A Curious Instrument

I can't approach Isaiah in the same ways that I worked through the Book of Mormon .  There are not a few scripture snippets that can be expanded upon, but it seems like, at least in this particular chapter ( Isaiah chapter 1 ), it is almost circular reinforcements of a theme. Although the people were doing the performances required of the Lord in Isaiah's time, the remembrances and symbolism were not effecting the personal devotion and changes the Lord desired in them.  They are becoming hypocrites with a public face of piety and harboring evil in their hearts. Isaiah 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Isaiah 1:10-15 10 ¶ Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lo...

It is a matter of prioritizing obedience to the oldest commandments and associated blessings over short term fears of not having a full cornicopia of society's "essential" marriage ingredients, such as a great job, high pay, or deep maturity. In some ways, many cultures actively discourage marriage with pushing these expected "requirements" that can rarely be met. I found this view of attitudes going into marriage to be interesting and helpful to re-enshrining "holy" marriage:  Beyond Hollywood Type Love: Choosing Commitment Over Chemistry In addition to viewing marriage as a devoted commitment, rather than a impossibly life-long romantic infatuation as so many demand, we often forget God's take on marriage and making it a priority in our lives. Genesis 2:18   And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Genesis 2:24   Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cle...

It's important to remember that accepting the trials of mortality has, until very recently, been just a fact of life (no obvious pun).  My parents did it, my grandparents and my further ancestors all married and had children (obviously), never giving it much more thought than these institutions are what everyone was expected to do and it was the basic sign of being a respectable adult. We live in a "modern" time that the age-old expectations or marriage and family have been pushed aside by a growing group of DINKs, singles, NEETs, and so on. Sloughing established standards seem to have become something of a flaunted recreational sport, usually by showing young single women traveling the world's tourist spots or pulling dogs into their liberated and well-heeled "van lives". Some six-thousand years ago, Adam and Eve set the standard, eschewed the easy man-child Eden, and took the choice to stay together as a married couple and face mortality together and natur...

Lisa came up with a wonderful new view of the Parable of the Talents . You can look at the Talents of how much annual salary they buy. Lisa estimated that each talent was equivalent to five years of labor. That would make five talents worth 25 years of living and two talents worth 10 years, therefore converting these talents into TIME or a lifetime . I look at this parable as a tale of life, judgment, and reward. We all have varying lengths of lifespan. For instance, Jesus lived a short 33 years, Joseph Smith was on earth for only 38.5 years, I'm told. If you were to translate that to a cost of living as above and figure life begins at say 20 years of age, Jesus would be a bit more than a 2 talent person and Joseph was a bit less than a 4 talent person. God give us our livespans to spend as we wish , which can be translated as above. Given the lifespan we have, what did we do with our time? In the parable, the servants get their talents, and the Lord goes off t...

I am trying to help those "unconditional love" folks. So they don't get into trouble, wandering in the dark and thinking God will ignore disobedience. Doctrine and Covenants 95:12 12 If you keep not my commandments, the love of the Father shall not continue with you, therefore you shall walk in darkness.  This is the Lord speaking. If one doesn't keep commandments (this is referring to building a temple in Kirtland Ohio), then God doesn't love you. A small order and ignoring it gets a big response. Imagine how God feels about breaking one of the ten commandments that are not so situational! Do we really want to "walk in darkness"? 

Plenty of people ignore the words of prophets and apostles. They don't talk nicely. They say difficult things in the name of Christ, often in opposition to how many proclaim that Jesus love them.  Moroni 10:27   27 And I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust? I like the picture painted here.  Moroni is at your turn at judgment. If you choose to act like you didn't know what the prophet said or warned about, God himself will indict you. As you think of all the prophets that have issued warnings, that might make the idea of judgment less than appealing to many.  Don't be that person! Listen and heed to the prophets.  Moroni 10:30   30 And again I would exhort you that ye would come...