Matthew 21-23:  Presently the fig tree withered away — Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness — upon you come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar — For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

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There was talk this General Conference about working in more Holy Week and Easter activities to our liturgical calendars.  I will have more to say on that later.

General Conference has always been part of my personal liturgical calendar.   (more…)

God is love, Christ violently drove the wicked from the temple.  Turn the cheek, wield the whip.  Lion and lamb.

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I decided to do something a little different this time.  Instead of looking over my notes, I am going to just list what struck me from memory.  (If you want to do the same, jot down what you can before you read further).

I also am going to record my impressions.

Hopefully Elder Ballard will not frown if I say that I am thankful for the conference, my personal experience was the best I have had in years, and thankful for you.  For me this was like the conferences of old, the most spiritual its been for me since President Nelson’s legendary talk about the 8 keys to revelatoin.

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Royal triumph entering Jerusalem — In the mouth of babes and little children —

— If these should hold their peace, the very stones would cry out.

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Testify!

Some wonder how to reconcile God’s total power with the fact that we ourselves have power and abilities and are often trying for more.

Some wonder how to reconcile God’s fatherhood with our own parenthood. Whose children are they anyway?

Stewardship is only partially an answer.  It is only a halfway house.

The real answer is similitude.

This has been on my mind for a while, but with recent events, I decided to not wait until we reached that verse in Isaiah. And I doubt any of us need to hear this, but I thought I would write this regardless.

When Assyria was approaching Judah and Jerusalem, the Jews were counseled to take a defensive approach and retreat to Jerusalem. But many refused. They wanted to fight. It was their right and they wanted to defend their rights to their families and property. They were slaughtered. Isaiah warned them, “For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.” Isa. 30:15

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https://www.givesendgo.com/G9TTA

Is is a fact  (more…)

Your body can be broken but it does not lie to you.

The truth is in the body, the mind tells lies.

This is a follow-up to yesterday’s post on testimony.

Testimony helps us survive trials, a point that was probably made in a million homes last week reading the parable of the sowers about the plants on stony ground that withered in the heat of the day, and very right too.

Less well known is that the relationship between trials and testimony flows both ways.  Trials often create testimony.

Yes, we turn to God more in times of difficulty.  Yes, the help God gives us in trials can often help us believe in him more.  None of those are what I mean.

It is just the way people are made that suffering and sacrificing for a belief is what allows that belief to become truly part of our identity.  You can’t mentally will yourself to value something.  You  have to put in the time and effort.   Holding fast to your beliefs in trouble and trial is a shortcut to making them part of your core.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.

We often confuse testimony as a statement of our confidence level that certain propositions are correct.  It is not.

Even the devils believe, and tremble.

Testimony is a statement of convictions.  Facts are just facts, but testimony is facts that have soaked with meaning into our core and come to define who we are and where we are going.  A testimony belief is something has that become part of your identity and your direction.

That is why no one bears testimony  that their refrigerator cools food to keep it fresh longer, though probably most of us share that belief.

Testimony is beliefs that have got inside you. (more…)

It’s all been downhill since the Y went with the Cougars as their mascot instead of the Danites

(Ducks and runs, giggling  madly)

“Shane Reese’s career sounds like a boyhood dream: full of sports, wildlife, bombs, race cars and space exploration.

“He worked with nuclear weapons and helped the National Academy of Science monitor the demolition of two chemical weapons stockpiles. He consulted for an NFL team and the U.S. Olympic volleyball team. He published original research on baseball legend Babe Ruth and NASCAR icon Jeff Gordon. And he predicts the power of solar storms and helps government scientists understand a shape-shifting mass of energy on the edge of our galaxy.

“For all that, this year he will join the hall of fame for statisticians by being named a fellow of the American Statistical Association.”
–from a BYU news release from July 1, 2013