Hey there everybody, welcome back to another podcast of Redeemed Through His Blood. This is Scott Durfey, joined as always by my uncle David Durfey, our teacher. What's up Dave? Oh, sweet to be with you Scott. We had a good podcast that just came out this week. Our last one that was just, I should say last week, our last one that was released, we responded to a wonderful question from a wonderful parent, a wonderful father, wanted to talk about some really important things.
So, if you haven't listened to that, we encourage you to go back and do so. Also encourage you to continue to send us your questions, send us your comments, your insights. We would love to include those and try to do so as we go along here. You can do that at He Redeems Us, He Redeems Us at gmail.com. So Dave, here we are. We've been talking about repentance. We've been kind of taking it apart and putting it back together and some of the important components of it.
Where do we go today with it, Dave? Well, Scott, it's a process. This is a process and it's a choice and it's almost more of an attitude than it is a series of steps. It's more a condition of the heart than it is maybe actions to be taken. But actions are important that come out of the heart that are sincere. And I again want to tell everyone that there are kind of four parts as I see repentance. These aren't steps. So there's kind of four parts which are the foundations of repentance.
That's number one, which consists of really understanding the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what desiring to be completely honest and having adequate faith. There are conditions of repentance and that's the broken heart, contrite spirit, true godly sorrow. I think those conditions must be met before a person will go through the actual process or see it to the end. And then we're in, we've done the actions of repentance recently, which is crying out.
It's just almost, that's almost so simple that people won't look at the brazen serpent on a pole and be saved. That just seems too simple to cry out, but it must again come from a broken heart and it must come from a sincere contrite heart and it must be done with real intent. And then we have to offer our souls and our sins to Him. Those reactions of repentance and right now we're in the manifestations of repentance.
Then the first two manifestations of repentance, Scott, are described again in Doctrine and Covenants 58, 42, 43, which reads, Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I the Lord remember them no more. What a great promise. 43, by this, or in other words, this is how you'll know, by this ye may know if a man repented of his sins, he will confess them and forsake them.
Those are the first two really clear manifestations of repentance, Scott, is that an individual will confess them mostly to God, serious sins should be, must be, confess to the proper church authority who will turn his keys to help an individual participate in the ordinances of the gospel, to receive all the full blessings and power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in their life. So confession is important, and also, Scott, to confess to the individuals that maybe we've heard.
And then the one that we will talk about today, we'll get into this one, is they must forsake it. That is an obvious manifestation of repentance is if an individual will change, will make appropriate changes. They'll stop doing what they were doing wrong or start doing what they weren't doing right. I mean, there's their sins of commission and their sins of omission, and one must either stop doing something, or they must start doing something or usually both, actually.
This was this is what it means to forsake our sins. I remember when I was a missionary, Scott, and we had the rainbow discussions, that's because they were in a booklet of all different colors, and they kind of were affectionately called the rainbow discussions. And we would memorize them word for word, and we would discuss, you know, teach these and try to do so sincerely, even though they were memorized word for word. I was back in the 70s and so grateful for the new Preach My Gospel.
It just came out with some adaptations from the other Preach My Gospel that replaced the other missionaries that were memorized. Anyway, there was this one line as we taught individuals on my mission how to repent, and we would tell them that they must forsake their sins, which meant they must not repeat them, not even in their mind. That had a more powerful effect upon me than it ever did my investigators, I'm sure of that line. You must not repeat it, not even in your mind.
Scott, there's too many of us who are too complacent about repeating sins in our minds. And when we confess our sins and we forsake them, it means we stop telling them to everybody, and we stop repeating them, milling them over, even in our minds. I think that is so critical. We all know that Satan has power to put thoughts in our mind, and the one thought he wants to put in our mind is to remind us over and over and over again, daily or hourly, if he could, of our sins.
We must choose not to let that happen, and I know that's a choice. So forsaking the sin is not just stopping or starting behaviors, but it's controlling our thoughts. And further, it's controlling who we share our sins with. I know that Elder Anderson and I, when we discussed this chapter in his book, The Divide Gift of Forgiveness, we had quite a long discussion about this, Scott, because I told him that I thought this was a huge problem for young adults.
In fact, I know, because young adults have told me, several dozens of young adults have told me, when I was at the Institute, of engagements that were broken.
