Of Bears and Squirrels

        A few weeks ago I was visiting some very dear friends in Wisconsin.  One of them was Todd, and aside from being a techy-geek (very much like myself) he has two skills that I doubt I will ever have. 

        1. He is a serious sysAdmin.  You name the platform and he will make your app run on it.  
        2. He used to be a fairly strong Anti-Mormon.  
        
        We were talking about religion and Anti's and I asked a serious question.  I never understood how some folks will try to hurt us or make fun of us by saying that Mormons believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers! 

        pause.... 
        pause again.... 
        nope... I never got that one.  Really... Think about reading in 
        
        Isaiah14:12 How art thou ^afallen from ^bheaven, O ^cLucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the ^dnations!

  13 For thou hast said in thine ^aheart, ^bI will ascend into heaven, I will ^cexalt my ^dthrone above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the ^enorth:

  14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the ^amost High.

  15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to ^ahell, to the sides of the pit.

  16 They that see ^athee shall ^bnarrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

        In Revelations - 12

7 And there was ^awar in heaven: ^bMichael and his ^cangels fought against the dragon; and the ^ddragon fought and his angels,

  8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in ^aheaven.

  9 And the great dragon was ^acast out, that old serpent, called the ^bDevil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him

        Both of those are NON Mormon unique scriptures... all Christianity believes in it (or they should...).  
        
        So, I think to myself... "What's the problem?  Satan was our brother, he rebelled, he was cast out, he runs around on Earth making things rough for us to hurt/spite Father.  What's everyone griping about?"  

        
        They don't really think that the evil Satan was running around in heaven and Father mostly ignored it, then finally had enough and cast him down the earth.... do they?  Or do they imagine that he was in heaven hiding from God and then simply got caught by the Heavenly Police?

        
        When asking my buddy about this he offered an interesting point of view... He said... You have to understand that others (other religions) look at the different levels of beings as permanent.  God is here (very high up on the org chart), Angels are here (think middle management) lower orders of angels are here (bottom of the chart) and we are humans, destined to sing to god for all eternity.... We are the lower peons...

        Still not getting it, I said, so we are not brothers and sisters?  Todd said... "Think Bears and Squirrels"  Different animals all together.  Angles don't progress (apparently neither do men...).  To say that Jesus (super awesome God) had anything to do with evil wicked, nasty Lucifer... it's heresy.  They were two different types of things, they couldn't have been related. 

        
        Ah, this seems to make more sense... Jesus was God before he was born, and perfect and unchangeable.  Ah, so he didn't need to progress, we didn't exist in that world (do you remember it... I don't..) and Lucifer, simply started causing trouble so the all powerful God thrust him out.  So now saying that Jesus and Satan are brothers, elevates Satan and reduces the pre-eminence of Jesus.... I see... (I don't believe it.. but I see why others would)

        
        In our view, we were all getting ready to come to Earth.  We all needed it.  (You, me, the next door neighbor, Jesus, Lucifer...) We had to gain a body and get experience that we couldn't otherwise get.  By understanding the concept of progression (heretical, I know...) we then understand the fall much better.  This is where the Temple really shines...

        
        Nothing is made more clear in the temple than the Fathers entire focus and desire to get us to come home to him, to protect us from Satan and his tricks and to help us be safe forever with Him.  There are things WE must do, but there are things he has set up as well, and working together we can make it happen.  And to someday  ...sit down, and go no more out. 

Alma 7:25 And may the Lord bless you, and keep your garments spotless, that ye may at last be brought to sit down with ^aAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began, having your garments ^bspotless even as their garments are spotless, in the kingdom of heaven to go no more out.

 

        
        Thanks Todd, I will never look at bears and squires again, with out being grateful that I know we are not so different from our Heavenly Father that loves us.

        

Concept #1 - Live Up To What You Know

The foundation must be solid, then all things build on it. This stuff isn't for those new to the LDS faith. There is nothing here that I am embarrassed about or ashamed of, but I don't want to have to re-hash the importance of baptism. I will assume that the readers have a solid, not a cursory understanding of the church. Later on we will be talking about temples, veils, covenants, alters, signs, priesthoods and a whole lot of other stuff that I simply don't want to have to explain the basics.

First we will use the standard LDS scriptures. Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. The discussions will focus on the OT but we will look at examples and references from all over. I will quote outside sources and try to be as accurate as I can, but remember, this is simply a hobby for me, so I might not be right 100% of the time. (well, I always believe I am right 100% of the time but the IRS, Wife, clerk at the Quick Trip, have on rare occasion proved otherwise...)

Let us begin.

There are several topics here, and I will try to keep them at a minimum.
Concept 1 - You must live up to what you know.

No matter what, it is my belief that you have to be living up to what you know. If you know the word of wisdom but don't live it, then you will not have as much light (spirit) about you as you might otherwise enjoy. You might be smart, clever, intelligent, even happy! But if you don't live up to what you know, as best you can, you don't have as much light and spiritual knowledge.

It is that simple. "There is a law irrevocably decreed before the foundations of this world and when we obtain any blessing from God it is by obedience to that law upon which it was predicated." (citation needed). One of those laws is that you must live up to what you are given. Where much is given, much is expected. Remember that the lord wants to reveal the mysteries to us in full, but we limit ourselves via

Lack of faith (remember Laman and Lemuel... "... the Lord maketh known no such thing unto us....") This is a common error. We are limited to what we can learn by ourselves.

Alma 12:10-11
10 And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.

11 And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell.

Hello? Did you just read that ... we can (really really!) know the mysteries of God! I love that! KNOW THEM IN FULL! We must not think that God is silent... He isn't. We may not hear Him, but it isn't because He has stoped talking.

Lack of obedience (think Laman and Lemuel on the ship when they tied Nephi up... The compass (Holy Ghost) quit working.

D&C 29:40
40 Wherefore, it came to pass that the devil tempted Adam, and he partook of the forbidden fruit and transgressed the commandment, wherein he became subject to the will of the devil, because he yielded unto temptation

When you sin you, me, us, them, become "subject to the will of the devil!" We are then under his influence and power. He says it in the temple, but we sometimes take it too lightly.

Lack of desire (that's the really bad one...). We have "....esteemed lightly things we ought not..."; Think the church under condemnation for not diving into the Book of Mormon...

If we don't do what we know, then we are walking (at least partially) in darkness. We are spiritually blind and spiritually deaf. I'm not joking here... think spiritual Helen Keller! We loose the ability to see and hear and we are then very, very alone. It is possible to be successful in THIS world without light. It is NOT possible to understand spiritual things with out light

The Parable That I Never Understood...

I'm not bashing the parable, I just never got it. It is the parable of the ten talents. As I read it, a rich man gave 3 servants different amounts of talents (money) and he said he was going away. While gone, take the money and make more of it. It makes sense...

One guy, who was given 10, made 10 more. One guy, who was given 5, made 5 more. One guy, who was given 1, made ... no more. The boss comes home, and guy number one doubled his money, boss says he is a good guy. Guy number two doubled his money, and he is counted as a good guy too. Guy number three was afraid that the master being a harsh boss, was afraid and simply kept what he was given, and the Master thrashed him, (I think he threw him in outer darkness...ewww)

Pause...

Nope, I never got it. If it is money (which I know it isn't) then the master is looking for a 100% return on his investment. Even using the rule of 72, we are talking about 7.5 years to do that! If we are talking about money, it is a very hefty sum indeed. Each talent is about 75 lbs. Multiply that times 16 ounces, times $782/ ounce we are talking $9.3 million for 10 talents.... not a light sum o' cash.

If, like my Sunday school teachers always said, he was using an English pun (talent = money vs talent = gift from God) then taking our talents and not making them bigger/ better is a crime punishable by death. (no I am not taking it too far, it is exactly what the parable says...)

So if we take our talents (making bread, playing piano) we are commanded to make them better, to magnify them. Do we have to double them as well? That doesn't make sense... so I don't think that is right.

Our Father gives us talents, but he wants us to grow by using them... (closer I think....). So making bread and playing the piano are only good in as much as we also learn to make yummy soup bowls and sing 4 part harmony....Because we have to take our talents and double them.

That doesn't sound right either...

Sigh, I don't get it, and because I don't get it, I don't buy it. That can't be what he was referring to! I think (pronounced Robert-Doctrine here....) that it means.... Father gave us.... situations, strengths, weaknesses, gifts and troubles. To some, he gave more opportunities (learning, access to education, strong bodies, good economies....) to others he gave less (less educated, no priesthood, physical/mental handicaps, poor upbringing, prejudices...) But the point isn't to simply double your money, I think that the point (even though not stated) is to take what you have with life.

• The good and the bad
• The talents and the handicaps
• The strengths and the weaknesses.

