Remembering What is Important

Remembering is an important thing to do, and remembering what is important is even more critical if we wish to succeed. But what is success? If you could remember from a past existence that you were sent here to do something specific and that you in fact made a covenant with God to do a certain something for him, then that would be an important thing to remember and in fact that would be your success, your great success to accomplish what you promised God that you would do!

Today I read a talk by Henry D. Taylor called “And Always Remember Him“. It spoke of the Last Supper of our Lord with His 12 Apostles the night preceding His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. He instituted what we refer to as the Sacrament where He commissioned His apostles to eat the blessed bread and wine in remembrance of His body and blood that would be sacrificed for them. This sacrifice is called the Atonement and enables all true followers of Jesus to repent and find forgiveness of their sins and become pure and holy before God that they can one day come back alive and then literally go back into the presence of God to live with Him forever in Heaven. This is what the scriptures mean when it says in John 3:16:

16 ¶ For ^aGod so ^bloved the ^cworld, that he ^dgave his ^eonly begotten ^fSon, that whosoever ^gbelieveth in him should not perish, but have ^heverlasting ⁱlife.

Everlasting life is not only to live forever, but to also life in God’s presence which is the reason we are here, to see if we will accept Him in the world, repent of our sins, keep His commandments so that we can go back to live with Him forever. This place is just a test. Read this scripture:

Abraham 3:25:

25 And we will ^aprove them herewith, to see if they will ^bdo all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;

This is just to prove to God that we will do all that He commands us! Did you know that? Do you remember that? Can you remember that all the time? Why is it important?

I read also today in the Book of Mormon why it is important to remember that and to prove to God and to ourselves that it is important:

Mosiah 5:15:

15 Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in ^agood works, that Christ, the ^bLord God Omnipotent, may ^cseal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who ^dcreated all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen.

In reading that I would like to point out that this life is just a short, little, yet important test to see if you and I qualify to humble ourselves, do God’s will that we may be “brought to heaven” and live with God forever. That whole chapter also discusses making a covenant to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and always keeping Him in our remembrance. Why is it so difficult to remember? It is so easy to get caught up in the latest movie, or the latest series, or the latest professional sports which are fun, but do they move us closer in doing God’s will? How important is it to deny ourselves of all sin and things of this world so that we can always remember our Lord and do His will? This scripture shows what we should remind ourselves of in order to prepare ourselves for the Life after this Life if we want to be with God forever, because if we expect to be with Him in the next life, we must learn to remember Him in this life and remember to do His will and prove to Him that we want to be with Him:

Enos 1:23:

23 And there was nothing save it was exceeding ^aharshness, ^bpreaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually ^creminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgments and the power of God, and all these things—stirring them up ^dcontinually to keep them in the fear of the Lord. I say there was nothing short of these things, and exceedingly great plainness of speech, would keep them from going down speedily to destruction. And after this manner do I write concerning them.

Why is it that we need to be reminded of the judgements of God and the length of eternity in order for us to wake up and remember to do God’s will, repent and keep His commandments. It is so easy to become lax and forget Him. He wants you to return to live with Him. He will help you return to live with Him, but He will never force you to live with Him. It is on you to remember, to repent and to prepare to live with Him forever. It is worth it! Please wake up and remember!! I will continue to do the same, it is a daily task just like the Doobie Brothers said: “Minute by minute, by minute!” 🙂 I hope you will remember who you are, why you were sent here, that God loves you and that He wants you to return to live with Him forever and ever and ever!

I think the lyrics to this song could be taken as a plea from God that He is the One that is waiting minute by minute, and is holding on for us to return to Him:

Minute by Minute

Hey, don’t you worry, I’ve been lied to
I’ve been here many times before
Girl, don’t you worry, I know where I stand
I don’t need this love, I don’t need your hand
I know I could turn, blink, and you’d be gone
Then I must be prepared any time to carry on

But minute by minute by minute by minute
I keep holding on
Oh, minute by minute by minute by minute
I keep holding on

You will stay just to watch me, darlin’
Will away on lies from you
Can’t stop the habit of livin’ on the run
I take it all for granted like you’re the only one

Livin’ on my own
Somehow that sounds nice
You think I’m you fool
Well, you may just be right

But minute by minute by minute by minute
I keep holding on
Oh, minute by minute by minute by minute
I keep holding on

Call my name and I’ll be gone
You’ll reach out and I won’t be there
Just my luck you’ll realize
You should spend your life with someone
You could spend your life with someone

But minute by minute by minute by minute
I keep holding on
Oh, minute by minute by minute by minute
I keep holding on

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Free Will

God is the creator of an absolutely amazing universe of such depth and breadth that it boggles the mind. I was just eating a banana and enjoying its wonderful flavor. How is it that we can see, and hear, and taste and smell and feel. It is all so amazing.

Our creator didn’t have to give us free will. He could have built into us compliance to His will since He is the creator, but He didn’t, He gave us the ability to choose and that is why there is so much chaos in the world and so much confusion because we all can choose what we want. It is both a blessing and a curse.

Our sincere need in this existence is to come to the realization that God loves us and wants us to choose His will over all the other choices that we have. It is just that simple. Doing His will brings us happiness, joy and purpose because He knows what is best, He knows what is good. The rules He established for us as commandments are to help us find happiness and joy, not to limit us, but to free us. If we could only understand that we would seek daily to do His will. For those who know this and have seen both sides, they understand the light and joy that I am talking about. It is so freeing, it is so enlightening, it is what we were created for. We were created to do His will, yet He let’s us choose to figure that out or not.

That is the pinnacle of existence so there is nothing more to say on the topic. I feel that knowing and living this is Nirvana or enlightenment. It is not just a state of knowing about God and Truth, but living God and Truth and then as Jesus said: “The Truth shall set you free.” He is the Way, The Life and the Truth. If you love Him, keep His commandments and they will set you free. You can only know what I am talking about, if you test it for yourself. Commit today to seek God, to know Him and to follow His rules, to repent of all that you have done wrong in breaking His commandments, and then decide to live them for you and for Him. Then you will know freedom like you have never understood before. Freedom that makes me cry tears of joy literally and right now.

Shalom, may you allow God to be in your life now and forever and ever and ever because there is no end to God, He is Eternal and Eternal is His name.

Bring Up Your Children in Light and Truth

In the 93 Section of the Doctrine and Covenants in several different verses many of the early church leaders were chastised and told of their condemnation before the Lord because of the fact that they had not taught their children light and truth. Here are some examples:

Verses 41-43:

41 But verily I say unto you, my servant Frederick G. Williams, you have continued under this condemnation;

42 You have not ^ataught your children light and truth, according to the commandments; and that wicked one hath power, as yet, over you, and this is the cause of your ^baffliction.

43 And now a commandment I give unto you—if you will be delivered you shall set in ^aorder your own house, for there are many things that are not right in your house.

And in Verse 50:

50 My servant Newel K. Whitney also, a bishop of my church, hath need to be ^achastened, and set in ^border his family, and see that they are more ^cdiligent and concerned at home, and pray always, or they shall be removed out of their ^dplace.

It seems that for them and for any believer that does not take responsibility to teach their children the Light and Truth of God and set their family in order and be diligent and pray always, they could be removed and condemned and afflicted. It seems that it is of upmost importance to teach children about God.

I have a profound and powerful testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know the Jesus Christ lives and dwells in Heaven. This is not just a hope, not just faith. I have felt the Holy Spirit testify the Truth of that to me so many, many times. Far too many to think that I could conjure the feelings of it up by myself.

I often wonder why it is that I have such a powerful testimony of Jesus and His gospel and my children do not. Didn’t they go to the same church as I did? Didn’t they all graduate from a 4 year seminary program where they were taught all about the gospel? Didn’t they go to church all the while they grew up in my house? How did they go through that and yet now not one of them desire to go to church or to serve in any capacity in this church or any other. Have I failed? I think so, and miserably. Why am I different? I think it may be because I have sought to know God diligently and I have sinned so many times and sought to have His forgiveness and through that I have found His Love and His Light and His Truth. But…

I feel like I am under condemnation from the fact that I did not teach them better. I feel like I am afflicted because of this. I feel like that wicked one has had power over me because of this. It is my children that told me to lighten up and start drinking alcohol, then I drank Coffee, then I drank Tea, then I smoked a little, then I stopped going to church, then I doubted what I have formerly believed even after having served a two year mission to teach other people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I do not blame my children for leading me astray, I blame myself for not teaching them before that with more zeal. I came back to the Light and Truth. I am very grateful to God for forgiveness. But…

Doesn’t someone have to want to know the truth for themselves? Even God does not force any man or woman into Heaven. So if I would have tried harder wouldn’t it have seemed like I was brain washing them and forcing them to be a part of what I believed to be true?

My eldest son has even told me that he felt like he was forced to go to church all his years growing up in my house. So if I had pushed harder do you think it would have been any better? Maybe I was too much of a hypocrite at the time and so my kids knew something was off because I was saying believe this thing and live this way, but I am believing it but not really living it. I should have been more of a doer of the word, instead of just a believer of the word.

So what do I do now that I have come back into Light and Truth and now I need to make sure my children know what I believe and that I want to live in this Truth now and bask in the Light of the True and Living God even Jesus Christ, the Creator of All things, the Redeemer and Savior of all mankind. I don’t even know where to begin except that I can pray always for all things and for them and attempt to teach them while I can but most importantly live the Gospel and let that be the teacher, let my example be the teacher that I never was before.

I know that they may never come into the Light and Truth, but I must at least testify of it and teach them of it so that there sins will not be poured onto my head as we see in Jacob 1:19:

19 And we did ^amagnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the ^bresponsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not ^cteach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their ^dblood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day.

May God help me bring them back into Light and Truth is my hope and prayer.

Shalom!

Only Things Eternal Will Stand the Test of Time

On November 1, 1831 God spoke to the Prophet Joseph Smith and said many important things found in Section 1 of the Doctrine and Covenants, but this one things stands out to me. If you can just pause for a moment before you browse away and just consider that God actually spoke to Joseph Smith and said these words found in Verse 38:

38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my ^aword shall not pass away, but shall all be ^bfulfilled, whether by mine own ^cvoice or by the ^dvoice of my ^eservants, it is the ^fsame.

God has given us His words through the voice of his servants the prophets as it states in Amos 3:7:

7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, ^abut he ^brevealeth his ^csecret unto his servants the ^dprophets.

If God knows all things, and God called and does now call Holy men to reveal His word to us, then God can tell us what is going to happen in the last days. I think it to be of absolute importance that we should be able to tell a true prophet called of God from a false prophet that claims to hear the word of God and yet did not actually get the message from God. For every true prophet there could be hundreds of people claiming to speak for God. I believe that one way someone takes God’s name in vain is to claim they are speaking for God and yet God did not actually speak to them.

Isn’t it interesting that one of the things that the Pharisee’s used against Jesus to condemn Him to death by crucifixion was that He claimed to be the Son of God. We also know from the New Testament that He spoke to God the Father as He often said stuff like is found in John 5:19:

Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

If you believe the Bible to be true then you can believe that Jesus spoke to the Father and saw what the Father had previously done somewhere. We do not know what that means exactly, but Jesus said it, so if the translation is correct, then Jesus saw His Father in Heaven and Our Father who art in Heaven do that same thing that Jesus was doing. Do you think for one moment that if God wanted us to know what that scripture means He could call upon a Holy man to reveal it to us? I am not saying He did, but if we think that God could not or would not do it, then we become a false prophet ourself. How? We claim to speak for God saying what He cannot do, right? And yet, he did not tell us whether or not He will now or at some future date reveal what Jesus meant when he was stating what is in John 5:19. Do you think you can put words in God’s mouth? I know I cannot and I am not a prophet either, I don’t claim to be one, but I do want to search for true prophets that God has called and see what God has told them to say.

The point I am trying to make is that if you believe in Jesus then you have to believe that there are true prophets called by God because Jesus was a prophet, and so much more. He prophesied of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (see Matthew 24:2), He prophesied of His own death and resurrection (see John 13:1), He prophesied of things that would happen before He came back to Earth in glory (see Matthew 24:7). He has not come back yet, as of this writing. At least not out of the East (see Matthew 24:27) so that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear that He is God (see Isaiah 45:23). That has not happened, but as sure as He was alive, died and came back alive and is still alive, then just as sure as that, He will come back to the Earth in Power and Great Glory and bring with Him the Hosts of Heaven. At least that is what I believe He was trying to prophesy to us, right?

But how can we know if the things we read about God are true? He gave us a way as found in John 15:26:

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

This Comforter is the Holy Ghost, the same that descended upon Jesus in the form of a Dove (see John 1:32). John even prophesied that He was told that the one to whom the Spirit descended upon was the one who would baptize with Fire and with the Holy Ghost (see John 1:33). Jesus gave the Holy Ghost to His disciples as the Comforter. He sent the Comforter and it is the Comforter that is the one that testifies of Jesus. He can testify of all truth. You can know if someone’s words are from God or not. You can know if a man is a true prophet speaking for God or if he is not speaking for God. You can know it through pray and through the Holy Ghost as James tells us in James 1:5:

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

So, going back to the beginning that “though the heavens and the earth shall pass away, [God’s] words shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled.” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:38)

God’s words are Eternal and Everlasting. His name is Eternal and He endureth forever and ever and ever. There is no end to His creations. I entitled this post: “Only Things Eternal Will Stand the Test of Time” because it makes me think of how short our life is here and how important it is for us to follow God with ALL of our HEART, MIGHT, MIND and STRENGTH; and LOVE Him will ALL of our Heart as He has asked. And Jesus asks us “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

Sure we will make mistakes, but if we try and repent and ask God to help us and ask Him to forgive us, then He will forgive us and we can thus show Him our love with our efforts to keep His commandments and improve each day.

The lyrics of this song contain the title of this blog and I think it is a beautiful song that I believe if you listen to it, you may just hear the Comforter testify that Jesus is truly who He said He was, the Son of God.

It is ironic how the only true One that could call Himself the son of God, was the one that was hung upon a cross for Blasphemy apparently against Himself for He is God. He told them that “before Abraham was, I Am”; saying literally that He was the God of the Old Testament and they could not see Him for who He really was and IS. “[He IS] the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man cometh unto the Father but by [Him]” (see John 14:6)

I hope that through the Comforter this day you will feel of His Endless and Matchless love for you and you will desire anew to be His loyal and faithful follower. Even His friend. Enjoy this beautiful song:

Nothing Matters (not to be confused with Metallica’s version)

Lyrics:

Got up this morning
Already behind.
Can’t seem to stop this world from spinning ’round.
Sometimes it seems there’s no escape
From the daily grind.
God help me remember
When the sun goes down,

Nothing matters
Except the love we give.
Nothing matters
Except the way we live.
Only things eternal
Will stand the test of time.
Nothing matters
Except the love of Christ.

As the clock’s unwinding
And days turn into years,
I look back on what I have become.
Beyond all of the ups and downs
And my unfounded fears,
God help me remember
When all is said and done,

Nothing matters
Except the love we give.
Nothing matters
Except the way we live.
Only things eternal
Will stand the test of time.
Nothing matters
Except the love of Christ.

Wherever I may walk,
Whatever I go through
Nothing really matters except
Following You

Nothing matters
Except the love we give.
Nothing matters
Except the way we live.

Nothing matters (nothing really matters)
Except the love we give (except the love we give we give).
Nothing matters (oh)
Except the way we live (the way we live).
Only things eternal
Will stand the test of time.
Nothing matters
Except the love of Christ.

Nothing matters (nothing)
No, nothing really matters
Except the love of Christ.

Writer(s): Steve Siler, Lowell Alexander

Does the Company Vision and Mission Matter?

I am a computer programmer. I have also been addicted to porn. Bad combination since I am always on the computer, right? My point is that I have some values that could conflict with the vision of certain companies. For example, a company in the porn industry might have a mission to be provide the best quality porn images to the adult public. But now I value NOT looking at porn because I know it affects me in a negative way and causes me to look at human beings as objects of sex rather than fellow brothers and sisters and children of God. It tempts me intensely to break the commandment that Jesus said: “I say unto you that he who looketh on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Further more by looking at people having sex I am condoning them to commit adultery so they can get paid. The further point I am trying to make is to answer this simple question: “Would I work for a porn company to help them build their website and therefore help them fulfill their mission to provide the best porn services to the adult porn industry?” As one trying everything in my power to not look at porn and personally having had 56 days now of sobriety from pornography the answer would have to be a resounding “No!” The problem is that I might have to see the porn from time to time as I build the website, so then I would get sucked in to the temptation much more easily. That would be asinine and stupid which is probably redundant, but you catch my drift.

So, the question becomes the same for other companies whose values are not inline with my own, does it not? For example I just reached out to a recruiter yesterday about a job that had an enticing salary range to say the least. It was a good 20% above what I currently make so I was intrigued. The company sounded like it had a solid plan for the programming division and had merged with at least 11 other companies and was in the process of combining all 11 disparate systems into 1 truth (ie. One main system). That sounds so good to be on a team dedicated to simplifying and perfecting the programming systems. But what is the mission of the company? To be the best maker and distributor of cigars in the world.

Tobacco smoking according to the CDC is currently responsible for 460,000 deaths per year, as seen on this website. It also causes the individual that smokes to have an average of a 10 year shorter span of life. I tried to justify to myself that I could still work for the company since they seemed to be just providing a service that others could provide just as easily, right? I accepted an interview with an executive in the Information Technology department for the following day, then I tried to go to sleep.

I tossed and turned and had an uneasy feeling about something. Hmm, what could it be. I had told myself before that I would seek to do God’s will, not my own will and that has to include what I do for a living. Should I be a part of something that encourages people to smoke? I bet they have marketing plans and goals to try and convince people to smoke. Maybe these are the people that are already smoking. Then I thought of what I was trying to do in my own life which was overcoming addictive behaviors and smoking can definitely be an addictive behavior. I prayed and prayed if I should just cancel the meeting. I felt like I needed to make a decision on my own. I felt like the Holy Spirit was not with me like He has been so often before. I felt tempted to look and think at porn and I could not get rid of that feeling. I realized how much God has helped me to only desire to do good. I remembered that my church teaches that Tobacco is to be used externally for sick cattle and that it is not for man. That is from a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith directly from God: See Doctrine and Covenants Section 89:8 where it says:

8 And again, tobacco is not for the ^abody, neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill.

I have no idea if anyone even uses Tobacco for cattle. My brother in law had some sick cattle this past year, maybe he should have tried that out, but the judgment and skill part is a little elusive, eh? lol!

