Thoughts

“Comparison is the death of joy” – Dave Walton, Cascade 1^st Ward

“The beer will not kill you but the water will” – Dave Henrie’s Mission President

“Your testimony is only yours for today” – Dale Allen – Cascade 1^st Ward

“Avoid the savage islands on your journey home” – Pasteur Vernon and Karen Nelson

“It is better to love than to be right” – Barry Neal Kaufman

“To be meek is to be ego-less” – Eckhart Tolle

“The more spiritually advanced we are the less apt we are to judge the weaknesses of others” – Dave Walton, Cascade 1^st Ward

“If what we believe doesn’t impact how we live then it really isn’t very important to us” Dave Walton, Cascade 1^st Ward

“In a marriage both partners have veto power” – Darson Roper, Cascade 1^st Ward

“Shame is to believe in the egoic assertions of others or yourself that you are bad, not enough, unlovable, not good enough or that something is wrong with you” – Scott

“Gaining a deep, heart-felt witness that Jesus is what He says He is, is more important than all other witnesses combined” – Scott

“We all must hatch the Jack Reacher within us” – Scott (this one was for you, Doug)

From: doug@graphicsone.biz [mailto:doug@graphicsone.biz]
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2017 6:34 PM
To: Nelson, Scott R.
Subject: Vacation Thoughts of Joy and Wisdom.....

"Find happiness in ordinary things. and keep your sense of humor." Boyd K. Packer

"It is better to be a failure at something you love, than to be a success at something you hate." George Burns

"I'd rather see you drink a glass of wine than a glass of milk or a soft drink" Jack La Lanne

"By exercise. I'll tell you one thing. You don't always have to be on the go. I sit around a lot, I read a lot, and I do watch television. But I also work out for two hours every day of my life, even when I'm on the road." Jack La Lanne

"If you've got a big gut and you start doing sit-ups, you are going to get a bigger gut because you build up the muscle. You've got to get rid of that fat. How do you get rid of fat? By changing your diet."  Jack La Lanne"

"Notice how I got your attention with other quotes and then lead you into the diet and exercise ones."  Doug

"At first they will ask why you're doing it...... Later they'll ask you how you did it" ??????.... but Doug approved

Bondage

I was reading my scriptures this morning and came across these verses in Mosiah 19.

19 And were it not for the interposition of their all-wise Creator, and this because of their sincere repentance, they must unavoidably remain in bondage until now.

20 But behold, he did deliver them because they did humble themselves before him; and because they cried mightily unto him he did deliver them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him.

I remember reading these verses back in the 90’s and determining that I needed to be delivered from bondage.

King Mosiah sets forth a pattern in these verses.  I believe they can be applied to spiritual bondage as well as temporal bondage.  I like how he says that the Lord did work his power IN ALL CASES among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him.

IN ALL CASES.  That is amazing to me.

God's Plan for Children

God’s Plan for Children

It is God’s plan to transfer to Jesus Christ

 All the evil that others through their agency

Impose upon us. 

That is what Jesus is for.

He, in addition to our own sins, paid for evil inflicted on us by others.

He paid for the suffering, unhappiness, anxiety, pain, neglect and loneliness

That happens to us as children. 

The adult doesn’t repent for what happened in his childhood.

  The child didn’t do anything wrong.

  Evil was imposed on him by others.

  It only requires me to believe and look to Christ.

Believe that Christ wants me to use Him.

He suffered for all the evil that happens to children -

Through the ages because of the actions of others.

What happens when we look to the Savior for healing?

The pain of what happened is removed from us.

A cleansing occurs that we couldn’t do ourselves.

Pain and suffering are replaced with joy and peace.

Why does this work?

  Because Christ is really there.

  He is waiting for me to knock.

Christ can love you back.

Since He is real and is waiting for me to come unto Him with my burdens,

All I need to do is believe Him.

His conditions for healing me are gentle.

All He requires is for me to continue in His peace.

Once my heart and mind are cleansed by Him, the way is easy.

He knows me and my capacity.

  His commandments are gentle.

His precepts are kind.

That is who Jesus is: full of loving kindness.

As I believe in the true nature of my God,

 I come to Him without any fear or trepidation.

  He is love.

He loves me deeply.

Example of Jesus

I found an interesting verse in my scripture study today: 2 Nephi 31:16

“ And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved.”

So, I have to ask myself, what it the example of the Savior?  This reminds me of another scripture in 1 Nephi 19:9 which says,

“And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.”

So, all I can do is strive to be more like the Savior.  It make life easy.  Did you know that?  Life becomes easy.  I am reminded of another scripture, Alma 37:46,

“O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way”.

Why is living the gospel and following the Son easy?  Well, I suppose it isn’t easy for the natural man that is full of wicked traditions.  But, why is the way easy?  This reminds me of the words of Hymn, page 125, last verse,

“I’ll drop my burden at his feet And bear a song away.”

And,

“Come, cast your burdens on the Lord And trust his constant care” (first verse)

The whole hymn speaks for life being easy in the Lord.

As I learn to do this, I my faith becomes strong.

Scott

Smiting The Rock

I found 2 Nephi 26:20 interesting today.  It says: 

And now, my brethren, I have spoken plainly that ye cannot err. And as the Lord God liveth that brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and gave unto Moses power that he should heal the nations after they had been bitten by the poisonous serpents, if they would cast their eyes unto the serpent which he did raise up before them, and also gave him power that he should smite the rock and the water should come forth; yea, behold I say unto you, that as these things are true, and as the Lord God liveth, there is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved.

