"Eat Dirt!"?

Did you really just said that.?  That is hilarious!  "Eat dirt."  Where do you come-up with the things you say?

JPS

The lunch is free... but, work we must!

I find that in the book of Alma, in the Book of Mormon, chapter 34, verse 31, the most mercy-filled and strengthening verse of scripture talking about forgiveness:

Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.

Now, when did that say I would be forgiven?  How long do I need to wait?  Is this a joke?

The scriptures and the Lord himself teach and testify to all that IMMEDIATELY the plan of redemption will be brought about in us!  Which is just to say that, we are bought (with a price) and now belong to the buyer/purchaser: Jesus Christ!  Being bought by Christ, we now are free from sin (and death, but we all were free from that even the sons of perdition, when we chose to come to and be born on this Earth...).

My question is: What does it mean to me once I've repented and the plan of redemption has been brought to me, but now it's been a while (maybe weeks, months, or years) and I just want that same feeling of forgiveness that I felt originally, after I'd repented, etc.?

...

Well, frankly brother or sister, it means that you're with the rest of us!  Nobody but Jesus Christ has or will live a perfect life without sin.  The rest of us rely on His mercy to get back with Our God and His God.   All of us, including Him, have to endure to the end!  It's not a free ride back for any of us.  His atoning mercy and power make it so that we can enter back into the presence of the Father AND His atoning enabling power gives us the strength to happily treck back through this life, but it's us--we have to follow His commandments (and remember that His way is easy and His burden is light!?!), have faith in Him, follow the Spirit, and endure to the end!

That's the only way back.  Anyone who says differently is probably selling something...  (Don't buy it!) Luckily for us, we've already won!  The final victory has been won.  Satan has lost.  Now, he's just trying to damn as many of us as he can in these last years (before we come to his final try, after the Millennium and his "loosing").  We just have to hold onto that faith and do His works.  In the words of Hugh Nibley, "The lunch is free...  but, work we must!"

JPS

Discussions? Comments? Questions? After-dinner mint?

... And if you ever want to discuss or talk about anything that I've written, hinted-at, said, or did, email me at stott.josh@gmail.com

JPS

Be not afraid, only believe...

Here is a long excerpt from James Talmage's "Jesus the Christ" talking about just before the miracle performed for Jairus, a Synagogue Leader, who fell at Christ's feet and pled for Him to come to his house in the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 8.  Christ went to Jairus' house, but...:

'"... On the way to the house an incident occurred to hinder progress.

"A sorely afflicted woman was healed, under circumstances of peculiar interest; this occurrence we shall consider presently.

"No intimation is given that Jairus showed impatience or displeasure over the delay; he had placed trust in the Master and awaited His time and pleasure; and while Christ was engaged in the matter of the suffering woman, messengers came from the ruler's house with the saddening word that the girl was dead. 

"We may infer that even these dread tidings of certainty failed to destroy the man's faith; he seems to have still looked to the Lord for help, and those who had brought the message asked, "Why troublest thou the Master any further—?"

"Jesus heard what was said, and sustained the man's sorely-taxed faith by the encouraging behest: "Be not afraid, only believe."'

I think that much discussion and books have been written sustaining a person's faith before a trying event takes place and after the trying matter, looking back on the incident, but...  here is a situation of faith that I believe we should pay special attention to: after beginning a trial, yet not having seen the end of that trial, there seems to be an extra-trying event or moment that could finish or end one's faith.  What can we do when we're already weakened by a blow to our faith and we get kicked-in-the-stomach or hit-over-the-head with an even more devastating news.

What are we supposed to learn from this humble, patient, and meek or teachable leader of a synagogue?  Has it ever happened to you that you start out strong in some undertaking and news comes that may unravel your faith?  Can you keep your eye single to God's glory and trust in your initial faith?  Elder Holland says, in a conference address in April of 2013 reminds us that Jesus told us in the 9th chapter of Mark that, "... all things are possible to him that believeth", and then promises us that our faith will be successful if we will trust and have faith in our own faith (integrity), because "sometimes we act as if an honest declaration of doubt is a higher manifestation of moral courage than is an honest declaration of faith.

"It is not!

"So let us all remember the clear message of this scriptural account (in the 9th chapter of the Gospel according to Mark): "Be as candid about your questions as you need to be; life is full of them on one subject or another. But if you and your family want to be healed, don’t let those questions stand in the way of faith working its miracle."

So, dig-down deep...  Pull on those bootstraps if you need to, but stay strong and don't give-up!  If you have burning questions or even doubts that have caught fire, stay true and answers will come.

Finally, Elder Holland says, "you have more faith than you think you do because of what the Book of Mormon calls “the greatness of the evidences” (Helaman 5:50). “Ye shall know them by their fruits,” Jesus said (Matthew 7:16), and the fruit of living the gospel is evident in the lives of Latter-day Saints everywhere."

