Elder David S. Baxter Urges LDSBC Students to Follow Jesus

Contributed By By Sonja Carlson, Church News staff writer

  • 20 February 2014

Elder David S. Baxter addresses LDS Business College students in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square on February 11.  Photo by Sonja Carlson.

Elder David S. Baxter of the Seventy addressed LDS Business College students during a college devotional in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square February 11. Drawing on the Star of David (also known as the Shield of David) motifs found on the building, Elder Baxter presented six points:

1. There is a God in heaven, He is our Eternal Father, and we are His spirit offspring.

“Our loyalty and devotion runs first to Him, as was so magnificently patterned by Jesus Christ.”

2. Stay true to what we know to be true.

He asked, “Are we weakened with fear and doubt or growing stronger in the faith through relentless resolve, fortified faith, constant courage, and decided determination? … Are we faint-hearted and lily-livered or grounded and set, constant and immovable?”

3. Obey the laws, doctrines, and commandments of the Lord.

“As we prove to be obedient, we are all entitled to all the blessings of heaven. There is no substitute for straightforward, noncompromising obedience to God’s law,” he said. “In this there truly is safety and peace.”

4. Live good and productive lives.

“Our hope is that academic excellence, the glory of God’s intelligence, ... matched with discipleship, doing good and being good, will become the golden threads that will be woven through the tapestry of your lives,” he said.

5. Welcome adversity.

“If we allow Him to do so, the Lord will use our life challenges to shape our character, to carve until our divine potential is set free.”

6. It is an absolute necessity to follow Jesus Christ in every aspect of life.

“Come, follow me” was Christ’s divine call to “be as He is, to think as He thinks, to act as He acts, to speak as He speaks, to strengthen and bless others, to establish the Church as He has done, to put God first in everything as He has always done.”

  Listen