I was asked to teach the lesson in Elder’s Quorum on Elder Eyring’s General Conference talk from October: Our Perfect Example (click here for video.) Inspired by Hawkgrrrl’s Virtual RS/PH lessons, I thought I’d give it a try again. I’m not sure if everyone is supposed to review this talk, but I believe this is the talk our stake has chosen. I think Elder Eyring’s talk is a perfect lead-in to New Year’s Resolutions. Shouldn’t we all resolve to be more like Christ? So, before I get to Elder Eyring’s talk, I want to discuss the History of New Years Day.
Archive for the 'repentance' Category
Recently I drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon with my brother and nephew. This is the canyon in which many of your ancestors pulled out the granite for the construction of the salt lake temple. As soon as we passed the granite facings on the side of the canyon my nephew played a song on his iPod by Corb Lund Brother Brigham Brother Young and it brought mental flashes into my mind of men working on the side of the mountain blasting granite out of it. It made me think of the struggles that men and women had even back then with the faith in many ways very similar to our day. From what I have read Mr Lund isn’t LDS but has relatives that are. Im assuming one of his relatives is a historian buff? Its probably safe to presume this song will never be played in a chapel 
but I can’t help liking it! You can listen to his song Here Continue reading…
Loading ...I absolutely LOVE the Sermon on the Mount. It is my second favorite passage in all our recorded scripture – right behind the Intercessory Prayer. However, we often forget that it was delivered to . . . his disciples . . . not to the multitude who had gathered because of his fame. Continue reading…
The message of the Gospel of Christ could be encapsulated in a few adjectives, such as: love (Charity), repentance, forgiveness and service. But how should we forgive? Should we follow the example of God, who promises his saints that when they repent he will remember those sins no more (D&C 58:42). The Church as an institution does not seem to think so as it seems to have a pretty good memory when it comes to the sins of its members. Is this consistent with the Gospel message? Continue reading…
A Zen Buddhist/Freemason friend of mine has put together some great posts of “Best and Worst Bible Verses.” I have been trying to convince him to make the series into one of those daily calendars. Would it not be great to wake up in the morning and read: “Happy shall they be who seize your infants and dashes them against the rocks!” (Psalms 137:9)? Continue reading…
Matthew 5:27-28 includes the statement:
“Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
Rather than debate that statement, although I am open to discussing it here, I want to focus on an underlying issue within something to which we refer frequently as the “Law of Chastity”. My primary focus is on the injunction regarding eliminating “lust” – and particularly how it can be avoided no matter one’s surroundings and exposure. This a result partly of the long, interesting discussion we had recently about “naturism” – but I don’t want to rehash that discussion here. Rather, I want to focus on one of the underlying currents that seemed to flow beneath the discussion. Continue reading…
I am struck regularly by how many members fail to focus on the life of Jesus and, thus, fail to realize that there are incredible lessons (particularly in the Gospels) about specific things we can do to become more like Him – things that can lessen the effects of our sins and actually help decrease the frequency of those sins – thus bringing internal peace and a measure of calmness to our lives in the here and now, regardless of the storms that rage therein. I believe we sometimes buy into the apostate obsession with the afterlife – as though it’s OK to be miserable here, since we’ll be happy there. The problem is that we are told that the same spirit we develop here will rise with us there. (Alma 34:34) In other words, if we become peaceful in this life, we will be at peace in the next life. That’s worth pondering all on its own – that we are accountable for whether or not we develop internal peace. Continue reading…
I’ve always been under the impression that premeditated murder is an unforgivable sin. Is it?
The title is from DC3:1. Today’s guest post is from Bouvet and is in reference to this year’s Doctrine & Covenants manual, Lesson 4 is Remember the New Covenant, Even the Book of Mormon. Continue reading…
Names and identities have been invented and caricatured as necessary.
Miller is a member of the church. He magnifies all of his callings, does all of the so-called “standard primary answers” (reads the scriptures, prays, attends his meetings, fasts, etc.,) He is seen around his ward as a beacon for what youth should be doing. Sure, he might have a few rough edges; no one’s perfect and certainly not Miller. But it might seem, to the unseeing eye, that Miller is generally on the “right track.”
Miller has a problem, though. Continue reading…
This year, I am instituting only one New Year’s Resolution. It is the same resolution I made at the end of last year. That resolution has changed my life in a very profound way, so I am changing the specifics but keeping the overall focus. It deals directly with my personal understanding of the true meaning of “perfection” as commanded in Matthew 5:48. I wish I had undertaken this effort decades ago, but I am grateful I have done so now. Continue reading…
Sometimes, I have to say to my creedal Christian friends, in all sincerity:
We really do worship a different Jesus than you do.
I mention sometimes to my family and friends my frustration over certain song lyrics and how they influence how we view Jesus, his mortality and His perfection. I realize it bothers my wife that I obsess over two particular phrases, from two particular songs, but they represent to me much of what is wrong (even “abominable”) about the perceptions and teachings that have come down to us through the ages. These phrases are:
“Little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes,” (Away in a Manger) and “He never got vexed when the game went wrong, and he always told the truth.” (Jesus Once Was a Little Child)
Then I realize that the second song is a uniquely Mormon song, and I recognize that the fruits of the Great Apostasy still have not been rooted out of our minds completely.
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You dropped down into this crazy, frenetic, gloomy world; stumble and trip in the darkness, trying to feel your way through the valley of shadows. Nothing seems to work right.
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