I love this story. God is faithful:
Sunday, June 13, 2021
Thursday, June 10, 2021
Forgiving, Loving and Healing Family Relationships
If you’re reading this you probably know a little about my journey. My siblings and parents and I have wrestled with understanding, loving, forgiving, listening, understanding etc. We all know we want to have a loving relationship but that means different things to different people.
My brother and I have opened up a new dialogue and this podcast has helped give us a strong base of principles to work from. I’d highly recommend it. I have a lot of hope in real progress toward repentance, forgiveness, understanding and healing through the Lord, Jesus Christ.
If you have left the LDS church for any reason or have a loved one that has, I’d HIGHLY recommend this podcast. It’s an interview between a former mission President couple and their son and daughter-in-law. I believe it accurately shares do’s and don’ts they have learned through years of troubling relations to where they are now of truly loving each other but still disagreeing on fundamental beliefs.
I have wrestled because many say they love me and my family but they are unwilling to listen to understand me, which doesn’t feel like love to me. I have also been insensitive to the magnitude of the doctrines and beliefs I’ve shared that feel like an atomic bomb has dropped by me on my extended family and friends. This interview gives some great advice!!!! Again, please listen and share. I have more hope for my relationship with my extended family than I have in many months.
Saturday, June 5, 2021
Friday, June 4, 2021
Some Lessons from Noah
I was pondering Noah and lessons we learn from him. As I read the Joseph Smith Translation account of Noah in Genesis 8, several things stuck out to me.
First, the Lord was with Noah and the power of the Lord was upon him and the Lord ordained Noah after his own order (see JST Gen. 14:25-40) and Noah was commanded to declare the gospel unto the children of men, even as it was given unto Enoch (JST Genesis 8:7).
When he declared the word of the gospel he invited others to heed, believe and repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and as they did they would receive the Holy Ghost that they would have all things manifest unto them. Notice the simplicity of the covenant and the blessings that followed. It’s in the open, in the light. Nothing in secret behind closed doors. Also the reception of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is received when we seek the Lord by receiving His gospel and covenanting with Him. No man or organization can take the Holy Ghost from you. We either decide to receive the Holy Ghost or reject it. We have the agency to choose.
The Lord gave Noah specific instructions to prepare for the impending calamity of the flood. This is pertinent as we have the impending calamity of cleansing by fire. Symbolic that if we are not baptized by the fire of the Holy Ghost then the physical fire will cleanse us off the earth as the earth ascends to a terrestrial and eventual celestial order. Those not baptized by water were physically wiped off the earth with water.
Noah was told to gather male and female of every animal and fowl and food for men and feed for beast (JST Gen 8:27). The Lord’s pattern is to reproduce after our own kind. Notice the world is trying to create new food, after man’s making, not the natural processes. For example, the impossible burger etc. When we part from the ways of God, ill consequences will result. If we trust God and the food He has given us, then our health and vitality improves and our temples become better recepticals of the Holy Ghost. We become pure temples spiritually and physically.
The call is back to Eden. Back to the ways of the fathers. The covenants made ot the fathers: Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They all understood God’s natural laws and gospel. It’s all connected. Following the simplicity of the way, even in food and the continuation of the plant and animal kingdom for food and raiment, shows our dependence upon God and our willingness to trust Him. Trust and faith in Him saves us, not trust in the broken system of man.
If there ever was a time to reproduce the human race quickly, it would be with Adam and Noah, but notice Noah only had one wife, as did Adam (see JST Gen. 8:34). Polygamy has never been commanded by God in the telestial realm and we have no evidence of it in the terrestrial order of Enoch nor Melchizedek nor in any society that practiced all things common. Sadness and heartbreak are the results of breaking God’s laws.
We also see that the Lord shut Noah in the ark (JST Gen. 8:38). God usually seems to work through men and women as much as possible. Here, He had to do it HImself or with heavenly messengers. Noah had done everything he was commanded and now he couldn’t shut the ark. God provided the final saving, blessing.
These are just a few thoughts I had this morning and last night. In JST Matthew 24, Jesus compares our day to the days of Noah. There are many principles we can learn and apply to us in our day. Let us seek the blessings made to the fathers. Spiritual and temporal salvation depends upon us seeking these same covenants and blessings with God, just as our fathers showed us how before.