Do NOt Drop the Ball

Do not drop the ball

Consider those who've passed

Give to them your all

Give them the gift that lasts

Gordon B. Hinckley,
“Don’t Drop the Ball,”
Ensign, Nov 1994, 46

King Follet Sermon

Elder King Follet had been crushed

The congregation was hushed

With prayers to be verified

Each hoped to be edified

On this grave subject of death

The Prophet Joseph was led

And he offered up his own thoughts

Of all those present... none would forget!

"In the morn of creation"....

(He began with earth's formation

Wanting to say things just right...

And not lead away from light.)

"The beasts could eat, drink, and sleep

But, not comprehend what is deep;

Yet, man has been given a heart

To comprehend what heaven imparts."

As it is with faith, visions appear.

He turned  their minds to lofty spheres,

"Have you sought God and communed?

To this desire may your heart be tuned

For I have communed, heard, and seen

The living God in being

All we know of life eternal

Comes from Him supernal!"

"Of what I can comprehend

May I unto you extend?

God once was as we are now

And of this truth, I avow

Adam, made in His own image

Was prepared for life's pilgrimage

We too have been prepared for our day

As God, Himself, started this way!"

"May I take the veil away

And teach of Him today?

The head God brought forth other God's

Though translations are at odds.

God had once been like yourself.

Now the Father hath power himself.

The Savior will help us to reprise

Through degrees of grace to arise!"

"I know of whom we all belong

I can prove the world is wrong

For there are errors in God's book

As translators misnamed and mistook

One says Jacob, one says James...

Gone the message of how God saves

But through the Godhead we've a first hand book

That teaches us how to discern and look."

"Silence your hands and your voices

He who may hear rejoices

To the lawyers who but flutter

We laugh at what they utter

And then console those who mourn

Unto a hope that's been reborn

Jesus has tread in God's own tracks

And has taught us, perfectly, the grand way back."

"When Jesus spoke of His death

Something He said hints of depth

'As the Father hath power...

Even hath the Son power'

To lay down life and then rise

Our Father had known demise!

Of this the Bible does not dispute

Who, then, will believe or dare to refute?"

"Those live's laid down and dissolved

Must repent and be absolved.

Though we're to be immortal

There is more- to rise eternal!

God's kingdom requires man's humbling

He too went through great fear and trembling

Let us avoid everlasting burning

And keep our covenants... continually learning"

"When you climb up a long ladder

You rise with strength you have gathered.

Ever you arrive but step by step.

Then to slip quickly as you misstep.

Now, we have learned of exaltation-

How to build upon a sound foundation.

Mortality awaits for our education.

Ever there are times of self-evaluation."

"We have learn of God's very own character

As the heavens reveal, with faith we factor.

The Father had a grand council

To create, plan, and excel.

From the element, serials-

They organized materials.

Was earth once made of nothing?

Even we are made of something!"

"The plan for mankind was laid.

Out of earth, all life was made.

With a tabernacle of clay

Adam, the first man gave way.

His spirit was placed inside.

In the garden, he did reside.

He transgressed, fell- now we all sin

But through Christ, our souls we will win."

"Intelligence comprehends

What has beginning too must end.

But our spirits, they have neither

And we will go on forever.

The Holy Ghost knows of all

From the Father, for the long haul;

To help us climb life's long ladder

To be happier and not sadder."

"Our eternal life will be good

I know I will taste its sweet fruit!

To have glory, truth, knowledge, light

Power, priesthood, and keen insight-

I proclaim this with boldness.

May each spirit find their access

And of those who have passed beyond the veil

I will help them so they will not fail."

"We're either in grace or dread,

Spiritually alive or dead,

With God or separated,

Lonely or family related,

Either allowed or are barred.

Physically or spiritually scarred

As we are of intelligence

We will continue to learn more hence."

"When our friend was buried alive

We knew there was no way to survive.

Gravely... we ponder mortality

And wish for keen answers to see.

What can we do now that he has passed?

Give him something supernal that lasts!

We will baptize all his family dead

And seal them together for what lies ahead."

... shall comment on the very first Hebrew word
in the Bible; I will make a comment on the very
first sentence of the history of creation in the
Bible—Berosheit. I want to analyze the word.
Baith—in, by, through, and everything else.
Roch—the head, Sheit—grammatical termination.
When the inspired man wrote it, he did not put
the baith there. An old Jew without any authority
added the word; he thought it too bad to begin to
talk about the head! It read first, "The head one
of the Gods brought forth the Gods." That is the
true meaning of the words. Baurau signifies to
bring forth. If you do not believe it, you do
not believe the learned man of God. Learned men
can teach you no more than what I have told you.
Thus the head God brought forth the Gods in the grand council.
Joseph Smith, "King Follet Sermon."
------------------------------------
On the other hand, the whole design
of the gospel is to lead us onward
and upward to greater achievement,
even, eventually, to godhood. This
great possibility was enunciated by
the Prophet Joseph Smith in the
King Follet sermon (see Teachings of the
Prophet Joseph Smith,
pp. 342–62; and emphasized by
President Lorenzo Snow. It is this grand
and incomparable concept: As God now is,
man may become! (See The Teachings of
Lorenzo Snow, comp. Clyde J. Williams,
Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1984, p. 1.)

Our enemies have criticized us for believing
in this. Our reply is that this lofty concept
in no way diminishes God the Eternal Father.
He is the Almighty. He is the Creator and
Governor of the universe. He is the
greatest of all and will always be so.
But just as any earthly father wishes for
his sons and daughters every success in life,
so I believe our Father in Heaven wishes for
his children that they might approach him in
stature and stand beside him resplendent in
godly strength and wisdom.

Gordon B. Hinckley, “Don’t Drop the Ball,”
Ensign, Nov 1994, 46

Do not drop the ball

Consider those who've passed

Give to them your all

Give them the gift that lasts