My point here is that not only is it not healthy but it is really against my religion and so for me to seek to do God’s will and yet help a company achieve its goal to be the best provider of cigars in the world just seems ludicrous.

So I made the decision to forego the interview and just drop the idea of working for that company. The Holy Spirit returned at that moment and I felt a peace from God that I had made the right decision. I feel that peace even now as I write that it was the right decision for me. I am sure that company will do just fine without me. I told the recruiter that I do not judge the company but that it just was not right for me. Luckily he understood so I didn’t burn any bridges there and who knows maybe he will help me find a position at another company where I won’t have this same stigma.

I also felt like a hypocrite as I am teaching others through this blog and elsewhere about my values and beliefs in God and in His Church of Jesus Christ and that we believe that members should not use tobacco at all and then if they ask me where I work I would be so embarrassed to say that I build websites for my company to sell tobacco products. Doesn’t that feel off? It does to me and I am the one who gets to live with myself and hope and pray that God will accept my efforts to serve Him in my job and outside my job. He commands us to pray over everything we do, so how would that look to ask Him: “Please help me do my job well so that these salesmen can better sale tobacco” I hope I am driving home my point that who I work for and their values and their mission matters.

If I don’t align with them two things will happen. I won’t feel a connection to seek God’s help in making me the best employee for them that I can be since their goals do not align with His; and secondly, I will not be passionate about working for them because I will not have a high belief in the products and services they provide. I think happiness and motivation can come from working with others that not only share our values, but also sell products that they value and would use themselves. When am I going to smoke a cigar? Yeah, I might be tempted to do so, but I should not enter and am not allowed to enter into a Holy Temple of God if I partake of Tobacco, so I have made a decision not to smoke or use it in any way.

Enough about that. Do your values align with the company you work with? Are you happy with the products and services they sell? Would you buy them for yourself and be glad to use them? Is God happy with the products and services they provide? If you answered no to any of these questions then you might reconsider your employment. I hope you and I both can work somewhere and with some people that share our values, whatever those values may be as I am not here to judge you, just to help you find your happiness in life which is one of the great tenants of the founding fathers for us all to have “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” I hope in your pursuit that you do find the happiness of which you seek.

Shalom!!

P.S. If you or a loved one struggles with porn or other substance addictions or just overcoming any habits and are looking for something that works, I highly recommend these services. God bless you in your struggles.

Putting on the Armor of God

I’d like to start this off with the Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and Wisdom to know the difference.
~Reinhold Niebuhr

There is only so much that I can control. The only person I can hope to control is myself and even that is difficult. So recently I have taken a different approach to self control that corresponds to the first step in the 12 Steps to recovery used by AA: “We admitted we were powerless… that our lives had become unmanageable.” But aren’t we supposed to have control of our own life? Nope, not without a higher power helping us!! See Steps 2 and 3 that show the need to believe in (2) and turn our life over to a higher power (3).

So putting two and two together I realized that in order to have the help of the higher power (God) that I needed to have the courage to do the things I could so that He would help me and make up the difference.

What are the things I can do? I can put on the Armor of God daily and realize at a PASSIONATE level that if I do not take the time to put on the FULL ARMOR OF GOD, then why should He help me with the things I cannot change. I have to treat it like I am going to war and that if I leave off a piece of that armor then I expose myself to the influence of the enemy and also God won’t take my level of effort seriously to aid me in my great time of need during the battles that I encounter with the enemy.

Let’s break down the armor:

The Armor of God – New International Version

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Shoes could represent Ministering to others as it says in verse 18. I wanted to make a parallel with the six daily tasks that we do in my recovery program but I will explain each to you and then maybe you can make the parallel:

We are taught to focus daily on 6 different aspects that form part of the word: MANPoWeR:

M: Ministry – do something to ease the burden of others

A: Action – work on a project you are passionate about and also do something physical to make you stronger

N: No – pick a goal of some other bad habit in your life that you need to over come that you are therefore Not going to give into that day.

P: Pray – Pray at least 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes at night

W: Write – Write a letter to God, your spouse, your future or past self or to another to pour out your feelings onto paper

R: Read – Read from the scriptures, words of council and good books each day.

Set appropriate time strategies in each area for your own life, but for me; like I said before, I treat these as my armor to help protect me from the enemy of my soul and from me not being able to control myself with the hope that as I do my part with great anxiety that the Lord God will make up the difference to help me learn and grow and conquer in the difficult battles against my enemy, Satan and against my own will power to control my own life in whatever is holding me back.

May God grant you His strength as you commit to put on the Full Armor of God and find protection with the aid of His Divine All-Powerful Hand! God bless you in your struggles!!

Shalom!

Why Don’t I Just Give Up

It’s been longer than I had hoped to write in this blog. I wonder who is reading it anyway. No one. LOL! Just me. I write it and read it and then read it again and again looking for errors as if some English teacher is going to correct it and give me a grade! HAHAHA!

I just learned that there are at least 7 possible hundreds or thousands if not more Satanic Fallen Angles trying to attach me at all times. That number is arrived at by realizing that about 75 billion people have lived on this earth up to this point. So that doesn’t include all the others that have yet to be born. So if one third of the hosts of heaven that were to come to this earth were cast out of heaven that would be half of that 75 billion which is about 37.5 billion. Then you can figure that they cannot tempt and torment kids under the age of Eight nor can they torment people that have mental disabilities. It only takes a few of them to keep the wicked in check since the wicked want to do evil anyway so why worry about them, then the super righteous they cannot touch either because those people have cast them out. It’s then just for the rest of us to fight with them. Those of us trying to follow the Savior but without enough faith to keep Satan and His followers away for long so they just keep attacking with a vengeance probably claiming that they are still pissed off about us kicking them out of heaven in the first place.

If you are trying to be righteous and follow Jesus, how many of Satan’s fallen angels do you think he has going up against you? And what about all the evil people that followed Satan while they were alive and then they died in their sins. It has been said that it may be 10 times harder to change there without a body than here so maybe most of those don’t even try to change they just follow Satan’s plan to torment us. So maybe that is another 37.5 billion that are added to Satan’s hosts. Now there must be 75 billion to torment and tease and tempt us and the ones that had a body and died crave the sin that they used to enjoy when they had a body and so I have read how the only way they can taste a small portion of the sin is to jump inside the living (ie possess their bodies) so that they can have an inkling of the sin. I have felt all kinds of evil temptations from probably dead lesbians, transexuals, gays, who knows but they want what they used to have and now they cannot have it so they will scream at the righteous to look at porn and do all manner of sexually deviant stuff so they can hope to feel some of it. What a nightmare!!

It seems overwhelming to say the least! So, why don’t I just give up? Wouldn’t it be easier to just give in and give up and stop trying to fight all these myriads of demons and evil departed spirits? I just read yesterday that this planet was the only one wicked enough to kill their creator. What kind of wicked world do we live in?

The Good News is that Jesus came into this world to save it from sin and death. From sin if we just repent we can become clean again and from death such that every one that ever was born into this world and received a body will likewise be resurrected into an Eternal Body depending on their desires to repent that will be raised up from the dead in such a way that not one hair of their head will be lost at all and then they will be given an incorruptible body that does not feel pain or any negative emotions and will in fact not decay ever again but will continue to live in that state forever and ever and ever and ever infinity. On the other hand this Satan who keeps trying to attack, he will never have a body no never, ever, ever, ever, and ever infinity.

So maybe not only was he just pissed that he got kicked out of heaven for rebellion, but now he is really gonna be pissed when he realizes that forever is a very, very, very, very loooooooong time infinity.

So, why don’t I just give up? Because I don’t want Satan to win my soul and cause me to suffer the unbounded turmoil that will result when I realize that I could have done more and helped more people and returned to God and Jesus and my Heavenly Mother but I chose to give into Satan cause it was the easier thing to do and so many others have done it before, so why not me too? NOOOO! I must fight!! Fight Satan and all his host of 75 billion souls if I have to just so that he has no power over me to halt my progress from returning to live with God and Jesus and my Heavenly Mother on some far distant star that is so big it makes our star look like a pinpoint on the side of the Superdome. And maybe their home is even bigger than that. We don’t know cause not only is our science not good enough, but we have a veil over our eyes to stop us from seeing what is really there in God’s presence.

But here is one of the stars God created and it is called Canis Majoris (The Big Dog) as seen next to our sun:

Yeah, your God created that!! Crazy amazing!!

Shalom!

6 Minute Demo Tape

I’d like to proposed that your life is like a 6 minute demo tape that you will present to God to see what role you’ll play in the hereafter.

Here is a quote in this regards taken from a talk by President Russel M. Nelson entitled “The Price of Priesthood Power” where he quotes President George Albert Smith as follows:

“We are not here to while away the hours of this life and then pass to a sphere of exaltation; but we are here to qualify ourselves day by day for the positions that our Father expects us to fill hereafter.”

Let us consider the length of time we are actually here in this life as compared to a day in heaven. In 2nd Peter 3:8 it reads:

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and ^ta thousand years as one day.

So let’s break this down. If a thousand years here is one day in heaven. Then 41.6 years is an hour in heaven assuming we break a day in heaven into a 24 hour period. So if you live a life of 83 years or so you have basically been away from heaven for two hours!!

So why 6 minute demo then? How much time do we need to really focus our effort on drawing close to God, repenting and living our life for Him? An hour is 60 minutes, so break that down and 1/10th of an hour is 6 minutes which equates to 4.16 years of our time on earth. So if you think about the amount of time you spend praying, pondering, serving in the church, repenting etc. around all your work, family, sleeping and casual time then 4.16 years focusing solely on your effort to prepare for heaven is about right in 83 years, would you agree? And if that is the case then you basically have a 6 minute demo of your life to show the valiant effort you made to live with Him forever.

Maybe it is just a 30 second highlight video to show how we were a good steward and we do qualify for the work. It is important to note that bad stuff can be removed from the demo tape!! That is called repentance. You can edit it out through the Power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ!! You must be humble and ask Him to forgive you. This can be a daily or even hourly challenge to attempt to prepare your demo tape for Him so that He can determine if you are ready and willing to serve Him in the heavenly courts above forever.

So don’t while away your time on this earth!!

Now let’s compare 1 day in heaven with eternity. Eternity is hard to fathom but if we consider an Eon is 0.5 billion years it is still hard to fathom, but know that you will live forever and ever and ever and ever and ever!! How important now do you think that demo tape is?

Here is a link to some terms about amounts of time: https://manoa.hawaii.edu/exploringourfluidearth/node/1341

Even an Epoch is tens of millions of years. So, will you qualify for a position in heaven where you will live eternally? Do you consider that 2 hours is comparable with the time you will be away from heaven where you will spend eternity? Put this little test of life into consideration and into perspective where you are just spending a little time building your demo tape to see if you qualify for a grand position in the realms of heaven! Is it worth a bit of mischief that you don’t repent of just to have a little fun on this short space of time? I think not!! Eternity is waaaaaaay toooooooo important!!!! Let that sink in!!

I hope you will choose to accept the free gift of the Atonement that Jesus gives you and do all that you can to prepare yourself for the rest of eternity!!

Consider this scripture: Found in Alma 34:32-33

32 For behold, this ^alife is the time for men to ^bprepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of ^cthis life is the day for men to perform their ^dlabors.

33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many ^awitnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not ^bprocrastinate the day of your ^crepentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the ^dnight of ^edarkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

So, as Alma beseeches us, I too beseech you to comprehend how short this life is compared to even a day in heaven let alone the Eons of time (billions of years) that you will exist after this life! Prepare now and receive Jesus as your Savior and ask Him to help you prepare to meet Him so that your demo tape that you present before the Judgement Bar of God will show how you are ready, willing and able to receive responsibilities from Him to do His will forever. But the only caveat is you have to choose this because He will never force it upon you!

Finally consider this from 2 Nephi 9:15 about this final Judgement:

15 And it shall come to pass that when all men shall have passed from this first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal, they must appear before the ^ajudgment-seat of the Holy One of Israel; and then cometh the ^bjudgment, and then must they be judged according to the holy judgment of God.

You cannot escape that judgment, so you might as well embrace it and prepare for it!!

Shalom!

Border Patrol and Ransomware

What if you were tempted to click on a link on your phone while you worked? First off, ask yourself why you need the phone to begin with so that you had the opportunity to click on a link? Are there other ways to have people contact you? Software like Skype that you could install on your computer so that others could call in? Messaging software that you could have on your Computer like Facebook Messenger, Slack, or others so that people could reach out to you without you having access to your phone. Or maybe you could have a simple phone that was only necessary to talk to people who needed to reach out to you. Consumer Cellular has great, cheap plans and phones just for that. But what if you still needed you phone, how could you avoid clicking on stuff?

Spam Filter

I have a lot of unwanted email that comes into my box. I have clicked on it many times, but so I cannot see it I click on the email from particular addresses that send me mail consistently and then I add their address or domain to my spam filter. That way they end up in the junk mail folder where I know it is junk and I can stay away from it. I can delete everything out of that junk folder from time to time without even looking at it since I know it is junk.

Ransomware / Viruses

I have been taught for years that clicking on links inside email that I don’t know the source or the source may be malicious could be hurtful to my device (or worse to my soul) and that I just should not click on it. I could run a script that adds a virus to my computer (this has happened to me before) or it could be worse and add a ransomware to my device that locks me out of my device until I pay a fee to some random idiot that has the code to unlock my device. You were afraid to click on that link to ransomware, weren’t you? Ransomware threat can stop you from clicking on a link if you can convince your mind that it might be harmful, so why do you need to click on it?

Border Patron

So if I am tempted to click on links that take me to unworthy sites, what other kind of measures can I put up for myself so that I will not click on them? I have to think that the enemy of my soul is coming to send me links that God does not want me to click on. I can look through my email and tell myself: “There is something Satan sent to me, let me get rid of that now before I start clicking on it” and then just delete the evil email and its evil links.

Pray Always and Let God Prevail

Here is a scripture 2 Nephi 32:9:

9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must ^apray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall ^bpray unto the Father in the ^cname of Christ, that he will ^dconsecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the ^ewelfare of thy soul.

How will that help me? Well I have tried to tell myself that any time I do or am about to do anything that I should pray and ask God if that is what He wants me to do. This coincides with letting God Prevail in my life. Here is another post about that: https://eternalbindings.wordpress.com/2022/01/20/what-win-i/

So if I ask God and myself if the link I am about to click on is something that He wants me to click on or not? My wife always told me that guardian angels are watching me, do I want them to see me click on the link? I have done it many times and when I do click on the link then they get offended and go to my wife and tell her that I am doing it again. Do I want to have to apologize to them again and ask them to please come back and watch over me, and then apologize to her again for having to confront my guardian angels because I was being stupid.

Recruit / Enlist Help

No! Instead I want to recruit more of them so I am going to go to http://www.familysearch.com and do some indexing instead of clicking on a link because then I can pray for the person I am doing Indexing for and make a new friend, then perhaps I can envision that friend becoming another guardian angel to help me have strength to not click on random links that could destroy my soul!

I could also reach out to someone and tell them about the link that I want to click on and see if they think it is a good idea.

Conclusion

The point I want to pound into my brain is that there are certain things I just should not click on. So I hope that I will not because sometimes I get the thought of driving into oncoming traffic and I think about how that could be harmful to me and others and so I chose not to do it, this could be the same.

The key for me is knowing that I want to Let God Prevail in my life and to do His will.

My sister gave this to me after I told her how much I loved President Nelson’s talk Let God Prevail:

I now like to whisper the first line and then by line 9 I am yelling that line at the top of my lungs. My pc crashed right before I finished this. Thank goodness for auto save. Satan did not want you to read it.

Shalom!

Pre-Earth Life

I was just thinking that this should be consider #antiabortion since why on earth would someone abort a baby that has a spirit that lived with God before it was born? Abortionist or those who uphold that it should be a women’s choice I believe would attempt to convince that the fetus inside the womb is not yet a child and therefore is not human yet. I will let them have that quarrel with God Himself. Here is a scripture that plainly shows that God knew Jeremiah and therefore, since He is God and knows all things, He also knew us before we were born:

5 Before I ^aformed thee in the belly I ^bknew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I ^csanctified thee, and I ^dordained thee a prophet unto the ^enations. (Jeremiah 1:5)

It also says that God sanctified and ordained him before he came out of the womb. We understand that in some powerful way beyond our capacity to understand that God knows the beginning from the end and has literally showed the beginning to the end to a select few prophets. He knew that millions of His spirit children would be aborted before they had a chance to be born. I have no idea how that will work out. Do they come back to another family?

We learn in Abraham that this life is a test to see if we will do all things God commands us to do (see Abraham 3:25), but we know we will be judged according to the understanding and knowledge that we have. Little children and those who live without the understanding of God in the world will not be judged and will be automatically saved in His kingdom. Perhaps that is the fate of those unfortunate souls that are slaughtered through abortion.

I do not judge those who chose to have an abortion because God is the judge of all and has clearly mandated, no commanded that we shall not kill. But people want to adjust God’s laws to fit their own reality. We will see what He has to say concerning them at the final judgement.

Perhaps these souls that die before they are born will just go directly into heaven as will children that are not yet accountable and adults that do not have the law (See Moroni 8:11-16, 22):

11 And their little ^achildren need no repentance, neither baptism. Behold, baptism is unto repentance to the fulfilling the commandments unto the ^bremission of sins.

12 But little ^achildren are alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the world; if not so, God is a partial God, and also a changeable God, and a ^brespecter to persons; for how many little children have died without baptism!

13 Wherefore, if little children could not be saved without baptism, these must have gone to an endless hell.

14 Behold I say unto you, that he that supposeth that little children need baptism is in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; for he hath neither ^afaith, hope, nor charity; wherefore, should he be cut off while in the thought, he must go down to hell.

15 For awful is the wickedness to suppose that God saveth one child because of baptism, and the other must perish because he hath no baptism.

16 Wo be unto them that shall pervert the ways of the Lord after this manner, for they shall perish except they repent. Behold, I speak with boldness, having ^aauthority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for ^bperfect ^clove ^dcasteth out all fear.

22 For behold that all little children are ^aalive in Christ, and also all they that are without the ^blaw. For the power of ^credemption cometh on all them that have ^dno law; wherefore, he that is not condemned, or he that is under no condemnation, cannot repent; and unto such baptism availeth nothing

I only need to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling and hope that I can by some means help others come to know the Truth about God and why we are here to prove to Him that we can do what He commands so that we can be found purified by the Atonement of His son, Jesus Christ, and be prepared to come back into God’s presence and live with Him in Heaven for all eternity along with little children and others would did not have need of repentance in this life for they were not taught about God and His eternal laws. Only He can be the judge of any of us or those who He has ordained to judge.

