I am having a weird synchronicity WmJas style about the doctrine of the body.
It started leading discussions in Sunday School.
In a world where people are having trouble ‘adulting’, and where both lower and higher education are in complete shambles, it behooves us to understand what ideal education looks like. And what it is for.
Forgiveness heals even when you aren’t feeling hurt.
Years gone by my little daughter died of cancer. This is what I wrote on the birthday she never quite made it to that year.
Today you would be 22, Betsey. Little friends you had are all grown up now.
Happy Birthday, Betsey Pearl.
We bought roses for your birthday. “Fire go up and up ” “Yummy yogurt.”
You will not fade for us until we fade.
A contrajuxtaposition.
Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.
The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
And there shall be no disputations among you, as there have hitherto been; neither shall there be disputations among you concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have hitherto been.
For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.
Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.
The OT warning against having a king was the wickedness they would lead people into and the oppressive burdens they would lay. Both get born out.
But one of the bigger problems is the realpolitick. The main point of having a king was the impressive power they could wield coordinating the Israelites against their enemies. The secondary point was the glamor of their magnificent life style.
But concentrated power and concentrated wealth . . . people will vie for that. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. (more…)
Not a total victory, but we were told that only abject surrender would accomplish anything.
The point of this chapter is Understanding the Word of God and what happens when we refuse it. Yet, an undercurrent is the transformative nature of the work of God, when people do NOT refuse the Holy Scriptures.
On the sweetness of Mormon life.
Your deacon is radiant as he goes to take the sacrament trays. His boots are polished (by him). His shirt is white and ironed (by him). His tie is tied (by him). His shirttail is flapping in the breeze.
One sense in which Christ is the Davidic King is that he comes to dispossess those who rule Israel. Ultimately Satan.
In this analogy, Jonathan is like us. We are beloved of David but belong to Saul and as we are are doomed to die.
I was pondering AI, and what jobs it will eventually replace and I thought, ‘At least spirituality will be something machines can never do.’
Then I realized that is what a Urim & Thummim is.
David’s story in the books of Samuel has a gripping story. It reminds me of my time obsessively reading the Alma war chapters.
The fun doesn’t stop when he becomes king. One of his sons comes up with an intrigue that allows him rapes one David’s daughters (by a different wife), that daughter’s brother lays an elaborate plot to kill the rapist (which he does), then one of King David’s servants schemes up an intrigue to get the murderer recalled from exile (which happens), and then the murderer starts destroying the servant’s property until the servant agrees to intercede for the murderer to be restored to favor at court . . . and that is only the beginning. None of these people let law or order or virtue stand in the way of getting what they want.
This was always going to be a problem for David. The chronicler tries to portray his rise to power in a very positive light, but we still see glimpses of the corner cutting and killing involved in a guerrilla rebel’s rise to power. Even so, David made his problem much worse. He set the example of letting nothing stand in the way of getting what he wants and he did it after his rise to power. All of these incidents with David’s sons and servants happened after Bathsheba and Uriah, which everyone in David’s court would have known about. Further, I do not believe that David would have gone as far as he did with Bathsheba and Uriah if he hadn’t gone at least partly as far before. Adultery and murder might have been his most corrupt scheme but I do not believe it was his only corrupt scheme.
Spaceman Spiff would be proud.
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2023/04/20/rapid-unscheduled-disassembly-first-starship-orbital-test-flight-goes-boom-n1688692
All your moments and memories form a rich soil.
Time is flooding through it and is continually washing it away.
I think I stumbled across a genuine insight. A small but genuine insight. (It could even be an original insight, though I bet not). It’s a different interpretation of something Jesus taught about hell. Mark 9:
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched
The straightforward interpretation is Jesus is saying hell is a place of eternal torment, avoid it at any cost.
But there is another way of looking at it that doesn’t do violence to this scripture. (more…)