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4.27.2009

How Beautiful is the Holy Ghost!

Read this wonderful article from Wally Goddard.
Welcoming Heaven into Today

The Natural Man

Here is Nick's talk about the natural man. He wrote a good talk, and did a great job giving it too!
What is the natural man?
Mosiah 3: 19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
Neal A Maxwell said…
So what characterizes the natural man? Simply stated, the natural man is someone who remains in his or her fallen condition; he or she has not experienced a spiritual rebirth. At one end of the spectrum, the natural man may be a person who loves Satan more than God and thereby is carnal, sensual, and devilish (see Moses 5:13).
At the other end of the spectrum, the natural man may well be a moral and upright person bent on benevolence. Such a person, acclimated to the present fallen world, still does not enjoy the enlivening power of the Holy Ghost and does not enjoy the sanctifying power of Christ’s covenants and ordinances. Even though the light of Christ is making an impact, he or she has not followed it into the Lord’s full gospel truths.

So how can we tell if we are a natural man?
This is a list that Neal A Maxwell has to help us notice if we are being a natural man..
1. The natural man is unable or unwilling to perceive spiritual realities
1 Cor 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
President Brigham Young said,
“How difficult it is to teach the natural man who comprehends nothing more than that which he sees with the natural eye! … Talk to him about angels, heavens, God, immortality, and eternal lives, and it is like sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal to his ears; it has no music to him; there is nothing in it that charms his senses, soothes his feelings, attracts his attention, or engages his affections, in the least; to him it is all vanity.”

If you don’t see God in anything than that is a sign of being a natural man.
2. The natural man is proud. The natural man’s most distinguishing feature is pride. The look of the natural man is neither up (to God) nor over (to man), except as the horizontal glance allows him or her to compete with others.
Alma 4:12 he saw great inequality among the people, some lifting themselves up with their pride, despising others, turning their backs upon the needy and the naked and those who were hungry, and those who were athirst, and those who were sick and afflicted.
Pride is another common sign of a natural man.
3. The natural man is preoccupied with the rewards of this world. His or her values are derived solely from pragmatism and materialism. Such people find only temporary pleasure in having something. Soon they want more, and they want more of it than the next person.
D&C 63:48 He that sendeth up treasures unto the land of Zion shall receive an inheritance in this world, and his works shall follow him, and also a reward in the world to come.

The reward we should be looking for is an eternal reward. Not the rewards of the Earth.

I believe that we should not be looking for things of this world, but of the world to come. And even though some part of us may have problems with this, we still have a chance to fix it through the Atonement.

Red Herrings

My friend Lisa did a fabulous job of seeing the red herring in the gay marriage debate. She correctly identified the issue at the core, that is whether I have the right to disagree with homosexual acts and to act on these values. It seems that the gay rights crowd cannot separate the person from the persons actions- a strangely intolerant view point. But that's a post for another day.
The difficulty in this whole argument is that all our words are becoming corrupt - kind of like the time of the tower of Babel. Marriage must now be coupled with an adjective. Do you mean gay marriage or traditional marriage?
The gay marriage crowd will always attack the traditional marriage crowd with something like this:
They indisputably assert that gay couples are no different than traditional couples and are just as happy and capable too. The only reason you could possible oppose gay marriage is because you are a (fill in the blank with racist, bigot, homophobe, evil person). Parents or individuals who believe that centuries old traditions are desirable are evil and their children should be reprogrammed in public school, (necessitating of course the abolishment of homeschooling).
Actual example from Lisa's article:
Parents shouldn't have total control over everything their children are taught.... You are welcome to teach your children what you would like at home; the earth is 6000 years old, cookies come from elves, and gay = bad. Also, it's strange that someone wouldn't want their child to be adopted into a happy family just because the structure of that family doesn't fit in with their traditional values. Perhaps parents who put their children up for adoption should be able to prevent interracial couples or even couples of another race from adopting them if they think that is wrong?


Do you see the template? Parents are bad, they teach fairy tales, they brainwash their children with hate and they are racists. (Never mind that it is the gay marriage crowd who needs indoctrination to win- but that is an argument for another post)

Pick your issue -they all use it.

This is a dangerous ideology. If it was turned around on them they could swiftly argue against it. But they don't have to. They are the victims, and victims in America don't need to make sense. They use their victimhood as a whip against everyone. It becomes the chip on their shoulder that everyone must avoid or pay the consequences- but in reality is impossible for others to avoid because the victim deems every utterance and nuance to be about the chip....