May you desire to work out your own salvation before Him with fear and trembling. (See Mormon 9:27):

27 O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. ^aDoubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and ^bcome unto the Lord with all your ^cheart, and ^dwork out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him. (Mormon 9:27)

Shalom!

Relate to Jaredite Barges

What can I learn from the story of the Jaredites crossing the ocean to the Promised Land of the Americas found in the Book of Ether in the Book of Mormon? This story of the crossing in barges is found in Chapter 6. I’d like to suggest that my life is like being in one of the barges. The only way that the barge moved forward was when the Lord caused “a ^afurious wind (to) blow upon the face of the waters, ^btowards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.” (verse 5) In this way my life only moves forward towards God when He pushes me with His mighty winds towards His Promised Land of Heaven.

These barges were dark inside, just like my life. What lit up the inside of the barge was something prepared for the people. God touched stones that lit up by His Holy Power beyond anything I can comprehend without the aid of man made electricity or any power source known to man. I think the Holy Spirit is like these lights that lit the way inside the barges. The only difference between the lights for the Jaredites and the light of the Holy Ghost for me is that if I am rebellious and do inappropriate things that I can hopefully only temporarily turn off the light emanating from the Holy Ghost. Then my life inside my barge is dark.

The Lord also explained to the Brother of Jared, Moranhi, that sometimes the barge would be in the depths of the sea and sometimes it would rise up to the surface of the ocean so that they could unstop the plug and get some fresh air. Maybe it is because I am a little Bipolar but the down days are like when the barge is buried and up days are when it comes up to the surface. But the Lord is the one that pushes the barge up for air. They were protected in both instances and I should have faith that no matter if I am up or down in my life, that God is always there.

The amazing thing that I just read is this in verse 8: “And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were ^adriven forth before the wind.” That tells me that God does His part constantly and consistently to move us towards Him. He never lets up and He never gives up to help us on our journey.

This life feels like a barge that I am within. I think we just have to stay inside the barge and do like unto the Jaredites in verse 9: “And they did ^asing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did ^bthank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord.” Life is tough riding along in a barge hoping to soon be greeted in heaven, but how often do we sing praises unto the Lord all the day long?

Yeah, we have our daily grind to take care of, but really we are on a barge headed home to the Promised Land and all we need to do is stay true to God’s commands so that we can remain in the Light of the Holy Spirit, sure we need to serve others and help them along their way and help them realize their journey is towards the promised land too, but really we need to sing praises to the Lord all the day long and not cease to praise the Lord for guiding us and delivering us from all the tempests and destructive waves that this life has to offer us.

May we forever trust in Him and sing praise to Him.

What a great story!!

Here is some songs of praise you can hear sung to Him:

Daily Journal

I need to write my thoughts daily into a Journal. This medium cannot be that journal. Maybe I should call it a diary and keep it under lock and key. It is a place for me to write down my struggles for the day and battles that I have and try to understand what I am going through. Maybe others won’t understand all of the minute details of my life. It is not for them, it is for me to receive therapy from the process of expressing myself but most of that probably doesn’t need to be read and analyzed by others.

Maybe that means that I am writing in this blog too much and I should try to come up with one thing to say here each week perhaps of what I have learned the rest of the week from living and from journaling from that experience.

I try to stay close to God but I am not perfect at it. I feel like I have ideas to share, but it is the true life that speaks volumes, not what a person thinks or believes of themselves, but how they actually live. I think this is another way to say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. A good intention does not mean that one follows through to accomplish the idea.

That is one of the characteristics of God that we should strive for. His word is His bond. He has even said to this regard that though the Heavens and the Earth shall pass away, His words shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled. (See Matthew 24:35).

May what you say you’ll set out to do become what you actually do.

Shalom!

Never Enough Time?

Do you often feel like your plate is so full that there is not enough time to do everything that you need to? Our time on this planet is limited to really do one thing, right? What is that one thing? Find time for God! Find time to do His will. Find time to serve Him by serving others. Nothing is of greater worth. Nothing else matters.

But what if I am a slave to my job? My boss demands me to do this and this and this! I don’t know how to do it either but all I know is from what I have read in the scriptures that we have to find the time to call upon the Lord, seek for His help and seek to do His will and serve Him by serving others.

I try to plan out my day each morning to see what I am going to do for my work and what am I going to do personally to follow and do God’s will. He knows how busy you are, but I know He wants to hear from us too and seek His help in all things and find ways to serve Him in all that we do.

I will strive to do this better.

Shalom!

Judge Not

Jesus said: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged.” That is a mouthful of judge. That is in the New Testament. I am sure you have read it a time or few.

There was a time in the Book of Mormon when one of the prophets writing in the book was fearful of people’s judgement because of the difficult they had in finding the right words to write. God’s response to him was something like “Fools mock:” (See Ether 12:23-26):

23 And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them;

24 And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them. 

25 Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words.

26 And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness;

That is an example of God not pulling the punch. I love it!!

In this world so many are ridiculed for everything they do.

Jesus made it clear that we should look at our own large problems and stop judging others for their relatively small ones when He made comment about the mote in our brothers eye, when we ourselves have a beam in our eye.

That is an example of God’s humor. I mean seriously, can you imagine a beam in your eye?

The visual of that is hilarious!!

The other side of this coin is when we judge those that even do us wrong. We don’t understand all the reasons why they may have done us wrong. Perhaps they didn’t even mean to.

God has made it clear that He is the vengeance and He will forgive whom He will forgive, but for us it is required to forgive all. Let me repeat it, we must forgive all. (See D&C 64:10)

In another scripture He makes it very clear of how He will look at the unforgiver when He said in the scripture just before this previous one: “9 Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to ^aforgive one another; for he that ^bforgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.” (D&C 64:9)

Is there anyone against which you hold a grudge and have not forgiven them no matter what it was? Did you realized you are judging them and you are condemning yourself and you have now committed a greater sin than them?

Let it go! Let it go! Just like Elsa says! Let it go!

In this case we should let go of our anger, resentment, hostility and let love come shining through.

I think that when I let bad feelings of any kind over take me then I stifle my growth, I turn inward, I judge others and try to find something outside me to blame. I conceal. It’s harrowing. All these feelings are not what God would have us feel. He wants us to feel His love, His Spirit and His forgiveness, but remember clearly in the Lord’s pray He even taught us that we would ask to “be forgiven of our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespassed against us.” We cannot expect to have one without the other.

My best friend from the first part of High School recently texted me that I stole the love of his life and ruined her. He has much resentment towards me for this especially since about 15 years ago or more she chose to commit suicide and he wants to hold me responsible for her death. I tried to explain that I know I share some in that blame and I am sorry for causing some grief in her life that I did but she had issues before she met me in the which a family member of hers had molested her much as a young child. This may have also played a part. She also had partaken of drugs which may have played a part as well. I am so sad that she took her own life. She seemed happy a few years prior to this as she has 3 beautiful children from her marriage that ended in divorce. So the divorce may have played a part as well. Maybe we will never know all the reasons that led up to her committing suicide, but to put all the blame of that on me as if it led back to when I dated her and though I was in love and somehow that relationship was so toxic that it finally ended in her death by suicide. I don’t buy it and I have forgiven myself for that period of time and I asked her for forgiveness for the trials that our relationship had back in my Junior and her Sophomore year of high school and I forgive her for killing herself and I do not judge her and I hope that God will have mercy on her soul and I know He will do all He can for her if it is not too late. I also do not judge my friend for having this resentment towards me and thinking it was my fault. I apologized several times and tried to text back about this. A couple years ago we went through this same thing and he told me the same stuff and we even talked on the phone and he even admitted that she had gone through other things other than just me and I thought we had got to a good point, but then two years go by and the same resentment crops up again. It is crazy how resentment can live and grow like a festering wound or cancer. I just hope that my friend can forgive me and not judge me and let this go before it eats him inside out. I feel so bad about how this has affected his life and I pray that he can find solace in the Atonement of Jesus because that is the only place where we can find forgiveness from Him and for us to find a way to forgive others not only because of what happens to us internally and spiritually when we won’t forgive others, but also that He commands us to forgive others or in us lies the greater sin and we will be judged according to how we judge the misdeeds of others.

May God bless you and me in our effort to root out the animosity and resentment we have fostered against Him, against others and against ourselves that we may find peace.

Shalom!

Find Your Way Back

Acknowledge God’s Hand in All Things

My son was traveling from Las Vegas to Quartzite, AZ a couple days ago and had a tie rod blow out in a very large truck while he was driving at 70 MPH. He was able to maintain control of the vehicle and pull over to safety. This event could have been catastrophic. I told my wife that her brother Brad must have been watching over and protecting Carl again and I said “Praise be to God” that Carl was safe. (Brad died of brain cancer many, many years ago and this event has caused Carl to be angry with God.) But, after I said those words the sweetest peace came over me and I felt the love of God and a testimony that yes, He had been watching over my son. I feel that again now. I acknowledged this story’s validity to my Nephew who has decided to be a self proclaimed atheist. I told him that I acknowledge God’s hand in all things. I am so grateful to God for His Spirit of truth and of comfort that is present in my life. His power is beyond anything I can comprehend, vastly beyond.

Remember All Those Times That He has Helped You

Have you once been a believer in God, but now question if He is really there. What caused you to believe before? What evidence have you received that He has been in and has influenced your life? I feel His presence in my life almost daily. There have been some huge things though that have happened to me that I know were especially by His hand as a miracle. So I can acknowledge His hand in everything, but really see it present in a few. I relate one story I may have shared before. I will never forget it. Its wonder transcends comprehension. I was a missionary in my younger years and taught the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to the citizens of Haiti or at least a few of them. For such a tiny 1/3 of a tiny island it amazes me how many people live there. 8 million at my last check. 11.4 million according to the current statistic on this website. When you read this it may be more. And that is after catastrophic earthquakes and hurricanes devastated the island. I don’t know how all those people eat since I know there is not enough food to go around there. But I digress. My companion, Elder Wilcox, and I were teaching some children of the age of 10, 12 and 14. Louisdem and Wilner were the two boys that were younger. I cannot remember the name of their older sister. They loved to learn about Jesus and His church restored to the earth by the Prophet Joseph Smith. They all wanted to be baptized. Their mother had been supportive of them meeting with us, but when we told them the children wanted to be baptized she was extremely resistant and told us that they had already been baptized in the Catholic church and that they attended a Catholic school and could not be baptized. End of discussion. Wow! Well, that was sad but we, of course, respected their mother’s decision and figured that perhaps when the children turned 18 they would still desire to be baptized. Elder Wilcox and I decided that perhaps this was not what God, their Heavenly Father wanted, and perhaps He and His power could persuade this mother to change her mind. We decided to pray and fast that somehow this mother would change her mind. We had faith that if it was God’s will, then her mind could be changed somehow. After praying we felt impressed to talk to her about the Holy Ghost and how He could help guide them with their school and with their life and that after they were baptized they would receive this Gift of the Holy Ghost. She just then said okay then, they can be baptized. Wait, what? What just happened? I am as amazed right now at the power of God as I was then. I would have been just fine if she had said “No”, but she changed her mind and I acknowledge and give credit to God for this amazing transformation and change of heart.

I have often heard, thought and told myself that if something is important to me, then it is important to God. Or maybe it should be that if I think something is important to me, then I should think about whether that thing is really important to God. God see’s things with an eternal perspective. We should try to do the same.

Come Back to Him

Jesus said of the people He taught in ancient Israel how many times he would have gathered them as a chicken gathers her chicks, but they would not. We have to hope that we can follow God’s path and when we are following it then we desire that others will follow the path too. We see many that we know who are not following the path that leads to happiness, even when we know they used to follow it. They think they know better now and they want to live life as they see fit instead of worrying about God guiding them. But for me who has considered that this life is a fraction of time compared to eternity, and that our life after this one will span forever after this, then we must realize that this life is a test that strictly speaking insists that we live the way God has told us to live or we will regret that choice to not follow Him ad infinitum. Prophets throughout the ages have warned the world that Jesus will come and destroy them if they do not repent, but instead of hearing the good news that Jesus can save them from pain and suffering and torture of hell, they decide they don’t want to hear the mumbo jumbo of the truth and they stone and kill the prophets. What is so bad about the message that you want to kill someone for telling it to you? I hope my nephew doesn’t want to kill me about it, but that he may remember why he chose just a few years ago to return to church, receive the priesthood and become an Elder and then take his family through the temple to have a hope of living with God forever in His kingdom, and now the same nephew has decided that he is no longer religious and is an atheist as if somehow God just disappeared. This nephew is now sick and has been for weeks. I pray that two things will happen: 1) That God will heal Him from his sickness and 2) That he will acknowledge that God healed him or will heal him over time as he has faith to be healed, and he will remember all the good that God has done for him in his life despite all of the trials that have been placed in his path with not only his sicknesses including Diabetes, but with those close to him having moved on to a life after this one. The death of a loved one is a very painful thing, but if we have that eternal perspective then we can see that death is not an end to any of us. Here is the message that I sent to that nephew and it is a call to come back to God. I hope that if you need to come back to God too, that you will hear His call and come back to Him. He has said: “My sheep hear my voice”. Are you one of His sheep? The image of sheep has been distorted. Some say they’re dumb and some say that they blindly follow. But they are a good good analogy for Jesus because we are dumb and cannot get back to heaven without Him, and we do follow Him blindly because we know that He is King of the Universe and will not lead us astray. Proverbs 3:5-6 says: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and and He shall direct thy path.” (Emphasis added). Here is the call to return:

“I am praying for you to get better. I am hoping that you will reach out to God for strength and help. He will always love you __________. He just protected Carl a couple of days ago from death when his large truck blew out a tie rod at 70 mph… Laus Deo that he didn’t die. Laus Deo means “Praise be to God” I acknowledge His hand in all things. Please come back to Him and I pray you may get better and have a fantastic day!! “

To all that are away from Him and read this message: Please come back to Him!

Shalom!

You Can Ask for Help

I take this story from something I had heard before, but I quote it from this site:

“A man was trapped in his house during a flood. He began praying to God to rescue him. He had a vision in his head of God’s hand reaching down from heaven and lifting him to safety. The water started to rise in his house. His neighbor urged him to leave and offered him a ride to safety. The man yelled back, “I am waiting for God to save me.” The neighbor then drove off in his pick-up truck.

The man continued to pray and hold on to his vision. As the water began rising in his house, he had to climb up to the roof. A boat came by with some people heading for safe ground. They yelled at the man to grab a rope they were ready to throw and take him to safety. He told them that he was waiting for God to save him. They shook their heads and moved on.

The man continued to pray, believing with all his heart that he would be saved by God. The floodwaters continued to rise. A helicopter flew by and a voice came over a loudspeaker offering to lower a ladder and take him off the roof. The man waved the helicopter away, shouting back that he was waiting for God to save him. The helicopter left. The flooding water came over the roof and caught him up and swept him away. He drowned.

When he reached heaven and asked, “God, why did you not save me? I believed in you with all my heart. Why did you let me drown?” God replied, “I sent you a pick-up truck, a boat, and a helicopter and you refused all of them. What else could I possibly do for you?”

Hmm, God works in mysterious ways. I saw an episode of The Resident recently that reminds me of this very thing. The patient truly believed in good luck and that God had given it to him to overcome many near misses in his life. But his heart needed something more: a pacemaker. God had inspired the men who developed the Pacemaker, did He not? But this patient in the episode would not allow the doctors to implant the life saving pacemaker. He was so young, yet He believed that if God wanted Him to live He would reach down from heaven and save him. The patient soon died and maybe had the same conversation with God as the man from the previous story.

God is the inspiration to all that is good. Do we expect that He should come down from His throne divine to help us the way we think He should, or should we trust that if He has already inspired others with ways that could help us, then perhaps we should trust in His inspiration and invention to help save us. In other words we should see God everywhere because He created everything! And all things denote there is a God. (See Alma 30:44):

44 But Alma said unto him: Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of ^aall these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the ^bearth, and ^call things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its ^dmotion, yea, and also all the ^eplanets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.

So, if you or I need help, part of our quest should not only be to pray for help, but to also search high and low for answers that God may have already provided. I think I found this help once, but in my arrogance and pride I walked away from it until I have realized once again that I need much help with my problem: pornography. I found this group that has helped many overcome the problem of pornography and so today I signed up for their help again. I pray that in this way God can work a miracle through them to help me from my problem since I cannot seem to solve it on my own despite all the prayers and efforts I have made. If you have a similar problem or know of someone who still struggles, maybe they can help them too.

We must hope that God will send us something to help us, but we may need to find the help we need from the many inspirations He has already sent. May He bless you to find the thing you need, and may you recognize it is from Him when you find it!

Shalom!

Darkness Settles In

At the end of the day don’t you want to just unwind and not worry about things. The sun goes down and so does my guard it seems.

Every morning I spend time trying to think about how I am going to get through my evening without fumbling and stumbling around in sin lurking at every corner.

Isn’t it easy to just turn on the blube tube and watch whatever catches your attention regardless of its rating. I mean I’m old enough for that stuff, right?

Oh the lies I tell myself in my vanity and pride.

Why is it hard to do good in the dark. Do I think I can hide. Recently I was in Vegas and they say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I saw a billboard there once though that reminded me that this is not true and basically that God sees everything that happens in Vegas, so beware, right?

How can one make a plan about how the evening should go without getting sucked into binge watching shows and then giving into temptations like alcohol, pornography and other mind controlling substances?

If it’s easy for you then you must not be human. If it has become easy for you through lots of faith, humility and hard work and prayer then you are no longer human you have become saint like and Christ like and are on a good trajectory to becoming more like God.

It takes a massive amount of humility to remember what I said I was going to do in the evening. Fast and prayer that I can stay on course with God’s will even if I want to unwind.

This song is the title song, but maybe it means something different or maybe it just means that we need to patiently wait for the Light to illuminate us once again.

Darkness Settles In

Shalom!!

Dust Yourself Off

It is hard for me to stay on track of doing my daily goals. I have to daily remind myself of their importance in my life. I am currently watching some of the 2022 Winter Olympics and I think of these Olympians that must each have a daily discipline to compete at that level. I am competing but in a different way. Those that accept Jesus and want to live with Him in Heaven compete with themselves to overcome their Natural tendencies and become like little children to humbly yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and let God prevail in their life.

