Homeschooling Gospel Learning

The essence of home-based church-supported gospel learning is what I call homeschooling. Parents guiding the discussion and teaching Christ and his gospel to their children.

The Sunday church second hour is content review - sharing with your peers what you learned in your home study.

The quarterly Teacher councils is a style review, for parent and teachers,  sharing How we teach. Again, home is for study and gospel doctrine style teaching, the What we teach.

"...the Spirit of the Lord had ceased striving with them,..."

I have heard many authorities say something like - It is never too late to repent. True, but...

This is one of those scriptures that let you know that a person can divorce themselves so completely from the Lord that:

But behold, the Spirit of the Lord had ceased striving with them, and Satan had full power over the hearts of the people; for they were given up unto the hardness of their hearts, and the blindness of their minds that they might be destroyed; wherefore they went again to battle. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/ether/15?lang=eng&id=p19#p19

We can go so far away from the Lord that the Spirit will stop working to save us.  I tie this to my axiom of "don't count on it", that someone tests Christ's ability to overcome a pretty slimy and unrepentant personal nature.  We all need to do our best to come to Jesus humbly and fully repentant, not to challenge him like some sumo wrestler for how hard we can make it for him to redeem us. What an idiotic concept.

Any of us can go beyond the Lord's willingness to save you, irrelevant of his ability to do it. We would all do better to work to make our redemption worth Christ's while.

Accepting Suffering and Sacrifice in Service to a Better Future

I looked back at my working life and I saw that for the most part, I have always worked for either a government entity or a government contractor.  I am currently yet again a government contractor so the Donald Trump-pushed DOGE efforts have every chance of affecting me and my income directly. I am going to suffer a bit if efforts at "government efficiency" eliminate my employment.

Regardless, the work of DOGE is absolutely essential to the government downsizing that needs to happen and that politicians have never brought themselves to do.  As long as government is ruled by the puerile desires of those who want to profit of the labors of others, it will continue to lead in the destruction of societies, families, and individuals. 

Everyone accuses the adults of today for continuing the ruination which children will have to live with as they grow older.  Young social justice warriors love to scream this at their elders. I say this is the way to silence such obnoxious voices. Trump and DOGE is working to fix the worst of the systemic problems that make life miserable, practically untenable, and offer little hope for more widespread personal success, all especially for those with lower capacity. Of course, this angers SJWs, for they do not authentically want a fix for these things, nor do they want the hated Trump to be a part of any fixes - it seems that their ten seconds of fame and their "righteous" hatred is all such people seek. It is a mark of corruption at the personal level, if you are marching in the streets and demanding that governments remain large and grasping so that you may profit off of this situation. I was once a professional "do-gooder" and I saw quickly that this wasn't a good thing, both for me as a government worker and for those I was supposed to be helping.

I, for one, am trying to prepare for the economic fallout of lower taxes and the provision of fewer government services upon which I have relied for a living most of my life. There are other jobs to do and service to others should be done outside of structures of force and inescapable government manipulation.

Standards vs. Exemptions

Standards: a level of quality or attainment.

Exemption: the process of freeing or state of being free from an obligation or liability imposed on others.

There are two basic sorts of people, those who measure themselves against standards and those who work to exempt themselves from standards, usually by eliminating measurement. These sorts tend to gravitate to the brightest light or the grossest darkness.

James 4

17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

It is far better to find the best standard by which you can live your life, especially one patterned after the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, rather than the fruitless search for exemptions from responsibility for those around you.

Prisons of Mediocrity for the Unconditionally Loved

I once worked in a prison, keeping equipment running so that prisoners could call those outside of prison, among other things. The vast majority of the prisoners had people that would accept their phone calls, even though such calls were collect calls and very expensive. People paid hundreds of dollars to talk regularly with one inmate or another, helping them feel less lonely and more loved.

Doesn't that sound nice?

I also worked with other prison employees who monitored these phone calls.  Many of them were called "grooming" calls, where an inmate praises the callers and then would ask for favors, often illegal activities, from those called. There were regular prosecutions of prison guards as inmates "groomed" them into doing something illegal to prove love or loyalty to that inmate. Sometimes, it was just a game that bored inmates would play with gullible guards just to see if they could turn them into criminals. I saw it happen time and time again, watching guards turn into prosecuted inmates.