I even know of a divorce of an Institute student because of a spouse or a fiance, or even a boyfriend or girlfriend, who because they confessed their old sins, it destroyed that relationship because those individuals either were not willing to forgive or could not control their thoughts, the couple that I know that were divorced over this, because the young man had lost his virtue before his mission, before his mission, but eventually went on
a successful mission, had repented and came home and married this young woman and made the mistake of telling all about his whole life, and told her about his fornication before his mission, and she couldn't get it out of her mind. So every time they ever had any intimacy or, you know, that's where her mind would go. Well it became so troubling to her, and Satan used that so much against her, and it became such a wedge in their marriage that it led to divorce.
I know of a beautiful young woman who was a leader, a real leader and powerful return missionary who had done some things before her mission, and who was engaged to a wonderful young man, and they would have been a really powerful couple, but she came in brokenhearted in my office one day and told me how the engagement was broken because he had asked her questions about her past, and she felt like she had to be honest, and when she was, he broke the engagement. Scott, that's not who she was.
It was over, it was gone, it was, why would he even ask that question? I mean, I mean, he sinned by even asking that question, and this is my final point on this before your response, I know there are some young men, and it could be young women too, who manipulate their date or individuals by asking them about their past, and their desire is to know how far will this person go, or is this person weak enough?
They look for a weak spot or a chink in the armor or whatever, and so they intentionally bring up and want to talk about the sins of the past to use or manipulate those individuals. I'm telling you, Scott, that's evil, that's really, really evil, and I shared that with Elder Anderson, he was really brokenhearted about it, and so in his book there's a few paragraphs that we can look at in just a minute that reflect his view of that.
Our whole aim here is to talk about how we can gain a connection with deity, with the Savior, with Heavenly Father, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and put that power at work in our lives so that we, Jesus' power at work in our life, so that we can have the things in our life that we've been promised, and we can do that, we do do that when we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then when we have the presence of the Holy Ghost
with us, and so we know, we know that the administration of the Atonement in our lives comes by and large through the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.
We also know the sin, including the thoughts, the inappropriate thoughts that you've just talked about, and we also know that manipulation through some of the evil acts that you've just brought to light, we also know that those things will push the Spirit away, and when the Spirit's pushed away from us, the Atonement of Jesus Christ has little efficacy in our lives.
We know that it still has the efficacy that comes from the non-conditional components of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His power there, but the conditional components that come to us, those conditional components, again, if we'll just remember what they are, we take His name upon us, we have that covenant relationship, we produce joy in our lives, and experience peace in our lives as a byproduct or as a production of, or as a manifestation
of our repentance here, but when we have thoughts, when we have things in our head, you know, even after we have, you know, you began this kind of with the whole inappropriate versus appropriate thoughts, you know, and how that can also pull us away, and we know that the forsaking of our sin is incomplete as long as those things still are alive and well in our heads or in our souls. Well, they may be there to help us, right? We're never going to forget them.
But it's what we do with them that matters. Exactly. And we all will have that choice. We will all come to the point this week. I mean, this isn't a rare occasion. This is a very common thing that happens, I believe, to each one of us, where we will have that opportunity to make the choice, and we make the choice. Do I let it stay? Do I give it? Do I water that dirty flower? Do I make it grow even more?
Or do I push it aside and with and through the Spirit of the Holy Ghost, through the Spirit of our Heavenly Father, do I use that to actually put on the Atonement of Jesus Christ in my life? And when I put on the Atonement of Jesus Christ in my life, the production of joy and the experience of peace begin to be with me again. Yeah, virtue, love, true love. All of that. You know, Scott, it really is a gift that the Lord has given us not to forget our sins, so that we don't repeat them.
However, when you remember them, it should be with, ah, yeah, I mean, that's the difference, is how you think of them. You won't forget them. But if you somehow, I mean, if they cause you any passion or lust, or it becomes those thoughts of the past and sins of the past, become in and of themselves a temptation, which I believe Satan totally uses past sins against us as temptations. I mean, he can turn the thoughts of past sins as temptations into our life. I know he does. He has me.
He has you, all of us. But I really try when I think of my past sins to think, now, what am I feeling? Because if I'm feeling, oh, darn, oh, man, oh, if I'm feeling gratitude for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and I know that I'm forgiven, I can have thoughts of peace concerning past sins, as yours, I know that's what you're saying, versus having thoughts or feelings of lust, passion, jealousy, whatever. Well, and then there's another part of that, too.
