker, Ryan, had been at the MTC like us, at the start of his Christian mission for our Church from age 19 to 21. After his mission, while attending the University of BYU Idaho 18 years ago, he had an accident while doing basketball drills. He was running full speed and tripped and smashed against a brick wall, which instantly broke his neck. He has been a quadriplegic ever since. That day, he went from deeply enjoying sports and so many activities very much with his very healthy and athletic body, to being stuck in a wheelchair with no ability to move or even feel any part of his body below his chin for the rest of his life. He carries a ventilator on his back that constantly pumps every breath of air into his lungs for these past 18 years to keep him alive. He told about another quadriplegic he met, shortly after his accident, who told him “there will be times when you will hate God, and blame Him for your accident.” He said, “I realized I could either hate God, or rely on him. I chose to rely on God, and that gave me a positive attitude through all my challenges.” He finished College, has a good job, and said, “I still have joy and happiness, because of Jesus Christ in my life.” He quoted from our dearly beloved living prophet, Russell M. Nelson, who taught the beautiful truth that “the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives”. Ryan said, “I had to give up my pride and realize that from that point on, I would have to dependent on others to help me with the basic needs of life.” Isn’t that an amazing and beautiful truth, that even Ryan as a quadriplegic could testify of. If the teachings of Jesus Christ, and living a Christ-centered life is so beautiful, uplifting, and powerful that it can truly even bring real joy and inner-peace to someone in a horrible situation like Ryan as a quadriplegic, or Portia while in prison, shouldn’t each of us wisely choose to seek for and receive that joy-producing power working inside of the inner-spirit part of us everyday?
Below are some other little quotes from president Russell M. Nelson’s conference talk in October 2016, that Ryan was referring to called “Joy and Spiritual Survival” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2016/10/joy-and-spiritual-survival?lang=eng from which we can all learn super valuable and joy-producing lessons from:
“Life is filled with detours and dead ends, trials and challenges of every kind. Each of us has likely had times when distress, anguish, and despair almost consumed us. Yet we are here to have joy? . . . But how is that possible? . . . (Then he told the true short story below to describe how that is definitely possible for those who choose to center their lives on Jesus Christ and His joy-producing teachings.)
Eliza R. Snow, second General President of the Relief Society, offered a riveting answer. Because of Missouri’s infamous extermination order, issued at the onset of the grueling winter of 1838, she and other Saints were forced to flee the state that very winter. (If some of you readers don’t know about that infamous order by the Governor, Lilburn Boggs; because of unfair prejudice caused by lots of lies against the members and leaders of our Church, he ordered that all of the members of our Church be driven out of the state or be exterminated. That is hard to believe, but in those days, people did not get in trouble for abusing members of our Church or blacks in the United States, who were still living in slavery.) One evening, Eliza’s family spent the night in a small log cabin used by refugee Saints. Much of the chinking between the logs had been extracted and burned for firewood by those who preceded them, so there were holes between the logs large enough for a cat to crawl through. It was bitter cold, and their food was frozen solid. That night some 80 people huddled inside that small cabin, only 20 feet square. Most sat or stood all night trying to keep warm. Outside, a group of men spent the night gathered around a roaring fire, with some singing hymns and others roasting frozen potatoes. Eliza recorded: “Not a complaint was heard—all were cheerful.”
Eliza’s report of that exhausting, bone-chilling evening was strikingly optimistic. She declared: “That was a very merry night. None but saints (followers of Jesus Christ) can be happy under every circumstance. That’s it! Saints can be happy under every circumstance. We can feel joy even while having a bad day, a bad week, or even a bad year! (The followers and members of the Church of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago, were called Saints, and it is the same today, even though none of Jesus’ followers back then or now, are perfected Saints yet.)
My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. When the focus of our lives is on God’s Plan of Salvation, . . . and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy. We feel it at Christmastime when we sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.” And we can feel it all year round. For Latter-day Saints, Jesus Christ is joy!
We do also recognize that there is a guidance system, that is God-given, to the inner-spirit part of each child of God anywhere in the world, that gives each of us guidance regarding what is right and wrong, – – – that if followed, brings real love, joy, and inner-peace, regardless of whether someone is blessed with a Bible or Book of Mormon to give them guidance. In the Book of Mormon, that guidance to our inner-spirit, is called the Light of Christ. Many people call it our conscience.
Some very important questions for each of us to pause to deeply ponder on and pray about:
If you had a bad accident today, like Ryan did 18 years ago, and you were suddenly paralyzed from the neck down; are you Christ-centered enough, that you could still experience real joy and love, and inner-peace directly from God within the inner- spirit part of you, like Ryan was able to do – – – with much prayer and with God’s help?
If not, would you like to become more Christ-centered, by choosing to do a very serious and prayerful 30 day (or longer) experiment on the amazing joy-producing teachings of Jesus Christ, as recorded by prophets of God, in both the Bible and The Book of Mormon, so that you can receive more real joy, love, and inner-peace in your own life? If you don’t have a copy of a Book of Mormon or Bible, I encourage you to go to this website to learn about the teachings of Jesus Christ, and to request your free copy of both: www.ComeUntoChrist.org
Do you recognize that the way that Ryan has been able to experience real joy, love, and inner-peace is an amazing miracle from God?
Truly, my very favorite miracles from God, are the love, joy and inner-peace – – – that He promises to give to us even during our most difficult earth-school tests.
We, Charles and Amparo Hunt, delightfully add our own sincere testimony, that we have come to know with 100% certainty through much careful and prayerful study, and fasting and careful observation in our own lives and the lives of countless others; that choosing to focus our lives on coming fully unto Jesus Christ and His teachings, will bring more increased love, joy, and inner-peace into our lives and relationships than anything else.