I talked with an old friend today. He called because he knew I went to BYU and wanted to get my opinion on the Provo/Orem area. He is living in Southern California but a company out in BYU Land is courting him for a position they have open and he wanted to know what I thought. (more…)
I am not good with sales people whether they come to my door or they call me on the phone. I try to be nice despite my extreme annoyance but it is very hard. My husband is very good with sales people who initiate contact with us. I think it was his years on a mission that make him more compassionate in this area than I am. Some of the sales people I am most irritated with are those who use my religious affiliation to get me to buy their products. Let me tell you of an experience I had just last week. (more…)
A few years ago President Faust said something in conference that had a major impact on me:
No earthly authority can separate us from direct access to our Creator… We do not need to go through secretaries or make an appointment to reach the throne of grace. He is reachable at any time and any place. (James E. Faust, “The Lifeline of Prayer,” Ensign, May 2002, 59)
In other words if we want to meet with our Bishop we must set up an appointment that fits his schedule through the ward executive secretary. The same is true for our Stake President, Area Authorities, Area Presidency, etc. If we felt like meeting the President of the Church for an interview we would almost surely be out of luck. But we have a standing personal appointment with his Boss. Each of us can talk with the highest authority in this church any time we feel like it and He will attentively listen and respond. (more…)
When Nephi was explaining what the Rod of Iron represented to his brothers he said:
And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.
Since member retention has been a hot topic in the Bloggernacle over the last few weeks I thought this might be useful to bring up. Nephi explains that the sure way to remain active in the gospel (and thus presumably in the church as well) is to hold fast to the iron rod. We often assume this applies to the scriptures only; but the scriptures are in fact the indirect Word of God to us. How do we even know if the scriptures like the Book of Mormon are true? – Only through the direct Word of God to our minds. In other words, we can only know through personal revelation. Therefore I submit that personal revelation is at least as important as the scriptures when it comes to the iron rod in our own lives. (more…)
Here it is friends: My new analogy on how revelation really works. This has been tempered in the fires of a hot debate with Jeffrey Giliam over the last few weeks and I think you might like it. (Or not…) (more…)
It is one of my favorite topics as of late and it came up again in the extended debate that has been going on in my last several posts about revelation: God and his prophets want the church to be a Nation of Prophets. (more…)
I love to read and I have since I was a tiny girl. Now wait a minute, I’m not going to bore you with how fabulous and intellectual I am. That’s not what this post is about. I must confess that mostly what I like to read is what a friend of mine refers to as “mind candy”. I just can’t help myself, I’m an addict. For those of you who are beginning to worry about the state of my brain now, don’t, I try to throw in a classic as often as I can. If it will make you feel any better about me and this post John Steinbeck happens to be my very favorite author. (more…)
When it comes to describing the process by which prophets receive visions and experience encounters with Celestial visitors, Paul said it best:
“whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth”.
As the second installment of this series on properly judging revelation I will make the boldest assertion of this series: I believe that the vast majority of revelations we read about in scripture were not physical in an earthly sense. While I am certain that they were very real and concrete in one sense, I strongly suspect that if we had video recordings of these visitations and visions all we would see is a prophet alone. (more…)
There were some very interesting challenges and questions posed to me in the comments of my last post but since I was on vacation last week I did not have time to respond to them sufficiently. Now that we are back I thought the general subject was important enough to warrant its own set of posts. Jeffrey Giliam made the most provocative comments there and his comments are in line with other views he has expressed elsewhere. Our disagreement centers on how to judge the quality of revelation from God. Before I directly respond to those comments I thought it would be wise to lay a foundation for my responses. In this first post I will respond to a list Jeffrey published where he delineates what he sees as the differences between “revelation” and “inspiration” from God. Here is the hierarchy he presents ranked from least impressive to most impressive (he calls 1-3 inspiration and 4-7 revelation): (more…)
I have recently made a huge discovery. I have figured out the cause of all that is wrong with America today. Are you ready…it’s Costco! Really, let me make my case and I think you will agree with me.
Let’s discuss some of the problems that face the USA. First, we are told day after day that Americans are fat, fatter than they’ve ever been. Second, kindness is in short supply. We hear about road rage and neighbors fighting with each other. Third, there are too many children born out of wedlock. Ok, let’s start with these three reasons. I know there are plenty more but we don’t have that much time. Now let me tell you why Costco is the reason we are dealing with these problems. (more…)