JPS

Responses to this blog...

I have looked at my site site-traffic in the past few days and my suspicions were confirmed, and so I'll try and explain them: Not many people willing to reply to a post because of three reasons--1. not a native English speaker (I see you out there from the former Soviet Union and Baltic States) and so may not feel comfortable posting, 2. not as many people visit 'Josh's extemporaneous rant' anymore, or 3. readers may be disappointed that my posts are not as compelling, interesting, or provocative  as they once were.  After all, there was a time that I was not married, did not own a house, had only one child (Addison!) who did not live with me, and read a whole-lot-more than I do now (for the aforementioned reasons...

I found myself feeling a little envious and jealous after re-reading some of my older posts.  I was startled by the breadth of books/knowledge that I was referring to some of the posts.  You need to read them if you haven't, and even if you have, read them again!

That is all...  I guess, now you know, I am vain.  I think my musings are good.  Not good in the Salinger sort of way (well, kind-of but a little inferior and a lot cleaner!) or in the Dickens sort of way (not even close...), but hopefully in a way that will turn the reader to the Light that we all need to turn to and the Truth that we all need to feel.  Hopefully, I'm not writing for the praise of man but am just pointing the way to The Way.  If you don't follow, that's ok...  Just keep reading and keep your eyes and your heart open to words and promptings you may see and feel.

JPS

The Internet: communication enhancer or silencer?

I suppose this post stems from one conversation with my wife that went like this:

     Jill: Are those pionees or not?
     Josh: We could just ask
     Jill: Why?  We'll just use the internet...

As much of the world is using the Net, people are less and less inclined to talk to each other.  Isn't it ironic that originally the World Wide Web was created to be able to communicate more easily, more quickly, and with less opposition with others all around the globe, and now, thirty some-odd years later, with more information at our fingertips, there is less need, less reason, less necessity in speaking with another human being!?!?  Given the choice to, for example, adjust your personal finances by yourself or talk to the financial institution holding your interests, I would venture to guess that 80% of the people  asked would rather just do it themselves.  That is, without talking to any other human being.

Ok, maybe that estimation is too high...  After all, there are still people of an older generation that would absolutely not want to do things themselves!  Maybe...

The thing is, anybody from a younger generation already think that the world is too slow and think that if they could only do it themselves, things would get done more efficiently, more timely, and more stylishly...  After all, nobody knows the fashion or the mode like 'them youngins'!

So, is it that we're just all too self-sufficient or could it be that we are simply impatient?  For example, my aforementioned dialogue with Jill, was it just that we would have to stop the car, get out of the car, walk over to the house, knock on the door, wait for an answer (at a house that may be empty and may very well be empty each and every time I stop to ask....) or is it that I know where to get online and where to go to look-up images of pionees (and, by the way, I have looked them-up now, as I've created this blog, and the flowers we were wondering about, are, in fact, pionees).  So, does that answer my original question of whether or not the Net keeps us from talking, or is it just a fact that it may or most likely would have taken weeks, maybe months, or I may never found-out the answer to my wife's question, but I could solve that problem with a few keystrokes (and if I had Siri, I could have simply asked her/it for the images) and without having to bother anyone!

As I typed "bother," I realized that this was at the root of her objection: Don't go and bother those people when we can find-out ourselves without having to take-up anyones' time or energy or patience.  I guess, the point of saying, "we can use the internet was to not bother people..."

What is funny, is that when I came home and said that I had looked up the images on the Internet of pionees to see if that was the same flower we had seen in our neighborhood, she had talked to a neighbor and a friend and knew that what she had suspected, was correct--the flowers we had seen were, in fact, pionees and she was right.  So, I ended-up looking up the flower on the Internet, as she had suggested, and she did just what I had suggested and asked a neighbor.

Funny!

The whole situation drug-up the question of wether or not people talk less because of the internet.  If we were to use my situation as the only data that we look-at to judge whether or not the Internet silences face-to-face dialogues, the answer would be: No.  Most people, though, may find that if they don't have to talk to a person, they choose not to.  I know I am contradicting my own results to my question, but that's what my intuitive but maybe overly cynical and critical "gut" is telling me (or is that simply a philosophically trained and questioning?)!

JPS

A follow-up to my follow-up...

Here's the thing...  Don't think of it too much and don't think that it's always a rational act--because it's not always, or rarely is.  Maybe I'm wrong...  The thing is, who am I to be writing a blog about love-making?

JPS

Love-making follow-up...

So, what happens when you or your spouse doesn't want to?  Alma says to us in verse 27 of the thirty-second chapter that, "even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until..."  and if one or neither of you can even desire to believe, then nothing that I can say will most likely help you out, I think.

