Fundamentally Bizzare, but Intriguing

One of the weirdest things I've ever come across.I'm not exactly sure what conclusion it was aiming towards and it suffers from a lack of solid scholasticism, but if you can leap with the author in her logic and look past the interesting way in which she interprets some texts, it makes for an interesting read.

Sort of like the X-files for theologians.http://www.thinlyveiled.com/barker/josiahsreform.htm

I Literally Can't Believe That This Just Happened

May 31, 2009 at approximately 10:40 pm

I was heading home tonight from the tube, and as I began to climb the stairs from the underground I went to call home, as I always do. It makes me feel safer to talk to someone as I walk home and I always enjoy catching up with family. My mom didn’t pick up on either line and so I mentally paused as I approached the cross walk, waiting for the signal to turn. I found myself sandwiched between two men, and felt really uncomfortable. Some people I instinctively know not to trust and I’ve learned to trust my instincts. When the signal changed I walked quickly, hoping to lose them.

“I need to talk to you.”

The thought entered my mind with Divine transcendence that I could easily recognize as being distinct from my own mental chatter.

“Yes, Heavenly Father?” I inwardly cringed, wondering if it was going to be bad news. I’ve been wrestling through some stuff lately and so I inwardly prepared myself to hear whatever came next.

Nothing came.

Maybe it was just my brain misfiring. I continued to feel quite uncomfortable as I walked home alone in the dark. I paused and then dialed my mom again. She didn’t pick up.

Again, it came: I need to talk to you. This time I snapped to a bit more, mentally speaking.

I started to pray, first starting out with what was weighing on my heart. As I prayed I found the mild panic I had felt minutes earlier at the thought of walking home alone dissipate. As I continued to pray, I moved on to praying for the local missionaries of the ward I attend. Next I prayed for the Gospel to spread throughout the world, and finally, to finish up the triad, I prayed that I might have missionary experiences of my own.

No sooner had this last prayer been prayed I looked up and immediately saw a man standing ahead of me.

“You’re going to share the Gospel with him.”

Ummm…. No, possible, pseudo-schizophrenic misfiring, I am not. I am not going to approach a stranger, in Central London, thank you. I am going home, tired brain, and giving you some rest, rest which you obviously need. I walked passed him and wondered casually about my mental health. A minute later I looked over to my left and there the man was. He greeted me and we began to speak casually. I could tell by his accent that he was of Middle-Eastern descent. He seemed pleasant and I didn’t get any sort of bad vibes off of him. I figured I was on my way home and it was well lit enough to risk it, especially since I had been given some Divine forewarning.

He asked me what I had done that day. I told him I had just come from church and we spoke a bit about that. After a few minutes, he asked what made my church different and I told him about the Book of Mormon, what it was and what it meant to me. A minute later I gave him my copy.We continued to talk about religion – he was Muslim, but readily admitted “My family and I could be wrong. My people could be wrong.”

I told him there was much I admired about Islam. He and I both agreed it was important to ask questions of our faith, to live life well, to honor God and focus on meaningful relationships with people. Kahel, my new friend, seemed genuinely to be a good soul. So much so that I felt safe walking with him in downtown London. He warned me against being so trusting – I told him God had told me I was going to speak to him and that’s the only reason why I was doing it.We walked and talked for about ten more minutes.

It was an amazing experience to find a kindred spirit in the midst of a city of purposeful strangers. At the end I told him I hoped we would meet again, and in the note I wrote in his Book of Mormon I gave him information on how to contact me. I hope I do hear from him again. I feel extremely blessed to have been used of God to meet this man. I have never so profoundly heard the Lord in my life, and never had His word so quickly fulfilled. I can only think that we were supposed to meet and that the Lord has great intentions in our meeting.

Falling Out of Love Defined

Falling out of love: that great sting that engulfs the entirety of one’s being upon the realization that they have been conned by reality.

My Very Brief Testimony

Taken from a brief talk I gave in Sacrament, earlier this year:

When I was first asked to share today about my conversion story, I was thrilled. And then Kevin told me I only had one to two minutes. I certainly won’t have time to tell you all of it, but I’d like to tell you one aspect.

Several years ago, while visiting family in California, I was reacquainted with a good friend of my brother-in-law’s. Corey was a member, and I remember there being something different and wonderful about him. I can still remember the feeling of the Spirit I got from just talking with him, even though it would be several years before I even knew what the Spirit really felt like. Over the next couple of years, I didn’t forget my encounter with Corey. My last semester before graduating from Bible College, I started to write a paper on LDS doctrine. Corey was the only reason I chose the Church as my topic. I knew there was something different about him, and that brief encounter years earlier was enough to spur my curiosity on. Six months later, I was baptized.

Those six months were the worst and the best of my life. I had dozens of questions and even more fears. Sometimes I felt like I would never see light again – but I knew I had seen it once, in a “Mormon,” and hope of finding it again was enough to keep me going.

The reasons why I joined the Church, the reasons that convinced me it was true, are many. But one of the most powerful, and certainly the most impelling, did not come from two Elders knocking on my door, or a Church advert, or even a free Book of Mormon. It came from a member, just being himself.

