Month: May 2023

Always a Student

Every now and then the Lord comes along and interrupts my understanding of what I thought I knew. For as much adjusting at that requires, I’m always grateful because it removes the inhibitions I foolishly place on the Spirit.

I hope the spirit my words carry edify and uplift you in your efforts to come closer to the Savior. To the extent that they do not do that, please set them aside. I am by no means a perfect vessel, and require teaching and correction all the time. I plan on going back and revising the parts of this blog that I don’t believe reflect that Spirit.

For as much as I don’t know, I can testify to what I do. Christ lives. He is real. More than a metaphysical ideal, He is a person as much as you or I. His grace is sufficient to heal us, to transform us, and to redeem us. The greatest joy, indeed the only real joy, is found in yielding your whole heart to Him, and allowing His Spirit to make you like He is. He desires to infuse you with light and truth such that you possess greater joy than you can possibly comprehend.

His love knows no bounds. He knows us each by name. He has born the tragedy and suffering of our individual lives, and bears us still in His flesh. The peace He offers is worth any price. “I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever” (Ether 12:41).

“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God” (Moroni 10:32).

The Stars

Not many years ago, men could look up and behold the vast array of stars that filled the night sky. Such was heaven’s tangibility. Now, men cannot look up and see more than the works of their own hands—what lights they have created blind them to a greater, deeper reality.

Entire civilizations once grounded themselves in the stars’ placement and regular motion. We struggle to see past ourselves.

Those with eyes to see can still see the light in heaven, however unlikely such a thing may seem to those who have lost that ability.

Making Sense of “Mormonism” | Part 3

Many have wondered: if Jesus was indeed the long awaited Messiah, why does the world still seem so unredeemed? If he embodied the greatest conceivable good, why do death and hell still prevail in this world?

The redemption of the world at large requires the transformation of every individual who will participate. Death and hell live in us. In order to establish a society or world where those things do not exist, every single person must have them rooted out of their soul.

The atonement of Jesus Christ—his life and death—planted the seed in the world that would one day grow up to its full redemption. The waves that made in human history are apparent—and when considered in the context of creative patterns, all that has transpired takes on new meaning. It is in this light that we can begin to approach “Mormonism,” including the Book of Mormon, the teachings, revelations, and ministry of Joseph Smith, and the foundation laid for the great harvest that is soon to come.