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Speaker: Glenn Rawson
Hi, this is Glenn Rawson. One of the most powerful ways to share history and heritage is by the telling of stories. We began sharing inspiring stories nearly 30 years ago. Each of those stories is true and was intended to inspire and strengthen faith. Over the years, those stories have reached millions around the world. This podcast is for you to listen, learn and enjoy.
First Story: William and Rachel Atkins 00:34
The following is a follow up story to William Atkin.. I just told you about him and his conversion in England. Well of course, William and Elizabeth joined the church and then they came across the plains in 1859. As part of the Rowley Handcart Company.
Now, many, many years later, like 40 years later, the event was the 18th of December 1899, the 45th wedding anniversary of Louella Atkin, her grandparents William and Rachel Atkins of St. George.
Now a number of the family after doing justice to the good things provided on the dining room table repaired to the parlor and on looking at my grandparents comfortably seated in their chairs, Louella ventured to say, “Is not this the happiest day of your lives, she said to her grandparents?”
After a few moments of reflection, Grandpa Atkins said, “Well, this certainly is a happy day to be so comfortably situated in this beautiful quiet home, blessed with so many loving friends and with such pleasant surroundings. But to give a direct answer to your question, I must say no. And I still have to go back 40 years to May 1859.”
“To tell you, he said the real happiest day of our lives when after seven years of diligent labor was prayer to our Heavenly Father to open the way for us to gather design. We found ourselves at Florence, Nebraska, on the banks of the Missouri River with our two children, both under two years of age, preparing to cross the plains.”
“On the ninth day of June 1859, our company consisting of 235 souls, 60 handcarts and 6 wagons started across the plains bound for the Salt Lake Valley. Our train had now gone and it was near sundown when we left. We traveled on until dark and again camped alone. Although we were in Indian Country, William said, and nearly every white man we met was an avowed enemy of the Mormon people yet he said we were not afraid, but laid down and took sweet rest.”
“In the morning we started out early and arrived at the Green River. This is in Wyoming now. We found that our company had crossed it the night before, and they were gone out of our sight. Your grandma and I looked at the river. And I said to her, “We cannot cross this river alone.” She replied, “No, but the Lord will help us over.”
“At these words, my heart seemed to leap for joy. And I said, “Yes, he surely will.” We then knelt down and in all humility, told our Heavenly Father that we were doing all in our power to keep his commandments, and to gather design. And now we had come to this river and could not cross it alone. We knew he could help us. And we now relied on him to assist us over (your grandma and I) then William said, “Pulled our cart into the river, which was swollen. We could see the deep water just ahead of us. But every step we took, the deep water was still one step ahead. We landed on the western bank, without even wetting the actual tree of our cart. Our hearts were full of gratitude to our Heavenly Father for thus again, answering our prayers.”
“With him concluded, we arrived in Salt Lake City on the 10th of November 1859. That was indeed, the happiest day of our lives. For after a hard journey of a thousand miles with the handcarts, we had now arrived at the place we had toiled so long to reach.”
I wasn’t planning to say this, but I’ve been to a few places around the world where miracles have occurred, or at least error calls are reported to have occurred in that location. And as often as not, it has been turned into a shrine and a church. Just been built exactly over this spot where these things supposedly happened.
Miracles are rare in this world. You know that right? The kinds of miracles we’re talking about like we just described, they are rare, out there in the world. Miracles are wonders seldom seen, and often celebrated when they are known because they’re so uncommon.
But I have lived long enough and studied enough to know that among our people, among you, miracles are very common. They happen all the time. The Lord said, “When there’s faith, miracles do not cease.”
I witness that there are miracles, and the stories are coming to me. I see them, I read them. Miracles are still happening among the Lord’s people now among you, you are so unusual in this world. Indeed. You are peculiar people. All right, moving on.
Second Story: Thing of Naught 06:15
We live in very uncivil times. Anything goes and what the people of this world will say and how they will act towards one another. Please consider this story.
On Friday, the Son of God and Lord of life, was judged as evil and not worthy to live. The mob stripped him of his clothes, and nailed Him to a cross. He was crucified for our sins. He died for us. Have you ever considered how His atoning agony, already incomprehensible, must surely have been intensified by the cruel words of those who stood by his cross?
Listen carefully, to what his tormentors said as he hung and suffered there. The passersby railed on him, wagging their heads and saying, “Ah, thou who destroy us the temple and build a city in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross.”
Can’t you just hear that taunt? If you really were of God, and had the power you claimed you did, you would come down from there. The chief priests joined in and said mockingly, “He saved others, let Him save Himself, if he be the Christ, the chosen of God.”
It was as if the rulers were saying to all Israel, see, he’s not the Son of God, he’s not of God. God would never let such a thing as this happen to a truly righteous man. Even the soldier standing by the Savior’s cross, took up the mocking chorus, “…if Thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.”
And finally, the thief at his side said, “If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us.”
All seemed to be saying, “You are a liar!” If you were all you said, you were, this would not be happening to you, hypocrite, deceiver.
Did all of this hurt the Savior? Oh, yes. Through the psalmist the Savior said, “Reproach has broken my heart and I am full of heaviness. And I looked for some to take pity, but there was none and for comforters, but I found none. [Psalms 69 and 20]
They did not understand. No good man they assumed and especially the Son of God would ever be crucified. They arrogantly judged him as evil by his circumstance, just as Isaiah said they would.
Isaiah said, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.” [Isaiah 53].
They blindly considered Jesus’s crucifixion, as punishment by God, and so accused him. What they did not understand was that Jesus, the just, was being punished for us, for them – the unjust. His suffering at that moment was ours. And his death was on our behalf. God was punishing him with our stripes and their caustic words only made it worse. When it was said, they still looked at him whom they pierced [Zechariah 12]. I wonder, was it only the spear that pierced his heart that day?
