Misconstrued Much?

Hello, all you funny little internet goblins. Sorry I'm late by a day or so. Here's a quick thought.

When you try to define any religion solely by the contents of their respective scripture, you're going to oversimplify, generalize and assume a dangerous amount of information that may or may not be true. I've seen plenty of books and websites that are devoted to thoroughly refuting the Bible of any credibility it may claim—and come to think of it, the same is true for the book of Mormon.

Now, I'm a Christian, and though I may often be ashamed of the believers, I'm not ashamed of the God I believe in. Furthermore, I believe the Bible to be his own directly inspired word.

But here's the thing—it's not a rulebook, it's a narrative. It's a story about people being people and God being God. Therein lies the potential for enormous conflict and insane amounts of perversion and sin—some graphically depicted, no punches pulled. Let's be honest here—the Bible is chock full of things that kids under seventeen aren't allowed to see at the movies.

<=[Mum and Daddy forgot to fast-forward through the Ezekiel 23 part.]

So what does the Bible have to do with me? It's an inspiration and a conduit for Truth—even if that truth is metaphorical and not literal—and it's a way to open my perception. It's a way for my very finite mind to learn, no matter how vaguely, how to recognize the appearance, movements, characteristics and habits of God. That's the important part.

Are there some literal truths in there? Oh, yeah. You can bet on it—the Bible has proven time and again to be more scientifically and historically accurate than scientists and historians themselves, from things like the existence of King David or the Hittites to the evidence of the universe literally having been created from nothing. Do some research and utilize your friendly neighborhood Google. This info is common knowledge now, but nobody likes to admit the Bible's historical accuracy had one-upped them at any time on any matter.

But I'm not here to prove the accuracy of the Bible and my point remains the same: while I believe the Bible is the inspired word of God himself, it's still only a book. It's only a book because without God's Spirit, it can accomplish nothing and prove nothing. That's why people who try to pick holes in Christianity by way of the Bible think they've already won so solidly—they've reduced the entire movement to the words in a book. Once they experience the movement of God in their life for what it is and can still refute it with logic, then I'll be impressed.

It hasn't happened yet. I don't think it will.

Happy Halloween Almost!

Hi. I’m back! And yes, that's me. Ta-da! I know this is long overdue. To get on with it, I’ve decided to write about abstinence. I’m not actually sure why… It’s not something I’ve been thinking about lately or anything, but I think someone said something about it in church a couple weeks ago and it just seemed like a good thing to write about.

Q: LDS members abstain from everything that isn’t church related and the rest of the world deems “fun”. True or False?

A: You better have said false.

Q: LDS members abstain from everything that isn’t church related and the rest of the world deems “fun” except for Lemonade. True or False?

A: True.

Don’t quote me on that. :P That’s absurd. Of course it’s not true!

I’m going to start with a short story about a boy named Glenn. Chelsea will know who I’m talking about. Haha One night when we were freshman in high school, Chelsea and I were on my computer and I wanted to add a friend from school to my msn messenger. (Yes, this story comes from the days when that was new and huge.) His email address had the word kryptonite in it. So I typed in his email and added him on there only to find the person I added was online so we started talking to him. Chels and I found out soon enough that this was not the right person. We had just added a boy one year older than us who was from Belgium!! He spoke pretty good English though and we actually ended up becoming friends with him. (I later found that my friend I was trying to add spelled kryptonite differently for his email.) I talked to him and he found out I was LDS. He asked me some questions because he’d heard of our church. He asked about polygamy (surprise surprise :P) and about us not drinking alcohol. We talked about not smoking, using any form of drugs, drinking alcohol or coffee, etc. He couldn’t understand it, but after a little while he said, “Wait, so can you just not have anything that your body can become addicted to?” Bingo! I don’t think I’d ever thought of it that way, probably partially because of my age, but it’s the basic reason. As LDS members, we do not use anything that could even remotely bring about the possibility of addiction. Everyone knows that the LDS church has the Book of Mormon besides the bible. We actually have another book of scripture as well called the Doctrine and Covenants which was written by Joseph Smith about the latter day revelations the church was receiving. It’s also a history of the church after it was restored by him. In Section, or Chapter, 89 we have what we call the Word of Wisdom. It’s revelation of what is good and bad for our bodies.