We have to repent, be baptized and then keep the commandments of God and try to improve our life each day in service to God and in doing His will. Endure to the end is the goal. Service to others and seeking to have charity and give love to all we can.

Remember that you could pursue anything you want, but Jesus asks this: “What profiteth a man if he should gain the whole world, but loses his soul?” What is your soul worth to you? What is your soul worth to God? You will be the one that has to live with your decisions for the rest of eternity. Will you be happy with your decisions? Do you have goals that define your eternity? Does the praise of men in this life mean anything at all, if you ponder that you will live for all eternity? Only the eternal should matter.

Jesus even said to treasure up riches of eternity where moth and rust doth not corrupt. I think of how many fortunes of men have crumbled either by war, theft or death. You cannot take your riches with you when you die. So what kind of riches can be there for you in heaven? Friends?

How could you make more friends to enjoy eternity with? Genealogy comes to my mind and the Holy Spirit testifies that this is true for me. Sharing the Gospel with others since that is all that really matters. All of us will live with our opportunities and what we did with them and live with the decisions we make in this life for all eternity, so we must give others the chance to learn of Jesus and what He has done for them for all eternity. What better thing can you give them than to know that Jesus will prepare a mansion for them in Heaven, we just have to tell them about it and help them learn how they can humble themselves, repent, be baptized and follow Jesus for all their life so that they can enjoy the Eternities with Him and hopefully us too.

So, what are your goals? Do they lead you to serve others and hence serve God and build His kingdom? If not, you may want to reevaluate what you are doing because nothing is worth losing your soul.

Shalom!

Sweat Lodge

I experience my first Sweat at a friend of my son’s family sweat lodge.

It was quite enlightening, refreshing, and intense all wrapped up into one.

It is a time to reflect on the direction in your life, your relationships, your struggles, and to be grateful to your creator and to those that have gone before and have influenced your life.

I would recommend that everyone experience this. I did thoroughly enjoy this intense form of healing and cleansing and am grateful to have been invited by my son and so warmly received and accepted by this family.

Life is not easier because I participated, but at least I have had a moment to reflect and gain at least one new perspective.

All we can do is our best each day.

Shalom. Hea… Aho!!

The Beatitudes

I just read them again in 3 Nephi chapter 12. it is very similar to Matthew 5 in the New Testament. Some of it is very difficult to digest and maybe we are prone to consider they law in the Old Testament but Jesus said the the old law was fulfilled in Him.

So what part sounds difficult? It says if we get angry with others we are in danger of hell fire. We must not get angry.

We should love our enemies and do good to them. Even if they persecute us and do evil against us.

If someone sued us for an item we not only give them what they sued for and also other stuff as if to not hold back but be very generous even when another is in the act of taking advantage of us. It doesn’t begin to try to state why the person wanted to sue us, it just said if they do we should still be forgiving, loving and kind.

We should lend items to whomever asked and if someone asks us to go with them anywhere we should do it.

We should pray for our enemies.

These are very thoughtful things to do. But we are expected to keep these commandments and the old ones are fulfilled. in verse 20 Jesus even says that if we do not keep these commandments, then we will not get into heaven.

Sounds pretty hard but if we put off the natural man, trust in the lord and become like a little child then we can make it with His help.

Shalom. Have faith that you can make it.

Doctrine of Christ

The doctrine of Christ is really quite simple. Perhaps part of us thinks it has to be complex to make it worth the entrance it provides into the Kingdom of heaven. But it is really really simple and straightforward and you better pay attention or you will miss it.

Jesus was so adamant to have us understand it that He literally said the same simple thing twice while conversing with the Nephites after His crucifixion and resurrection. He literally said: Repent, be baptized and then become like a little child.

And if you didn’t catch that the first time He said repent, be baptized and then become like a little child.

This explanation of what the doctrine of Christ is is found in the 11th Chapter of 3rd Nephi.

It is simple yet extremely difficult since we want to do things our way and don’t trust that to become a little child then we must do everything God’s way. I would surmise that His way will always be superior to ours. His perspective is much better than ours.

He has said that He can see the end from the beginning so that could be helpful and to our advantage to listen to His council.

He also told us in Isaiah that His ways are higher than our ways and that as the sky is above the earth, so are His ways high above ours.

I think maybe to become like a little child means that we trust that His ways really are superior and that we will accept His help and receive His council.

I hope we can be humble enough to accept His doctrine to repent, be baptized and then become as a little child as we attempt to live by every word that proceeds from His Mouth!!

Shalom and May we Let God Prevail in our lives this day.

This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting

I have been pondering this the last few days as I have struggled with my life. I am realizing that to stay true to God I have to do daily things that will bring me in alignment with His will and to constantly remind myself to Let Him Prevail (Israel) in my life.

The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us that another term for fasting is rejoicing. (See Doctrine and Covenants 59:13-14):

13 And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy ^afasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy ^bjoy may be full.

14 Verily, this is fasting and prayer, or in other words, rejoicing and prayer.

So to go without food and have purpose in your praying is akin to literally rejoicing in God.

In Matthew 17:14-21 we read the story of the man possessed with a devil:

14 ¶ And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,

15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he ^afalleth into the fire, and oft into the water.

16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.

17 Then Jesus answered and said, O ^afaithless and ^bperverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.

18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?

20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your ^aunbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have ^bfaith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this ^cmountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be ^dimpossible unto you.

21 Howbeit this ^akind goeth not out but by prayer and ^bfasting.

The first reason the disciples could not cast out the particular devil was because of their unbelief and their lack of faith, but the Savior also taught them that this kind of devil is not cast out without prayer and fasting.

There are intense struggles in my life that I just cannot overcome no matter how hard I try. I probably lack faith and do not fully believe, but perhaps I too could benefit from taking the problem whole heartedly to the Lord while I am fasting and rejoicing in His sacrifice that makes it possible for me to overcome my problems and my sins and eventually even death when He causes me to resurrect and live forever.

I have to believe He can make me clean and whole again and fast and pray that with patience He will help me do what is necessary to be healed.

May you have the necessary faith in Him as well and be healed from your weakness and your struggles and your sin.

Shalom.

TGIF

Another week has come and gone. Whew! Good time to relax and enjoy a little R&R. Some people I know like to smoke a little weed. Some like to munch or drink down some shrooms. Some like to drink a little alcohol. Some like a nice spot of tea. What do you like to use to unwind?

Me, I am tempted to use some of those but I decided to splurge myself a little and have some sugary Bold Ginger Ale. That is pretty bold considering I am just overcome a bout of gout and sugary things are not good for the gout. 😀

I used my addiction to help me unwind and find a level of nirvana, so it is not easy to know what to do with myself now. I tried to focus just now on finding plans for a cabin I would like to build. I found some free plans here. But looking up that link I just found some more here and here. I guess I have more research to do.

Going into the woods and camping is a nice way to spend a weekend, so once I build that then I can enjoy more relaxing days in the wooded mountains of Crouch, Idaho. #mountainlife

Enjoy your day!

Well, I just realized the goal for this blog was to warn the world of what is coming. We cannot get too comfortable relaxing. We must remember that this life is a test, so in our moments of ease we must continue to remember that it is God’s will that is important for us to do and not our own. It is so easy to be consumed into enjoying things for ourselves and that is one of the reasons that Jesus warns that it is hard for a rich man (with all his things to enjoy) to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Let’s work hard here so we can enjoy our time there with Him and our Heavenly Father.

Shalom!!

What Win I?

Why is sin so appealing? Do you have any bad habits? Why are they difficult to break? Why do we keep going back to them and we cannot stop?

Shakespeare wrote “The Rape of Lucrece” in which is found the following man questioning himself:

‘What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.
Who buys a minute’s mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?
For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?
Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown,
Would with the sceptre straight be strucken down?’

It begs to have one look at the consequence of some ill gotten deed before suffering said consequence. Yet still the mind is a crazy thing and even though there might be some consequence we some times try to bargain with ourselves that we can avoid paying the piper unless we get caught, or we will perhaps repent later. I have told myself that a million times.

But the more times one tells themselves this lie, the harder it becomes to change.

Perhaps that’s what God was trying to tell us when He said in 3 Nephi 18:28-29:

28 And now behold, this is the commandment which I give unto you, that ye shall not suffer any one knowingly to ^apartake of my flesh and blood ^bunworthily, when ye shall minister it;

29 For whoso eateth and drinketh my flesh and ^ablood ^bunworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his soul; therefore if ye know that a man is unworthy to eat and drink of my flesh and blood ye shall forbid him.

Maybe the two concepts are unrelated, but if we really know we should stop ourselves from sinning, but we don’t because it is too hard to stop or we tell ourselves we can stop later, then aren’t we taking Christ’s Atonement for granted? Stopping our bad habits is not easy but we have to make more of an effort. I have to make more of an effort! Will you make more of an effort?

I am trying to approach my habit breaking in a new light and in a new way because I have read that Rape of Lucrece a thousand times but when it comes to my bad habit, my brain has a way of erasing any thought of the consequences until after I have committed the bad habit or in other words acted out. And then I remember, and then I regret and then I suffer the consequence of wailing a week as in the verse above.

I have not been able to get into my thick skull that my actions have consequences, but my new approach is helping out so far, but it is still not easy, but at least my brain has not been deleting itself and I can then attempt to white knuckle my way through and beg God for help and for Grace instead of just caving in without a thought to fight my temptations.

This other approach has everything to do with the Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Neibuhr:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.^[1]

The new approach is to focus on the things that I can change and to have courage to act on them. If I am not trying to change the things I can, how can I have hope to get the help I need to change things that I cannot? So I have set goals to be a better me in various other aspects of my life that I have control over, then when the temptations hit for the things I have not been able to control, now I start questioning things and thinking of consequences and actually fighting against temptations that before I would just relent without any effort. At least now there is a battle. At least now if I fall I can at least say that I tried instead of wondering why I just keep giving in without any courage at all.

Perhaps the other struggles to change in areas that I can change are giving me strength to fight the real fight against which I have never been able to prevail. Too soon to tell, but at least now I feel like I am making some progress in this area and having more faith that God will walk with me to see it through to victory. The other part of this is that I attempt every day to Let God Prevail in my life. If He is first, then I believe He will give me strength in my battles.

I am willing to Let Him Prevail in my life and I am willing to suffer any consequence or affliction that He sees fit to inflict upon me and have faith, humility and gratitude as I suffer instead of complaints and rebellion. (See Mosiah 3:19) and remember that this life is a test.

May God bless you in any and all your struggles as you make a courageous effort to do your best with the rest!

Shalom!

Charity Never Faileth

1 Corinthians 13 reads:

13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body ^[a]to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not ^[b]puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, ^[c]thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is ^[d]perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

¹³ And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

On of my favorite Shinedown songs is called: “How did you love?“

Here are the Lyrics:

💀 [LYRICS] How Did You Love – Shinedown 00:00 ♪ [MUSIC] ♪ 00:05 You can have the sound of 00:07 a thousand voices calling your name 00:09 You can have the light of 00:11 the world blind you, bathe you in grace 00:14 But I don’t see so easily 00:18 what you hold in your hands 00:20 ‘Cause castles crumble, 00:22 kingdoms fall and turn into sand 00:24 You can be an angel of mercy or give into hate 00:30 You can try to fight it just like 00:33 every other careless mistake 00:35 How do you justify, 00:37 I’m mystified by the ways of your heart 00:40 With a million lies the truth 00:43 will rise to tear you apart 00:45 Wooaahh! 00:46 No one gets out alive 00:49 Every day is do or die 00:51 The one thing you leave behind 00:54 Is how did you love? How did you love? 00:56 It’s not what you believe 00:59 Those prayers will make you bleed 01:02 But while you’re on your knees 01:04 How did you love? How did you love? 01:07 How did you love? 01:10 Nothing ever feels quite the same 01:14 when you are what you dreamed 01:16 And you will never look at anything 01:19 the same when you see what I see 01:21 How we forget ourselves, lose our way, 01:24 from the cradle to the grave 01:26 You can’t replicate, or duplicate, 01:29 gotta find your own way 01:30 Yeeaahh! 01:33 No one gets out alive 01:35 Every day is do or die 01:38 The one thing you leave behind 01:40 Is how did you love? How did you love? 01:43 It’s not what you believe 01:46 Those prayers will make you bleed 01:48 But while you’re on your knees 01:51 How did you love? How did you love? 01:53 How did you love? 01:56 This ain’t no cross to bury 02:09 We are the judge and jury 02:12 We are the judge and jury 02:14 No one gets out alive 02:19 Every day is do or die 02:21 The one thing you leave behind 02:24 Is how did you love? How did you love? 02:27 It’s not what you believe 02:29 Those prayers will make you bleed 02:32 But while you’re on your knees 02:35 How did you love? How did you love? 02:37 How did you love? 02:39 This ain’t no cross to bury 02:40 We are the judge and jury 02:43 This ain’t no cross to bury 02:45 We are the judge and jury 02:47 How did you love? How did you love? 02:50 How did you love? How did you love? 02:52 How did you love? How did you love? 02:55 How did you love? How did you love?

So how will you love? Jesus told us the parable of the Good Samaritan. Do you walk on the other side of the street? Are you too busy to stop to help? Do you think of someone else as if they were Jesus asking for your help? Would you help Him?

I don’t feel very good today, but I have have felt my Savior’s love at times today and I am grateful, so grateful to feel of His love through His Holy Spirit. I hope that I can share a portion of His love with other’s. Remember Jesus calls us His friends and all He asks is that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments and feed His sheep.

How will you love today?

Shalom!

How Great Shall be Your Joy

I just listened to a talk from the October 1986 General Conference about Proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ by M. Russell Ballard, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ at that time. He talked about how Jesus always encouraged his disciples to preach the gospel, or rather the Good News that He has overcome death and through His atonement has provided a way for us to repent and come with Him back into the Kingdom of His Father and Our Father in Heaven.

Elder Ballard talked about several ways we can begin to share the gospel with others. The first step is to set a date of when we feel like we can have someone to teach the gospel and then work with the Lord through prayer to find this person. We can literally pray for specific people that we know to have their hearts prepared by God to accept His message. God can also bring people into our path that He has prepared to learn about His true purpose for us and of course for them since every living soul is created by God and has the potential to not only be reborn through baptism to become His child, but also has the potential to inherit all He has and if humble and guided by Him to become like He is. That is His message, that is His truth as revealed to His servants the prophets by Him (see Amos 3:7).

If you pray and listen to the voice of God directing you who to contact, then once you contact them, if they are open to the promptings of the Holy Ghost they will not be offended because they will feel that sweet peace of the Holy Spirit of God. Easier said then done, though, am I right?

What blocks me from sharing the Gospel? Is it that I don’t feel like am worthy enough to be the one sharing? I should soon remember that even though I may not be worthy, the Lord has poured His Spirit out upon me in such abundance and if He is willing to do that for me, then He is willing to do it to anyone who asks Him. Remember He really wants them to know about what He has done for them and what this life is really all about, but He needs us as believers to share that message or some people may never hear about it.

I titled this post as “How Great Shall Be Your Joy” because there is a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants 18:15-16 that speaks about this very topic:

15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one ^asoul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the ^akingdom of my Father, how great will be your ^bjoy if you should bring many ^csouls unto me!

Can you not feel the power of those verses? Can you not feel the joy that it will be if you help another come to know Jesus and turn their life over to Him so that He can lead them back to the kingdom of Heaven?

I can barely breathe thinking about it because the Holy Spirit fills my soul with such love and joy. I have to be careful because sometimes if I let that happen too powerfully, then I cannot breath and my ribs lock up and I have to hope and pray that God will help me regain my breathing.

When you can feel this kind of profound love, and peace; you can know that it is the Holy Spirit of God comforting your soul and speaking peace to your mind and heart.

We have to look at the other side of this coin because it may be on the other side of the coin that we find our motivation. I am only seeking to inspire myself, so if you feel some sense of urgency or motivation from this then hurrah, but if you feel a sense of guilt then maybe hurrah too because that may motivate you to remember that this life is too short for us to wait for all the right moments, but we need to dig in and pray that we can envision and then create the right moments with God’s help.

The other side of the coin is to think once we are in Heaven that so and so is not with us, if we would have only told them about the Gospel, maybe they would have been here with us. I realize it is not one person’s single and sole responsibility to lead another to God, but it would still be sad knowing that maybe if we had said something, it would have made a difference. It could have made a world of difference, and eternal difference.

Maybe the joy of heaven will be so great that we won’t even care about whose not there, but I am reminded of what Jacob and Joseph the sons of Lehi said about other people in Jacob 1:19:

19 And we did ^amagnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the ^bresponsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not ^cteach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their ^dblood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day.

They had an office to teach the people and if they did not teach the people then they felt that the people’s sins should be their responsibility. This thought cuts deep, but is also a deeply motivating reason to share the message with others.

But I like even more the feelings of the sons of Mosiah who had been the most vilest of sinners and having found God themselves desired to share the Gospel with any and everyone as found in Mosiah 28:3-4:

3 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not ^abear that any human ^bsoul should ^cperish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure ^dendless torment did cause them to quake and ^etremble.

4 And thus did the Spirit of the Lord work upon them, for they were the very ^avilest of sinners. And the Lord saw fit in his infinite ^bmercy to spare them; nevertheless they suffered much anguish of soul because of their iniquities, suffering much and fearing that they should be cast off forever.

Is your faith in the Gospel and in God that profound that you too can not bear that any human soul should perish? Wake up! WAKE UP!

This life is a time to prepare to meet God, so let’s share the Gospel with as many as we can and remember what the Lord has said about those who are desirous to share the Gospel in D&C 4:2-4:

2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the ^aservice of God, see that ye ^bserve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand ^cblameless before God at the last day.

3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are ^acalled to the work;

4 For behold the ^afield is white already to ^bharvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in ^cstore that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

So, not only will we find Great Joy with others in the Kingdom of Heaven, but we will also bring salvation to our own soul by sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

May His Holy Spirit inspire us to share His message of love and eternal life with others.

Shalom!

We Hope to be able to Endure All Things

What ails you?

There is always something, huh? Or many things that we are simultaneously being tested with. I just found out today that my daughter has Covid-19. I have some rash on my upper thigh that I have no idea what it is, but it is on both thighs at the same time and it keeps growing. It started out like 3 inches in diameter and now its about 6 inches. I also had my gout flare up yesterday which it hasn’t done in the past 6 months or so. That is no fun at all. I try to take all kinds of supplements to help my kidneys and reduce the amount of uric acid in my body, but I guess I was getting too lax on what I can and cannot eat and hence the painful flare up.

