Buying a New House

What?

I have owned a house once before, in Orem--just West of State Street at about 2000 North--but we sold it to pay-off debts (but not all of my student loans!).  It is time, once again, to own a new house.  New family, new wife, new kids, new home.

That is right.

But now, a new home...  No, the house isn't brand new.  Give me a break, it's just new to me and my family!

JPS

Loan payments

If you went to school and earned an advanced degree, you are in debt (unless you did it the smart way, like my wife).  If you went back to school to get an advanced degree to be a school counselor, you are in debt unless you did it the smart way, like my wife.  Needless to say, I did and I am.  I am in debt.

The silver-lining to this is the caveat that says, if it takes you longer than 25 years to pay it off, you will be forgiven that debt.  I'm not exactly positive that this applies to everyone, from any school, and being financed by any company/bank/credit institution, but it turns out that it does for me.

My wife wisely commented, "If you could pay it off in under 25 years, you are most likely making enough money to where it isn't an insurmountable amount (to pay off)."

Still, for an advanced degree, that total amount is daunting and can make you feel as if you're going to be crushed.  No mercy.  No pause button.  Just an age-old adage that, "Interest never sleeps!"  For a loan, I don't want that to be true.  It's fine, when the interest is working for me--is in my favor--but creeping-up on me from behind is a scary thought!

JPS

Another life-lesson learned from Sesame Street!

Ok, the lesson was learned from Elmo's Adventures in Grouchland (which isn't exactly the Sesame Street from the good-ol'-days but there are most of the original characters from the famous street in NY, plus Mandy Patinkin to boot and Elmo!) and the lesson came from Grizzie, the grouch from Grouchland, who says that the reason that grouches let Huxley (played by Mandy Patinkin) take anything he wants from them is that: in order to stop him, all of the grouches would have to cooperate and they just hate doing that!

Let's make a parallel with the people of the Earth to the grouches in Grouchland:

-- Each grouch (and are the people on Earth also grouches?) is focused on his or her own personal interest, to the extent that they can't see beyond themselves--beyond what they want for themselves or what they are doing!

-- They are focused so much on themselves, they can't see beyond themselves to other people, their wants, their desires, their wishes, their hopes, their cares, and their loves.

-- Grouches don't care about anything that's going on that doesn't directly effect themselves.

So, the grouches could stop Huxley if they would just band together and cooperate to stop him.  But they won't.  Why?

The grouches in grouchland do band together and cooperate in the movie Elmo's Adventures in Grouchland because they are all rallying around and trying to help Elmo.  The only reason why they get beyond themselves and cooperate is to rescue Elmo's blanket for Elmo (from Huxley).  Because they were all focused on something other than themselves (etc.), they were able to help each other and especially Elmo get his blanket back (and simultaneously thwarting Huxley's designs).

Now, let's make a parallel with the grouches in Grouchland to the people on Earth in terms of what the people on Earth need to do:

-- Each person needs to get beyond themselves and their own interests.

-- They need to be focused on others, see beyond themselves to other people, see other's wants, other's desires, other's wishes, other's hopes, other's cares, and other's loves.

-- People of the Earth need to care about something other than themselves and what effects them directly.

If, then, people of the Earth band together and cooperate, they can and will accomplish many things even greater than retrieving Elmo's blanket; they can, actually, accomplish many, many, many things.  And if, then, the people of the Earth band together with God or with Christ, they can accomplish anything (that is God's will)!

They, we, will build a temple in the New Jerusalem.  We will preach the Gospel to all the world.  We will build Zion.  We will prepare the Earth for the Second Coming of the Jesus Christ.

We will stop Satan as we band together and cooperate to stop him.  Why don't we?  We will!  We are!

JPS

Doctrine & Covenants section 88, verse 6

"He that ascended up on high, as well as descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things, that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth;"

That seems to be saying that Jesus Christ did not comprehend all things until he ascended up on high as well as descended below all things--or in other words, He only comprehended all things when He had performed the atonement.  He suffered at the Garden of Getsemane but also on Galgotha, or on the cross.  