You know, we're leaning heavily on kind of the virtuous sins, right, sins of virtue, lust, and those kinds of things. But this is also true, David, with, like, say, for example, anger, or for example, mistreatment of others, you know? Because that's something that I've had to deal with. You know this.
You know that this is something that I have through, and I've even talked about it, you know, I've had to deal with some deep fear inventory to learn how to put my anger at bay or to, and all of that. But if I give thoughts to that, too, if I give thought to retribution, if I give thought to any kind of getting back at or any kind of posturing that puts me in a position above somebody else, that's inappropriate, and that is inappropriate.
And so to have those feelings come back, too, this doesn't just relate to sins of virtue. This relates to every sin. This relates to everything that we possibly do and do wrong. And you know, the scripture maybe, maybe again fits here, Scott, in Doctrine and Covenants section 6. Look unto me in every thought. So when we have a thought about our sins in the past, really our thought should turn immediately to Jesus Christ and his atonement. It shouldn't turn to the sordid, ugly circumstance.
It shouldn't turn to blaming others, making excuses, or relishing the past. Or even blaming ourselves. Or yeah, it should turn to the Savior. So when we do remember the sins, I hope that you, me, and all of our listeners can really think about that, and that that will focus more on the Savior than we do upon our sins. I want to read just a couple of lines from Elder Anderson's book, the way he chose to word it here. He tell us where you're at in the book.
I'm on page 210. Discussions of very private experiences in our lives are not appropriate as we are beginning to know someone retelling past sins that have been repented of and forgiven by the Lord may unnecessarily negatively affect a growing relationship. That sentence is directly out of our discussion about this. And the many individuals who have been hurt and burned by sharing experiences of their past. Then Satan again totally uses that to hurt us and to hurt others.
Elder Anderson goes on, quote, when sins are far in the past, forsaken, forgiven, and not repeated, it is not productive as you begin a relationship to ask questions or desire answers to specific and vivid detail. At the same time, we should be honest in realizing when sins are not fully in the past. Absolutely.
So when discussions come up about our past, I think it's so much more edifying and it is so much more enlightening if individuals would say, is there anything about your past, these are maybe people who are dating young adults, or adults who are dating or entering a relationship seriously, should maybe ask, is there anything in your past that I should know about that would affect our relationship, or even better to ask, has the atonement, are you alive and well in the atonement of Jesus Christ?
Are you lively in using the atonement of Jesus Christ in your life? Have you been, have you been, have you repented? Have you been forgiven? That would be a much more enlightening discussion than to ask about specific events or past. Again, Scott, there are things in the past when it comes to certain serious sins that should be discussed, or if one's membership in the church has been in question, maybe that's something that should be discussed.
But we have to be, I think, so careful, and here's the key, prompted by the Spirit to share it, and not do it out of, because some tintillating, sensationalizing curiosity of others. We need to make sure what our motive is when we share it, and if the Spirit prompts us, maybe we should. If the Spirit prompts us to, we should, and if the Spirit doesn't, we shouldn't, and we really need to just be in tune about that. Here's just one more short paragraph.
Focus on the healing power of Jesus Christ and his atonement, not a person's past sins. If you can come to know his or her parents, family and friends from the past, if you have questions or concerns, wait and be patient, time will tell you what you need to know. So if you have questions or concerns, well, just don't rush things.
I think it's just important that we use wisdom, and not, we just live in a world where everybody's just regurgitating everything negative about themselves or about others, and we need to be more circumspect and careful about that, Scott. So when somebody, anybody, comes to the rooms of recovery for the first time, it's not uncommon, Dave, that this phenomenon takes place.
As a matter of fact, I have a couple of people that I'm quite close to that have spent some time in addiction recovery treatment center recently, two different ones, and both of them had the same experience that they shared with me. And it was this, you know, and I want to be careful here because I'm not being critical of a program or of an approach or anything like that.
I think anything that we can do that provides movement in the right direction to recover or to become closer to living our lives the way Heavenly Father wants us to, I believe that's all in general positive. For example, you know, when folks come into the Alcoholics Anonymous in the very beginning, sometimes the only thing, you know, we strive so hard to be relatable and related to.