Today, the worst of things can and will happen to the best of people. Things like rebellion of children, ruin, scandal, divorce, illness, so much more. I pray, never again will I, will you make their hearts cross heavier by my wagging head and careless words.
I have come to believe, my friends, that those who spend their time waiting for the crosses of others, making them heavier, waiting for the crosses of others will sooner or later get nailed to one themselves.
Third Story: A Child’s Gift 11:18
This story is modern. It happened about, I guess, about 20 years ago. Very powerful story and the identities of the people involved, I’ve been asked to protect.
Ancient prophets saw our day and they saw our weaknesses. Among those things that they foresaw is that moderns would struggle with an ordinate love of money and of toys?
Well, perhaps it’s timely to remind us, me of a principle that the Savior taught, he said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust stuff corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
And what exactly does that mean? What is her treasure in heaven? I think this story will illustrate.
I know a young man that we will call John, he wouldn’t want you to know his real name. After finishing two years of faithful service as a missionary to the Lord, he went off to college, where he worked days and went to school at night until he had completed a master’s degree.
Along the way he married a sweet supporting wife and started a family. After graduation, John was hand picked out of a large field and hired by a company developing new computer technology. The company was an instant success, and John came in to more than a considerable sum of money.
But back in Idaho, John’s parents were struggling. They had mortgaged their own home to purchase another one for a daughter and the deal had gone awry. Now these wonderful parents were reduced to working menial extra jobs, just to keep from losing both homes.
One day, John called home to talk with his mother concerning gift ideas for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. During the course of the conversation, mom shared her worries about this grinding debt that had disrupted their lives. At that time, it was the farthest thing from her mind to ask her son for help, or even to expect it from him.
Evidently, the news deeply troubled him and he kept calling back to ask how much they needed to clear the debt. Well, as you can understand, the parents were somewhat evasive in their answers. And finally, John put it straight to his mother.
“Mom, how much do you need?” Somewhat offhandedly, mom said, “Well, about $77,000 would pay off this vacant second home.” She never expected what happened next.
A few days letter. A letter came in the mail. When she opened it up inside was a check for $80,000 with a simple little note that said, “Pay off the house.”
Well, mom and dad tried to give the money back. John wouldn’t take it. They insisted that they would repay the money. But he wouldn’t have that either.
Finally, John told his somewhat overwhelmed and tearful mother. “No mom, I don’t want the money back. Mom. Go spend the money.”
Well, Mom and Dad told me that they were so overwhelmed by such a generous and loving gift that they would just be driving down the road, turn and look at each other and just begin to cry when they realized that the debt was gone and their son had given them back their freedom.
Story doesn’t end there. Because you see, there’s also a touching postscript to the story.
John’s aged grandparents at that time, lived in an older, rundown double wide trailer in a small Idaho town. Their income was meager and fixed, and their health was declining.
One day grandpa went out to the mailbox, when suddenly he called out to his wife, “Mother, come see this.” Grandma came, and grandpa handed her a letter from John containing a check for $20,000. Why? No reason, just to make their retirement a little easier.
Grandpa and Grandma sat down right there on the curb, and cried. Now, my friends, where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.
If the Lord or His servants came today and asked for all of it, could you give it? I think you could. I’ve lived long enough now to be blessed with children. Like John, I can’t tell you how grateful I am.
Fourth Story: Lord, if Thou Wilt 16:30
Last story for the night. At the time of the Savior, leprosy was a terrible, incurable disease. Elder James E. Talmage said “Leprosy was nothing short of a living death, a corrupting of all the humors, a poisoning of the very springs of life, a dissolution little by little of the whole body so that one limb after another actually decayed and fell away.”
Moreover, the curse of leprosy went beyond the physical torment. The person so afflicted was considered unclean under the Law of Moses, and required to separate themselves from all human contact. They were cast out and cut off from home, family, friends and all love in association and consigned to live in the ruins or tombs, with only the company of others similarly cursed to die slowly, scarcely. Could there be a more miserable, disgusting way to live, suffer and slowly die in pieces than leprosy?
Somewhere in the Galilee. Early in the Masters Ministry, a man full of leprosy, approached the Savior, and fell before him, worshiping. “Lord, he cried, if thou wilt thou can’t make me clean.”
The men knew the Messiah had the power to heal him. But would he? Would he take pity on one so unworthy, so loathsome and despised? Mark records, “…And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and said unto him, “I will be thou clean.”
What a sight it must have been for immediately. The leprosy fell away, and the man was made whole before their very eyes. You imagine the man’s gratitude.
Jesus straightly commanded the man to tell no one. But go to the priests and present the offering required by the law of Moses. Jesus had made him whole, the priests would pronounce him clean, and bring him back into the community. There’s more to that story.
What if that leper in a manner of speaking represents every single one of us, in our fallen unrepented state. Our sins, the misery there of and it’s low, some effects slowly killing all of us spiritually. But then, we learn of Jesus and we come to Him knowing full well that we are unworthy, sick and afflicted spiritually before him. We asked for his help and when no one else can help us when no one else will help us, He will. No matter who or what or how bad off we may be, it is required of all of us to ask for his help. And when we do, like that leper, bold enough to ask Jesus will reach across all distances and with this healing hand, touch us still and heal us, no matter how loathsome the disease.
I love the Savior. I will never be able to say it enough for all that he’s done for me. I love the Savior. And I hope you do too.
Thank you for listening. Many of the stories you heard today have been published and are archived at GlennRawsonstories.com. If you would like more information you can communicate with us there. We will be back again with another podcast next week.
Thank you for listening. Many of the stories you heard today have been published and are archived at glennrawsonstories.com. If you would like more information you can communicate with us there. We will be back again with another podcast next week.
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