In the scriptures we find that we must be humble and be willing “to submit to all things whatsoever the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon us” (Mosiah 3:19). It is part of the test to not question what God allows to be inflicted upon us, but we must humbly endure these things.

Joseph Smith was told that his trials would be but for a small moment “And then, if thou ^aendure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy ^bfoes.” (D&C 121:8)

The 13th Article of Faith states that “we have endured many things, and hope to be able to ^gendure all things.” Does that cause you to fear and tremble thinking about what God may ask you to endure? This just causes me to stop and ponder what I am currently enduring and what blessings I have been given in not having to endure other things at this time. This reminds me of the words to the song “Count your many blessings:

1. When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings; name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

2. Are you ever burdened with a load of care?Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?Count your many blessings; ev’ry doubt will fly,And you will be singing as the days go by.

3. When you look at others with their lands and gold, Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold. Count your many blessings; money cannot buy Your reward in heaven nor your home on high.

4. So amid the conflict, whether great or small, Do not be discouraged; God is over all. Count your many blessings; angels will attend, Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

CHORUS:

Count your blessings; Name them one by one. Count your blessings; See what God hath done.

Count your blessings; Name them one by one. Count your many blessings; See what God hath done.

So many others have so much harder trials it seems and we are no better than they are. We should never, ever judge someone thinking that they somehow bring their own trials upon themselves. We are all here to endure the tests of God and we should just attempt to the best of our ability to ease the burdens and trials of another that perhaps when we are called upon to endure some difficult challenge, then perhaps someone else will help us along our way.

I love the old adage that says: “Help thy brother’s boat across, and lo, thine own has reached the shore.”

In focusing our effort in helping others we are rewarded with not only joy in helping them, but for but a small moment we somehow can get distracted from the thoughts of our own plight and challenges too.

Life is extremely difficult, but we need to learn to live minute by minute with God as our guide so that the final outcome will be worth it. Can you imagine fighting against God and having to struggle through life anyway and then not getting the reward we think we deserve because we were not willing to submit to how He wants us to do things and repenting to do our best in following Him? Life is hard enough, so we need to seek out His will. If we do this then I think we will be able to understand what Jesus said when He said: “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Like I said before, life is hard enough, so taking the Savior’s yoke and burden is the best way forward!!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

If you knew you were being watched and recorded by video, would you do some of the things you do?

I want to share three true stories that accelerated and in one case decelerated because of a camera.

The first story involves my wife and I and another car with at least two people in it. We were driving down a four lane road and they pulled out into the right lane. That’s fine, we were in the left lane. Then without checking the driver decided to just come into our lane cutting us off. My wife honked. Why not, they had no right just to cut out in front of us and like that and they almost caused a wreck and there were no other cars around at all. Since we honked I think they flipped a lid and started flipping us off non stop for an entire mile. I wish I had a camera to record it because it was really sad actually. Why were they so upset? If they knew I was recording, if I did, would they have stopped to act in such a childish manner?

The second story I want to tell happened about 7 years ago where I was in a not so good mood anyway and there was construction forcing all traffic into 1 lane. I was turning right and another guy just pulled out in front of me in oncoming traffic thus cutting me off. I lost it and started honking and honking and flipping off the driver much like the guy I described above. Then some of the people in the back seat of that car started rolling down their windows and recording my behavior. I immediately started acting as if nothing was happening. The fact that what was transpiring was being recorded by video completely changed my demeanor and my actions. It was no longer about the incident but about the consequences that could be seen by others that would judge the situation.

This is a different approach to the Title of “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words”. If we could only remember that all of our actions are literally being recorded by angels and nothing is outside the purview of God at all, then maybe we would not be so quick to anger and to react.

The only recording of me was a calm driver driving along, but that is not what was just before that. Crazy huh? I have tried to not become so hot headed when it comes to driving, but that is a very hard thing for me to do. I am just glad other drivers cannot hear the words I am saying about them. I will try harder.

This next story is so sad that it rips my heart to shreds for both parties involved. A video camera of what transpires next may have been what was needed to forever change the outcome of this encounter. This happened to a prior boss of my son in law Josh. I do not have all the details, but just enough to understand the outcome. The sad thing is that this ex boss probably had enough money to buy his own mountain property but he chose to camp at a public camping facility. Another guy and he were contending over a camping spot. This confrontation escalated. If someone would have started recording maybe what happened next would have been dissolved, but it did not. I do not know if drugs or alcohol numbed the senses of those involved but the escalation led to the ex boss in the heat of the moment retrieving a large wrench and proceeding to beat down the other camper. Brain damage was done and the judge gave the ex boss a life sentence in prison. There is no parole for a life sentence after 1985. Maybe there is, whatever. Both men’s life’s are destroyed and all over a fucking camping spot!!! WTF!!!

What sets you off? You have to know whenever you start escalating because someone is pushing your buttons. It is not worth it ever to let it spiral out of control. I hope we will all remember that even if we don’t see a camera, all of our actions are being recorded. Sure there is forgiveness and I hope these men will learn to forgive one another and that over time and eternity both will heal, but that path is not going to be easy at all for either man. One in prison, one perhaps a vegetable in a wheel chair drooling out his days. I do not know the extent of the damage, but if only someone could have contained that situation by video taping it, then the heat of the moment could have been curtailed.

Remember you are being recorded and perhaps things you don’t want to have to explain will not make it into the life video if you will just remember that the video is recording and so you don’t want that there. I have plenty I wish were not in my life video and I am embarrassed to know that my guardian angels on many occasions had to leave my side because of the wickedness I was involved with, but that didn’t mean the recording stopped. God knows all things, yet He is a very forgiving Father and He will do all He can to show mercy to those who repent and try to do better and try to make up for the bad things they have done. Restitution is inevitable for all that we do wrong. So let’s focus on having our life video be of things where we are trying to make the world a better place and to right the wrongs that we have done, then perhaps Jesus, as our Advocate with the Father, will be given permission to edit our video and remove those parts that were bad, parts that would keep us out of heaven. Then we can become clean and enter into His rest for always and forever. That is my faith and my hope.

Shalom!

Say Nothing But Repentance

D&C 6:9 says: “Say nothing but repentance unto this generation.”

This was a part of a revelation given to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in April of 1829 at Harmony, Pennsylvania.

Joseph and Oliver had been working together to translate the Book of Mormon.

Why is it that all the ancient prophets we hear about cry repentance? Why is it that God told Joseph and Oliver to only talk about repentance? And what is a generation? The dictionary defines a generation as “all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively” Did he imply only all those people living around 1829. Or is this always the message of God to have us repent?

Why is that the only message that God wants us to talk about?

In John 3:16 it says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” So don’t we just need to believe? But Jesus said: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15) And He also said: “Not all that say Lord, Lord will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, only he that doeth the will of my father which is in Heaven. (Matthew 7:21). So it is it contradictory to believe and then have to keep the commandments of Jesus and God the Father in Heaven? Jesus said that He and His father are one, so if you keep the commandments of one then you keep the commandments of both, right? But what if you are not currently keeping the commandments? How will you enter into the Kingdom of Heaven? REPENTANCE!

To repent literally means to change. Wikipedia says “Repentance is reviewing one’s actions and feeling contrition or regret for past wrongs, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better.” That sounds about right to me.

But I think that it really goes back to a previous post called “This Life is a Test” because if we can remember at every single moment that this life is just a test, but that the only ones that can pass the test and thus enter into the kingdom of Heaven are the ones that repent and then keep God’s commandments and do all things that He commands us to do which is saying the same thing, then we will realize that the only way to become clean is to repent and ask God to change our hearts so that we will prove a change in our lifestyles for the better and walk the path of righteousness.

This talk from Brad Wilcox is awesome about how we can go about changing daily to become worthy to enter into the Kingdom of God. Remember, that is the only reason we are here and the only thing that Jesus wants us to say to this generation is that we all need to repent and become like little children (see Matthew 18:3) or we will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Give his talk a chance and hopefully find some wisdom in how you can pass this test of life:

Worthiness is Not Flawlessness

A lot of people got angry from Prophets telling them to repent. They even killed the prophets and stoned them. Why is that so? Sin is fun right? No one wants to be told what to do. But what if you were up on the mast of a ship and you could see a giant iceberg up ahead. Wouldn’t you want to warn the others to change the course so as to avoid the catastrophe of hitting an iceberg? A prophet telling us to repent and keep God’s commandments is like the guy on the mast. He sees the iceberg of the everlasting punishment of hell that is coming our way if we do not change our course. We should not punish him for just being the lookout.

I hope you will listen to the lookouts that God has sent and change your course to repent and keep the commandments of God, so that you will avoid the inevitable punishment from sin and thus be found clean to enter into the Kingdom of God. I hope I can see you there!! I hope I can always remember to repent as well so I can be there too!!

Shalom!!

Let the Holy Spirit be your Guide

Even though I was working I somehow got into this lull where I did not know what to focus on next. Then I figured I would write some in this blog because it is a daily goal that I have been neglecting for a few days.

It is difficult to not only know what to focus on, but to also stay focused on what you should. I believe what should be focused on is what you feel through the Holy Spirit should be your current focus. This is all about letting God Prevail in you life and seeking to always do His will as it is done in heaven like the Lord’s prayer directs.

One of my daily goals is to plan my day spiritually each morning. God designed all the creatures and living beings such as plants, etc. before He placed them on this earth. He has a plan for everything here. So too, we can layout our plan for the day and ask for His guidance as we make this plan. Sometimes our plan obviously has to coincide with our responsibilities at work, but I have found it to be motivating to know that I made a plan to work on those things and felt a validation from God that this is what He wants me to do for the day. Then we can carry out that plan and check off the items from our plan as the day goes by so that we can see our progress. Hopefully the entire day is not made up just of work, so it is very good as well to set not only work goals but also person goals for the day that help you work towards even bigger goals for the week, month, year, decade and eternity.

We are told that we get to choose liberty and eternal life, or misery and eternal death and damnation. If that is true then it becomes us to set goes that keep us on a course towards eternal life. Goals that help us overcome bad habits. Goals that keep us keeping commandments that we struggle with. Goals to pray for others. Goals to serve others and in so doing we in turn serve God for He said: “In as much as ye do it unto one of the least of these.. you do it unto me.”

So setting up this plan with God each morning is very important and following up with God each night is very important to go over with Him how you did and what you can do to improve and what you can do to serve and follow Him more. But then it is equally important to listen to His Spirit all during the day and pray for guidance in every thing we do so that we can have His help and so it will be for our good. Notice this scripture on prayer:

“…ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.” (2 Nephi 32:9)

I guess we could surmise that everything we do is “unto the Lord” so we should pray always for everything we do so that it will be for the welfare of our soul. I am not exactly sure how that works but apparently asking for God’s help in all things blesses our eternal soul.

And this is where the discussion ends because everything beyond this is between you and the Lord. I hope you will let Him be your guide and that you will let the Holy Spirit guide you in your life as you seek to fulfill God’s will for you.

Shalom!

This Life is a Test

You cannot remember it, nor can I. There is a veil of forgetfulness placed on your head so you cannot remember where you were before you were born. Every living person that has every lived on this earth was there. We only know this because God has made it known just as He said he would in Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets”. So what do we know about what was decided there about this life? If you read in the Pearl of Great Price in Abraham 3:22-25 you will find this truth about your life before you came here and what was decided about this place:

22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the ^aintelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the ^bnoble and great ones;

23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast ^achosen before thou wast born.

24 And there stood ^aone among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and ^bwe will make an earth whereon these may ^cdwell;

25 And we will ^aprove them herewith, to see if they will ^bdo all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;

Notice that we were all there. We are all the intelligences (aka spirits) described in verse 22 and 23. And notice how verse 25 clearly states our purpose is to see if we will do all things here that the Lord commands us.

Notice how it doesn’t say that we will do the things the Lord commands only when we feel like it or only when we want to, but that God is going to prove us and thus test us to see if we will do ALL things that He commands.

I am pointing this out because right now I am being tempted and I don’t feel like doing what God has commanded me on a certain point of commandment. I’ve given into it time and time again. Sound familiar to you? Then I feel guilty and so I say I am sorry and I ask for forgiveness and tell myself and God that I will not do it again. So I feel strengthened by Him to not do it for a while. And I read scriptures and pray for myself and others and I feel like I won’t do it anymore. But then comes the test to see if I won’t do it even when I feel like doing it. So how can I refrain? White knuckle? Self bashing? Harrowing up the length of eternity and eternal damnation if I don’t stop? Sometimes that is exactly what it takes. Jacob describes that idea in the early part of the Book of Mormon explaining that he had to remind the people of what would happen if they did not keep the commandments of God.

That has been the voice of every true prophet that has ever walked the earth that we must repent and keep all of the commandments of God or we will suffer eternal punishment. I won’t list all the references to the earth burning with fire and what will happen to the wicked, but there are many many scriptures about that. It’s as if the Lord wanted us to know the consequence of unrepentant sinning. Hmmm. Do you think that if you ignore the scripture and don’t think about the consequence of sinning that God will have mercy on you even though you haven’t repented?

How do you keep remembering that you must repent over and over and over again and again and make every attempt to become more righteous so that you will avoid the punishment of God? Or is it easier to remember that if you repent that you can be forgiven and come back into God’s presence? Either way you both avoid the punishment and you come back into God’s presence.

The doctrine is very clear that No unclean thing can come back into God’s presence (3 Nephi 27:19), but that there is an Atonement finished by Jesus Christ to allow us to repent so that we can become clean enough to come back into God’s presence. In Isaiah 1:18 we read: “18 Come now, and let us ^areason together, saith the Lord: though your ^bsins be as scarlet, they shall be as ^cwhite as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

It is overwhelming to keep the commandments of God. Yet that is where Grace comes in. This is what we are to know about Grace as found in 2 Nephi 25:23 “23 For we labor diligently to write, to ^apersuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by ^bgrace that we are saved, after all we can ^cdo.“

So that is the test defined more clearly: Do all that you can do to keep the commandments of God, ask for His Grace to strengthen and refine you to do better and to do more. It should be the most important thing in your life and the thing that you are constantly focused on improving just like it tells us in Philippians 2:12: “12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, ^awork out your own ^bsalvation with fear and trembling.” Fear in the scriptures is often defined as respect for the Lord. If you respect Him and His Word and His Commandments then you will make them foremost in your life.

Life is a test because it is a massive distraction everywhere and you cannot remember even from hour to hour that you were sent here to be tested. But will you remember? How can you remind yourself over and over again why you are really here? If you didn’t know before, you know now! So don’t ever forget why you’re here to Be Tested because This Life is a Test.

I try to compare this life and how it was setup by God when He said: “We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and ^bwe will make an earth whereon these may ^cdwell. (Abraham 3:24). I try to compare that to where God lives in Heaven where we should hope to live some day for the rest of eternity!! So this earth was made for all of us with a specific purpose to have trials, pain, tribulation, sorrow, decay, suffering and death. None of these things exist in Heaven. They were only setup here to test us. This is not the real thing! This is not the Life God has reserved for us depending on how we choose to live here. This life is but a small moment compared to the length of Eternity!!

God has gone to great lengths to design this test. He has created an entire ecosystem and food chain around things decaying, diseased and dying. It is magnificent but it is only to test us with. This concept of decaying and dying will not continue there. We need to snap out of what this is!! We think we are suppose to make a name for ourself here and live it up and have fun cause we only live once! NOOOO!

This life is a time for men to prepare to meet God. Here is what Alma says about it in Alma 34:32-35:

32 For behold, this ^alife is the time for men to ^bprepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of ^cthis life is the day for men to perform their ^dlabors.

33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many ^awitnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not ^bprocrastinate the day of your ^crepentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the ^dnight of ^edarkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful ^acrisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth ^bpossess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.

35 For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become ^asubjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth ^bseal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked.

So break it down: you are here for one single purpose: To Prepare to meet God!! If you goof off and waste away your life and die without improving your life and repenting, you don’t get another chance. Do you think there is even time to waste complaining to God that your life it too hard and so you are mad at Him for not making it fair for you? Stop whining! I don’t care what your struggle or trial is. I know it is hard, but God will not command you or test you beyond what He feels you are capable of. If you think your struggle is hard I have two things to say: 1) Congratulations! God thinks very highly of you to test you with such a thing! 2) Jesus suffered more than you will ever know and yet He did nothing wrong so humbly be grateful that you are not suffering more than you are, and also realize that since He suffered He knows how to succor you in your pain and struggle so ask Him for help! Yeah, I am minimizing your struggle. So what? It is just a test!! Seek for God’s help and He will carry you through. That is His promise to all of us. And that is why He asks us all to not judge each other because only He knows whether you are giving it your all and will judge you accordingly, but we must also be grateful to Him for every blessing and everything and to acknowledge His hand in all things. (Doctrine & Covenants 59:21):

21 And in nothing doth man ^aoffend God, or against none is his ^bwrath ^ckindled, save those who ^dconfess not his hand in all things, and ^eobey not his commandments.

It is so easy to forget, it is so easy to get distracted, it is so easy to put off tomorrow what needs to be done today! I read a fantastic talk about letting God prevail in my life. I have read it several times now and I cannot seem to get enough of it. You can find it here. I highly recommend you read it and take time to map out how you are going to Let God Prevail in your life. Life is far too short to not let Him take over in your life and make His will your own will so that you can go back to the real life awaiting you in Heaven. Remember, remember, remember that This Life is a Test!

It becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor. ~ D&C 88:81

What if there had been a prophet on the earth that the people of their time listened to and gave heed to the message and believed the prophet’s word. One comes to mind: Jonah. The ironic thing is that Jonah didn’t want to send a message to a wicked people. He wanted God to destroy them for their wickedness. The other ironic thing is that finally when Jonah heeded God’s command to warn the people, these people of Nineveh actually repented and avoided the imminent doom of destruction!!

What would a prophet say to us to get us to listen? Is there imminent doom if we do not repent and turn to God with all our hearts? Should we be afraid and worried about the future if we do not Let God Prevail in our life? I think this answer is most certainly yes!! There is imminent doom and it is our choice of whether or not we will avoid it. The answer is made clear in what I read again yesterday in my scripture study. Look up Alma 41:6-8:

6 And so it is on the other hand. If he hath repented of his sins, and desired righteousness until the end of his days, even so he shall be rewarded unto righteousness.

7 ^aThese are they that are redeemed of the Lord; yea, these are they that are taken out, that are delivered from that endless night of darkness; and thus they stand or fall; for behold, they are their own ^bjudges, whether to do good or do evil.