And when we go into an area or to a place when we know people have been in a situation, probably similar to the one that we've been in, it's often comforting, even though it's wrong, it's often comforting to share war stories. And the next thing you know is, you know, these war stories turn into fish stories, if you know what I mean. Yeah, exactly. Whatever you've done, I've done worse. Exactly.
And so both of these gentlemen that I was talking about that have been to rehab now, I believe all rehabs have good stuff, but both said that once the treatment was out and they would be out around a campfire, for example, at night or sitting around just talking that that's where it would always go. It would go to who's done what worse and it becomes almost a bit of a contest. And I see that. You know, we caution against that. I see it as God, even in my classes at Insta. Right, exactly.
And we caution against that. You know, war stories do just the opposite of what Elder Anderson just invited us to do that you just read. He said, focus on the healing power of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. When our focus is there, our direction is true. And our focus is anywhere else. I mean, literally anywhere else. Our focus is untrue. When our focus is untrue, we can expect to live a life, a hellish life.
And that focus not only untrue, but when we intentionally move it to sensationalize and make bigger and and and and for whatever reason, you know, I've been tempted by this. I think we all have from time to time, you know. You think that was bad. Listen to this and and all that does all that does all that does is all that does is feed the negativity. It shifts the focus from where it should be, puts the focus on the enemy. And when we put the focus on the enemy, we get more of the enemy.
Yeah. Yeah, that's thank you, Scott. Elder Holland years ago touched on this in a in a wonderful talk. But anyway, he he said in essence, quote a few lines. The past is to be learned from, but not lived in. And some of those lessons are frankly too sacred and too personal to share. He says, Elder Holland, there's something in us, at least too many of us that particularly fails to forgive and forget earlier mistakes in life. Earlier mistakes we ourselves have made or the mistakes of others.
That is not good. It stands in terrible opposition to the grandeur and majesty of the atonement of Jesus Christ to be tried to be tied. Sorry, to be tied to earlier mistakes. Our own or others is the worst kind of wallowing in the past from which we are called to cease and desist. So Scott, this is a really important manifestation of repentance is that we will forsake the sin. That's how you know if a person is repented and probably even evidence of whether a person is forgiven.
This came to my attention early as a seminary teacher, as a seminary teacher. I used to like to enjoy having fun with kids on in my seminary classes on a Friday once in a while after a pep assembly or something like that. And they kind of have fun with them and relate to them and to let them know that I knew what they were going through or whatever in my youth and immaturity as a young seminary teacher. And I was sharing one day about something that I had done wrong in high school.
And Scott, I totally lost the spirit. I wrestled and I thought about that and it really affected me for a few days and I tried to apologize to God, to my students, but it was too late. I knew I had put negative thoughts in somebody else's mind and that that was going to have a negative effect on them.
And I don't know if I was perfect in that, but I really consciously tried from then on to never allow somebody to use me for an excuse or to be the reason why somebody else would do something stupid and committicine or be honest, dishonest or whatever it may have been. But we lose the spirit when we choose to talk about sins of our past. The Lord is not pleased if they have been forgiven, then they should not be repeated, not in word, not in word, not in deed, not even in our mind.
That's a tough one. I mean, let's just be honest, you know, I think that, you know, the word and the deed may be a little easier for us to accomplish. But even that, you know, even that comes with some challenge for some of us and some things, right? And that's just that thought, you know, and I think, speaking of thoughts, I think that that's just kind of a constant, a constant rewriting of the ship for me, you know, I just need to constantly, but if I... Tighten it up. We got to tighten it up.
But if I do what Elder Anderson invited us to do, and that's focus on the healing power of Jesus Christ and His Atonement, then that allows, again, and that gets back to, you know, if we just keep everything as foundational as we possibly can and as simple as we possibly can, it makes a lot of sense.
If we can just have the Spirit with us, if we always strive, and that begins on Sunday, which I partake of the sacrament, and I commit, you know, take His name upon me and always strive to have His Spirit be with me. Once that Spirit's with me, then those other things kind of work out, David. But that is a constant battle.
Maybe that's one of the reasons why it's important that we participate in constant, an attitude of constant daily repentance, and maybe that's why we take partake of the sacrament on a weekly basis. Absolutely. Absolutely. So again, to kind of summarize and repeat, when we think of past sins, our mind should be turned to the Savior, and we should be filled with gratitude for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, His mercy and His grace.
