The seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew begins with: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
grace
Obedience: Virtual RS/PH #13
Welcome to the second virtual co-ed 3rd hour. This week’s lesson is a topic that is often a seething hotbed of Mormon Matters controversy: “Obedience: When the Lord Commands, Do It.”
Common Scriptures in Review: Remembering
As I’ve said previously, although I truly enjoy intellectual analysis, what grounds me are my experiences – things that are so vivid and unexplainable that I simply can’t let my mind move me away from them. I have experienced the truly miraculous; everything else is secondary. In that light, I submit that the core of this experiential conviction is summarized perfectly in the foundational missionary verse we too often overlook while quoting those that follow.
Praise, Honor & Glory Be to God
I have been struck for a long time by the different ways that people interpret and speak of praise, honor and glory – particularly how they use these terms to describe our relationship with God. Each has a distinct meaning, separate from the others, but they get conflated and used interchangeably all the time. First, consider the following foundational facts:
“All we can hope for is for God to bring us home.” (Thanks, Stephen.)
1) There is a man in my ward who is a dean at a major college in our area. He is a brilliant scholar in his field, and he has served as a Bishop and in a Stake Presidency. He also is one of the most humble men I have ever met. A couple of years ago, one of his adult daughters died in a freakish surgery accident – totally unexpected – leaving behind a husband and an infant daughter.
Sin and Transgression vs. Morality
Homosexuality is a complicated topic – especially because so many people, particularly in religious discussions, over-simplify it. I want to focus narrowly today on what is “sin”, “transgression”, “moral” or “immoral” – or a combination thereof.
The Bright Night of My Soul
Andrew wrote a beautiful and moving post recently – “Dark Night of the Soul“. In reading that post and the subsequent comments, I had an epiphany about my own experience with certainty and doubt. I have been thinking about how to explain the difference between my experience and Andrew’s – and, even more interesting, the similar result from such different experiences. I will not try to summarize Andrew’s post here; that would not do it proper justice. What I will post here is the epiphany that struck me as I read it and the comments about it. I have...
all we can do
“We know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” Many of us seem to break out into hives when this scripture is mentioned. A while back I read a comment about this scripture (by a member of the church) that suggested the “after all we can do” should be left off the next time someone uses it in a talk. What does “all we can do” mean, and why does it bother us?
How to Support