8 Now, the decrees of God are ^aunalterable; therefore, the way is prepared that ^bwhosoever will may ^cwalk therein and be saved.

If that doesn’t make your skin to crawl and to wake you up from a deep sleep, then I do not know what will. Let me break it down:

Let’s take it in reverse. We can NOT change the decree of God. What is that decree? That there is an endless night of darkness!! We are headed towards an Endless Night of Darkness!! But God has prepared a way for us to be delivered from the ENDLESS NIGHT OF DARKNESS! The only way to be delivered is to repent of our sins and desire to do righteousness for the rest of our days. Seems simple enough, but do we just read the words and hear them, or do we actually realize that if we do not do what the words say to repent and desire righteousness that the endless night of darkness is unavoidably coming for us and we will not be able to stop it at that time. No one will!!

Last night I watched a really interesting movie that had been recommended to me by my mother. It is called “Don’t Look Up“. It seems to be a really keen metaphor for some real stuff going on in Politics, but I think the message it gives is the same as the one I just gave. That doom is imminent! (spoiler alert!) But there is an escape pod and it will take some to a lush place where the creatures there will not attack you as happens in the movie. The escape pod is for those who repent and desire to do righteousness and it is for none other. No amount of money can buy your way onto the escape pod. The entire rest of the world that does not repent will be unavoidably destroyed. And what will destroy them? Is it a comet? Jesus himself tells us what it will be for those left on the earth alive that have not repented of their sins:

Doctrine and Covenants 1:37

37 For behold, the ^aday cometh that shall ^bburn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as ^cstubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

Jesus and the angels coming with him shall burn up all those that have not repented!! It is crystal clear! So doom is imminent!! Will you be caught unaware? Or will you repent and avoid the disaster? It is a daily struggle to wake up and remind yourself that the day is coming. It might be six months, it might be six years, it might be six decades but is it coming and you should look up, repent and live. There are voices telling you the opposite and calling the prophets liars. But in that day you will know that God was trying to warn you. May His message sink deep into your heart and that you may desire righteousness, repent and gain access to the escape pod that is not some make believe story but is as real as you being alive right now. God bless you and help you decide to do His will.

Shalom! But Shalom to those who desire righteousness for there will not be Shalom for those who do not. I didn’t say it, God says is directly. The Endless Night of Darkness is not peace or happiness. It is described as misery and endless wo and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Don’t believe you can avoid it by continuing in sin. You won’t be able to avoid it. I hope you will choose to ask Jesus to forgive your sins and then seek to do His will each and every day of your life in humility and long suffering so that when that Great and Dreadful Day comes you will be ready to have Him deliver you “from that endless night of darkness.”

As your neighbor, know now that you have been warned by me.

Side note: Didn’t that doctor in the movie remind you of Fauci or Biden and also all the idiots yelling “Don’t Look Up” remind you of parasites in the government that won’t stop spending money on nonsense and they are literally destroying the great country as we know it thinking they can spend their way out of financial doom. Anyway, there are lots of parallels in that movie beyond what I have said here. Leave your comments below.

The Good News of Jesus

I don’t want to sell anything, just the gospel message of hope. I have never been good at sales. I always feel like I am burdening someone with something that they didn’t want to hear about or buy. I’ve lost so many friends and so much respect for trying to sell Multi Level Marketing products to them. I thought they were things I believed in and I had heard that others found success so I thought I would try it myself, but all I ended up doing was offending people and losing their friendship and respect. I have no confidence as a salesman, in fact I hate the very idea of money. I wish it didn’t exist. I long for God’s Kingdom to return to the earth where Jesus is Lord and King over all the earth and we can hopefully have a very different system than we do now where we work and serve and are just provided the things we need instead of wondering where our next meal will come from. I wish I had lots of money so I could give it all away to the poor, but I don’t like to earn lots of money because I am afraid that I will not use it for good and that I will become proud and greedy and selfish. I would rather dodge that bullet.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, Jesus is the Bread of Life, Jesus is a spring of water that always quenches our thirst. Jesus is the breath of Life. He is the creator. There was not anything created without Him being a part of it. He is the Redeemer. There is no other name given whereby man can be saved. Without Him everything would have been for naught and voided and we would have unavoidably perished and be confined to a state of never ending sorrow into oblivion. He makes everything possible.

I read yesterday how after Adam ate the forbidden fruit and was cast out of the Garden of Eden that Cherubim and a flaming sword were kept to keep man from partaking of the tree of Life. But when Jesus died a miracle happened in the temple. The veil was rent. On that veil were images of Cherubim. Having that torn from top to bottom represented now a way for us to come back into God’s presence and live forever because of the sacrifice of His son, Jesus.

I read recently that one of the original leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Parley P. Pratt, had made a decision before he ever found the true church to sale all he had and preach to others the Gospel. Soon after he began preaching he found the true church and the Book of Mormon and it changed his life forever. His preacher was Sidney Rigdon. At first Brother Rigdon did not want to give up his church because it was his sole means of providing well for his family, but once he found the church to be true he gave it all up and followed Joseph Smith and Jesus into the true church. Later, Sidney Rigdon was the one who with Joseph Smith saw a vision of the life after this life and how we will be rewarded according to what we choose to follow here in this life. See Doctrine and Covenants 76. What a marvelous vision!

We should all strive to gain entrance to the Celestial Kingdom of God where God dwells with all His Holy Angels forever and ever. That is all I want out of this life. In fact it is the whole reason we are here to test us and see if we choose to follow God’s prophets and seek to serve God with all of our hearts so that He will forgive us and cleanse us from sin so that we can be purified as He is pure and come back into His presence. There is nothing of more value or worth to man than asking forgiveness and serving God. Nothing else even matters. In fact it has been said that those who live in sin and do not repent, this life will pass and will just seem like a dream when it is all over. It will be a thing of nothing for them. Do you want to wake up some day and realize that you failed your entire life because you set your heart on riches and things of the world. A world that is just a test?

The only thing that matters is Jesus. He is everything. Without Him there is nothing. I testify of Him and I worship Him and I hope that He will guide me and forgive me and change my heart. I pray that I may live every single day of my life for Him and help others learn of Him. Like I said, I am not a salesman, but I hope I can help sell the idea of Jesus and the Good News of His Gospel that He has given to the world. It is all that matters!!

May you find Jesus and His atonement so that you can have true meaning for your life now and forever!!

Shalom!

Past Sins and Past Laurels – Neither Matter

Sub Title: Enduring to the End – All that Matters

My wife and I once did something so outside the ordinary of typical life that one naïve lady comment once to my wife at church: “Are you trying to buy your way into heaven.” That is laughable! Hilarious!! But she was dead serious or dead judgmental, I cannot tell which.

But the funny thing is that it doesn’t matter if you have done something significant to help the Kingdom of God, or if you have done something bad in your life that would keep you out of heaven. What matters is that you live each day new and endure the trials of that new day. All the significant things you have done that could be considered winning Laurels for your work for the Lord will not amount to anything if you stop striving to follow Jesus day after day after day after day. And if you strive to follow Him each and every day, His atonement will wash all your past sins for which you have confessed and forsaken completely away so that “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” (see Isaiah 1:18)

It really doesn’t matter what you have done both good or evil in the past. Those things will not keep you in or out of heaven today. It is what you are doing today that matters.

It is true that the choices you made in the past have influenced you and if you have lead a good life, chances are you may continue to do so, but that is not guaranteed. Same as if you have lead a sinful life, chances are you may continue to choose the sinful life; but you can change and surprise everyone, even yourself, by realizing that God is there and He expects you to live according to His commandments, if you are desirous to live with Him again.

Wouldn’t you like to live with the One who created everything, including you? He has stated about the things in store for those who love Him and that also includes those who keep His commandments because He said plainly, “If you love me, keep my commandments”. And for those people “eye hath never seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ever enter into the heart of man the great things God has prepared.” (see 1 Corinthians 2:9). I don’t know what the after life will be like. Only those that have been there know, but they usually don’t come back or they’re not allowed to tell us. I do know this that in the 76 Section of the Doctrine and Covenants God describes through His prophet Joseph Smith that the Celestial Kingdom where God the Father reigns for all eternity is compared to the brightness of the Sun, and that comparatively speaking, if you only kind of follow Jesus and live a good life but are not completely focused on enduring to the very end, but just kind of ride your laurels and do what you want with your life, instead of doing God’s will every single day. Then He does have a place for you, but that place is the Terrestrial Kingdom and it differs in glory as the moon differs in glory to the Sun. (see D&C 76:71).

Have you every tried to see the difference in the light of the Sun and the Moon. The moon would have no light without the Sun. Typically the Sun outshines the moon so brightly that you cannot see the moon at all. The Glory of the Sun is available to all, if you will but choose to follow Jesus every day not matter how many times you fail, just keep trying to give it your all and Endure to the End and repent over and over and over and over as many times as it takes every day… then, God willing because only He can judge you and know the desires of your heart, you too can enter into His glorious Kingdom.

I hope I can make it there. It is a daily struggle, but I will keep trying. Will you?

Forsake

The dictionary defines forsake as “give up, abandon, renounce, turn entirely away”.

There are two primary things God wants me to forsake:

1. All others and cleave only to my wife
2. All my sins (Confess and forsake sins ~ see Proverbs 28:13)

I like this article about Forsaking all others.

These are things I need to work on. I previously just thought of forsake as a word that I said, but when I apply the definition to what I am forsaking it starts to make more sense.

I should abandon and renounce my sins and start living God’s commandments, not wishing I could sin again.

I should give up the chase of wondering if there is someone else out there for me. I should turn entirely away from that and always just consider how my thoughts and feelings towards chasing others would affect my wife. That is revolting. She should only be the one and all others I should renounce and abandon as being that person in my life. Sure I can serve others and help them, but when it comes to having a deep relationship with, that should only be with my wife.

How can we have relationships with others yet still hold true to forsaking all others but our spouse? It seems impossible, doesn’t it?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Creation of God is Unfathomable

Cogito, ergo sum… I think, therefore I am. ~ Descartes

But how did you come into creation? It’s only been the past few hundred years that man has been able, with science, to determine the complexity of life. Where does the order begin and end, where does conscience begin and end, where does agency begin and end? The RNA send messages at the cellular level to replicate various types of cells that are organized into systems inside of a living creature. Are some of those RNA rebellious and refuse to do their job? I doubt not. Maybe they become cancerous. At what point is rebellion and why does it exist? It is contrary to all the jobs necessary to be performed to carry forward life.

Many would have you believe that all of this is from evolution back to single cell life without some divine plan. There is so much chance involved in all of this happening the way it did that the chance required alone defies logic. I saw a guy recently in a video with a bag of parts of a watch taken apart and he said the chance of just one of the things coming together in the evolution model would be like him shaking the bag of parts and having them spontaneously form into a watch from the parts. Evolution by itself is not possible. But maybe our timeline of evolution is way too limited. Maybe super intelligence evolved over 100s of quadrillions of eons til the God’s over powered all things and were able to harness the universe and be outside of it to where they can now form universes and create veil’s and testing grounds like this planet to test spiritual offspring to see if they are of the essence to continue forth the work of creation. If it were not the work of some long term evolution, then how was the design of man who is in the image of God made? It’s like the age old question: Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

We have to presume logically that God designed what a chicken would look like, then He created a system for chickens to reproduce and hence developed the concept of the egg.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I cannot fathom how God came into being. The idea that God was once like us and was in a test like we are and had to choose wisely so that He could become what He is today is absolutely mind bending because if that were true then how did that cycle of Man to God get started? Has it continued for Eons past ad infinitum?

But, despite the fact that I cannot answer that question at all and it boggles my mind to think about, I am left with the truth that I am here in this test designed by God in the which He declared through His prophet Abraham that He would send us to earth to see if we would do all things that He commands us. (Abraham 3:25) That is the utter truth of our existence. But we make mistakes, a lot, so in order for us to become clean again to be able to go back into His presence, He provided a way for us to repent of our sins and mistakes and be forgiven and cleansed by the blood and atonement of Jesus Christ, His son. There is no other way according to the laws of the universe that we could become clean enough to enter back into His presence. That is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is.

We get to choose to ignore that truth or follow it. The consequence of ignoring it is that we will not become clean and therefore will not be allowed back into the presence of God the Father, or we can follow it with all our heart and soul and live daily as if everything we did depended on us living and repenting over and over and begging God in prayer to show us the straight path back to His presence. Now that very statement brings tears and truth and a feeling a joy to my soul because it is true.

I think of the multiple quadrillions of tiny electrons spinning around in every atom of my body as each of them continue to serve their purpose. I cannot fathom how they can stay organized and yet only provide life for me over the course of around 100 years. Just long enough to give me a good testing. Do you really think there is more to life than that? I do not have to think that life is more or less than that because when I think of the plan of God, and of His Goodness, and of His Love; a profound sense of His existence has come into my body and soul so strong that I have felt like I would be consumed with its fire and it makes me burst out crying with joy. I wish you could feel it and feel His presence to know He is really there so you will dedicate your whole life to Him because He is the meaning of life. He is the Life. He is the beginning and end of Life. The Alpha and Omega. Without Him, there is nothing but endless void.

Oh may you feel of His presence and His love this day! 😀

With Love,

Scott

What is truth?

Do you believe that if you say something long enough or loud enough that it will become truth? Or is truth really defined as things as they are, as they were, and as they are to come?

Truth should be black and white. Like in a computer something is either on or off. It cannot be both. It is either true or false. If I ask a bit if it is on and it is on it will return true. It doesn’t find some way to lie to me.

How can you find the truth of things? How can you ask a liar to tell you the truth? Ha! You cannot! You won’t know if he is lying or telling the truth. You may not even know if he is a liar at all.

This women is attempting to tell the truth at the very cost of her life:

I don’t know how long that will be up, but that woman Scarlett Yan is from China and is bolding speaking out that the Chinese Communist Party has lied to the world about the origin of the Covid-19 virus and that it was not from a bat or any other animal but that it was sent out into the world as a biological weapon to destroy economies and kill people.

So, is she telling the truth? Or do you believe Communist China’s version of the origin?

Look I cannot convince you if it came from a bat or if China purposefully released it into the world and lied about that and other details or if there is another version of the story. All I am saying is that in reality if we could really see the real facts like from some hidden camera then we could know the truth as long as someone didn’t manipulate the camera. But the bottom line is that there is only one truth about anything.

We can only believe things though based on evidence that we can see or hear and our own biases usually get in the way as well, so people know this and can attempt to manipulate the truth into what they believe we can accept.

That is very, very scary.

For most things maybe it doesn’t matter too much. But for a country that could have an agenda to kill you and does not care about what happens to you and would like to own you and control you, then the truth mattering is paramount to your very survival.

What if you were fearful that variations of the virus continued to come out as if somehow by nature the virus was evolving itself to more deadly versions and more vaccines would have to be taken to combat the virus?

Or, what if, instead of the virus mutating by itself that there was literally a timeline by an evil nation controlling scientists to release variations of the virus, such as this image suggests:

That seems made up, doesn’t it. Like why on earth would they just keep trying to get us sick with different variants of this virus. Well, the problem with truth is that you can lie at both extremes and so someone may have just made this up to lie to us so we now don’t know what to believe.

Do you believe that Joe Biden was honestly voted in as President of the United States, or was the election a fraud and the system corrupted in such a way that votes were switched? You probably believe one way or another. But just because you believe it to be one way, does that make it true? Wouldn’t you want to know the real truth about whether there was really voter fraud, enough fraud that would change an election? How did some of those states where Trump was really ahead all of a sudden in the middle of the night switch over to Biden winning? I don’t have evidence one way or another to convince you. I am not a judge or a jury. But there is a truth. Either some group tried and succeeded in frauding the system or they didn’t and Joe Biden actually got the votes even though it seemed like no one showed up to his rallies.

I just want the truth. I don’t want to be lied to.

There is one truth that I believe that I cannot prove but I have felt in such a real and astonishing way so many, many times that I cannot deny that it comes from a source outside of myself. That truth I have come to know is that God is real.

I believe that God has three members referred to by some as the Trinity or the Godhead: God the Father; Jesus Christ, the son; and the Holy Ghost. I believe this scripture to be true and the best way to find the truth of all things: “And by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:5)

The bottom line is that if we want to know the truth of anything, we must pray to God and He will answer us by the power of the Holy Ghost who is the member of the Godhead that reveals all truth.

In fact, He is also described as a teacher, than when we receive Him he will teach us everything that we need to do to follow and serve God (see 2 Nephi 32:5) and frankly anything else that is important. It doesn’t seem to suggest there is a limit to what He can show us about what we should do.

Sounds like God wants us to know truth and He is providing a way for us to find the truth. Do you think He tells one person something and a different person something else? Or do you think that maybe one person can tell it is the Holy Ghost who gave them the answer, but the other person may have been lying or maybe they were lied to by Satan or some other unholy being trying to throw everything off just to create confusion any and everywhere.

How do you know if it is the Holy Ghost or something else that is talking to you in your heart? Hmm. You’ll have to figure that out on your own. Trial and error and living according to God’s commandments will start heading you down the right path. I have felt the power of the Holy Ghost in such a way that I thought I would burst into flames. Nephi gives us a taste of this in his writing: “He hath filled me with his ^alove, even unto the ^bconsuming of my flesh.” (2 Nephi 4:21) That is what it felt like to me and I have felt it again and again. It was not a one time experience. It felt joyous and heavenly like what Paul talks about are the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,” I think if you get some answer and you feel uneasy, and irritable then it is probably not of God.

I begin where I started: Truth is things as they really are, as they were and as they will be. Do you think when you die you get to pick what happens, or is what is really there what will really happen to you. It is like saying when you drop a coin in the water you get to choose if it floats up in the sky or if it bounces off the water or if it transforms into a million dollars. No! There is cause and effect to everything, that is the truth. I am not telling you what happens when you die, I am telling you that you don’t get to choose what happens any more that you getting to choose to stay alive forever. No! We are all going to die and there is no amount of effort on your part that will keep you alive forever.

God sees all things and He therefore knows the truth of all things because He can see everything that happens. No one can hide anything from Him. There is no escape from His all seeing eye. And He will come to us all with our truth of what we made of our lives and what we did or did not believe and how we acted upon that knowledge. So, if you don’t feel good or right about something; anything, then pray to know if it is of God or not.