If we choose to think of that and to feel those feelings, it will strengthen us. If we don't, if we allow Satan to use our sins of the past to make us feel dirty, bad, whatever, then he breaks us down. And he further breaks us down when we continue to share it over and over again with others, and then he breaks down those who hear it. So we have to be forsaking sin is not just not repeating it again, not just stopping it or starting to do something that we should.
Forsaking sin means we don't even, we don't even really discuss it. I mean, maybe in generality, maybe in some generality, Scott, we bring it up, we talk about it, we express our gratitude for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that I've been forgiven. If somebody, if I were dating or newly married even, and somebody asks me, what about my past?
I think the inspired answer is, is that I know the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real, and I've repented of myself and I don't want to talk about it. I choose to focus on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and not my sins. If we have some addictions that we're really still maybe struggling with, if addiction is real in our life, well then we should be open about that with those that we love and who may be affected by those addictions.
If we've done something so bad that it's been in the law or in the media or whatever, well then we should share that because they're going to find out about it and it's out there. But we should probably just say, I'm so sorry and I know the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and I really made a terrible mistake once and I mean there's, we can talk about some things we've done in the past if they're really serious in generalities. And it should be as they relate to a restitution process.
Yes, and the Atonement itself. For example, I'll just give you an example, a personal example. I lived a life that has a lot of things in it that are probably just better not talked about. But in a general sense, if my children, my kids, if my youngest daughter who's 30 something now knows some of the general effects and so forth, then she can begin to make more sense of her messed up childhood, so to speak, and things of that nature.
And so when we forsake something, really when we use the word forsake, the word is abandoned. If we were to forsake our sins, that means we abandon it. We abandon everything about it. But if we abandon it without helping others who have been affected by it heal, then that's not right either.
And so we do have the, to forsake, it does mean to totally abandon it, but to your point, to be general in some of the things that have happened or that we need to talk about or that we need to deal with that may require professional counseling, that may require, I don't know, all kinds of different scenarios, you know.
But if we do that, then we're able to again fulfill this part of the process in forsaking our sins and at the same time help the Atonement of Jesus Christ or help the Spirit of the Holy Ghost be in other people's lives, be in my life as I'm attempting to make those restitution.
Even if those amends, another name for restitution, even if those amends are a living amends, if that's something that I have to do the rest, which it is, I'm blessed actually, to be able to do that the rest of my life in living and amends to those that were around me that were affected in negative ways because of the decisions of my past. Restitution is defined in the 1828 Noel Webster Dictionary.
And by the way, for many of our listeners, I'm sure some know this, but whenever I'm studying a certain gospel principle, I love to look up the meaning in the 1828 Noel Webster Dictionary because that was the dictionary of the language that Joseph Smith, the prophets used in the establishment of the restoration of the fullness of the gospel. So I like to look up words in the 1828 dictionary.
And I'm telling you, Scott, there can be small, but very significant change in how we use words today versus how they use them in 1828. But in the 1828 dictionary, it reads that restitution is made by restoring a specific thing taken away or lost. It is the act of recovering a former state or posture. So think about that in terms of what restitution really means. It's not just trying to restore what was lost from our sins, but it's actually recovering, recovering more than restoring.
It's recovering what was lost. A former state, a spiritual life, the spirit, recovering the spirit and the state and posture of our life. That's what restitution means. And that takes great work, Scott. There always has to be restitution in repentance because it's not just trying to make up for what was lost. It's trying to regain and to have restored our former spiritual state. Anyway, I think that's a really important part of restitution.
And President Harold B. Lee said about restitution that one in sin must show forth the fruits of his repentance. So it's interesting that again, President Lee refers to restitution as a manifestation of repentance. Not necessarily just the act of it, but a manifestation of it. He calls restitution as one of the fruits of our repentance. And then he says, he must make proper restitution to the limit of his power to restore that which he has taken away or to repair the damage he has done.
Now, Scott, I don't know about you, but it can be really easy when it comes to small sins to try to restore what was lost. But when it comes to some of our larger, more serious, greater sins, how much can we really restore? And there's the reliance on the Atonement of the Savior. Because we can't. There are just things, as I look back, and I don't want to do this too frequently or too often or with a wrong attitude, because this can turn into morbid reflection for any of us.
