A Curious Instrument

  "Yes, Virginia, I have read the CES Letter ..." and my response follows. I have had spiritual experiences for decades in relation to scripture and God's hand in my life. These experiences satisfy me that God exists, that God speaks to prophets who record their experiences in whatever way they deem fitting, whether through speeches or writing or videos, and that God continues to work for the exaltation of men and women.  Through divine intervention in my own life and years of reading and reflection, I am satisfied that the Book of Mormon was written and translated by those who were acting on God's influence and instruction. I am satisfied that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the structure through which Christ effects his promises and authorized priesthood toward God's purposes. It is an organization founded and run by rather ordinary people with faults and shortcomings. I am also satisfied that there is no intent to deceive or profiteer amon...

Increasing numbers of people ignore established sources of wisdom that God provides through prophets. The world is becoming more tumultuous and the "experts" to whom many turn for answers are often revealed as vacuous and unreliable, more often wrong than right. The need for wise guidance has never been greater and those who know how to hear God will get the peace and direction that each of us desires in these confusing times. I am grateful yet again for the writings of inspired prophets of God that we have today from the Book of Mormon :   3 Nephi 11 :4-6 And it came to pass that again they heard the voice, and they understood it not. And again the third time they did hear the voice, and did open their ears to hear it; and their eyes were towards the sound thereof; and they did look steadfastly towards heaven, from whence the sound came. And behold, the third time they did understand the voice which they heard; In this instance, God was speaking to the people but they could ...

There is much hyperventilating over the new-age concept of God's "unconditional love" for all.  You can likely hear my attitude about it - I think it is a bad road to take.  In so many scriptures, we are told of the conditional nature of salvation and the Lord's favor comes to us if we repent.  I just tripped over another one this morning: 3 Nephi 9 :22 Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved. Many years ago, I created a fake diety called "LazyJesus" and really should have trademarked it. LazyJesus lounges on a theological couch, engrossed in some TV program or such, and dismissively forgives everyone so he is not interrupted from something more interesting to him. LazyJesus saves everyone because he is too busy to make distinctions between...

Many people know Latter-Day Saints best by the health code to which most adhere:  The Word of Wisdom .  It has been interpreted to proscribe the use of coffee, tea, tobacco, and harmful drugs, along with encouraging the eating of vegetables and fruits, grains, and a little meat. Though triggered by Emma, the wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith, in relation to having to clean up tobacco use after church leadership meetings, the Lord gave this as his justification for revealing the Word of Wisdom: Doctrine and Covenants 89 :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-  In the tradition of recent study guides produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , I will ask a few "open-ended" questions and let you readers answer for yourselves. Given the realities of the...

In  the Book of Mormon , the Lord catalogs the destruction of many cities and lands as a result of wickedness and abominations and the treatment of those who called out the wicked. 3 Nephi 9 :10-11 And behold, the city of Laman, and the city of Josh, and the city of Gad, and the city of Kishkumen, have I caused to be burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof, because of their wickedness in casting out the prophets, and stoning those whom I did send to declare unto them concerning their wickedness and their abominations. And because they did cast them all out, that there were none righteous among them, I did send down fire and destroy them, that their wickedness and abominations might be hid from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints whom I sent among them might not cry unto me from the ground against them. We are in the midst of such "stoning those whom [the Lord] did send to declare unto them concerning their wickedness and their abominations". W...

My podcast player went haywire, perhaps with the intervention of God, and I found myself listening to a very old discussion rather than my morning devotional. I would reference the source, but it is an old idea and I only heard a glancing reference to it. The story goes that a municipality notices that much money is spent on ambulances reporting to deaths and injuries at the bottom of a high cliff from which many people fall.  An "out-of-the-box" thinker suggests that a guardrail or fence be put at the top of the cliff to prevent such falls in the first place and that the reduced cost of ambulance service would more than pay for the preventative.  I always considered this a lesson in prevention and economics, but the discussion to which I accidently listened was not so narrow in moral scope. A broad concept, of which such things as socialism and neighborhoods were a part, was being discussed.  At its very heart, the people on the unintended podcast episode were talking ab...

 I have just been hit by two "blasts from the past" that conjuncted a few days ago. When I was in my late 20's, I took a very interesting job as a siesmic navigator on a boat for Petroleum Geoservices, better known as PGS.  I floated on exploration boats for two years and came back to on-shore work when the twins were going to be born.  That was late 1999. Not too many years later, Lisa and I decided to look at going to graduate school in Shetland, an island group above Scotland. We worked hard to get the arrangements together, but the UK finally said they wouldn't approve a student visa for us, so that plan went down the drain. Here, I see that a PGS ship, the Ramform Vangard, which was under constuction when I was working for the company, has had to have an extended stay in port at Lerwick (the capital of Shetland). I never thought much of the "Ramform" boats as they reminded me of luxury liners compared to the boats I worked on - they even had a European ...