I was surprised that Nephi uses two metaphors that don't seem to relate to each other: raising up the serpent on the stick and smiting the rock.  I then realized that they both involve healing. One involves looking to Christ and other. the waters of life flowing from Christ, The Rock.  Nephi then says, that there is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ...whereby man can be saved.
I then looked around on the internet and found this:

Christ is the main subject in the Old Testament "concealed". God speaks of Him in types and shadows. At Rephidim (Exodus 17:4) God told Moses to strike the Rock.The Rock is Christ (1st Corinthians 10:4), Moses represents the Law. Jesus was struck by Israel for presuming to violate the Law, for claiming to be God, which He is! When He was struck "crucified", living water (John 4:10) for all humanity who would "believe" was poured out. Moses was told to speak to the Rock at Meribah (Numbers 20:8). As a prerequisite for Jesus to return, to save Israel during the Great Tribulation they must ask Him, (Luke 13:35). So by striking the Rock, Moses messed up God's model or type which would have modeled the 1st and 2nd comings of Christ.
So to counter this mistake by Moses, He was not allowed to take Israel into the Promised Land which is a type of Heaven, Moses represents the Law, only God's Grace gets you in Heaven "the Promised land, so Joshua took them in! Joshua is Hebrew for Jesus! The Law is the 1st five books of the Old Testament, called the Torah by the Jews, The very next book is "Joshua" Found in. 

https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/6998/why-was-god-so-upset-with-moses-for-striking-the-rock-the-second-time-in-the-des

The Lord was trying to teach Israel that Moses, or the Law will not save them!  Only Christ and his merits, mercy and grace can save mankind!

I like this response as well:

The section you quote contains the answer: because Moses did not believe. He was told to "tell the rock... to yield its water" but instead he struck the rock twice, apparently believing God's command to be insufficient. He expected God to act in exactly the same way as He had before*, but God apparently wanted to reveal His power to Moses in a new way.
As the leader, Moses was being watched. When Moses did not believe, this could easily lead to lack of belief amongst the Israelites, which had been a problem before.
Finally, God had previously to deal with men not trusting His promise but taking matters into their own hands.

 Believing Christ is the answer.  It always has been the answer. Relying wholly upon His merits who is might to save isn't as hard or scary as it sounds.  Surrender to His will and trust that he loves you. You don't have to do it all yourself.  You don't have to take matters into your own hands.  Life becomes peaceful and full of purpose.

Worthiness vs. worthiness

I have been thinking about worthiness vs. worthiness.  It is minor thing but worth exploring.

The Church’s modern definition of worthiness has to do with a standard that has be set that we can compare ourselves against.  For example, if I am temple worthy I have stated that I meet a certain standard set by the Church.

On the other hand, the word ‘worthy’ in ancient times is used differently.  They would still compare themselves to a standard but would always find themselves coming up short.  Alma the Younger taught his son, Shiblon, the following:

Do not say: O God, I thank thee that we are better than our brethren; but rather say: O Lord, forgive my unworthiness, and remember my brethren in mercy—yea, acknowledge your unworthiness before God at all times. (Alma 38:14).

So, we members of the Church, these days, say that we are worthy members of the Church and Alma teaches to always acknowledge our unworthiness before God at all times.  Why is there an apparent discrepancy?  Or, is there?

The obvious answer is that we are talking about two different things.  One is a standard set by the Church and the other is a set by the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Although this is true, it can be confusing.  If I am worthy before the Church, why am I unworthy before God? Shouldn’t I be worthy before God?

We will always be imperfect creatures.  Even if we were to get pretty close to perfection (completion) we still have sinned and do sin.  Without Christ’s atonement those sins can never be washed away.   We can never go it alone in this life.  Does this make us unworthy?  Yes, because we all require Christ’s infinite atonement to make it back. Without Him we are nothing.  We are less than the dust of the earth. (Helaman 12:7-8, Moses 1:10)

The fact is that we all sin.  So, what can we become perfect at?  We can become perfect in our faith in Jesus Christ (Jacob 9:23).  To develop faith, a main requirement is to be meek and lowly in heart (Moroni 7:39,43).  Being humble and acknowledging our unworthiness before God at all times go hand in hand. Other prophets describe perfect faith as unshaken faith in Christ, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is might to save (2 Nephi 31:19).  Others  describe this faith in Christ as “relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith. (Moroni 6:4).  And humility is always the prerequisite (see v.2).

It is very humbling to know that you are nothing without Jesus Christ.  This may even go against modern thought.  Here’s the kicker: when we are connected to Christ, we become perfect in Christ (Moroni 10:32), even in our unworthy state.  Of course, because we love the Lord for what He has done for us, and we love His ways, and we want to change.  This is all implied in our Christian discipleship.

Do not make sin and shame the center of your life.  Make Christ and His merits and His grace your center.  We will always be unworthy, imperfect creatures.  That is not the focus.  Letting our lives be lit up by Christ (the Light) will show our sins in the right perspective.

Being Church worthy is a wonderful first step on the path of being a humble follower of Christ.

Scott

Suffering and Faith

I have been pondering this scripture for the last few weeks:

1 Nephi 19:9

9 And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.

I a nut shell, if we want to follow Christ we to do as He does. This is the essence of being meek and lowly of heart. We abase ourselves or suffer through things that others say and do. Meek means to stay in Christ-centered control. We do not react from our fallen nature. Meek means, that once in a while we are prompted to unleash righteous indignation. As Jesus did, we throw over some tables or call a spade a spade regarding the wickedness of a group of people.

Most of the time we practice being lovingly kind and long-suffering towards others.

As we do this we show our faith in Jesus Christ. Without doing this our faith is vain.

Moroni 7:42-43

43 And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.

44 If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart;