A Curious Instrument

I broke the RSS feed to my main "on-the-road" podcast (without a backup), so I decided to drop the RSS feed and advertise the recordings (no longer a podcast) on the blog and on Facebook.  It is a bit duplicative, but I want to see which method is more "successful". Anyway, here is the first of two recordings on the importance of trust as far as God seems to be concerned.  This first recording has to be with our earning the trust of God and meriting exaltation at his hand.  https://archive.org/details/kohenmonkmormon/Engendering+Trust.mp3

There is much talk from Lisa and Jason about car problems, buying a property in Fritch Texas, and other things. I'm going to start advertising recordings from the Princess and/or the Priest page on Archive.org here on the blog.  I'll see if it gets some notice from the universe.  Enjoy! https://archive.org/details/princesspriest/Lots+of+Peas+at+Fritch+Flop.mp3

Here is another time when the Lord takes credit for doing something horrible.  I used to think God did nothing nasty, but he does punish those who turn against him. Mormon 8: 7 And behold, the Lamanites have hunted my people, the Nephites, down from city to city and from place to place, even until they are no more; and great has been their fall; yea, great and marvelous is the destruction of my people, the Nephites. 8 And behold, it is the hand of the Lord which hath done it. ... This and so many other posts have been a study of mine toward a more accurate picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I have done this, I find that many portrayals of Christ describe a largely extra-scriptural representation of him as extremely non-violent and loving to a fault, strongly aligned with modern attitudes of the superiority of unconditional love and behavioral anti-judgmentalism. That is a flawed vision of the Savior insofar as I have found. Moving slowly through the scriptural recor...

I have discovered that my wife really likes Dog the Bounty Hunter.   Duane Chapman and his family often convince the families of his bounties that they are better off in jail and drug rehabilitation, especially if that person's life is out-of-control.  Dog encourages some of the worst elements to get themselves clean, take responsibility for their actions and make their families a higher priority in their lives.  This is good advice for those who have used their freedom poorly. People usually end up in jail because they cannot control their own behavior. We find that once we put them into a situation where their behavior is under tight external control, it isn't surprising to find that inmates don't develop any more self-control, though they have great incentive to do so. Upon release from custody, they will likely be even less able to control themselves, after a period of not having to control themselves at all while incarcerated, and will quickly find themselves back ...

Far too many people live lives of constant emergency and make conscious choices everyday to live that way. I ran out of gas (lack of presence or planning) I broke down and some angel person rescued me (it happens but how often).  TK rescues Nemrow. Living "paycheck to paycheck" the homeless (the central misnomer) Not living in a house or apartment is rarely the worst of their problems. And getting a place to live often exacerbates their problems with added responsibilities. It's not my fault. That is rarely true. Most people choose their circumstances.  A very small group is truly disabled and most of those can live successfully within extended families.  There cannot be a correlation between "homelessness" and disability, if we say that everyone living in tent cities and sidewalks are incapable of doing more for themselves. Balderdash. Many people DON'T want rigorous lives Everyone is concerned that churches are emptying, but they shouldn't worry about ...

Hanging out to fly home.  First time in NYC  Atlanta to Albuquerque 

Kilkenny castle