December 22 — Wise Men, Kings, Prophets. Numbers 24:17 “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.”
Matthew 2:8-12 “And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. 9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.”
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In 1893 English poet Francis Thompson, referred to God’s relentless pursuit of man as the ‘hound of heaven’. Some of us can look back in life, and see how Mr. Thompson’s analogy is apropos. How long did Jesus pursue you before you submitted to Him as Lord, and God?
While God has provided more than enough signs revealing Himself as truth, only a few will heed His call. The wise men were aware of what God said in His word, and reacted by following the sign of a star He placed in the sky leading them to the Christ child.
Unlike the wise men, Herod and many others, choose to busy themselves doling out false promises if people would just heed their counsel.
Those in early Utah Mormonism listened to, and believed the lie of Brigham Young’s promise that kings, and wise people would make an arduous trek just to visit the Mormon people. No such event ever took place, yet 153 years later, the LDS leadership was still bragging about Young’s unwise claim. He was masquerading as an angel of light – 2 Corinthians 11:14.
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General Conference, ‘The Church Goes Forward’, April 2002 “In 1849, two years after our people first arrived here and following the discovery of gold in California, many were discouraged. They had struggled to wrest a living from the arid soil. Crickets had devoured their crops. The winters were cold. Many thought they would go to California and get rich. President Young stood before them and encouraged them to remain, promising that “God will temper the climate, and we shall build a city and a temple to the Most High God in this place. We will extend our settlements to the east and west, to the north and to the south, and we will build towns and cities by the hundreds, and thousands of the Saints will gather in from the nations of the earth. This will become the great highway of the nations. Kings and emperors and the noble and wise of the earth will visit us here” (in Preston Nibley, Brigham Young: The Man and His Work [1936], 128).” — Gordon Hinckley
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Maybe BY was referring to ‘formerly known as” Prince, Nat KING Cole, Duke Ellington. Otherwise, liar!