Streams of Conciousness

I’ve enjoyed having the LDS Gospel Library on my phone and tablet quite a bit, but one of my frustrations with it has been bookmarks–it’s fairly straightforward to create a bookmark, but how do you update (move) an existing bookmark for when you’re doing your daily scripture study?

Someone recently showed me how to do it. It’s really pretty simple. I created a bookmark called “Daily” and set it to where I’m at in my scripture study. Then, when I was done with my scripture study and ready to update my bookmark, I open up the bookmarks dialogue and longpress (press and hold) on the “Daily” bookmark. When I do that, I am prompted whether or not I want to update the existing bookmark, and I say yes.

Another excellent conference come and gone. I think the most exciting part of it was the announcement that the Provo Tabernacle (which suffered a severe fire) will be rebuilt into a temple!

In general the comments that stuck out to me were the ones that talked about standing up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and also about being more diligent in our regular responsibilities: daily scripture study and prayer (individually and as a family), attending church meetings and the temple, etc. I’ve referred to these things as the Primary Answers for two reasons:

1. They are the answers to virtually every question asked by a gospel instructor since we were in Primary. If you had fallen asleep in class and were woken up by the instructor asking you a question, your safest bet is to reply: “Go to church, listen to the prophets, read your scriptures, and pray” (OK, so this isn’t really the case, but sometimes it feels like it)
2. They are Primary, meaning first and foremost. There is a reason why said instructors are trying to pound those things into our heads. It is critical that we stay close to the gospel, and the way that is done is not through some occasional or once-in-a-lifetime super-spiritual experience (Even the scriptures demonstrate that while such things do happen, they do not by themselves bring about either salvation or conversion). Instead, conversion to the Gospel, and developing a relationship with our Father in Heaven, is done through steady, regular, consistent effort.

Matthew 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

This is my favorite image in all of scripture.

The veil of the temple separated the Holy Place–containing the shewbread, incense and candlestick–from the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant. The Holy of Holies represented the presence of God (The Bible Dictionary has good descriptions of the Tabernacle and Temple of Solomon).

The veil of the temple was not torn by men, armies or machinery, but rather an earthquake (such things are still referred to in legal documents as “acts of God”). It also wasn’t just a small tear or hole–it was ripped from top to bottom.

What does this mean? Consider what has just been accomplished: the Atonement. Christ’s body was rent, giving mankind the ability to repent of their sins through Him. Through His blood we can be made clean and return to His presence. The veil separating man from God has been removed.

As the stone being rolled away from the tomb represents the triumph over physical death, the rending of the temple veil represents the triumph over spiritual death.

Helaman 14:15-19:

15 For behold, he surely must die that salvation may come; yea, it behooveth him and becometh expedient that he dieth, to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, that thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord.

16 Yea, behold, this death bringeth to pass the resurrection, and redeemeth all mankind from the first death—that spiritual death; for all mankind, by the fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual.

17 But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord.

18 Yea, and it bringeth to pass the condition of repentance, that whosoever repenteth the same is not hewn down and cast into the fire; but whosoever repenteth not is hewn down and cast into the fire; and there cometh upon them again a spiritual death, yea, a second death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness.

19 Therefore repent ye, repent ye, lest by knowing these things and not doing them ye shall suffer yourselves to come under condemnation, and ye are brought down unto this second death. (Helaman 14:15-19:15-19)

An excellent post about Proposition 8 – particularly on the discussion about Freedom of Religion vs. Freedom of Worship.

http://thoserobertsons.blogspot.com/2010/08/is-sexual-freedom-more-important-than.html

I’ve been meaning to write about a good day I had a while back…

Every now and then I like to take a couple hours to relax with something other than video games or books.  I put on some good music and make a treat. It’s usually bread, hot chocolate, or… some other chocolate treat (and in case you were wondering, yes, a good loaf of homemade bread is definitely a treat).

Now, I really enjoy a good novel or video game, but there’s something more satisfying about taking my time to make a good treat while listening to some Beethoven. It sounds cheesy, but to me it is something that “feeds the soul” (or at least, that’s how I think of it, and everyone should take some time out every so often and do something that feeds their soul).

A little while ago, I was making a treat while listening to a new CD I had recently purchased. It was nice, relaxing music (the album name is Porcelain by Helen Jane Long, FYI), and I was quite enjoying myself.

Then my little daughter came in and proceeded to dance to the music (she’s been taking lessons from June on “Little Einsteins”, so she awkwardly twirls round and round in place). She was so cute to watch!

I was touched by what a wonderful family I have. They are so good to me; not just a wonderful blessing, but the reason and purpose in my life. That afternoon is one of the sweet moments of my life. Far beyond just a nice relaxing afternoon, it is one of the more precious memories that I have, and I hope I always remember it. I felt that God was happy with me, and that I was beginning to realize some of the great joys of life.