Whenever I hear the phrase "unconditional love", I recall that inmates would often use such phrases to "groom" a future victim - "If you really love me unconditionally, you would do this thing for me."  The favors would start with innocent requests and then move up to something unethical, then illegal; the game being how far you could get a victim to go. I don't hear just the voice of a pleading inmate, playing a "let's get them in trouble" game, I hear manipulative children extorting their parents. "You won't punish me for something horrible I have done.  You will shield me from the authorities because if you don't, you must not really love me and that makes you a terrible parent/friend."  And the victim usually does what is requested, just to avoid appearing or being accused of being unloving or not "proving" their love.

This is why the use of "unconditional love" in glowing terms just turns my stomach, especially from religious leaders who should know better. I know people who are doing prison time for being baited by "love" into compromising moral requirements by looking the other way or doing an illegal act.  People who act on such appeals are either being groomed by evil forces or inviting evil to play around them with impunity and excuses until they are destroyed and helping others to also be destroyed.

We don't become better people by hanging around those preaching unconditional love. You don't have to be a better person if those around you fail to hold you to a higher standard. God wants better out of you and your "loving" parents and mentors should want better from you as well.  There is no room for excused behavior and attitudes that want no more than a mediocre lack of effort - excused people don't improve and don't grow into better people. Let it and them slide and people will go as low as people's "unconditional love" will tolerate.

I hope you are as suspicious of such talk as I have become.

The Fallacy of Retroactive Repentance

Some eager Latter-day Saints have an idea that everyone can seek repentance, even Lucifer and his followers. All they would have to do is to be contrite.  Although this sounds good and "loving", these rebellious souls sealed their fate by flatly rejecting Heavenly Father's plan.

Lucifer and his followers cannot repent.  Repentance was a facet of Heavenly Father's plan which the Satanic rejected before it was even put into place.  Repentance is for those who received Jehovah as the Savior and participated in the plan.  The Satanic walked away from the plan before repentance existed.

It is like buying a car with a $100,000 price-tag.  In a few months, that car model goes on sale for $50,000.  You get grumpy because now you feel like you paid $50,000 too much.  You can't retroactively go back to the car place and demand the return of $50,000 and actually get it.  You paid the price as set at the time. 

Perhaps Lucifer's decision to oppose God was a gross act of impatience, wanting God's "honor" earlier than it was available to him through righteous living and the stipulations of Heavenly Father's plan. Perhaps he thought it could just be demanded and God, out of love, would give it outside of the plan in the offer to force all his children into complete devotion. It seems Lucifer didn't understand the criteria for exaltation and he became ungrateful and indignant when God's "honor" didn't come to him.  Nevertheless, Lucifer rebelled against the Father and his plan and was thrust out before repentance was instituted and gave us a deep example of really bad timing among other insults to God and his ways.
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Are your leaders committed to "overthrow the freedom of all lands"?

There is all sorts of talk about wicked people in high places. Depending on who you talk to, the American President is either one of the wicked people or someone who is trying to dethrone the wicked people. It has become quite the issue in the United States of American to either tear down the established bureaucracy or defend the "sweet" deal friends enjoy in service to the establishment.

It really is a difference between government "reform" (not really) and tearing down the established evil.

In the scriptures below, "it" refers to a group called the "Gadiantion Robbers" who work wickedness so that they can enjoy power (control) and gain (money) without interference.  See if you see the powerful and rich in the verses below.

Ether 8:25

25 For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning.

These people who seek power are doing the work of Satan, which rewards those who serve him lavishly but only for enough time to destroy them and take thousands to hell as well. 

Ether 8:26

26 Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved.

It is our responsibility to "do good continually". It will be our individual and collective righteousness that will render Satan powerless in our lives.  We will do away with evil as we choose to follow Christ and elect people to positions of power over us who also follow Christ.  This binds Satan and gives us Liberty from the consequences of sinful natures that we abandon.  This is the only "freedom" that will bring us lasting joy.