The Light of Christ was around since before the world was created and before man, because as all men and women are born into this life, they are born with the Light of Christ.  

Light of Truth and Light of Christ cannot be the exact same thing.  We know from the Gospels that Christ had Light and Truth, but there must be some sort of difference between the Light of Christ--which is a specific concept powering all of God's creations, and the Light of Truth--which seems to be a less specific concept but just more of an adjective for Christ, right?

This seems like a quandary that I'm going to have to wait till I understand more of everything to know the answer, because I still can't form a question from this--only to say that I don't understand...

JPS?

I am he, as you are he, and we are we...

I am the walrus; coo-coo-ca-chube!

Ok, really, I'm not...  But I fooled you, didn't I?

I am employed, finally!

I work for sBioMed!  You know the makers and producers of Steriplex, the household and hospital grade disinfectant and cleaner?  That's it...  They are also owned and operated by the same man who created Results R.N.A. and Solutions IE--the manufacture pharmaceutical supplements and additives.

Can you believe it?  I am a training analytical chemist!!!

That's right.  Three years of graduate school and two years of school counseling and whataya got?  A chemist and an analytical one at that..

All right, leave me alone.  I'll be back to my counseling soon...

JPS

ok, ok, ok, ok...  I am the Eggman.

No, I am sitting on a cornflake!

You got me.  I am John.  No wait, Paul is dead!

I can't keep it straight anymore...  I'm off to bed.

To rely on our Savior's grace...

The more we rely on our Savior's grace, the more likely we will be on the path our Heavenly Father intended for us.

For more than two years, I was unemployed (and by unemployed, I have to admit that I did have one job that I was extremely overqualified for and for which I was extremely underpaid) and that was following directly after three years of graduate school--that's five years in a row.  There was fasting and prayers and more fasting a more prayers, and finally my Elder's Quorum President and the High Priest's Group leader in my ward, which they called, "A Full-court Spiritual Press," in faith that it would result in me being employed.

My new job is not in the field that I graduated in or that I had hundreds upon hundreds of applications for and dozens of job interviews, but it's heaven sent and, need I spell it out, a grace of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Will it always take a draught or an accident or a famine (literal or of employment, etc.) to help us recognize that 1) we are nothing and 2) that we must always rely on the grace of Jesus Christ?  If not, then how can we rely on the grace of Jesus Christ more fully?

Excellent question to ask yourself, because I certainly don't claim to have all the answers (though my posts my seem that they are answering a question definitively, I don't think I'll even try to bully you into thinking that I have all of the answers for this question--but, don't expect me to take the same or a similar position in my other posts).  Let us break the question down a bit, so that we can get at the problem from every angle that we can see:

• Where does Christ's grace come from?

Well, it comes from the Atonement of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  He suffered, bled, and died for each of us first in the Garden of Getsemane and then on the cross in Calvary.  He experienced every pain, sorrow, guilt, griefs, wounds, mental problems, diseases, shames, regrets, etc. that man has ever or will experience.  In the Book of Mormon, book of Mosiah, chapter 14, verse 4 it reads, "Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." And, this man of griefs, suffered wrongfully all of this, for he was the only perfect and sinless man to be born and live on Earth.  He paid the ultimate price for each and every one of us.  Since He is the fulcrum or focal point of this infinite amount of suffering and He is the one perfect man to ever live on this Earth, and because He always did His Father's will, He has the right and glory to ask Justice to give way to His mercy.  This is where His grace emanates from and blesses each and every one of us (mortals) who turn to the Lord.

• What do the bible Gospel writers mean by Christ's grace mean exactly?

There are two meanings, that I'm aware of:  One meaning is like saying step by step, or grace for grace.  That, it seems, is pretty straightforward.  But relying on the Savior's "grace" is what I intended to speak about--and that is what I would like to clarify.  What are we relying on?  In the New Testament of the Bible, book of Hebrews (an epistle written by Paul), chapter four, verse 16, we can read: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."  We rely on the Savior's goodness, His graciousness, His bounteous mercy, and His sinlessness.  We actually are borrowing His "sinless status" as we enter into the Eternal Palaces of God.  

