Raised in the Episcopal Church with a Jewish Godmother and an Episcopal Priest for a Godfather, BYU Professor David Dollahite found God's eternal love from the words in the Book of Mormon. Dollahite shared his "journey to Christ" at this week's Devotional, emphasizing the blessings of the eternal and the need to resist the ephemeral.
Sharing his conversion story, Dollahite explained the power of the Book of Mormon.
"I reached up and took the Book of Mormon down and began to read, said Dollahite. "From the first verse I experienced a strange, powerful and wonderful feeling, kind of like shivers up and down my spine."
Finding whatever free time he could, Dollahite kept reading the Book of Mormon. As he neared the end, quite early one morning, he felt he needed to finish the last 20 pages. He soon read Moroni 10:3-5, an invitation to pray about the book. As he prayed, the experience was even more powerful.
"I felt the same type of wonderful spiritual feelings I had felt since I first began reading the Book of Mormon but at an incredibly intensified level of power and depth. It was as if a river of pure water rushed through me, washing away all my sins. It was also like a raging fire purging away my old self. I felt completely clean and like an entirely new person."
Dollahite hoped this story would remind those listening about how God has blessed them. He also suggested that it must be hard to be without the light and power of Christ's gospel.
"The Lord honors our moral agency," said Dollahite. "We must choose to repeatedly receive the eternal and to resist the ephemeral at crucial crossroads in life as well as in daily habits."
Dollahite finished his conversion story by sharing his knowledge that God loves all his children.
"We have been blessed to learn about a variety of ways that our friends of other faiths make efforts to resist the ephemeral and receive the eternal in their lives," Dollahite said. "These practices represent intentional efforts by our friends of faith to receive the eternal into their lives. They are sacredly similar to our own efforts in homes, chapels, and temples to make and keep eternal covenants through participation in priesthood ordinances."
Dollahite concluded with an invitation for all in attendance to share the eternal.
"I invite you to record and share those sacred times when you have received the eternal into your life. Doing so will be a blessing for you, and others, and for future generations."
Next Devotional: David A. Whitchurch, BYU Ancient Scripture associate professor
The next BYU Devotional address will be given by David A. Whitchurch, associate professor of Ancient Scripture on Tuesday, October 4, at 11:05 a.m., in the Marriott Center.
His remarks will be broadcast live on BYUtv and BYUtv.org, KBYU-TV 11, Classical 89 FM and BYU Radio.