At the bottom of this issue, if anyone has the time or attention to get to the bottom in today's crazy world, is freedom vs tyranny. Are we really free in America? Freedom means we are free to be wrong, stupid, self destructive, and offensive, and we are free to hold our own values as our conscience dictates. Freedom means that government power does not intimidate us into holding the "right" values as government dictates. Tyranny can be used by individual tyrants or by groups and right now America is being tyrannized by the gay marriage group.
They have made it a goal to change the laws in all of New England this year and they are well on their way to it. It is a brilliant strategy. If they can get many small states to do it, the number will seem larger than it really is. To westerners ten states is half the US by land. But remember that states are very large in the West. In the East, states are sometimes very small. Gay marriage advocates can rush into a small state and appear to be the majority without ever having to actually be from that state. Just wait- before long they will add to their argument that some number of states have already legalized the change and those "other" (read intolerant and bigoted)states will feel the pressure to declare their "tolerance" by making the change as well.
It's all about political pressure. Which is why political education and action is so necessary.

4.26.2009

What a Sunday!

It has been a doozy of a weekend. Without going into details, I should be distraught. I had imagined that my great grandmother who died on my birthday ten years ago or so was by my side part of last night. I fell back to sleep at abut 6am and woke up about 7:45 worried about getting everyone ready for church in time. Despite the stress, I actually woke up strangely calm. I actually felt like I could handle the situation I was in. I went to church and felt the Spirit stronger than I've maybe ever felt it. Everything was drenched in meaning for me. I felt literally propped up. I felt a strength that I do not feel very often. It wasn't a strength like my physical muscles, but deeper, bigger. I felt like the world could fall apart around me and I would be unaffected. I felt a cocoon surrounding me and buffering the despair I usually fight off in situations like this. There are really no words for me to describe how wonderful this day has been, and yet how awful it should have been. It is amazing, a wonder, more real than anything I've ever experienced. I felt like the calm in the middle of the hurricane, watching the hurricane but being insulated or like it was somehow insignificant in the grand scheme. I remembered a few times that my faith has been seriously tested this last year and felt like I was being rewarded now for passing the test. Sentences are failing me. So I will list some words or phrases:
calm, joy, hope, peaceful, protected, rewarded, carried (like the footsteps poem), above the storm yet in the middle of the storm, detached from the anxiety, (what is the opposite of utterly lonely?), eternal,
"If I were sunk into the lowest pit of Nova Scotia and all the Rocky Mountains piled on top of me, I ought not to be discouraged, but hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I should come out on the top of the heap.” (Joseph Smith to George A. Smith) I felt like I went from sunk in that pit, to on top of that heap.
I don't' know If this makes any sense to anyone, but I wanted to try to record this because I know in the future I will need to relive it in my memory again. It's not gone, but I know from experience that it will fade, and I will be tried again. But it's ok. I know who is with me and He is stronger than those who oppose me.

Create!

I watched all of the Mormon Messages video's on You Tube. This one is probably my favorite! But it was sooo hard to pick~ this one just makes me smile alot.

Don't put off til tomorrow what you can do today.

OH wow GOOD video and song by Nickleback! I love that some current rock songs have such positive messages! Long live rock and roll like this!

4.20.2009

Monday... TGIM!

Monday........
Do you have a wild weekend mess on Monday? I do. Mondays have become my clean up day. I try to get laundry done, pick up the house after the whirlwind of having everyone home all weekend, and plan for the week. I get to regroup and try to remember all the things I have going on this week. My favorite thing about Monday morning is the time alone. When it's spring it's exponentially more replenishing.
This morning I woke up early to whining dogs who wanted out at about 5:00. I wasn't going back to sleep so I finally got up about 6:00. I don't usually do this, only when I wake up with a clear head and no sleepiness. This is not the norm for me! I guess it means I slept good. I got up and opened all the windows and listened to the birds sing. I heard a quail call and run around the neighborhood. I was aware of all the plants I've planted in the yard and thought about how happy I am that they all seem to be growing this spring. The sun was rising, the sky was blue, the house was quiet, and the grass was wet from the dew. It was the most fabulous feeling.
So even though it is Monday, and the house is a disaster, the sink is full of dishes, and laundry is on the docket, I am feeling very, very good. Thank Goodness It's Monday!
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