When we met years ago, Corey said nothing of his faith. But the Spirit shone threw him and into my life.

Today I would like to bear testimony not only of what God has done in my life, but of the incredible ability He has granted all of us to be His beacons unto the world. Every one of us who has the gift of the Holy Spirit bears an incredible light. And when we let it shine, that light brightens the world all around us.

Not every person you smile at or talk with is going to feel the Spirit, get baptized and become a member. But one might. And the one standing here today did. I know this Church is true, I know God lives and I know God loves us. I know God is every day at work in the world and that He uses the light and truth we bear to transform the world around us. I would encourage you today to go forth and bear that precious light more boldly. To raise it a bit higher and carry it more proudly. That light is the greatest gift we have to give the world. And you never know who might be looking for it. I leave these things with you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Random Thoughts on First Peter

Growing up in private Christian High School, I had to memorize my fair share of memory verses, including 1 Peter 5:8, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." I was always taught that it was only the old, toothless lions who roared, and this 'fact' was used by extension to belittle the real threat that the Enemy can sometimes pose to those who are not prepared. Now, I'm not here to argue how much Satan can or cannot harm us, I would just like to dispel the information I grew up with based on the Old Testament's own witness.

Today I was reading Proverbs 28, and I was struck by the couplet that verse 15 presented roaring lions with: As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. What struck me is that here a roaring lion did not seem be a harmless thing at all. To the contrary, it seemed to be grouped with some pretty threatening stuff. So I wondered what else the Old Testament had to say about roaring lions. Were they harmless as I had been led to believe, all bark and no bite? Or were they something worth being wary of?

The most interesting thing I found was that oftentimes roaring lions were more completely described as young, roaring lions (Judges 14:5, Psalm 104:21, Isaiah 31:4, Jeremiah 2:15, etc). Additionally, like the parallelism of Proverbs 28, the couplets I found in the Old Testament did not present roaring lions as nonthreatening, but rather as intimidating (e.g. Proverbs 19:12, "The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion... "; also Hosea 11:10, " He [the LORD] shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.").

So, contrary to what I had heard growing up, the concept of a roaring lion in the Bible is not one of an enfeebled attacker devoid of ability to do real harm, but rather one of real intimidation and consequence.

Well, that wraps up today's required dose of nerdiness. :) Not a complete treatise on Hebraic perceptions of roaring lions, but I hope the point is made well enough to dispose of the apocryphal information handed down to me.

Self

Epiphanies can come at the strangest times, and in the strangest places. Yesterday as I was leaving King’s Cross, my tube station, I was struck with the most trenchant insight I have received in ages: We are the only persons who can truly ever harm ourselves.

The Word tells us of mighty restoration – of our physical selves, sown into the grave in corruption raised to immortality through the first resurrection. The same too for our souls – John’s first epistle speaks of the mightiest of promises – that those who truly hope in Christ will “be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

So then, if our bodies and souls are promised perfection and immortality through the healing work of Christ’s atonement and resurrection, who then can ever truly harm us? Can men who harm our mortal frame? Can those who wound our hearts and souls ever do lasting damage?

It is in fact the case that they can never do us lasting harm. It is only we ourselves who can do that. It is only our intentions and our actions that can remove us from the grace of God and take us from His path of eternal life.

How much more should we therefore abundantly forgive our neighbor who can do us no real harm, even as we daily forgive ourselves our faults? Can we really hold our neighbor to a debt we know redemption will repay while we casually forgive or ignore our own and damning faults?

Radical Faith

Last night the Lord called me to have radical faith. He told me something was going to be ok, even WAS ok, and I didn't believe Him. All those stiff-necked, hard-hearted, blind, deaf, dumb predicates in the Old Testament? Yeah, that was me last night.

I wish I would have trusted God more. I wish I wouldn't have rebelled against the still, small voice that said, "Everything's going to be OK." I wish I would have listened to the words of Him who loves me and knows all, instead of connecting the dots in my own finitude and stupidity. I wish I would have placed my heart in His hands, and not let my own fears and insecurities snatch it away and play rugby with it.

But most of all I wish I would have realized this: Faith is not just resting in written promises, generally trusting in the goodness of God that He will work all things out for Good (though such things are of course true). It's more than just verses and eschatalogical hope. Sometimes faith is listening and believing God when you're staring at a blue wall and He's telling you it's red (believe me, He's always right). Sometimes it's forsaking all of our faculties and just trusting, giving up our rights of assessment and reaction and placing all of our attitudes, actions, reactions, thoughts, and feelings at His feet. It's being willing to say, "Lord, everything I know is telling me A, but You're telling me B and I trust you above everything else, so B it is." Sometimes faith flies in the face of all, and runs roughshod over it. But God's truth and faith in it always wins, even when it looks like the sorriest underdog there is.

Sometimes faith is just a general trust, a general hope, a gentle thing. But sometimes it's much more than that - it's radical, transcendent, and demands belief at the cost of disbelieving all else.