My mother found this in a talk she had by President Ezra Taft Benson. Seems appropriate for today:

“For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the second coming of the Lord.  Some individuals will fall away; but the kingdom of God will remain intact to welcome the return of its head - even Jesus Christ.  While our generation will be comparable in wickedness to the days of Noah, when the Lord cleansed the earth by flood, there is a major difference this time.  It is that God has saved for the final inning some of His strongest children, who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly.  That is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God.”

……”In all ages prophets have looked down through the corridors of time to our day.  Billions of the deceased and those yet to be born have their eyes on us.  Make no mistake about it - you are a marked generation.  There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time than there is of us.  Never before on the face of this earth have the forces of evil and the forces of good been as well organized.  Now is the great day of the devil’s power.  But now is also the great day of the Lord’s power, with the greatest number ever of priesthood holders on the earth.”

“We will live in the midst of economic, political and spiritual instability. When these signs are observed - unmistakable evidences that His coming is nigh - we need not be troubled, but “stand in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come” (D&C 87:8).  Holy men and women stand in holy places and these holy places consist of our temples, our chapels, our homes, and stakes of Zion, which are, as the Lord declared, “for a defense and a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth” (D&C 115:6).  We must heed the Lord’s counsel to the Saints of this dispensation: “Prepare yourselves for the great day of the Lord.” (D&C 133:10)

“This preparation must consist of more than just casual membership in the Church.  We must be guided by personal revelation and the counsel of the living prophet so we will not be deceived.  Our Lord has indicated who, among Church members, will stand when He appears: “At that day, when I shall come in my glory shall the parable be fulfilled which I spake concerning the ten virgins.” (D&C 45:56)

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 3:39 pm and is filed under last days, lds beliefs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.