In the book of Revelations John warns of someday there being a mark of a beast and that people will have to choose whether to accept this mark. If you accept it you will be able to continue to buy and sell, but from God’s viewpoint, if you accept that mark you will be thrown with the beast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone (Revelation 19:20). So there will come a point when you will have to decide to walk the way of the world so you can have food, or to walk the way of God. Is buying stuff so important if you know that you will be thrown into a lake of fire burning with brimstone? Some people even think that the vaccine of Covid-19 is this mark since many are being told they cannot do things like get on a plane, etc. without the mark. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Best to pray and find out whether you should take it; and don’t just take it because someone told you to. Maybe at best the vaccine is a forerunner of the mark because someone is encouraging you to take something and threatening you with a recourse if you do not take it, so it seems similar to the details around the mark. All I know is that I have prayed about it and I don’t feel right about the vaccine for me. I don’t think it is necessary, but I also don’t feel like it is good for me. I won’t go as far to say that God has told me it is the mark of the beast, but maybe my health is such that it will not do me any good, so why take it? So I will not take it unless I pray and feel otherwise. Shouldn’t that be advice to anyway to say to them “Let God tell you what to do and follow His counsel.” That is the advice I give you about anything in your life.

May God bless you and guide you in all you do. The truth is He created you, He loves you, He knows you better than anyone, and He wants to help you. So pray to Him for everything.

Why For Senor?

I tried to keep my life going according to God’s will today. It is not an easy thing to continuously seek His will through pray to know what He wants me to do and to not just live according to what I want to do and according to how I am feeling instead of focused on what He wants. But that is the route I know my life must take to just live by what I feel He is telling me to do from moment to moment.

I listened to some talks from Spiritual leaders today and listen to a chapter from the scriptures this day and the Holy Spirit was super strong while I did these two things. It is amazing how God can come into our life at moments with such power and influence that it is literally breath taking. I guess we have to spend the rest of the time trying to remember that God was there at those times and try not to forget and get side tracked into doing things that He does not want us to do.

I use a cool app and I am trying to make sure I stay focused on being faithful to the goals I have set for myself and feel that God approves of in the app. You can download it from the app store. It is called HabitNow. It seems that it is easier to stay close to God and do the things He wants me to do if I strive to mark off each of the tasks daily. One of them is to write in this Blog, so I am glad I have taken that opportunity today. I think in that way I am doing God’s will.

If I don’t stay focused on God’s will then I tend to either do things for Dr. Jekyll or I do things for Mr. Hyde and I just want to do things for my Heavenly Father. Dr. Jekyll would have me seek to do things for me to pursue earthly Goals to be better at stuff of the world. This is okay if I use these talents to help others and to seek to glorify God. But then there is Mr. Hyde and he only seeks to please himself and his sensuous appetites. This song is intense and profane, but it really fits the bill about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so if you are okay will a bit of profanity and intensity check out the Music Video here.

I hope I can continue to strive to seek to do God’s will each and every moment of every day and find the peace that surpasseth all understanding (see Philippians 4:7) and the Eternal Life that God has promised (see St. John 3:16)

Have a wonderful day!!

Trust in the Lord

The 3rd step in a 12 Step Program for addiction is to Trust in your higher power / God and submit your life and will over to that Power. Proverbs 3:5-6 states: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path.”

We could probably agree that a higher power such as God does have a better perspective than us, especially since He created us. He gave us commandments so that we would obey Him, not to test His patience with. Jesus said: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” I have found that keeping God’s commandments is not an easy thing. We seem to always be tempted to do the opposite of what He commands. Why is that and how can we get around that?

I think it is so since this life is a test to see if we will obey God’s commandments or not; and the other side does not want us to keep the commandments and so the Satan inspired media is riddled with material that would entice us and tempt us to do contrary to the commandments of God. To literally break them. The 3rd step teaches us that we have to turn our lives over and our will over to God. We must allow every decision we make to bring Him into the process and determine if it is something that He would have us do, or would the doing of said thing in question break one of His commandments or be contrary to His will. We make decisions all day long, how could we possibly involve God in all of them? I don’t know… lot’s of prayer? The prophet Nephi in the Book of Mormon teaches us that we must not do anything without first praying about it to God. This is so important that I will quote the entire 2 verses here:

8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the ^aSpirit which teacheth a man to ^bpray, ye would know that ye must ^cpray; for the ^devil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.

9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must ^apray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall ^bpray unto the Father in the ^cname of Christ, that he will ^dconsecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the ^ewelfare of thy soul.

2 Nephi 32:8-9

Wise words…. yet not so simply applied. We are created to desire to do our own thing in our own way. We fear to give our will and agency to another turns us into a robot that cannot think for ourselves. Right? How do we give our will over to God? If it were that simple I would have already done it and stop fighting the Spirit for my right to choose my life. I want to give God my will. Is it just to merely decide to give it to Him day in and day out and continue to choose to follow a path that would be pleasing in His eye? Is that what it means to live a Christ like life and give one’s will over to God? Feel free to leave comments below as to whether you believe one should give their will over to God and what it means to do so. Enjoy your day!

13th Article of Faith

I received this email today from Hope of the World and it corresponds to the 13th Article of Faith:

In Philippians 4:8, it is written, “.. whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if there is anything of excellence or worthy of praise – let your mind dwell on such things…” Now let’s take this as a standard and apply it to your life, entertainment, magazines, music, internet sites and television you watch. Are those soap operas, daytime and late night talk shows true and right? Imagine if television had a Philippians Network – how much of contemporary television could they broadcast? Are you sitting in front of that television and letting these things fill your attention, thoughts, heart and soul? Who knows how it’s affecting your life; the bondages you may still be in, and the blessings you’ve never known. In fact, the very verse leads into a promise… those who dwell on the things of God, the peace of God will be with them. Do you want the blessing? Change the station. Turn off the junk. Turn on to the Word, the Presence, and the joy of the Lord, and your heart will always be tuned in to the shalom of God.

The 13th Article of Faith states: “13 ^aWe believe in being ^bhonest, true, ^cchaste, ^dbenevolent, virtuous, and in doing ^egood to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we ^fhope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to ^gendure all things. If there is anything ^hvirtuous, ⁱlovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”

I have a daily goal to not watch sensual TV or view sensual stuff on the Internet. I am in bondage to it and it is highly addictive, but I would rather have myself “Turn on the Word, the Presence, and the joy of the Lord”. He enlivens my soul and does bring Peace to my life. I hope I can always turn to Him for true fulfillment, everything else is a counterfeit to His ability to fill us with what we need in our life. I love Him, so I hope I can show Him by seeking for virtuous things and keeping His commandments.

Change My Brain!

Email Post from Hope of the World on Friday, June 11, 2021 :

Reposted from an email I received from Hope of the World: When a baby is born, his or her brain contains 100 billion neurons. Then the brain begins forming trillions of neural connections depending on the flood of information going on within it. The end result is that every brain is different having been molded by what we saw, heard, touched, remembered, or imagined. So it’s not just a matter of what kind of brain you have, but what you did with it. The Word of God tells us to put on the ‘mind of Messiah. Your brain actually changes depending on what you think about. The word for repentance in the New Testament, ‘metanoia,’ means to “change one’s mind.” It doesn’t matter if you have an impure mind – that can all change. Dwell on what is good – and you will end up with a pure mind. Choose to focus your mind on love, on salvation, on heaven, on God, and you’ll end up with a mind that is heavenly, loving, forgiving, and joyful. So you’re not happy with your mind? That’s okay. Start focusing your thoughts on God and the things which are above. And you know what? You’ll actually end up… changing your mind.

From Message #1081 – The Ten Minds

Scripture: Philippians 4:8

TODAY’S MISSION – Make up your mind today to memorize Phil. 4:8 – and think on those things instead of the impure.

My comments on this post:

It is mind bending to me how complex we are and how the systems in our bodies work together to allow us to move and think and choose. It is easy to get caught up in thoughts of sadness, or loneliness, but if we work on what we are thinking about and trust in God and think of how we can help others and seek for God’s guidance and love then we can allow God to pull us out of our negativity and into His light and allow Him to change our thoughts, our brains, and our nature. I like this quote from a previous LDS Church Leader, Ezra Taft Benson, that goes along with this post: “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”

Philippians 4:8 says: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

So it encourages us to think on good things, to dwell on things that are lovely, honest and of good report. There is so much evil in the world and I think that dwelling on this will have an effect on us. I will try harder to only think on the good things of the world and the good things of God and hope that it will help lift my spirits and that it will in reality Change My Brain to one that is only focused on good and only desires to do good and to become like those people in the Book of Mormon that said the following: “Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty ^achange in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do ^bevil, but to do good continually.” (Mosiah 5:2)

Finally I would add what the Lord teaches us also in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 121: “

“Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

“The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever” (vv. 45–46).”

Quite a promise for focusing only on virtuous things. I hope this can be my focus from now on and that I can gain that confidence in the presence of God instead of always feeling unworthy of His love and help.

Shalom!!

Nothing to Say

Today I do not feel like I have anything to say. So I will just say that. My sister, Melissa, posted a cool meme on Facebook yesterday, so maybe I will share that. It is about how we all seem to criticize each other instead of just accept:

I am way too hard on myself and that leads to negative self-talk and depression. It is hard not too do. I am my own worst critic and I always get in my way. Today I decided to not just take the easy route at night: plop in front of the TV and just veg. I made a list of things I would and would not do for the next few hours before I go to bed. They say “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” So I will plan and stick to my plan each day and see how I do. Writing in this blog was on my list of things to do, so BOOM! One thing checked off!

Now on to me focusing on my own programming project. I was going to have an interview with a company but they saw that I have a consulting company and wondered if I was going to stop doing consulting if I got the job with them. I have a consulting company active right now because my current contract did not want to make me an employee. So ludicrous. I think that is why they haven’t called me back because they thought that would interfere and yet they are a consulting company too. They just want a bunch of slaves working for them. I saw an interesting meme from Robert Kiyosaki:

3 of my 4 children did and so did I. I guess I am insane. #richdad I have to stop thinking in the mindset of get another job, no I want to build products that others can use. My job is in my way of doing that and starting another job is not going to solve that problem. I need to figure out what product could be useful for others then build it, then improve it, then sell it and then keep doing that until I get really good at it. That is why I have to focus on my own stuff in the evenings because working for the man during the day never gets me anywhere. That is Insane to work for the man.

Robert also tells us what F.O.C.U.S means and I love it! F.O.C.U.S. = Follow One Course Until Successful

So now I go to FOCUS on my product after I share this one other final thought from Kiyosaki that I saw recently:

So I better keep up the learning!

Until next time….

My Christian Rock Playlist

I have started this Christian Rock playlist on Spotify. What do you think? Leave comments of other songs to add:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2gyrAzDAiPvKmcHyexMTHu?si=CSZsGVabTv2hXnHYxHrO5g&utm_source=copy-link

New TinyUrl

Now I can share this tinyurl to bring others to this website: https://tinyurl.com/EternalBindings

Laus Deo

Praise be to God

It has been about 5 years since my last post. Time to start blogging again. I hope you will enjoy. Please feel free to share your comments.

Have you ever wondered how you came into existence? How can you think? How are you here? How do you have the ability to choose? How there are millions and billions of mechanisms inside of you all the time reproducing and carrying on various functions too many to fathom all in an effort to keep you alive. How they can mostly heal themselves and fight off disease for you? The vastness of the human complexity is mind boggling and yet, here you are.

I like to think of the age old question of which came first: The chicken or the egg? Whenever we build anything, what do we do? We plan. We think of what we want, we sketch it out, we give it all kinds of guidelines and get approvals on every aspect to ensure good structural quality, then we build. Didn’t something, or someone have to come up with a plan for both the egg and the chicken. They said: “We want the product to look like the chicken, but we need it to create more of itself; so we can have it produce eggs that can be fertilized and then create a brand new chicken over and over for generations of chickens.” But isn’t that how all of nature is at our level and at the atomic and sub atomic levels? Strategies of reproduction that despite the error that can be introduced are mostly perfect in their ability to carry on the reproductive cycles ad infinitum.

I believe that all of this is created and held in place by a being of such infinite power that nothing is outside of His purview. I don’t know how He is there but I believe we only know about Him because He has chosen to reveal Himself somewhat to us through holy men of His choosing. We will refer to them as God’s prophets since other uninspired persons could call themselves a prophet but I am only referring to individuals that have directly spoken to the creator of all things. We get tidbits and only if we believe will we get and understand more. He said it thusly:

“For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have” (2 Nephi 28:30) I hope He will choose to help me find more. 🙂

Here are a few thoughts I have had while pondering our creator, God:

1. If we are created in His image, where did that image first get its design? How like Him are we really?
2. He created this Earth to be a testing ground for us to live and then to die. He doesn’t die so He had to design death.
3. He had to design all the diseases so we could have trials and have a reason to want to have His help. If everything were easy, why would we turn to Him for help? Then He must have come up with all the other weaknesses, strengths, abilities, talents and everything else. These are all just what give us a way to serve Him and share ourselves with others, but it is all from His design.
4. He created prayer so we would have a way to contact Him always, and to ask for help for others. How does He maintain the contact back to us if His creations are as vast as the Universe? Does each person have angels from Heaven assigned to them to hear prayers and act accordingly? But I know that times I will pray and instantly receive a powerful message, so the prayer implementation is utterly divine and runs perfectly all the time.
5. I tried to fathom going back… way way back to try and see if it were possible to comprehend if God is a father, then He had a father, right? So us having children is like Him having children and that must have started somewhere 1.0 x 10 to the five million, million billion eons ago? Truth is things as they are, as they were, and as they are to come. How were things really that long ago? It makes me want to think that evolution started it and then some beings conquered their universe and were able to harness all the powers in it and learned to live forever and then they designed a way to create spirit offspring that could go through a life / death test and become like them forever; otherwise how did it start? It is not comprehendible to my feeble mind.
6. Why are there so many organisms? Does God have teams of angels that design new creatures to test on Earth’s? What is the destiny for all these other organisms? Do they each have an opportunity to live forever somewhere?
7. We can only see what God allows us to see through a dimly lit veil. What else has He created that we cannot even see? As if this universe and its hundreds of billions of galaxies wasn’t big enough…
8. Have you felt love that was so strong it could not possibly have originated from this world? Without a belief in God, how can you explain it?
9. Jesus said: “This is Life Eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” What does that mean to you? How do you get to know the true God, and His son, Jesus Christ? Are they reachable? Why would we need to reach them? Do they give your life meaning and purpose?
10. To me They are EVERYTHING! My whole goal is to praise, love, honor and serve them all the days of my life until I die here and then forever there because I am nothing without them. They created me, they cause that all the particles and organizations and organisms moving and reproducing inside of me continue to function enough for me to live and feel love and joy and pain and sorrow. I am nothing but grateful for this life They have given me. May I praise Them forever!!! And ever!!! And Ever!! Amen! Laus Deo!!

Seeking the Welfare of Zion

I started this blog as a tool to help me find peace and solace in this world. An LDS bishop encouraged me to write out my feelings. I never intended at that juncture that anyone would ever read but that this was more like my personal journal. That bishop read and commented from time to time in the beginning which was nice. A few others since then have found this blog and commented, some of those comments seem random enough to just be SPAM.

Later I found a company that claimed to help you learn how to blog in such a way as to monetize your blog by adding advertisements, writing about products, etc. I thought that would be nice. I invested in that business and made back all the money I had invested. I have since thought about blogging and what it represents, and advertising and its allure. Websites are the same, right. Read this scripture and see how it applies:

2 Nephi 26:29

29 He commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion.

Does this describe monetized blogs? Bloggers giving opinions, selling products? Or are they just attempting to sell a product?

This world is so twisted. So many trying to sell to each other. Where is the line between right and wrong when it comes to selling things? I am probably bitter because I never did well at either Network Marketing or Monetized Blogging, or maybe since I did not do well I became enlightened on the topic of how it is wrong to get gain and praise of the world and set yourself up for a light, but isn’t that what everyone knows the way to success is to be a subject matter expert and brand yourself that way you can charge more for your knowledge, etc. and people will flock to you because of your expertise? Praise of the word.. set themselves up for a light unto the world. Are monetized bloggers and successful network marketers just practicing priestcraft according to 2 Nephi 26:29?

Here is the last part again: “but they seek not the welfare of Zion.” Is that the caveat? We are told not to judge, but this scripture seems like a recipe to judge whether someone is practicing priestcraft or not. If they are popular in the eyes of the world, but are not seeking the welfare of Zion, then it is priestcraft, right? But then again, the scripture says that the “men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world.” Should we take that to mean that this is only in the context of religious speak and that it really does not apply to any other topic other than religion? If that is the case then I am sure a lot of bloggers could rest easy that they are not falling into this category of priestcraft. I mean, we still have to make a living, right? And who wants to let the big companies make all the money? That’s like saying that a corporation doesn’t have a soul, so it can spend millions on marketing to get us to buy its product without the fear of being judged as a “man” setting himself up as a light unto the world. But a direct result of how this affects humanity is when corporations take a stand on political and also religious topics. Where do we draw the line on religious topics that a corporation should or should not be allowed to comment? Here is the scary thing… the corporation has spent millions branding itself and setting itself up to be a light unto the world so that the world thinks highly of it and wants to buy its products, so then the world respects its opinion on political and religious matters. And yet we see corporations making statements of support for political policy occasionally based on an activist group within the corporation. A corporation is filled with people of mixed backgrounds, so to say that all the people within the corporation share the corporations view on a policy is nonsense. The view is only shared by a few who have convinced the board of directors that this is the view they should portray to the world. It is because of this type of marketing that politics are affected. Politics is getting into the changing of world views to circumvent the laws of God, so IT IS RELIGIOUS!

Isaiah spoke of this when he said “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

I contend that we are bombarded by views contrary to the will of God by organizations and corporations and men that are setup as a light, branded and praised by men and they make lots of money doing what they do, yet they are often contrary to the will of God and hence do NOT seek for the welfare of Zion. Why? Because Zion is a concept and a place that seeks only to follow and obey the will of God. You cannot change the ideals, ideas, rules, laws, values or standards of Zion. Zion is heaven on earth. It’s as close to heaven as we can get. If evil is not allowed in heaven, then by heaven, evil will not be allowed in Zion.

To seek the welfare of Zion is to aspire to the ideals of Zion.

Here is a wonderful definition of what Zion is found in Moses 7:18-19:

 18 And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

 19 And Enoch continued his preaching in righteousness unto the people of God. And it came to pass in his days, that he built a city that was called the City of Holiness, even Zion.

Long ago Enoch build a city of God called Zion. If we are to build a Zion, we have to have this one heart and one mind as Jesus taught we must become One with Him and with the Father and always and only seek Their will.