If we just go back and we consider... Yeah, we don't want to go down that road. No, because that's negative. And that's again a focus on... It causes us sin. It causes temptation and sin. That's right. And again, so if we just focus rather than all that... We've all heard it. You take a feather pillow, you cut it, and you throw the feathers out, try to gather them all back, it's just an impossibility. Well, that's how our sin is. It really is.
I mean, there's just no possible way that Scott Durfee or David Durfee or any of the rest of us will ever be able to fully create compensation or restitution or restoration for any of the sins that we've committed. Maybe for a few of them, but for some of them, and they don't even have to be that big, there's just effects on people that we can't undo. We just can't undo it. And so that's again why the reliance on the one who could, Jesus Christ, that's why it's so important for us.
Yeah. So a couple of the brother and him spoke about this. I love... This is in a worldwide church education system, fireside many years ago. Elder Merrill J. Bateman, former presiding bishop of the church, made this statement. I think it's really powerful. I'll never forget the many times I shared this quote in class, how the power that this quote had on some of the young people that I taught in my classes. So here's what he said. This is from March 5th, 2006, fireside.
Suppose through fornication, a young man and a young woman rob each other of their virtue. Can these young people return to the celestial path? Yes. Of course it is possible. But how is it done? How do they become clean again? The young man cannot return virtue to the young woman and nor can the woman return virtue to the young man. They can't return virtue to themselves. They've lost their virtue. Quote, the only person who can renew their virtue is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the only one with a capacity to restore virtue and completely cleanse the young man and woman. Scott, I know that God through the atonement of his Son, Jesus Christ, can restore everything, even virtue. I think I've told our listeners and you about my experience going to the prison with Elder Anderson. Elder Anderson wanted to meet our son, Isaac, and he wanted to go to prison to do it.
And he contacted the bishop there and the bishop asked him if he would be willing to meet with some of the other inmates and to answer maybe questions and to talk to them. And Elder Anderson graciously said he would. So we went to the prison early Sunday morning, 7 and 7, 7, 30. And there were a bunch of inmates dressed in white, their prison clothing in a room and Elder Anderson goes in and happy, happy Elder Anderson positive attitude, you know, says, wow, you're all dressed in white.
I thought maybe for a minute I was in the temple and they laugh and things loosen up and he goes around individually meeting each of them. I think I've told that story about the one prisoner that didn't want to shake his hand or want to see him and how kind and sweet Elder Anderson was with him. Anyway, he talks to them and then he asked them if they have any questions. We've been there for probably an hour or more. Men sitting on the aisle in the room, there were about 80 men present.
Man says, really Elder Anderson, what hope is there for some of us? Some of us have lost everything. We've lost everything. We've lost our wives. We've lost our children. We've lost our families. We've lost our membership in the church. We've lost everything. What hope is there for us? I never, Elder Anderson is one not to be too animated, never sensationalize, kind of came up on his toes and raised his voice and used his hand gestures and said, you have everything to hope for everything.
There is nothing that cannot be restored through the atonement of Jesus Christ. And he went off and just ran a list. I just I will never forget that Scott. I felt the spirit of that. It was it was an amazing to hear an apostle and a prophet to to exclaim in prison who not only some of these inmates felt they had lost everything but think of everything they had stolen or taken away from others.
And for Elder Anderson to exclaim, there is nothing that cannot be restored through the atonement of Jesus Christ was just an amazing thought for me. It still is. I'm still processing it after several years now. And I just think that that's again, according to our faith and understanding of the atonement of Jesus Christ, which is such an important foundation piece of this whole process, we call repentance.
Elder James of the 70 Razz band Elder James ran band gave a wonderful talk on this and he describes Alma's joy in Alma 36. That amazing joy Alma has when he, you know, after he's had the thought of Jesus Christ and he's filled with joy and exceeding as was his pain. And he's describing all of that. Well I love Elder Razz bands. Insight on that experience.
He writes this is in the April 2020 General Conference, but what was Alma's joy focus, but was Alma's joy focus solely on himself on his avoiding punishment and his being able to return to the father. We know that Alma also agonized about those whom he had led away from the truth. Right. That's part of the story. Alma himself could not heal and restore all those he had led away.
He could not himself ensure that they would be given a fair opportunity to learn the doctrine of Christ or would ever receive it and be blessed by living its joyful principles. He could not bring back those who may have died still blinded by his false teaching.
