A Curious Instrument

  This is yet another stab at resetting people's expectations of Jesus Christ. When Christ came to the people in America, he commanded that some scripture be put into their records that had been written by prophets in the "old world". I have been reading through parts of the book of Malachi previously and I am still working through this.  I am also noticing a pattern. It is the "fear of the Lord". A lot of modern Christians don't equate Jesus with fear, but they should.  It is far too easy to think that Christ will simply forgive bad behavior purely out of a sense of love, of which I have seen no evidence in my scripture study. Information in Malachi chapters 3 and 4 is clear about Christ's punishments for the wicked (and he has an expansive view of who is wicked) and that our basic attitude toward the coming Christ should be fear. I don't know about you, but I am worried about my status in relation to the Messiah - how he sees me. Although a few peo...

I might get the reputation of highlighting the hard Christ, the one who promises punishments for disobedience.  I do this because of the constant stream of platitudes from many, many popular sources that "God loves you the way you are" and the rejection of commandments and essential ordinances and repentance in favor of a supposed Christ's overarching desire to put aside everything he ever said and taught in favor of being oh-so-loving to everyone. If I were your only source for information on the Messiah, you might see him as a pretty hard taskmaster - I just feel this deep need to provide the better-documented (in scripture) counterpoint! Here is a wonderful snippet to help you know that you don't have to be in the "hard" Savior's "doghouse" forever:  3 Nephi 24 and Malachi 3 7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts....

It seems everyone wants to find something special about themselves; something that makes them stand out from the rest. But what happens when you are special in God's eyes but that marks you for something seemingly bad as opposed to something good? As an Aaronide priest, which marks me and my sons as a literal male-line descendants of the biblical Aaron and leaders in the tribe of Levi, the Lord himself has singled us out in a way not too appealing: Malachi 3 and  3 Nephi 24 2 But who may abide the day of his (the Lord's) coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap. 3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.  4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. There it is - the fate of my heritage: to be b...

The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer Wonderful Archetype for the overriding love-service and responsibility of children to parents and the collection of powerful allies in mutual benefit toward individual goals - I will help you with your needs and you will help me with mine. View all my reviews

There is much ado about pronouns these days.  Some rather inconsequential countries have even written laws about who defines personal pronouns, what are proper pronouns, and the punishments inflicted if uninformed bystanders dare to use the wrong reference, even ignorantly. I think we will see that governments which behave in this way will all be cast as foolishly inconsequential going forward and be largely ignored.  As GUS (Government of the United States) consumers will soon be denied food for non-compliance, I will be using the following pronoun to placate the howlers:  the priest. I know.  You say that isn't a pronoun. Are you really injecting logic at this time in this environment?  "Zim" and "zey" weren't pronouns five years ago, but be prepared for the screaming if you don't acknowledge them as pronouns today.  I can be just as creative as any other rainbow-haired howler.  Besides, "the priest" fits in any given pronoun-ed sentence. T...

I first discovered Fred about fifteen years ago. I put links to some of his columns here because they are often blocked without some obfuscation.  He is not considerate of the howlers who scream at things that bother them, so social media typically blocks his writing, which is a terrible shame and recommends him most highly.  Fred is a real "straight shooter". https://www.amren.com/commentary/2022/02/fred-reed-joe-biden-democracy/ - The Care and Feeding of Rabble: Democracy Its Own Self https://www.unz.com/freed/blackness-fatigue-enough-is-too-much/ - This gives the best explanation of how "diversity" is at the root of most violence and wars.  Mixing strongly different people together is a bad societal idea.  You can see Fred's recent columns here:  https://muckrack.com/fred-reed/articles

There are many, many things that just don't really matter.   Not that we don't care or feel, that we want to feel true to ourselves and allow everyone else to also feel true to themselves as well, but in the end, these sorts of things usually don't really matter in ways that are meaningful.  It is terribly sad, but it is completely true.  Someone has to tell you this and it might as well be me. Lately, when I am confronted with someone pushing anti-bias-curriculum or transgenderism or some "feel-good-for-nothing" philosophy in my face, I simply respond with "So, what?" and walk off. I will tell you why I do this even though such a response qualifies as the height of rudeness these days. I am essentially lazy, as many people are but are loathe to admit. When it came time to pick a career, I chose early childhood education. When I was a missionary, I spent much of my time distracting young kids while others talked about God and religion. I enjoyed my time ...