So when your blogging about anything, are you seeking God’s will? Are you seeking to benefit Zion? That is frankly between you and God and the people you are affecting by your blog. Are they being brought closer to Zion? I don’t know what the answers are. I make money but I don’t like to blog to get people to buy my services. I like to be hidden away. Some people cannot make money unless they market and I am not saying that marketing your services is bad. Perhaps this only has to do with how we are lead to believe about religion, but God is everywhere and we can be influenced everywhere to, so we have to constantly be vigilant about how we are being influenced so we can live always according to the will of God. I have no hidden agenda here. I have no products that I want you to buy. But the dichotomy is in what Jesus told His follows to do. He said “Let your light so shine that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” So we must let His light shine through us to glorify the Father, but not be the light to get gain and praise. Can we do that?  Is this the recipe:  buy whatever you need, help the downtrodden and the weary, glorify God the Father… Remember that Zion is a place where there are no poor and everyone is treaty equally. What a great place that will be. I believe that we will have Zion some day.

Joseph Smith taught in the 10th Article of Faith that:”We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.”  I hope that this prophesy of the future comes to pass in my day.

What are we doing to prepare for Zion? Seek to help the poor, live righteously, seek and do the will and mind of God and love Him with all of your heart, might, mind and strength. Maybe those things are the beginning of Zion.

May God bless you as you seek to do His will and prepare for His city and His coming in Great Glory, even the second coming of Jesus Christ prophesied and foretold since the beginning. Are you ready?

Some Scriptures to Consider

I just came across a couple of scriptures that I am sure I have read before, but now I see them again:

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Don’t you know that those doing such things have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who live immoral lives, who are idol worshipers, adulterers or homosexuals—will have no share in his Kingdom. Neither will thieves or greedy people, drunkards, slanderers, or robbers.

Pretty clear who is not going to heaven, right?

Now read this:

Leviticus 18:22

Homosexuality is absolutely forbidden, for it is an enormous sin.

Someone on a site shared this essay about the Gay agenda: http://vcyamerica.snappages.com/swift-essay.htm

Not sure if that is the real agenda or not, but it makes me cringe when I think about how the gays just had to keep pushing and pushing until now they can have leaders in the boy scouts. Think of that while I quote from the above essay: “We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms, in your army bunkhouses, in your truck stops, in your all male clubs, in your houses of Congress, wherever men are with men together. Your sons shall become our minions and do our bidding. They will be recast in our image. They will come to crave and adore us.”

Now is it clear why they wanted into the boy scouts? Last week I was flabbergasted to my wits end. Backing up a few weeks ago the boys scouts (BSA) issued the decision that now gay men can be leaders. The response of the LDS church was shock and regret that the BSA had voted when they were not in their offices. They said they would need some time to consider their future with the BSA. Fast forward a few weeks and they come out with this statement: “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it’s decided to continue its affiliation with the Boy Scouts because of written and verbal assurances that the church can choose their own troop leaders according to their own religious and moral values “in word and deed and who will best inculcate the organization’s values through the Scouting program.”” But my argument is why the hubba bubba about allowing gay men in if they cannot be in the organization?  In my opinion the church should have left based on moral values of the association of what BSA is supposed to be about and what the bible teaches about Gay men and the abomination that homosexuality is. Let’s call a spade a spade.

But it didn’t end there. Someone posted an article about some supposed young women that were all restless and sleepless worried about the decision and hoping and praying that their leaders would stay with BSA despite the fact that there are other organizations and as if to say that the LDS organization could not somehow figure out how to create their own boy organization. I cannot find the article now but these girls were fearful that the boys wouldn’t learn how to camp and such. That is a load of crap. Boy Scouts is nothing but a bunch of silly things to learn and I can say that because I am an Eagle Scout, but they can have that back, I do not support their decision to allow Gay men to influence young tender minds, espcially after reading that tenant above.  I mean think about it, isn’t it in a real convert’s interest to help influence young men to avoid any kind of activity that would barr them out of the gates of heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)? And if a program does not help one to pursue heaven, then to me it is not worthy to be a part of the program.

So here is my thought as to why the church sticks with the BSA:

1. The BSA named an award after the LDS Church’s leader
2. The BSA names a new building after the LDS Church’s leader
3. The LDS already helped pass a law in Utah to force others to allow gays into apartments and jobs, to go against this would be hypocrisy. The caveat to that law was to protect religious rights. How can you protect something when you are giving into liberty abuse at the same time? You are abusing the rights of these apartment owners and employers. (See what another has to say about this here.)

Now how are you going to leave an organization that has so adorned your leader with fame? Even if said organization will lead your youth to the gates of hell whence there is no return?  Anything that leads you away from living in heaven after this life is not worthy of your time nor your energy!! Mark my word, I bet it is only a matter of time until gay men do lead LDS scouting groups, even if it takes an act of congress. And what will the LDS church do then? I guess time will tell, but to avoid egg in the face I suppose they will have to succumb to Babylon and allow Gay men in.

I don’t hate gays, but I didn’t write the scripture that will barr and ban them from heaven. God did and if I do not uphold God’s law, then I will find myself outside of heaven too. Don’t you want to be in Heaven with Him?

Peace and Shalom,

Scott

Thoughts on The World is Not Going to End in Sept 2015

I like to contemplate whenever I am reading someone else post, so I am re-posting the following here and making my comments between the lines in italics:

Original Post: http://upwardthought.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-world-is-not-going-to-end-in-sept.html?m=1

Reposted here without permission, but unchanged, so that I can write in my thoughts.

The World is Not Going to End in Sept 2015

VERY many have made predictions that something big is going to happen next month. I have heard that there will be a financial collapse starting next month and leading into the winter that makes 2008 look like a walk in the park. I have heard other predictions.

My belief: Eventually, there will be extreme financial distress. There will be an end to value of money. There will be an end to the abundance of food that we enjoy. There will be food shortages that cause severe global instability, house to house instability, and martial law.

[EternalBindings]: Yes, I have this same belief, please do continue. This should be good. Though my hesitance is that we need to have the Holy Spirit enlighten us to truth. This post may or may not be wrong. It is up to us individually to find truth from God for ourselves. I agree that the world is not going to end, but will it be the beginning of the End. Have the tribulations really started yet that God foretold by John and Isaiah? I think we may be building up to the beginning, but not sure if it has really started yet.

My knowledge: God has shown me that the tribulations to precede the Second Coming, which have already commenced, will not occur in a flash. He showed me that one way he is warning the world of what is to come is by causing glimpses of the catastrophes to occur and stop short or to occur in miniature. In each case, it is only God’s mercy that provides the very unlikely avoidance of the full potential of the disaster. He will provide a specific warning for every type of calamity he will send before the Second Coming.

[EternalBindings]: Are there scriptures that validate that God will give specific warnings? I do see that 9-11 was like a warning of imminent destruction and the Ebola outbreak was a warning of imminent global sickness and plague. Are these the types of warnings God will give for each, or will he also send messengers to declare what specifically will happen like he did with Samuel the Lamanite?

The scripture given to me as an illustration of this principle is the following:

[EternalBindings]: Nice, scriptures exactly after I ponder if there are any, thank you blogger. 🙂

87 For not many days hence and the earth shall tremble and reel to and fro as a drunken man; and the sun shall hide his face, and shall refuse to give light; and the moon shall be bathed in blood; and the stars shall become exceedingly angry, and shall cast themselves down as a fig that falleth from off a fig tree.
88 And after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people.
89 For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand.
90 And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds.
91 And all things shall be in commotion; and surely, men’s hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people. (D&C 88)

A catastrophic earthquake is not a warning. It is a judgment. A catastrophic thunder is not a warning, it is a judgment. And so on. However, a miniature earthquake, tsunami, etc., serves as a warning.

[EternalBindings]: What is the “testimony of earthquakes” then? Sure it is a judgment, but it is a testimony too, not simply a warning. The warning is this scripture, that it is going to happen. D&C 88 is the warning. IMHO

One example is the Ebola epidemic. Many died globally, but many, many more should have. The fact is that the world responded beyond sluggishly. The airlines refused to close down flights. World governments stalled beyond measure in deploying mobile hospitals to Africa. The United States refused Russia’s offer of a vaccine proven effective against the disease. It was discovered that only 2 hospitals in the entire US have the capability to treat patients with deadly communicable disease. Their total number of beds is something like 10. The patients treated in the US unveiled the absolute lack of any protocols or training of US personnel. An op-ed by a prominent physician admitted that many (most?) doctors and nurses would abandon their posts rather than be infected in the event of an outbreak. And so on.

[EternalBindings]: Now that is scary. We will not be able to contain a severe outbreak and will only be able to trust in God to survive.

The ONLY reason Ebola didn’t ravage the United States is because God intervened. Only a miracle could explain the lack of an epidemic in the face of such absurd hubris and criminal negligence. The same goes for Africa (although many died, it could and should have been much, much worse).

[EternalBindings]: I agree

God has shown us very plainly that a biological threat could easily wipe out 25% or more of the earth’s population in very short time. Who has repented because of it?

[EternalBindings]: I am trying to repent. May God inspire others to wake up and repent too.

THREE AND A HALF YEARS
There will be a 3.5 year period of warning before God’s judgment is poured out on the earth. It is my current understanding that this period will begin with the closing of the LDS temples, probably due to government pressure to seal homosexuals there or risk substantial penalty. The 3.5 year period will end, according to my current understanding, with the performance of a homosexual sealing in an LDS temple.

[EternalBindings]: Where is this knowledge coming from? I know of 3.5 years described in Revelation, but that refers to tribulation, not a warning period? Is this taken from the fact that Isaiah went naked for 3.5 years in calling ancient Israel to repentance? It would be nice if we could therefore surmise that God would give us a 3.5 year period that we can plainly see, like you are suggesting, but the scriptural evidence that this is related as you suggest is very vague, and so I find it intoxicatingly dangerous to suppose that this is how things will roll, unless God has thus spoken to you and then authorized you to speak these things to us. I guess time will tell if you are a prophet or not and can or cannot predict the future.

Until the LDS temples close, I strongly believe that any disasters the US may face, including financial distress that could exceed that sustained after the 2008 collapse, will be very very minimal compared to what comes after the end of the 3.5 year period, though taken in abstract any of the warnings may seem quite extreme to those directly involved.

[EternalBindings]: I hope you are right, but there are many who believe that the extreme financial disasters will come long before what you are suggesting. I fancy to believe what you say and I hope there is more time and that this is how things will roll forward, but I am not going to hold off preparing by waiting for some forced intervention from gov’t to cause the LDS to close temples, we should be ready before that. Your talk may diffuse the preparations of some, and in that I tremble…

WHAT THIS DOES NOT MEAN
We do not know when the 3.5 year period will begin (though I am very confident it has not yet begun). What we do know is that, even if it began today, 3.5 years provides a substantial period of time to prepare oneself spiritually and temporally. This does not, however, mean that we should be slothful in our belief of or action on the Lord’s word. As God said about another topic, “let these things be done in their time, but not in haste; and observe to have all things prepared before you.” This is relevant and wise counsel. How many can say in that awful day, I did not have enough time to get my spiritual house in order? How many can say in that day, “Lord, please help me do what I need to to survive” when you had over 3.5 years to devote your time and energy to preparing, but you did nothing?

[EternalBindings]: Thank you, I agree that preparation should begin yesterday and continue today and as long as there is time. I love what you quote here: “Lord, please help me do what I need to to survive”. That should be our daily tactic to continue to ask Him what we can do next after we accomplish what He previously has asked us to do the day before. Yes, this is not in haste, but it is with the unending faith and determination that if we are to survive the coming dreadful days, then we must have a constant attitude of preparation. Thank you.

ANOTHER VISION
I don’t know that I have ever shared the following vision publicly, though I did make reference to it in the talk I gave in Colorado and have spoken privately with others about it. Zion will not appear out of nowhere one day. It will not consist of one large group that is directed to come together all at once. The Lord showed me in a day vision that Zion would form as a river does: First from small, almost imperceptible springs, converging into creeks, converging into tributaries, converging into a river. The flow of the water represents time. God will gather together small groups of like-minded and similarly prepared individuals. As a group, they will suffer through the experiences they need to overcome the specific weaknesses they possess. Over time, they will be led to combine with other groups with different strengths and weaknesses. Through the passage of time, there will be gathering and growth and unavoidable winnowing of those who choose not to learn what God is trying to teach them through the weaknesses and strengths of others. Gathering into a large group right away is a surefire recipe for disaster given the weaknesses endemic to modern people. The entire group will be immediately subjected to the weaknesses of the common denominators. Without sufficient charity, both the strong and the weak will fly to pieces, and Zion would be lost.

[EternalBindings]: Hmm, a very interesting idea and it makes sense especially given, as you say, “the weaknesses endemic to modern people”. We are so not ready for Zion, but I hope and pray that we can be led to prepare and learn to work together so that we someday can be ready for Zion. I long to be in that city. 🙂

I bring this up because (and this has not been the first time), the bloggers at 2ndwitness.com have nailed it with their own description of how Zion will come to be.  The original post is here.

SUMMARY
Don’t worry that everything is going to fall apart next month. Many will lose their jobs. Many will lose their houses. The “recovery” from this next recession will be worse than the recession itself due to the interventions the government will likely undertake. Yet, it is just a warning, and there is still plenty of time and plenty of resources to prepare for the real tribulation. In the meantime, don’t be sluggish in seeking the Lord for instruction on what to do and when to do it. The scriptures are a wonderful Urim and Thummim for obtaining this instruction. The books of Isaiah and Jeremiah are particularly beneficial.

[EternalBindings]: I emphasized “don’t be sluggish in seeking the Lord for instruction on what to do and when to do it.” I think that is Paramount in our ability to be ready, but I will hold my breath during Sept 2015 and see what happens. It could be much worse or much less than any of us have envisioned. 🙂 Thank you for your thoughts in this post. Let’s together keep preparing ourselves to someday build Zion! 🙂 Love it!

Building Zion

It rends my heart to pieces that fellow followers of Jesus are being killed in the world. When one of them dies, doesn’t the body of Christ suffer? We are the body of Christ, we that follow His Holy name and sing praises to it and rejoice in His glorious resurrection that He was able to accomplish because of His faithfulness and willingness to do God’s will and descend below all things that He might comprehend all things and discover the way to reconcile His followers. He is Wonderful! The Mighty God! Why should His followers suffer!?

I’ve been praying for those who are in the clenches of the death squad ISIS. One idea has filled my heart with exceedingly great joy to consider: Building Zion. Zion is a refuge from the storm. God has much to say concerning Zion in all the scriptures. Here are two witnesses that Zion will be built before the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory:

1)

• Psalms 102:16

  16 When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.

2)

• Moses 7:62

  62 And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; his resurrection from the dead; yea, and also the resurrection of all men; and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, unto a place which I shall prepare, an Holy City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem.

See, Zion will already be built when Jesus comes in His glory. So, the question of questions is: “When will it be built and who will build it?”

There are 187 scriptures in the Doctrine and Covenants that have the word Zion in them. Joseph Smith knew about Zion, what can we learn from him?

But why do I talk about Zion? How will that help these Christians that are suffering because of their religion. Look what it says here about how Zion will be protection for those who come:

• Doctrine and Covenants 45:70

  70 And it shall be said among the wicked: Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible; wherefore we cannot stand.

Love it!! Want it! Need it! This is where we need to put all those who wish to practice their love of Jesus Christ without any fear of death. Now, let us please pray for Zion. Here is what it will be like in Zion – here is how God describes Zion:

• Moses 7:18

  18 And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

Sounds like a wonderful abode. This is where I want to live. Let us hope that God will help organize us soon to build this wonderful place.

May God bless you to pray that Zion will come forth soon!

And here is a hope for all those that fear ISIS. Please humble yourself and repent before God of all your sins:

• 1 Nephi 22:19

  19 For behold, the righteous shall not perish; for the time surely must come that all they who fight against Zion shall be cut off.

Let’s hope that this time comes sooner than later. 🙂

Shalom!

A Warning Message for Our Day

For the past 5 posts I have shared a chapter of ancient scripture that shows how God’s voice and power warned 300 people to repent and come unto him and then how those 300 people shared what they had both seen and heard and probably thousands were converted to the Lord in such a magnificent way that they laid down their weapons of war and changed from their false traditions and anger and turned to the Lord.

What an amazing story!

But, are there voices of warning in our day? I remember that the latest message to the church from the President Thomas S. Monson was this “The Future is as bright as your faith.” He does say that “Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments.” So, am I looking for more of a voice of warning. It is such a subtle message that God will comfort and sustain us, but here is the kicker “as we keep the commandments.” In a nice way he is saying: “Look, it is going to get really bad, but if you keep the commandments, God will comfort and sustain you,” but we might read it as, “Ah the future is going to be great!” This is an example of a subtle warning voice that lulls us back to sleep in a wicked world. The way his message is worded sounds like unicorns and rainbows.

I just watched a different warning voice that shows us specifically how 9/11/2001 was a warning from God that if as a nation we do not repent and turn back to him, we will bring upon ourselves our own destruction. Embedded in that terrorist act, unbeknownst to either the terrorists or us there were literally 9 warnings from God that we must repent. Here is a website to learn more: http://www.theharbinger-jonathancahn.com/

Did you know that on January 21, 2013 Johathan Cahn spoke at the Inaugural Breakfast before Barrack Obama was sworn into office for his second term. The message Johathan Cahn gives is both powerful and prophetic. He doesn’t pull any punches and his message is much more direct in that we must repent and come back to keeping the commandments of God or else our great nation will be destroyed.

Watch the video here. Amazing!

He basically is saying that George Washington and others during his time dedicated this nation of America to God and he warned future generations that if we turn from God and following in God’s ways that we would be destroyed as a nation and that the blessings of prosperity that God gives us would be removed. Jonathan also shows how during Abraham Lincoln’s time, Lincoln got the people to repent and return to God and that then the tied of the Civil War shifted and was later able to heal. He showed how we as Americans have reacted to the warning message of 9/11 and instead of repenting and turning to God we have gotten more defiant and this will lead us only on to destruction.

Though I think we are now beyond the point of no return, those of us who are repenting and coming unto Christ must realize that our future will be disrupted and it will be terrible and very difficult, but it is true that not withstanding this downpour of turmoil, God will comfort and sustain us, so we cannot give up on him. I know that was the message President Monson gave us, but I just wish He would help us understand that it is about to get ugly, really ugly and we must not give up Hope that God will see us through, if and only if we trust in and follow Him.

Shalom!