Suffering Poor vs 100B Dollars Sitting Around Collecting Interest

I honestly believe "the poor of the Lord's people" are all the poor on the planet, especially those who die from malnutrition or bad water.

The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

    Isaiah 3:14-15
    2 Ne 13:14-15

And then, O ye Gentiles, how can ye stand before the power of God, except ye shall repent and turn from your evil ways?

Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God? Know ye not that he hath all power, and at his great command the earth shall be rolled together as a scroll?

Therefore, repent ye, and humble yourselves before him, lest he shall come out in justice against you—lest a remnant of the seed of Jacob shall go forth among you as a lion, and tear you in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

    Mormon 5:22 - 24

And the blood of that great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall turn upon their own heads; for they shall war among themselves, and the sword of their own hands shall fall upon their own heads, and they shall be drunken with their own blood.

    1 Nephi 22:13

They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall.

    Doctrine and Covenants Section 1:16

AND the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves!  should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.

The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.
    
And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.
    
My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.

Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock;

Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
    
For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
    
Old Testament | Ezekiel 34:1 - 11

Nanowrimo Begins today

This is my 11th year doing nanowrimo. Every year, there's a goal of writing 50k words in 30 days. Some of us go a little crazy with that and shoot for either writing 50k in 2 weeks or less, or writing a whole lot more words than 50k.

They have a new website (Discourse hosted), which is better in some ways and not so great in others (never-ending pages instead of pagination and not being able to copy one's work into a page counter from the outset are two negatives for many of us. On the other hand, when we go to a new post, it takes us right to the first unread post, which is better than the old site).

https://nanowrimo.org/

Original Testimony of Ian McCormack - Jesus is Real, Heaven and Hell are Real

A friend brought Ian McCormack to my attention around 9 years ago. I looked him up again today, to rehear his experience.

It's one of those "I died" experiences, but not one of those "I saw awesome end-of-the-world things, and now I'm a great prophet because of it," things. I don't know if that has changed. I don't know what he's doing now, but up until about 6 years ago, he was still a humble man, as far as I could tell.

I'm sharing his first (1988) testimony, but before you scroll down to it, I think it's important to read what Ian McCormack said in regards to this first video (the same words are in the description on YouTube under the video). What he said is below, and the video is below that. Enjoy.

Notes on this 1988 video from Ian :

I have spoken my testimony thousands of times and sadly I make mistakes .... but that does not, I believe, take away from the story ... other than the fact that we all can do it ... either accidently or on purpose ... or if you don't want to share all the details you can cut some things out in an attempt to condense the story because of time restraints / energy levels ....

When I first publically shared my testimony in 1988 in New Zealand the people at the meeting wanted to record it ... but I didn't want any one to do it because I felt it was something you shared personally rather than through media { I have since changed my mind on that } ... But one of the people at the meeting had a family member who was dying in a hospital and so they wanted them to hear it as they couldn't come to the meeting in this farmers house.

I found it abit unnerving with a mike & video camera in front of me and because the experience took place in 1982 and so it was now 6 - 7 years later I was reliving it while I spoke. It was very emotional for me ... and realize later that I had made a couple of mistakes while sharing it .... and I knew that when I loaded it up on the web for free along with all the other videos I have put up over the years .

So on the 1988 video I did say that I woke up and they were about to wheel me off to the morgue ... I remember how nervous I was that day and was wondering if anyone would believe me, if I said I had been dead and woke up in the morgue ... so I do remember distinctly trying to tone it down ....

But in reality I had woken up & I was already in the morgue ... They had moved my dead body from the Accident & Emergency when I died to the mortuary section of the hospital ... and it was a completely different doctor that was working on me. He was pricking the base of my foot with a scalpel. And when the nurses saw me wake up & come back to life, they ran in fear .... not exactly something they would do if I had only been in a coma ....

All Shall Know the Lord

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 11:9

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Jeremiah 31:31-34


A friend of mine makes a valid point in his latest blog post. He said, in part:

Are we deferring too much to Dave and in so [doing] being darkened in our minds?  A comment from Denver holds a lot of weight in deciding relatively inconsequential matters

Know ye the Lord. Become a prophet in your own right, whether you are male or female. Rely on God, and on God alone.

they shall teach no more every man his neighbour . . . for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them

Didja ever wonder . . .

. . . if Krishna might really be God?

. . . if the God we know as Jesus/Jehovah/Joshua/Yeshua is the exact same person as some of "those" nonChristian Gods?

. . . if maybe we know a millionth of what we think we know?