I think that what Paul is saying is that, although man is imperfect and does not merit the chance to be in the presence of God the Father (we are nothing!), because of Jesus Christ's perfect life and atonement, He has granted each of us "permission" to go where He already is worthy to go, without offending Justice (which is why we sinners couldn't enter His presence without Christ's atonement), and there (in the Presence of God the Father and His Son), plead for the mercy that all sinners need; forgiveness of sins.  Grace, then provides forgiveness but also allows imperfect beings to enter into and come before the thrown of God. 

• What sort of blessings could I presume to receive with Christ's grace?

Anything that is asked with a sincere heart, with real intent, and asked in faith will be granted.  You and I know that it is going to necessarily be according to the Father's will because it was asked in faith and anything short of that faith will fail.

The problem is that so few people take advantage of this grace, thinking that they don't want to ask amiss or think they would be asking too much.  The thing is...  if it's asked in faith, it isn't and it will be granted, just as the brother of Jared's prayer was answered when he asked a mountain to move.

However, most have no reason to move a mountain and so there is no prompting to ask that in faith.  There are things, though, that should be being prayed for and have faith centered upon.  We live in a day of hastening.  Hasten away!  You will be guided and prompted.

--

To rely on the Savior's grace means simply to be allowed to go where we otherwise wouldn't be allowed to go and become the person that we wouldn't otherwise be allowed to become!

JPS

Spiritual Event Horizon re-run or critical mass

Since I first posted this idea, I have had several things happen that have strengthened this idea of mine and absolutely nothing contradicting it or making me second-guess the theory (I say theory, because this isn't a proven or spoken about authoritatively by anyone but me and so I can't say it's a "truth" but only my theory...).  Another phrase to illustrate this point would be "critical mass," meaning that it is just at or just beyond the tipping point for a nuclear reaction to occur.  So, one might say, "A blessing doesn't get granted until critical mass is reached..."  Or something like that, but if you haven't read the article, don't stop now.  Read.  Oh, I guess that's what you would do naturally after finishing this sentence.

What is an event horizon?  What do I mean by saying “spiritual critical mass”?

From what I understand (and this is without referring to any notes or websites, because I'm positive that I could google "event horizon" and have a plethora of scholarly and otherwise sites pull-up giving me a definition), an event horizon is:

the shadow of the pull of gravity of a black hole that once breached or entered into, an object can no longer escape the black hole but is doomed to collapse or enter into the center of a black hole.  Likewise, critical mass is the event of an element no longer being able to sustain itself and it either implodes because of its own weight or explodes because its weight has exceeded a sustainable size.

Now, what does spirituality have to do with black holes?  What is, exactly, a black hole anyway?

Once again, I will give you my layman understanding with no reference to websites or notes:

a black hole is a phenomenon where gravity becomes so strong or forceful that it will "suck-in" or pull everything to the point that nothing can escape that pull--even light cannot escape--and everything is crushed into that one point (however large it is).  That point (however large or small it may be) is what is known as a BLACK HOLE.

So, what I mean by spiritual event horizon is:

the amount of faith, the number of prayers offered, the amount of righteousness inspired by, the number of good deeds solicited from, the lessons learned, and the patience suffered by a person or people who are asking for a certain blessing from their Heavenly Father before their righteous desires are granted and that prayer answered (and this needs to have both acts/prayers quantitatively and qualitatively considered and understood as adding to the faith involved—in some scenarios it’s only the faith of one person [for example, a Joseph Smith—though all ancestors and descendants not to mention those on the other-side-of-the-beil] or an Abraham or an Adam!).

There can be no granting of that blessing without it being the will of God, but as the President and prophet Spencer W. Kimball has taught me: we can change the mind of God or better put, we can change our mind to match the mind and will of God--for God's mind is immovable and faithful--and He has seen the end from the beginning.