So General Conference just ended, and I wanted to put down a few things that I really liked.

I really liked President Uchdorf’s talk in the Priesthood session, where he talked about the importance of work–not just wanting to do good things, but actually taking the time to do them. He also emphsized the importance of Education–always learning, whether in or out of a school.

That was my favorite talk, but I also really liked Elder Holland’s talk on the truth of the Book of Mormon, and Elder Bednar’s talk on consistent effort. I can’t remember who said it, but in another talk the speaker talked about those who don’t make an effort to teach their children the gospel, using the reason that they will “let their children decide for themselves”. His point was that the children cannot decide for themselves without having a knowledge of the gospel, and that Satan will certainly not protray the temptations of the world in a fair, unbiased light.

I’m hoping that I can spend more time studying the gospel, and also doing some of the good side projects that I want to do but never seem to find the time to do.

The 179th General Conference just ended, so I wanted to put down my thoughts on it while I still have it in my head…

For me, there were a few things that really stood out. One was attending the temple regularly. There were a number of talks on this, actually. My wife and I try to get to the temple regularly, but each month it is a struggle to accomplish, and we miss more months than we should…

Another was a talk on living within your means by Elder Hales. My wife and I agreed that we tend to buy a lot more things than we really need. Part of it is that we encourage each other to get the things that the other wants, but in his talk Elder Hales told a couple stories, one about wanting to buy something for his wife when they couldn’t really afford it, and another about when he wanted to buy something for her when they could afford it. The basic idea wasn’t to never buy anything, but to live within your means, and to not buy things to try to impress others, and to save money for rainy days.

Elder Perry talked about the need for members to be major part of the missionary effort. It just struck me that I need to do more to share my feelings about the gospel to others and see if they want to know more.

Finally, Elder Scott, President Monson, and a few others talked about facing adversity–looking forward with faith. Elder Scott especially told a few very tender stories about some severe trials he has gone through in his life.

I’ve been reading the Old Testament, and have just started into 1 Kings; where Solomon sees God in a dream and asks for wisdom.

I never realized that what Solomon was asking for was help in fulfilling his calling as a judge over God’s people. I had never thought of Solomon as being someone who felt completely inadequate in the position in which he was placed before, but that’s the impression that I got reading it this time.

I don’t know why that surprised me, since both Saul and David have similar feelings of inadequacy. The stories of the first threee kings of Israel are really tragic, as each one has such promise; each one is supported by God and given help and understanding to make them equal to the task; and yet each one ends up rejecting God.

…anyway that was random, but hey, that’s what this blog is, right?

While I’m on the subject, one of my favorite people from the Bible is Samuel. I’m not really sure why he’s my favorite, but part of it is 1 Sam 3:19 – “And Samuel grew and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.”

What I like so much about this is that it is different from what I often consider prophets from doing. Prophets teach people the things that God instructs them to teach (for example, Mosiah 3:23). But this shows it from a very different perspective: Samuel doing his best to teach the people and God supporting him. That doesn’t mean that Samuel doesn’t teach the will of the Lord, or that he can make up his own rules or anything like that. It does mean that God doesn’t spell out every word that Samuel is supposed to teach. It means that it is often up to Samuel to decide what topic to teach, and when and how it is to be presented. But as long as he does his best, God will support him.

It’s not “OK, Samuel, I’ve written your next talk; here’s what you’re going to say.” Instead it’s “Samuel, I’ve taught you My gospel, now you need to teach it to others. Do your best and I’ll help you and support you in your calling.”

I had a rather neat experience yesterday. We had a ton of yardwork that we wanted to accomplish, but Ada was being very clingy and wouldn’t let Rosanne put her down, so Rosanne kept Ada happy while I fixed the sprinklers and started working on the back corner of the yard (we are trying to get that cleaned out and all the vines removed–this upcoming Saturday we’ll be removing the stumps).

By dinner time, I saw that there was no way I was going to get it done before dark working alone, but I was sure if Rosanne were helping we could finish it. so I said a quick prayer that Ada would calm down enough so that Rosanne would be able to help. I was impressed that Ada would not calm down, but that Rosanne and I needed to learn how to deal with that.

Nuts.

Oh well, I thought, I’ll just get as much done as I can on my own and finish it up later. A couple minutes later Rosanne came down saying that Janelle had just called, and wanted to play with Ada, so she was on her way over. She showed up in a few minutes, Rosanne was able to come out, and between the two of us we were able to get the job completed.

Now, God didn’t have to do that. I don’t think it really mattered, but it was just a reminder to me that He is concerned about us and He is very involved in our lives. I love seeing the little insignificant things that He does for us, not because it is so important on a grand scale, but because we are His children and He loves us (which is not such a little thing after all).