. . .  if what we "know" to be truth might not be, after all?

. . . if we might be altogether wrong in what we perceive as absolutely God's own truth?

. . . if we might be full of putrid pride and not even have an inkling that we do?

. . . if maybe what we consider to be heinous sin doesn't necessarily match God's list in most respects?

. . . if the records of the Mayans and Aztecs might be spot on?

. . . if the records of ancient people all over the planet might know exactly what they're talking about when they say crazy stuff

. . . like planets were fighting each other in the sky
. . . like the year used to be 360 days long
. . . like the moon's cycle used to be exactly 30 days long
. . . like the sun used to come up in a different direction
. . . like the seasons were completely changed after dramatic upheaval
. . . like there are huge ages of the earth, separated by earth-wide cataclysmic events

. . . if there was a real reason for the ancient fear that the sun might disappear

. . . if we really don't know what we are, whether we have an eternal existence, how our internal (nonbody) self was created, what our eternal end might be (or maybe it really does end at death, and we are reabsorbed into a Great Mind or something similar).


Some people think each of us is a spirit that can split into more than one piece and be on earth as a mortal, while simultaneously being elsewhere (including on earth at the same time as the other part of us).

Some wonder if we are presently living our past, present and future - or if we are presently living on more than one earth (different dimensions) at the same time.

Beliefs can get pretty crazy, can't they?

I confess, I'm one of those who have wondered some of those crazy things - for like 50 years.

What is reality, anyway?

Yeah, what is reality anyway?




[Edit: For some reason, even though I changed nothing in the post, Blogger decided I published this today (Oct 20th). I don't recall when I originally published it, but I think it was after the 4-part posts, so I am randomly assigning it the date of October 7th.] 

God - Part 4, conclusion

A friend recommended Hindi movies to me, by name. I never got around to watching them, but when I went to visit him and his family for a weekend, he showed me a lot of them. It was a Bollywood weekend.

I won't give a comprehensive list, but I will list these: 3 Idiots, OMG: Oh My God, Secret Superstar, Taare Zameen Par, and PK.

I have rarely met more powerful movies. Movies geared to improve their society. Movies that made me laugh and cry. Movies that left me satisfied and spiritually improved. Movies that made me think about God and life.

As I was pulled into the rich Indian (India, for anyone confused) culture, I could see that we are all one in God's eyes. Korean, Chinese, Indian, European, all manner of colors/cultures/nationalities in the Americas, and all the other countries. All points on this planet: South, North, East, West and all points in between. We are all one under God.

There are no real labels. The only differences are the ones we make. And our meanness and self-righteousness, and our fighting and killing of each other is stupid. Our hurting of those of our own belief system or of those we deem our enemies is ridiculous.

We have common ancestors. We are all one flesh, created by the same God-one who we think we know, but we do not.

We have been tricked and deceived into thinking we are better than or less than others. We have been led astray by our beliefs that our own religion is the one true way, and others cannot be right, that others cannot be saved by God unless they believe our way and perform our rites and ordinances.

Perhaps we should stop being afraid of being wrong.

Perhaps we should stop being convinced that our version of God is the right one, and learn about other people's versions.

And, also, take the question to heaven: Who are you, God? What are you?

Explore whether or not it's safe to trust this God you don't know.

Maybe we don't know everything.

Maybe we don't have a corner on the market in Truth.

Maybe it's okay to be wrong.

Maybe it's okay to open our hearts to those who believe differently.

Maybe, just maybe, it's okay to love.

Even if you believe differently than me.
Even if we speak vastly different languages.
Even if we look differently or dress differently.

Maybe you have a richness I can learn from, can be enriched by.
Maybe the reverse is true, and I can give you richness of life and learning.

Can we love?
Are we willing to love?
To at least try?

Can we be one - not in culture, but in acceptance and peace, throwing down our weapons of war (including using our mouths and keyboards peacefully)?

I'd love to end this with a one-line zinger. Something worthy of a meme. Something that sticks in the mind forever. I don't have such a thing, though. I just have a little better understanding of "oneness" after watching movies created in a culture different from the one I grew up in and am presently living in.

Be one. I don't think it means what you think it means.
Love. I don't think it means what you think it means.

God - Part 3

Quote:

What's this Hindu? Muslim? [And I might add Christian and other religions, including all of their factions, sects, and subsets.] Show me the label [the label God put on you at birth]. You created these differences, not God.

This is the deadliest wrong number of the planet. It kills people, separates them.

PK from the Hindi movie "PK".