President Kimball also told us, in the February 1981 Liahona/Ensign that:

I have learned that where there is a prayerful heart, a hungering after righteousness, a forsaking of sins, and obedience to the commandments of God, the Lord pours out more and more light until there is finally power to pierce the heavenly veil and to know more than man knows. A person of such righteousness has the priceless promise that one day he shall see the Lord’s face and know that he is (see D&C 93:1). 

It's that piercing of the veil that I am calling the "spiritual event horizon".

Remember how President Kimball spoke about hastening-on the Second Coming with our righteous desires and works?  He taught that we could make it happen sooner (or not and later) by our own choices and I believe he is right.

What?  How is that?

Let's say that the entire world and the even smaller, entire church, wanted to speed up the process or have Jesus return again to the Earth in His glory.  Now, let's use our event horizon premise:

the amount of faith, the number of prayers offered, the amount of righteousness inspired by, the number of good deeds solicited from, the lessons learned, and the patience suffered by a person or people who are asking for a certain blessing from their Heavenly Father before their righteous desires are granted and that prayer answered with regards to Christ's return to the Earth transpires.

Once there has been offered and exists a sufficient amount of faith, once a sufficient amount of prayers have been offered, once a sufficient amount of righteousness has been inspired and good deeds contributed, the lessons learned (both collectively and individually), the patience learned and or suffered gained, then Christ will have His triumphant return and not before then.

That would be a "spiritual event horizon" but you could apply that principle to anything or everything.

Don't push this adaptation of what I've explained to a literalness of concepts and remember that I've not researched anything about either concepts of black hole or event horizon, so stop holding both of these phases and my concept up to the light of your scientific understanding or spiritual one--this discourse will immediately fall apart and you will have entered too far into and past the shadow of the event horizon and would be crushed, destroyed, obliterated, squished, and demolished.  So, don't!

JPS

Xmas = Christmas, with no difference in meaning (no, seriously!)

Is writing Xmas offensive to you?  It is to some!  It shouldn't be...  Xmas isn't taking the "Christ" out of Christmas, but is a Greek writing for Christ that literally means Christ (or Χριστός) and doesn't lose one jot or title of the meaning.  In fact, the X in Xmas is actually as old as Christianity itself.

The Greek word for Christ is "chi"just as the third letter of the Greek alphabet is "chi."  So, Xmas is a capitalized writing of Christmas!  Even written in the 1948 Vogue's Book of Etiquette where it warns that "'Xmas' should never be used" in greeting cards (Fenwick, Millicent, Vogue's Book of Etiquette: A Complete Guide to Traditional Forms and Modern Usage, Simon and Schuster, 1948, p 611, retrieved via Google Books, December 27, 2008; full quote seen on Google Books search page).  But, for those of us who are offended by the use of Xmas may very well just be completely unfamiliar with the long history of Christians using an X in the place of 'Christ' (Wikipedia, "Xmas").

I understand where the feelings of having your God slighted or eliminated comes from and feels like, but, a little understanding and charity needs to be applied here.  Even if it's written by a person simply to abbreviation, we can not cast the first stone.

JPS

Hanging onto that pain, suffering, or offense?

It seems to me that when we are hurt or afraid (fearful) or just hanging onto that feeling of sorrow or pain, we do ourselves a disservice and simultaneously, and necessarily are blaming someone else for that pain or sorrow or hurt or fear...

Why?  Why would we want to do that?

In the words of Bob Newhart, "Stop it!"

Also, in the words of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Stop it!"

Why can't you, or I, or we, just stop it?  Why do we feel that we have no choice but to feel hurt (which implies that someone or something is hurting us), feel afraid (implying that someone or something is frightening us), or are sorrowful (implying that something or someone is making us feel sad or low or depressed).  Why can't we just stop feeling that way?  At other times in our life we are burden-free and happy, even joyful; so why can't we always feel that way?  Why is it so easy to plunge our psyche, our feelings, our self-worth, and our whole person into this mess-of-a-way-to-feel?  Why would we choose to be in this funk?

Why is it so hard?  The answer to this last question is: We are gaining or getting something that outweighs the pain/sorrow/hurt/fear.

Huh?  We want to keep hurting, want to keep feeling sorrow, or want to keep feeling fear?  That just doesn't make sense...