As President Boyd K. Packer once taught, I'm still quoting Elder Razz men, the thought that rescued Alma is this, restoring what you cannot restore, healing the wound you cannot heal, fixing that which you broke and you cannot fix is the very purpose of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The joyous truth on which Alma's mind caught hold was not just that he himself could be made clean, but also that those whom he had harmed could be healed and made whole. That's beautiful. Isn't that awesome?
Yeah, I love that. In General Conference. There's another part of this talk if you go down under the section called the Savior will mend all that we have broken. And this kind of gets back to a little bit about what I was talking about. Is it okay if I read that paragraph? Yeah, please. I love that paragraph. It is these truths that would have brought Alma peace. And it is these truths that should bring us great peace as well. As natural men and women, we all bump or sometimes crash.
I love the imagery of that. We all bump or sometimes crash into each other and cause harm. That almost makes it feel accidental in that I don't feel quite as in trouble, right? Because some of it was not an accidental bump. Some of it wasn't. No, some of it was quite intentional. As any parent can testify, the pain associated with our mistakes is not simply the fear of our own punishment.
But the fear that we may have limited our children's joy or in some way hindered them from seeing and understanding the truth. The glorious promise of the Savior's atoning sacrifice is that as far as our mistakes as parents are concerned, he holds our children blameless and promises healing for them. This kind of gets back to our episode from last week. And even when they have sinned against the light, as we all do, his arm of mercy is outstretched.
And he will redeem them if they will but look to him and live. Another definition of repentance, to look to him and live. To me, Dave, that paragraph right there, I remember when this came and Deb and I were, you know, when this talk happened, Deb and I were sitting in our living room and we were listening and, you know, we both struggle a little bit because of things like this. But that just, that was a balm of gillian. Kind of, you know. It was really a marvelous talk.
And he gave a, before he was ever called to be a general authority, he gave a similar talk, a little bit more detail. I don't know, I can't remember the exact year in a BYU devotional that our readers may want to, or our listeners may want to look up and read. So Scott, this is fundamental really to the doctrine of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
That Jesus Christ, right there, we taught this at least, there are three powers that flow into our lives and lives of others through his atoning sacrifice. One, redemptive power. We are redeemed through his blood. Second, the enabling power. We can be strengthened. We can be strengthened through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Not only forgiven, not only redeemed, not only cleansed, but we can be strengthened.
And third, there is the compensatory powers of the Atonement of Jesus Christ that make up and cover for all of the sins of our past. For all those we have heard, for all of that has been left in the wake of our sins, the compensatory powers of the Atonement of Jesus Christ either compensate us as victims or compensate our victims. That is the good news.
That is the glorious, beautiful truth of the Atonement of Jesus Christ that out of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, Scott, it's really, it's really Isaiah. You want to turn to Isaiah 61 verse 3, Scott, and read Isaiah 61.3. I love this passage. This is a passage that Jesus himself made reference to. All three verses, one through three are beautiful, but the compensatory powers, I think, are expressly referred to in verse 3. So Isaiah 61 verse 3, Scott. Yeah, you've made reference to this.
Even as recently as last podcast, this is a great scripture, to a point unto them that morning Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified. Think about that verse in terms of restitution. Why would we ever want to bring up the ashes? Why do we, why do, again, I'm kind of going back to forsaking the sin.
Not repeating it in word, not indeed, not even in thought. Why do we love to play in the ashes when, when if, if we would have faith in Jesus Christ and faith in his name, we could receive beauty. Now, why would we want to ever go back to the ashes? Scott, that's the power of Jesus Christ through his atoning sacrifice, which can be administered into our lives through again, power and the gift of the Holy Ghost and administered into the lives of others. Members are not members.
I believe that's Scott members are not members. And, and in many, in many instances, that power of that compensatory power of the atonement Jesus Christ is administered in the lives of the others unconditionally. We've talked about that, whether they know anything about Jesus Christ or not. The atonement of Jesus Christ administered in the lives of, of children and others who have suffered innocently.
And all of this was not King Benjamin says, and all of this, that there would be a righteous judgment. I did all of this, that there may be a righteous judgment so that all of us can consider ourselves in our situation as being blameless and we become blameless through the atonement of Jesus Christ. So, Scott, we've talked today about a little bit about forsaking the sin and what that really means.