D&C 89:4-9

4 Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—

5 That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him.

6 And, behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the vine, of your own make.

7 And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies.

8 And again, tobacco is not for the body , neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill.

9 And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly.

So yeah. Don’t get addicted to things. Besides, usually the things people get addicted to are very harmful for the body. The substances are impure and are not natural. Anyways, that’s one form of abstinence.

Another one … fidelity to your spouse. And clean moral standards. Abstinence from any temptations of sexual behavior. There’s not much to say about this one. It’s not only in the the LDS faith that people have the belief that you “wait until your wedding night”. However, I’ve never heard it stressed more by someone outside of my church. It’s hurtful towards our Heavenly Father to treat his gift to us of our bodies wrongly. They are delicate and are meant to be respected and need to be respected. Choosing to not abstain from this can lead to a lot of heartache, a lot of problems in families and your own personal life and it is not worth the risk.

Since Elder Packer is pretty popular right now I will quote him. Elder Boyd K. Packer said, “Now words can be used as weapons against you. If they throw the word diversity at you, grab hold of it and say, “I am already diverse, and I intend to stay diverse.” If the word is tolerance, grab that one, too, saying, “I expect you to be tolerant of my lifestyle—obedience, integrity, abstinence, repentance.” If the word is choice, tell them you choose good, old-fashioned morality. You choose to be a worthy husband or wife, a worthy parent.”

The end. That’s all. Goodnight. Amen.

How Are You Doing!?!

Life is always full of surprises, challenges and changes. Recently our family has made a big move from Michigan to Texas. Not only is the climate completely different, I am finding that the people and culture are very different too. It always amazes me how even though we all live within the United States, each state has it's own 'flavor' and way of doing things. But for all the differences I see, one thing still remains. All people are looking for validation of their existence and love, true love and for someone to care about them. This observance had me thinking... 'do I properly display the love that Jesus Christ had shown or the type of love that our society teaches'? Surface, self-seeking love seems to be pretty common in our culture. It was long after I started thinking about this, that I was tested on this very topic.

I find this type of love where ever I go. Even at church, at times. Most greetings today include, 'how are you' and the most typical response is 'good' or the occasional church going response of 'blessed and highly favored', but I can't help but wonder if it is a true statement and should I attempt to dig deeper to see if indeed they are 'good' or just let it go, because after all I have my own issues, too. (note the hint of sarcasm)

We are currently staying in an RV park as we are looking for property. There are many, many dog owners in this park who break just about every dog 'rule' that the park has set up. One evening my 7 year old and another friend took our beloved Labrador to the pet park to throw a ball around with him. Another woman came to the park without having her dog on a leash and their dog got away from her and barked quite aggressively at our 7 year old. Our lab, who instinctively protects our little girls, picked up this 'lap dog' who was about a tenth of his size and shook it around like a rag doll and sent quite a message to leave his owners alone. Now...here is the challenge, with the woman crying hysterically the husband shouting out every swear word I believe he posses in his limited vocabulary...can I display the love of Christ I know He wants me to yet still not get walked all over by this unreasonable soul? Hmmm, I'm usually up to a good challenge - so I dive in.

After we determined that both dogs were going to be ok (well, theirs needed a couple stitches-ouch) I tried to get his focus off the dog and on to his personal life. Focusing on the dogs weren't producing anything good - they refused to admit their dog was equally at fault as our dog was. Eventually I was able to break though. Even though she rejected my offer to pray with her, after a day her husband did allow me to speak 'God' into their lives. Come to find out that his wife's mom died a few months ago, their son was in a bad car accident a few years ago and she still carries a ton of grief around from these two events. She is on anti-depressants, common for women in their 40-50's, these days and generally is having a hard time with life. She views this dog as her entire life.

This experience of showing God's love, I find, was much harder than praying for waitress with a brace on her wrist, or for the friend that needs a job. I don't know what God is going to do with this new contact, in fact the park had to move our location for 3 weeks because of a scheduling error, and wouldn't you know it is only 3 lots down from this couple - God does have a sense of humor.... but it always amazes me that if we stop and take the time to find out what is in people's lives, they usually open up and let you see a little about truly 'how they are doing'.