Do the best you can with what you have. This I think makes more sense. Don't limit the talents to the "talents" that we have, but rather the situation that we are all placed under.
I am always (honestly always, 100% of the time...) amazed in the temple at the veil. The test of our knowledge and implementation of our covenants is done by Jehovah. One on one, Him and me, no one else. He is my judge, my tester, my advocate. But the very hand of Jehovah is what tests me. So there you have it. Our lives, our situations, our blessings, our trials, are administered not by a distant ghost like god that will try us at the end of our lives, but rather one on one by Christ himself, right this moment, now till the moment I die, I am being tested by Him. He is the one who paid for my sins, by enduring all the trials, pain and suffering that I could go through, he did it himself and he knows perfectly what the measure of my trials should be, and therefore the return on the investment made on me.

So, for me, I don't look at the talents as talents (making bread/playing piano) but rather my life, my situation, where I am at and what I have to work with. What I have gained (through work and diligence) what I have lost (through carelessness or sin). It is not the gifts that life that are being measured and weighed, in stead, it is my life! It is, what I have become.

Many of you probably already knew that, or at least understood it better than me, but that is how I look at it.

Dig a Little Deeper...

Had a Sunday school lesson the other day. It was from a General Conference talk by Elder L. Tom Perry. It should be found HERE. In it he talks about a famous writer that decided to take a vacation from the real world for a year or two and see what life was really about. During his sabbatical he found out that there are only 4 things that are really needed in life.

• Food
• Shelter
• Clothing
• Fuel

Everything else is simply clutter.

The teacher talked about what that tells us about our day, that we need to simplify... blah blah blah... Can't people ever see past the physical and apply it to the spiritual!? I remember from my youth a question posed to Joseph Smith about the difference between the physical world and the spiritual... He said it is very hard to separate the two. I think there is a scripture that says that physical things are in likeness to spiritual things and that spiritual things are in likeness to physical things. (the search is cool because it touches on another very important point but I won't talk about that today....)
Well, if that is true, and I think it is, then what are the spiritual basics we need to survive... let me give you a hint.

• Food
• Shelter
• Clothing
• Fuel

From my Point of View this is what I see.
Food - we are told that we need spiritual nourishment as much as physical nourishment. We don't just eat oatmeal every day and expect that our nutritional needs are met... not that oatmeal is bad, or even bad for you, but we love spice, we love variety we love lots of different types of food, even if we do have a favorite.
Well, we can't expect that all our nourishment comes from attending sacrament meeting. Its great, it is a staple, but shouldn't be the only source. Lets look at others.
Service - There is no end to the varieties on this one. Service in your home. Service in your neighborhood, in your ward. Gardening, leaf raking, bread baking, garbage picking, kid watching, friend driving, old fashioned service.
Scriptures - We are told to feast, (think thanksgiving) on them. This too implies the following
variety (can't simply have a mashed potato feast!)
spice (imagine stuffing with no flavor... yuk)
effort (feasts don't include the phrase pull back foil to expose tater tots)
presentation (think nice table clothes, best china, best silverware, break out the nice glasses...)
So, read your scriptures, draw pictures of the stories you read, only for your benefit but they can give outrageous insights. Pretend you are one of the characters... why are you talking like this, what is on your mind, what are you afraid of, what aren't you afraid of, why? Put some effort into it. Father wants to give us his greatest blessings, but from what I understand of him, very little is ever just given. We have to work. Once we put forth effort he blesses us abundantly, but the effort and work simply must come first, there is no other way around that. Remember you can't earn blessings, but you can qualify for them!
Shelter -
We think of home. There are three things that jump to mind that when it comes to shelter.

1. Home
2. Church Family
3. Temple

Home - This is what we think of when we think of shelter... A protection from the (spiritual?) storms of life. A place where we are protected from the harsh realities of the world, ie... cold, wind, rain, heat, annoying bugs, vicious animals). A place where we grow up protected, nourished, taught, loved, trained.... We need all these things both physically and spiritually. A place to experiment, grow, try, FAIL, try again. This is home.
Church family. Some of us were not lucky enough to be raised in a home with a perfect mother, or a perfect father. Some of us had parents who struggled. Money issues, mental health issues, food issues, Word of Wisdom issues, morality issues, (the list really is endless... sigh)
So, we were given a ward family. A bishop, who guides (does NOT solve our problems), teachers who present ideas for us and helps us to see situations for what they are. Home teachers who know us personally, visiting teachers that stop by and listen. They can't solve our problems, but they can fulfil the admonition of Alma (bear one anothers burdens that they may be light, mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in need of comfort...)
Temple. Inscribed on the outside of every temple are the words Holiness to the Lord, the HOUSE of the Lord. The temple is the house (safe place for teaching!??) of the Lord. It was designed to be at least 1 veil away from where we are now. Common people simply can not come into it. Members can not unless they are clean and prepared. This is the shelter, protection, place of learning, place of service that our Father has given us. And we need it!