I pray that our listeners will accept the invitation to really kind of be more mindful of what they're thinking, of what the, it may be even the Satan is trying to cause us to think and to think less about the sins of the past. Again, not ever forgetting them, but when we remember them, they should be with gratitude for the atonement of Jesus Christ and our thoughts should be turned to him.
And then not, not sharing them maybe is, oh, I don't even want to share some of the stories where I know individuals have broken that commandment, who really have thought they had repented, but because they continue to confess the sin over and over and over again to priesthood leaders and testimony meetings and class settings with individuals. They continue to openly share their sin and show their scars and it never quite ever has really healed over.
It's obvious that they haven't really repented and fell forgiven. I just think we have to really be careful about that because it causes ourselves and worse causes others to continue to sin. So forsaking the sin, I hope we can be mindful of what's in our mind and more discreet in what we say and what we choose to speak about. And then making restitution.
Scott is really based on our faith in Jesus Christ and his compensatory powers and experiencing the joy and not continually being haunted for the rest of the life for maybe since our sins caused others. That's the power and blessings I know and testify that as Elder Anderson said, there is nothing that the Atonement of Jesus Christ cannot restore.
I know for a fact for me that when I focus on or when I revisit sins and it creates inappropriate emotions or thoughts within me, I know my focus is inappropriately placed. I know that at that point my focus is on me, my focus is on my lack, my focus is on my mistake, my focus is on my distancing. Dating myself from the Spirit, my Heavenly Father and even looking for sympathy or even wearing it sometimes unfortunately like a badge of honor. Yeah, worse.
Look at me, you know, Purple Heart, Scott, you know, or whatever. I've been through this. If you had only been bad dude, I was really bad dude. Yeah, look at me now. Yeah, yeah, look how cool I am now, you know, that kind of thing. But when my focus is there, then I get the benefits of that focus and those benefits aren't beneficial. Those benefits are what comes from that. The production that comes from that is nothing but negative and it draws me further away.
It draws me much further away from the Spirit. But when I have thoughts and I have them, you know, I get the reminders and sometimes they're just loud and clear, you know, well, hello, that's because of this or this is how it's happening. But when those things come up, if I focus rather on the mistake, if I focus rather on me, if I focus rather on even the individuals that may or may not have been affected, I need to be aware.
But if my focus is not there and my focus is on Jesus Christ and Him crucified, if my focus is come unto me, where is He inviting me to come? If I go with Him to the garden. If I go with Him to the cross. If I'm in the garden tomb on resurrection morning, if His life is central to my life and that's my focus, when I have thoughts of those things that I've perpetuated in the past or when others have, when I have those thoughts, it's much more easy for me to fill the depth of gratitude.
When I fill a deeper gratitude, maybe even commensurate to the depth of hell that I've been through. I fill that depth of gratitude, commensurate to the depth of sorrow as I change and make sure that my focus is clear and that focus needs again to be on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, since you brought that up, and we're going to talk about this next week, but since you brought that up, I think that's one of the signs, Scott.
Again, one of the manifestations that we have repented is that when we do think of the past sins, our gratitude is greater than our sorrow. That's how you know you've been forgiven is that your gratitude for the Atom and Jesus Christ is greater than your sorrow. And I'm not saying that the sorrow is kneel or has gone away, but the gratitude is greater. So we'll talk next week. I'm really looking forward next week.
The final manifestation of repentance is to be able to recognize that we've been forgiven and that we forgive others. So forgiving others and ourselves will be our discussion next week, which I look forward to and actually will probably take two weeks on that one because I know it's such a relevant topic and there's so much to discuss. So many great examples to share. Great day. Thanks again, David, for coming over and doing this with me. I love the opportunity to be with you, to learn from you.
I know our listeners, slash students love learning from you as well and from the Spirit, most importantly. I know you've felt the Spirit. If you've given a cause and an opportunity to do that today, let that be a reminder that you've been redeemed through His blood. Let it also be a reminder that there's no sin too big for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, that through Him all things can be made right.
And as these manifestations start to manifest themselves in our own lives, it's our promise and our hope, but it's also our promise that the peace and understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ will bring us love and joy like we have never felt before. Thanks for being with us today. We look forward to being with you again next week. Until then, have a great week, everybody.