My hope, as a Christian, is to always display the love that God the Father has shown to me through Jesus Christ and even though I may not be perfected in it I must keep trying. After all, isn't Jesus' reputation is on the line?

John 13:35 (By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”-NKJV)

Debbie

Post from Elder Meyer

Hellllo!

This is Elder Meyer.

I havent read any of the posts, except for the last ones.

I know this church is true! :D

the mission is really hard, but fun. I am helping alot of people come unto Christ. Spanish is... alright. I can understand most, and can speak a good amount. But not enough to be confident. Lame sauce.

i am surprised i have been out for 2.5 months, but at the same time it feels like i have been gone for years. Its really weird...

looks like the blog is doing well. I dont have much time left on the computer. in fact, i have about a minute. So i will end with this:

Studies show that birthdays are good for your health. The more you have the longer you live.

Knowing.

No, this isn't a movie review post ;) Although I did like this movie, it was about Nick Cage finding this string of numbers and finding recognizable clusters that represented the days in which there were mass losses of life due to an incident. He was eventually able to decipher the numbers down to a point where he not only could match past events, but also predict future events! Not wanting to give the movie away I'll stop there.

So, it's been a while guys! Bryan's been gone for about 2.5 months... I've been getting along alright, it's been weird tho... lonely at times. But I was able to write him a giant letter and even got one back! He told me all about the training center and how much work it was :P The second half of his letter was devoted to his bearing his testimony to me :) I enjoyed the letter and his bearing his testimony to me.

He told me that he wasn't wasting two years of his life for something he "thought" was true, he said that he "knows" the church is true. So that brings me to the topic of today's post: Knowing.

What does it mean to know something? The Free Dictionary puts it this way: Possessing knowledge, information, or understanding. So according to this we can know that the Earth revolves around the Sun... But I guess we could also 'know' that the Sun revolves around the earth, right? I mean before Galileo Galilei, the knowledge of the time was undoubtedly that the Earth revolves around the Sun (The Sun also having a major role in the aforementioned movie). So I guess it's possible for people to know (to possess knowledge, information, or understanding) things that are not factually true.

What does it mean then, when Bryan tells me he's not just serving a mission because he "thinks" it's true, but rather that he "knows" it's true? I guess they mean the same thing, except by using the word "know" it's somehow supposed to mean more than thinks?

I know that 2 and 2 make 4, at least I think I know... I've been taught addition in math class, it makes sense to me, I try it out and it continues to yield the correct answers for me. As far as I can tell, that knowledge is true. Not that I am the authority on truth, but based on the reasoning skills I possess, I am fully convinced of the truthfulness of the science of addition.

I know Bryan believes Mormonism to be the one true religion, I'm sure he thinks it is, I'm also sure he 'knows' it is. But that doesn't make it true, does it? I'd say not at all, even myself, in my assessment of what Bryan knows, I could be wrong. :P Bryan can be wrong too.

For me, instead of using words like 'know' and 'believe' I'd much rather use words like "I am fully convinced". This way I can tell others that I am aware that the evidence itself doesn't make it's own conclusions, that I am the one drawing conclusions from the evidence... That I am fully convinced that Christianity is true, and that Mormonism is not. I could have been wasting the last 8 years on something I "thought" was true. I admit, it's possible for me to be wrong.

I miss Bryan, I know that no matter what, these two years for him will not be wasted. Either way, he's going to be learning a lot, me too! We've got tons of 'knowledge' that we can attain to help us better shape our conclusions right?

Haha, sorry if this is all over the place, but it's something I've been thinking about for a while.

The Initiate Speaketh?

To all the people in the house who regularly give serious thought to what they believe:

You are wonderful and refreshing, whether you're Christian, Mormon, Buddhist or Atheist. Unless you're Rasta. Thinking and Rastafarianism are mutually exclusive.

[This level of compounded stupidity is absolutely terrifying.]

This would actually be my first contribution to this blog, and I am ashamed (somewhat) to say that it's not going to be as technical or fancy as everyone else's, in all probability. I'm an abstract thinker and somewhat shaky when it comes to holding on to a train of thought. However. I may have some good thoughts for you. I hope. I'm just going to use my first post to briefly explain why I'm still a Christian.