However, if, through rational and logical and maybe scriptural and even historical talk... you find that you can desire, then let that desire work in you, as Alma says, and here we will equate that desire with what Alma calls a "seed":

"... as the seed swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, then you must needs say that the seed is good; for behold it swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow. And now, behold, will not this strengthen your faith? Yea, it will strengthen your faith: for ye will say I know that this is a good seed; for behold it sprouteth and beginneth to grow.  And now, behold, are ye sure that this is a good seed? I say unto you, Yea; for every seed bringeth forth unto its own likeness.  Therefore, if a seed groweth it is good, but if it groweth not, behold it is not good, therefore it is cast away.  And now, behold, because ye have tried the experiment, and planted the seed, and it swelleth and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that the seed is good."

Now, you've seen that your desire has "born fruit," or that your seed is growing, you will get some help, as, "every seed bringeth forth unto its own likeness."

With both of you now planting and growing and making fruit-bearing-seeds, you know that those seed "is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten myunderstanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me."

And there you have it...  An informal lecture of love-making intertwined with a formal lecture from my favorite Book of Mormon prophet, Alma.

JPS

Eternal significance and purpose of love-making

Sex isn’t evil and bearing children is one method of gaining God’s glory, but, what about making love to your legally and lawfully wedded spouse?  Let’s not even discuss any other of type of illicit sex!  Making love is good, but why?

Isn’t it a passion, or an illicit?  I think that is the point.  Let me explain…  It’s just like becoming more mature and wise and having integrity with keeping the commandments.  We are given this power—the closest we can come to being a God in this life—creating, with relatively few governing rules or laws and we are to learn to control our feelings/wants/desires while being commanded to multiply and replenish the Earth.  God isn’t giving two contradictory commandments, as we all can learn to control ourselves, while we are expected to experience the joy of love making

Not a good enough explanation?  Let me try again…  On Sunday, it’s not (or shouldn’t be) a matter of keeping yourself from doing all of the list of things that one would do if not keeping the Sabbath day holy, but should be filled with all of the different things that one does to glorify God and reverently serve each other.

Think of this: Alma teaches us that desire comes before faith.  You must desire or have a desire in you to gain faith.  Faith, I think we will all agree, is one of the ultimate things you can achieve in this life.  The more you get, the better off you are!  Desire, then, is not an evil thing.  I guess we can agree that it's neutral.  Some desires lead to sin and other desires lead to godliness.  Good.  I'm glad we got that settled...  But, we're still not where we want to go!  But, we have the concept of desire as our first axiom, which leads to faith which is the first principle of godliness and of God's church.

So, just like you achieve "closeness" to your eternal companion by following God's commandments, gaining faith--not only in the principle of obedience to your righteous acts together or with each other, but in each other and our faith becomes "knowledge in that thing" (Alma 32) that we did.  We are both becoming more and more like our Father in Heaven and in His Son, Jesus Christ.  Don't forget that we are also becoming closer to each other.  As we both become closer to God, we will simultaneously become closer to each other.  As we righteously become closer to one (you can't become closer to God in an unrighteous way, but someone may think that they are getting closer to their spouse by some perverse reasoning...  sex-aholics or other good things twisted to perversion, etc.  Just stop it!  STOP IT!) of the two (God or our spouse), we will reciprocally become closer to the other.  Thus, as we become closer to God, we become closer to our spouse and vice versa….

Now, let's get back to the doing-good-on-Sunday point--one of the ways that we become closer to God is by faithfully fulfilling one of His commandments, which is keeping the Sabbath day holy.  His very first commandment, remember, was given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, which was to "multiply and replenish the Earth."  Does that mean, then, that you only righteously make love to your wife if you are trying to "multiply and replenish the Earth"?  No.  For an explanation there from someone with more authority than me, you'll need to do a little research yourself, but since you asked, one of the reasons we make love is to become closer spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically.

You can become closer with any one or more of those ways and have a lop-sided relationship.  Just think about becoming closer spiritually to the exclusion of all other fashions and in all other respects.  Take any to the extreme, and you are left with nothing-but-that-practice.  Becoming more like God, though, means not becoming lop-sided.  His life, He sees, His focus is one-eternal-round.

Since we came here to talk about the eternal significance and purpose of love-making, though, let's stick with that.  Actually, I think we have and I believe we've done well.  If you can't see the significance or purpose, re-read.  If you still can't see them after re-reading, go and do something else and maybe come back in a year or two or after some major changes in your life.

And in the maybe-not-so-famous but very funny words of Mr. Green from CLUE, "I'm going to go home to sleep with my wife."

JPS