I am the Way, the Story, and the Life
-SV translation (loose)
Christ’s character in the gospels is very consistent – he’s generous to those who ask him for help, withering to those who accuse or contradict him whatever you understand “meekness” & “loving your enemies” to mean, you have to contend with an imperious & disagreeable Christ.
besides reminding the Samaritan woman that she was a serial fornicator, Christ responds to her (gentle) attempt to debate with him by telling her she doesn’t know what she’s talking about & her religion is wrong he loved the Samaritan woman; this was a loving thing for him to do
to the extent that there is any conflict in the Church over what it means to be “Christlike”, it is between Christ’s actual living example in the gospels, & a disingenuous & nonsensical misreading of a handful of verses in the Sermon on the Mount
-thus edJCB
If you are the kind who gets up to big plans for Christmas
Sooner or later you have to scale back this little hope or that one and say
There’s always next Christmas.
For this Christmas, being very happy will have to be enough.
I dreamed there was this family that moved up to the hills for the peace and quiet. By choice they had no phones nor internet. Instead in the evenings they would sing and the girls in the family would play the violin and cello. There they would sit in the twilight playing the music.
Then I had a sense that somehow they were my family, this was my home, and the music would be there waiting for me when I came on home.
And then I dreamed that this place was the place Joseph and Mary were headed for the nativity and they were somehow also going home when they went there. I saw a tired man and a tired woman on a donkey headed up a country road to a white house where they would be welcome in. They were close enough now to catch a hint of the music of the strings and to see the dim figures on the porch.
On a day when there was a kind of electricity in the air and everyone and even the animals seemed to be more than themselves, a flock came over a hill.
A sheep paused there. By some magic of the day his senses were heightened and he could see far down the plain.
I have done much of which I repent – since I became a Christian I have discerned and recognized this; and three of the worst of my sins were being a doctor, a scientist and a university teacher.
-from Bruce Charlton
Sometimes when the kids are all piled in one place I feel like a dragon over his hoard.
-thus EDJCB.
Disobedience always is dangerous, but the most dangerous type is when you think you are being more virtuous than the apostles. This ends in you being more Christian than Jesus.
Not to the same degree but there are also dangers in being more virtuous then the mass of the Saints. One way to get around those dangers is to laugh at yourself when you are being sanctimoniously extra righteous. Be extra righteous, but also laugh at yourself.
Men will be punished for their sins.
-thus the second article of faith.
What happens if you read a couple of pages of D&C 132 back to back with Elder Christofferson from May Conference being wryly funny about why we don’t baptize rolls of microfilm?
You see an image in your mind. This is the image you see.
There is a man standing but leaning forward. He is wearing a suit and looks suspiciously like President Nelson. A brilliant light is beaming straight down onto his head, his neck, and his upper back.
His arms are straight out to each side. Each one is resting on the upper back of another man in a suit who is also hunched over a bit, just like the first man, to receive the weight. The light appears to run through the first man’s arms to those two men.
Each of those two men have their arms straight out to the side. Each of them touching the backs of two more men in suits. The light flows through their arms too.
People are saying that the freedom of information act request for Pfizer has turned up a comparatively large number of adverse reactions during the trials.
No link, because I don’t have a source that I completely rely on and haven’t looked at the documents myself.
But if this matters to you, for example because you are thinking of taking another booster or something, you may want to look into it further.
Sometimes when you are on the shore watching the waves roll in
Or on the Alpine granite feeling the wind of the world blow
An elvish mood comes over you
It’s that time of year again. Our Christmas page is up. Check the banner above.
Everything is going to be all right.
