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***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If you\u2019re unaware of the documentary Remembering Heaven<\/em><\/a>, you should know that it will have its premiere on Wednesday, 4 May 2022, at 7:00 PM.\u00a0 The screening will take place at the Megaplex at Jordan Commons, located at 9335 State Street in Sandy, Utah.\u00a0 Specifically, it will be in Auditorium 13, which is a 292-seat theater.\u00a0 (Moreover, I\u2019m told that Auditorium 13 has been fully converted to luxury<\/em> seats.\u00a0 Just in case you\u2019re wondering about that.)\u00a0 The film will be followed by a short session for questions and answers.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Unfortunately, I won\u2019t be able to attend the premiere.\u00a0 So I hope that somebody can go and then give me a report on how the evening went.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This passage from William Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cOde on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood\u201d was once widely known among Latter-day Saints because of its use in the Church film Man\u2019s Search for Happiness<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;<\/span> \u00a0<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think that it\u2019s very much remembered nowadays, but it\u2019s directly relevant to the theme of Remembering Heaven<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I would also like to call to your attention the fact that the annual convention of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS)<\/a> will be held this year at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center, from Wednesday, 31 August 2022, through Sunday, 4 September 2022.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m scheduled to be returning to the United States from a trip overseas only early on the afternoon of Thursday, 1 September, but I hope to take in as much of the conference as I\u2019m able.\u00a0 Perhaps some of you will come, too?\u00a0 If you\u2019re interested, don\u2019t forget to mark your calendars.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Several years ago, there was a reference in our sacrament meeting to the concept, advanced by S. Michael Wilcox, of a \u201cfourth-watch God.\u201d\u00a0 I liked it, and I thought that I would share with you an excerpt from an interview with Brother Wilcox that\u2019s available online.\u00a0 In it, explains what he means by the concept:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Q: \u00a0<\/strong>You\u2019ve said, in essence, that God is sometimes, not always, but sometimes a \u201c4th Watch God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Would you encapsulate and review the Biblical account and extract that principle for our listeners and seekers today?<\/span><\/p>\n Mike:<\/strong>\u00a0The phrase \u201cthe fourth watch\u201d comes from the account in Mark, and others in the New Testament, where the Savior during the day has fed the 5,000 and He sends the Apostles down to the Sea of a Galilee while He\u2019s going to dismiss the multitude. Then He will pray, and the Savior will often pray a long time. So it\u2019s late afternoon, early evening, when the Savior sends the Apostles down to the ship and they get in it and a storm comes up.<\/span><\/p>\n The phrase that Mark uses is \u201cthe wind was contrary to them and they toiled in rowing against the wind.\u201d That expression is so fit for so many of us in our lives, I know in my own life, and I look at my children\u2019s lives; we toil in rowing against the wind. There\u2019s blessing we want but don\u2019t have, there\u2019s a trial we want over that isn\u2019t over yet. In John\u2019s account they row for about the equivalent for 75 football fields against the wind, and they\u2019re discouraged, they\u2019re tired. Hope is starting to wane. In Mark\u2019s account I think one of the first things that really gives me comfort is that he says He saw them toil in rowing, He saw them. I\u2019ve been to the Sea of Galilee a number of times and you can see the hills around the lake. I picture Him up there looking down on them, but they don\u2019t know He\u2019s looking down on them. Sometimes in our own lives He\u2019s looking, He\u2019s watching, He sees us toiling and rowing\u2013we may not always realize that He sees us. And then it says that in the fourth watch of the night He came to them walking on the water.<\/span><\/p>\n The Hebrew day is roughly divided into 12 hours; six in the morning, roughly, was the first hour, so the sixth hour is noon, the ninth hour is about three in the afternoon. The night was divided into four watches; roughly six at night to nine at night, nine to midnight, midnight to three, the fourth watch\u2013three in the morning to sunrise. \u00a0And it\u2019s in the fourth watch that He comes.<\/span><\/p>\n So I often say to myself and to others, we worship a Fourth-Watch God. \u00a0In many areas of our lives He seems to allow us to toil in rowing against the wind. There must be something good in developing spiritual muscle. The problem is that I\u2019m usually a first-watch person, or a second-watch person. And when the third watch starts, and He\u2019s not come and my trial is not over and my blessing is not arrived, we may begin to make some assumptions that are dangerous. We may begin to assume that He\u2019s not there, or that He\u2019s there but doesn\u2019t care, or He\u2019s not listening, or maybe the most dangerous assumption \u2018I\u2019m not worthy.\u2019 And I think the correct assumption I try to make\u2013in my own fourth-watch times or with my children or friends\u2013He\u2019s there, He listens, He cares, we\u2019re as worthy as we can be. We\u2019ve not yet reached the fourth watch, and when we reach the fourth watch, He will come.<\/span><\/p>\n Now I think in one area He\u2019s a First-Watch God, and that is whenever I ask for forgiveness. Then it\u2019s a first watch, He comes immediately to give forgiveness. But in many other areas of life I need to endure until the fourth watch.<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re interested in further reflection on this topic, the concept of a \u201cfourth-watch God\u201d is included, online<\/a>, in a BYU Education Week talk that Brother Wilcox delivered in 2005.<\/p>\n
\nThe Soul that rises with us, our life\u2019s Star,<\/span>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Hath had elsewhere its setting<\/span>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0And cometh from afar;<\/span>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Not in entire forgetfulness,<\/span>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 And not in utter nakedness,<\/span>
\nBut trailing clouds of glory do we come\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0From God, who is our home.<\/span><\/p>\n