God - Part 2

Quote

PK - My right number is simple: Believe in the God who created us. And the God you created should be abolished.

Tapasavi Maharaj [believing his God is the God who created us]: You'll abolish my God and I'll keep quiet? I know how to protect my God!

PK [stepping into TM's belief system]: You will protect God? You! This is a puny planet. Billions of bigger planets float in space. And you, sitting in a tiny corner of this puny planet have the nerve to say that you will protect Him, the Creator of the Universe! He doesn't need your protection. He can protect himself.

Today, someone tried to protect their God, and my friend died. This is all that's left: his shoe. Stop protecting God, or else this planet will have no humans, only shoes.

From the Hindi movie "PK".

God - Part 1

Quote:

I agree that believing in God gives hope, the strength to face ordeals.

But I have one question, "Which God should I believe in?"

You say there is one God.

I say, No. There are two Gods. One who created us - and the other, whom you created.

We know nothing about the God who made us. But the God you made up is just like you: Petty. Takes bribes. Makes false promises. Readily meets the rich, keeps the poor waiting. Thrives on flattery. Makes you live in fear.

My right number is simple. Believe in the God who created us.

And the God you created should be abolished.

PK, in the Hindi movie, "PK".

Musical Extravaganza for some guy named Dave

I have a friend who can be hilarious at times when his irony vein gets pricked.
Here's his latest. A jab at the awesome celebration that's going to happen in a few hours on the dime of the nonMormon (label courtesy of Russell Nelson) members. In other words, he's creating his own celebration. Unfortunately, the guest of honor refused to attend. 😄

Freedom to Search for Truth

I totally love this quote. Surely, Russell Nelson was inspired by God when he said this, no matter what his heart's intent. I am looking at his words, only. I am taking them at face value. I printed two copies and am going to put them up where I see them every day.

"While searching for the truth, we must be free to change our mind—even to change our religion—in response to new information and inspiration… One’s religion is not imposed by others. It is not predetermined. It is a very personal and sacred choice, nestled at the very core of human dignity.”

https://www.thechurchnews.com/archives/2004-05-27/elder-russell-m-nelson-freedom-to-do-and-to-be-96622



Credit for finding this quote goes to http://barerecord.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-very-personal-and-sacred-choice.html renamed A Seeker for Truth (can't change the url, but you can change the title of your blog).

What is real?

What is real?
What is false?
What is eternally real?
What do I believe and why?
What is running the show in my mind?
What is running the show in my life?
Is God real?
Is God a she or a he or a they or an it?
If there's a council of the Gods, what does that even mean?

What stands in my way of doing what I think I want?
Am I afraid? If so, of what?
Am I convinced that I'm incompetent or lazy or [insert some other negative label]?

What really runs my life?
Is it my subconscious? If so, how can I control it? How can I tell it what I really want? Will it even listen to me?

How much am I controlled by what I was taught as a child by my culture, by my religion, by my schooling, by my life experiences?

I am like a fish that has no idea it is swimming in water. How can I be aware of that of which I am not aware? How can I even choose to be or think a certain way if I don't even know there's a choice there? If I don't even know there's another way of being? If I don't even know I'm acting or being a certain way?

I am questioning everything. Everything I believe. Everything I think I know. I am questioning my past religion. I am questioning my present religion. I am trying to break out of my paradigms so I can look at them and see if they are true. If there even is a "true" or "false" aspect to them. And to see if they are useful to me.

What helps me? What hinders me? If I am a burden on others, how can I stop being a burden?

Why am I so plugged in to those around me that their emotions dig into my mind and body like daggers? What if I don't want to feel like they do? What if I don't want to take responsibility for their feelings or actions? What if I'm not supposed to fix their feelings or actions or lives? What if I'm supposed to let go and let them feel and live and be their own person, even if they feel anger or frustration or some other painful emotion?

What the hell is life all about, anyway? (And I don't want a pat answer from religion (or Religion). I want the truth. Real truth. Not the skewed versions of truth that we humans think we have a corner on.)




On a deviating subject, I recommend reading Velikovsky's books. I read "Velikovsky Reconsidered". It gave me background on the opposition he encountered. I'm presently reading "Worlds in Collision" and intend to read "Earth in Upheaval" after that. I don't know if they can be gotten new. My copies are used, and several decades old.

Considering his theories without being angry that he's attacking your preconceived ideas or paradigms opens your eyes to the fact that even scientists don't necessarily know what the hell they're talking about. And I submit that pretty much all of us don't know what the hell we're talking about when we talk about things we "know" are true.