I can’t get no, genealogical excitement
And I try
And I try
And I try, try-try-try-try, tryyy
I can’t get no! (Guitar riff)

Feel free to sing along. I had the Stones version in my head but you can substitute a cover like the one Devo did in your head if you’d like.

My last post about how our ancestors might be sending us messages through the Holy Ghost reminded me of a problem I have: I don’t feel any connection to my distant ancestors at all. I have nearly no desire to search them out or learn about them. I have only a passing interest in their stories and histories. In the church we call the invisible pull many people feel to learn about their roots “The Spirit of Elijah”. Well I ain’t got none. And to be honest it makes me a little nervous. (more…)

Tonight for family scriptures I broke out the parable of the sower from Matthew 13 for my little children. It was slightly over their heads (I got questions like ?what is God?s special word?? ? as in singular) but as I read the parable and succeeding explanation out loud it dawned on me that this parable was further support for my theory on the Devil?s GPA!

The Devil?s GPA is the code name I use for what I think is the fundamental content of Satan?s playbook as explained in the scriptures. I introduced the concept in an earlier post, but here is the list temptations we?ll face in mortality from greatest to least:

G: Greed and Getting Gain (Plus the power wealth brings)
P: Popularity, Prominence, Praise of Men, Pride, Power (at least the influence part)
A: Appetites and Addictions

I have loved this idea since I read somewhere that President Mckay taught similar things. I hadn?t seen it in this parable until tonight. Here goes:

The seeds by the wayside = Appetites and Addictions

(more…)

As demonstrated by today’s Sunday School lesson (D&C Lesson 7) exaltation can be attained through 5 simple steps on our part — all the rest of the work is taken care of by the atonement of Jesus Christ. You know the steps already:
1.) Exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
2.) Repent
3.) Be baptized
4.) Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost
5.) Endure to the end.
(See references here, here, here, and here)

But the problem with this list is that we have a huge amount of scriptural detail on steps 1-4 and nearly no scriptural detail on step 5. To make things worse, one can accomplish steps 1-4 by the age of 8. We have been instructed that Step 5 generally includes keeping baptismal covenants and making and keeping of temple covenants, but why is there so little other specific instruction from God and the prophets on the step that will take the next 92 year of life to accomplish? Read on gentle friend, I think I’ve discovered the answer… (more…)

The comments for my previous post on the tenuous relationship between worldly riches and righteousness really got me thinking. A rich (but apparently righteous) anonymous saint made some very insightful comments that brought new ideas to my mind. I’m now starting to wonder if the Lord really does “bless” us with riches sometimes in this life. Not so we can live it up, but to see if we’ll actually keep our covenants and let go of it. (more…)

A recent post related to the Second Coming over at T&S reminded me of an odd fact in the Church – Mormons do NOT appreciate it when other Mormons speculate in the timing of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I don’t know if other Christian churches have the same bias, but it is prevalent among Mormons and I’m not sure it need be. (more…)

Over at Nine Moons there was a comment on the fact that righteous people pray for business success and get none. This is something I’ve thought a lot about in the past. As of late I have had a lot of success with business. Yet other faithful Latter Day Saints I know are struggling horribly with business. How can I assume my success is because of righteousness when I’m no more righteous than these other saints? And if my success isn’t from blessing then is it sheer luck? (more…)

I was following links and Clark’s blog and came across this post where he made mention of his dislike for the tone of some of the writers over at FARMS. He cited this article on this subject from Sunstone. Indeed, it does seem that some FARMS reviewers have taken aggressive – even verbally violent approaches to this war of ideologies. I have mixed feelings on the subject of appropriate approaches to combating attacks on the Church or its doctrines. Since I like to use the scriptures as my primary knowledge base, I decided to dig into them to see if they support or condemn vitriolic approaches to fighting for the gospel. (more…)

Blogging has opened my eyes to the contentious world of Mormon political right-wingers vs. Mormon political left-wingers. I can understand when non-LDS people get obsessively involved in the left vs. right struggle in American and world politics. I’m sure it seems vitally important to them. But I have trouble understanding why Latter Day Saints would get so passionately involved in the fray. (more…)

The devil is extremely interested in your GPA… No not your grade point average, your quotient of the Babylonian or Devil’s GPA – (more…)