Put simply, I believe it's the truth. But the most compelling reason for that, surprising as it may sound, has nothing to do with the numerous paths of logic which have so heavily influenced my weak and doubting faith. It's the people. Paul will probably want to kick my butt when I finish posting this. It was supposed to be full of scholarly research and similar nonsense. But it's true: I'm a Christian because there's something empowering and liberating about being with Christians. I have talked and eaten and laughed and enjoyed life with people of diverse faiths, but when I'm with people who profess Jesus Christ's redemption, and who have the stunning humility it takes to admit that without a loving God, we can never succeed, I feel truly free and truly cared for. The freedom that comes from submitting to a God so merciful that He'd save even someone as pitiful and disgusting as me is enough to make my whole life different. And it makes me want to inspire that kind of change in other people.

I've heard many people say the Christian faith is logically inconsistent because it's so full of paradoxes. I don't think that's true. The Christian faith IS one big, beautiful paradox—all of it—even the parts that make sense. Because at the root, it started with love, and it moves and breathes through love, and God Himself is love, but love is something nobody fully understands. The rest is just details. That's where I'm coming from, and that's the standpoint I'll be writing in my future posts—the ones where I'll specifically be writing about the “details”.

I've been told I'm not one-hundred percent sane. I've been told I'm incapable of forming a coherent argument. But then again, like the Bible says in First Corinthians 1:27,

“God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.”

Let us hope so. I look forward to digging into questions of faith with all of you, be you Mormon, Christian, or Druids.

[Any worshipers of Kernunnos in the house? No? ...I guess I'm not surprised.]

Be blessed. I'll be back next month.

When I grow up, I wanna be a gladiator!

Alrighty alrighty! Sorry that this post is kind of late... I am going to talk about Grace and what Mormons believe about Grace. This is a pretty deep subject, so I am just going to focus on the basics.

Grace is the divine help or strength given through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. (The Atonement is very central to Grace.) It is a gift given to us. It is not something we can earn because we would never be able to do anything sufficient enough to receive it as an entitlement. Because we have agency, we all experience the consequences and effects of sin, or spiritual death. None of us would be able to return to the presence of God without grace. Through the Atonement we can come unto Christ and be forgiven. To receive this enabling power, we must obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ which means to have faith in Him, repent of our sins, be baptized, receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and follow His teachings for the rest of our lives (Ephesisans 2:8-9; James 2:17-22; 2 Nephi 25:23; 31:20).

There is also a difference between mercy and grace. Mercy is God’s compassion or His patience. God extends His mercy by granting grace to His children.

We believe that through the Grace of God, everyone who has lived will be resurrected and will live forever. (1 Corinthians 15:20-22) But resurrection alone won’t allow us to enter into the presence of our Heavenly Father, and there is a difference between living forever (immortality) and having eternal life (living forever with our Heavenly Father). This is where our part comes in! To be exalted and have eternal life (to live with Heavenly Father and achieve the fullness of Godhood) we must do all that we can do to make ourselves worthy to dwell with our Heavenly Father. Our sins make us unclean and unfit to be in God’s presence, and we need grace to purify and perfect us. But effort is required on our part to receive the fullness of God’s grace. There is a story told by David O. Mckay that illustrates this concept very well. There was a group of boys who were learning to swim when one fell into a treacherous hole in the stream. The boy would have drowned but for the quick-thinking companion who extended a branch to him and helped pull him to shore. He says: "There are those who claim that no one will sink and be lost if he will look to Jesus on the shore and say, ‘I believe’. There are others who declare that every one must, by his own efforts, swim to the shore or be lost forever. The real truth is that both of these extreme values are incorrect. Christ redeemed all men from death which was brought upon them through no act of theirs, but He will not save men from their personal transgressions who will put forth no effort themselves, any more than the young rescuer on the river bank could have saved the drowning lad if the latter had not seized the means provided him. Neither can man save himself without accepting the means provided by Christ for man’s salvation” Works must be coupled with grace so we can be cleansed from our sins and be perfected.

Soooo That’s all folks! I would love questions or any input or insights!