It does, however, explain why anyone would choose to continue feeling this way.

What could possibly outweigh the pain or sorrow that we feel?  Maybe feeing the pride of being correct when another (or others) is (are) wrong.  Maybe feeling the pride of superiority ("well, at least I don't do that" or "at least I am not that way").  We want to feel that pride more than we don't want to feel hurt?   Yes, every time we betray ourselves and choose to act in a way that we know we shouldn't.

Betray ourselves?

In actuality, that feeling of pride or the numbness that blankets the pain is the same thing--a sort of slow poison that eats at us until we become the poison itself.

So, what does "betraying ourselves" or "self-betrayal" mean?

I think it means that you are acting fundamentally in way that contradicts or goes against what you know deep in your heart; deep in your mind; deep in your soul to be wrong.

It's more than just telling a lie or an untruth.  So, can you give me an example?

When you see a situation and you have that initial impulse to make a choice--that choice will be honest and correct 9 times out of 10--but choosing to do anything else (no matter what reasons or evidence you have to choose differently) is self-betrayal.

For example, you awake to hear your new baby stirring; your initial impulse is to get-up and see what's wrong or sing the baby back to sleep.  To get right-up and do just that, is to live honestly--to be honest with yourself.  Whereas, to stay in bed and wait to hear your spouse wake-up and get take care of the baby's needs is, you guessed it, self-betrayal (Bonds that Make Us Free, Warner, C. Terry).

Just stop it.  Get yourself up and out of bed to take care of your baby.  Stop conjuring-up excuses about why you shouldn't, why somehow you deserve to not get-up, or why someone else should get-up and take care of the baby (after all, it's their turn, right?).  No.  Stop it.  Stop it and get out of bed!  This, of course, is all metaphorical talk about just doing what's right!  Don't deceive yourself and act contrary to those initial feelings of doing what's right.  Just get out of bed and take care of the baby yourself and try to save your poor spouse the trouble of waking-up when you're already up yourself!

As long as you hang onto that offense or supposed-offense that you need so badly to help you to feel justified in feeling the way that you do towards someone, just let go of that sickness and feel good about yourself again.  You are a great person and are of infinite worth.  Stop conjuring-up feelings and thoughts about yourself that make you greater than you are and at the same time stop conjuring-up feelings of worthlessness or pain.  Just stop it!

...

I'll write more about this in later posts, just as I've already written about this in the past.

JPS

Movies? Escapism?

With the ever-increasing numbers of movies being produced, viewed, purchased, and seen in theaters, I ask myself, "Why?"  Why are there more and more movies "consumed" by the public?  Is it because they just keep getting better and better?  Graphically and cinematographically speaking, maybe...

It's not because there just aren't any new ideas out there and we must turn to the next set of cinematographic muses to inspire us; or is it?  Are we that pathetic?

I believe that movies have become a new drug, or better put, movies allow anyone watching to live in a different world, a different relationship, with different cars, homes, toys, and jobs than we have right-now in the present world--the real world!

Is that bad?

I guess it's better than self-medicating...  Or is it just another form of self-mecation?

Remember the "feelies" from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World?  Or the place where I originally heard "The New Drug," which was talking about pornography.  It's all the same thing, though, if you think about it.

The difference, though, would be my wife and I don't sit down to watch a movie to get high and there is not the same repercussions, in coming down off the high.  I can get addicted though, just like the new drug or watching feelies.  My brain could still go through similar changes.

Originally, I was thinking of a soft-drug called leaving reality for two hours for a small vacation.  Is this bad?  What do I mean by, "bad"?  Is it harmful?  The answer to this question is: No, it is not.  How can I respond so quickly?  Well, is it bad to escape in your head while you read a book?  No.  Is it bad to lose yourself in thought?  No.   It (watching movies) can become harmful, however, if the movies that are watched

I guess I just answered my own question, and it's not the answer that I originally anticipated: movies or the "escapism" that accompanies watching a movie, is not harmful, in and of itself.  Like most other things, though, it can become harmful if taken to an extreme.

JPS