Clothing - Adam and Eve needed it, but they didn't get it till they made covenants, and then, the clothing represented the covenants that they made! We are born naked, and (in my opinion) stay that way till we too go to the temple to make covenants and receive our clothes. Then we are finally, not naked. We are protected, covered, warmed, elevated by our clothes.

Fuel - This is interesting... what does normal fuel do? It provides the source for fire used to heat food, provide warmth inside a home. There are many types of fuel, but the concept (class - type - Shadow) is all the same. Provide the ability to give warmth, light and protection. This is the spirit.
Our father put is in a dark, cold, stormy, difficult world, but he didn't leave us helpless. We have been given tools to take care of ourselves. Physically and spiritually. Not easy, and not even possible with out effort, but it is achievable.

Genesis....

I'm LDS. I was raised LDS and I have invested a great deal of my life to understanding and attempting to apply the teachings of Jesus Christ. I know about the goodness of LDS people. I know of their service, their commitment and compassion. I also know if their unique stresses and the culture of the LDS faith and how in our attempts to live up to unreachable standards (Think Matt 5:48) we can offend, confuse, alienate, hurt, appear stuck up and give off the very appearance of what we are so desperately trying to avoid.


I have seen this in my own family, and I have seen it time and again with others. I have seen it while looking in the mirror. Efforts are lofty, implementation can be ... uh... improved.
I want a place to discuss doctrine. Not the fluffy, "Jesus Loves us so lets be happy!" type doctrine, but the kind of doctrine that Boyd K Packer is talking about when he says "True doctrine, when understood, will change behavior faster than a study of behavior, will change behavior!"


Several years ago, I came upon some lesson study notes from an institute class. The teacher was no longer teaching but was serving as a mission president. During his teaching days he had an Old Testament class. "Boring!", "Big Deal", "Been there-done that". I can hear the crowds chant... and I have to admit I was mostly that way too... But after sitting in Gospel doctrine for a few decades, and having tried to teach some simple principles during lessons and had them completely missed, I believe that some of the most beautiful and simple and powerful doctrines of the church are being taught, but simply not understood by most testimony bearing, temple going folks in the kingdom. I am not trying to insult anyone. I am saying that there is a treasure trove of information that I know, many folks don't recognize. Once recognized, the scriptures will explode with meaning, depth, and beauty, doctrine and understandings, that will light your way along this dark path called life.


I have read these lessons over and over and I am convinced that by simply changing your view a little bit, to be more in line with what the Savior would have us be, mysteries will be unlocked, things will become clearer. I am no prophet, I am not better than anyone (well, certain presidential elect folks, but I digress...)


I will say nothing that will contradict current or past prophets. I will not teach outlandish concepts, and doctrines that are questionable. I will EXPLAIN doctrines, from a slightly different point of view, and that view, vista, observational point, or what ever you want to call it, will show you a different, powerful more complete view of the plan of salvation. And I will talk from my own experiences. I will bear testimony and discuss things that are important to me.


Think of it like this. There were those who were persecuted because they proved that the earth wasn't the center of the solar system. Dogma at the time demanded that God would make us the center of the Solar System because we are his ultimate creation. (I never read that in Genesis but who am I to question the religious leaders of the Dark Ages??) By proving that we weren't the center, the church leaders at the time felt that God was being threatened by a theory that made Him "less powerful". When in REALITY he proved that God was even more powerful than THEY were giving credit for. Think reality as Jacob put it... Things as they really are!

Not only is he a God for the solar system, but this galaxy is infinitely larger then they understood, and the near countless other Galaxy's that we have since encountered prove that God is more powerful, bigger in scope, size, power, planning and age than they ever thought! I don't want to take away from what you know, I wish to add to it. I don't wish to agrandize myself either. It is simply I want to share what I have found out. I wish to expand it, look at it from other angles, ones that will emphasize personal worthiness, obedience, temple attendance, covenant making and following current prophets.


I welcome your comments. If you want to pick a fight, or be mean, then go away. If you have a real question, I would be glad to address it. If you don't agree with me, thats fine too, but these thoughts are not either random or shallow. If you know me personally, then you will know, this is who I am.

My personal feelings will be here, so if you don't like them... that's okay. I simply ask that you don't be rude. It will not be tolerated. I hope to do this regularly, as it keeps me going, but don't be overly critical. I think if I can post on a few times a week then I will have been doing well.