Jesus' Love for Me, for You

 The love of Jesus is deep and powerful. It encompasses us, draws us in, and changes us - but only if we are willing to be changed.

How can we not love someone who loves us so powerfully and so thoroughly even though he knows our worst defects and our hidden darkness?

How can we not love someone who has pulled us out of hell and into love, peace, and power (real power, not the fake stuff so rampant today. That isn't real power because devils are controlling them).

There is no way to glory in Jesus enough. His love is real. It isn't this weird "acceptance" and insanity the world has going around today, like a rampant disease. It's real. It's powerful. And if we accept it and turn to him, then our love for him increases and our appreciation of him is boundless, for how can you be pulled out of fear, terror, depression, anxiety, and so on and not have the deepest love and appreciation for him who pulled you out and filled you with his love and peace?

 

To quote part of a song:

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me
Confused at the grace that, so fully, He proffers me.

 I marvel that He would descend from His throne, divine
To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine
That He should extend His great love unto such as I
Sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify

 

 If you have watched The Chosen series, most of the videos below will make more sense, even though I think the message can be received even if one has never watched it.

 These videos move me to tears. The sobbing kind. Perhaps it is because I have had such darkness inside and such fear, depression, and anxiety coursing through my soul for decades (which things I still fight) that I thoroughly identify with the poor souls depicted in these videos. The spiritually and emotionally maimed and wounded. The lost. Those that hell overcame - until Christ entered the picture.

 

 

 Minute 2:34 to the end of that video above. I have no words.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Wild White Horses

 When I first started going to Denver Snuffer's lectures (the 10-lecture circuit in 2013-14), the people going did things like baptize each other and take the sacrament with wine instead of water.

During the first lecture, I was living in Mesa, AZ. After the first lecture, a friend (Daryl) baptized me in the Salt River. Across the river were 3 white wild horses, peacefully grazing. After the baptism, we had the sacrament.

It was the first time I'd ever had a drink of alcohol - and it was nasty! I was encouraged to partake of the bread and wine freely, and did have two cups of wine (we drank out of disposable plastic cups).

At every lecture, from the 2nd through the last, I was aware of people partaking of the sacrament (as much bread and wine as you cared to have) and baptizing each other. I, also, partook of the sacrament with them.

At the 10th lecture, Denver inferred that the Lord wanted us baptized, but to use the words in the scriptures ("having authority") instead of "having been commissioned." Believing that to be the word of the Lord, I sought baptism at the hands of another friend (Troy). I went into the experience open to something awesome, sort of along the lines of what I had experienced when I was 8 years of age.

My spiritual antenna was open and searching. After the baptism, I felt clean. That was it. I tried not to feel let down.

Apparently, a lot of people felt let down and complained to Denver. He wrote a blog post wherein he mentioned that one of the results of baptism could be a greater understanding of scriptures. I realized that was happening to me. I was understanding even Isaiah so much more. I'd read it and think that it was so plain, why hadn't I caught that before?

As I ponder on the first rebaptism, it occurs to me that God was rewarding my faith. I was doing something that could have gotten me kicked out of my Church. And I had been adamantly against drinking any alcohol (even wondering why it was okay to take Nyquil. I did use it as a teenager, but wondered if I was disobeying the Word of Wisdom by doing so, even though the LDS Church had no problem with it for medicinal purposes), but wanted to partake of the scriptural sacrament.

I have pondered many times on the horses, and this is my present understanding:

Wild - No man or woman has tamed them. They are beyond the control of mere humans.

White - Purity, holiness

Three - The Godhead

Grazing peacefully - God accepted the baptism

Horses - Strength. Power. Beauty. Grace.

So, I am left to conclude that while God did bless the second rebaptism (peace, greater understanding of scriptures), it was the first one that got me into the gate again. Unlike when I was a child, I had more access to truth and understanding (as a child, I was baptized by fire and the Holy Ghost when I came up out of the water, but because I had been taught the lie that the Holy Ghost could only come after men had declared, "Receive the Holy Ghost," and knew nothing about the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, it was a precious opportunity greatly misunderstood, and lost) - and hearing, for the first time in my life, a true messenger from God, opened up the path to freedom from relying on any man.

When it finally sunk in that I did not need to obey any man (or woman), but only God, not only did shackles fall off my soul, but I felt incredible freedom.

If Gentiles crave a strongman I am left to conclude that I cannot be a Gentile because, once I realized I was free and that God approved, I desired a strongman/woman about as much as I desire to eat vomit. Nada. And prior to that, I did not desire one, but had been taught I had to have one (a man who speaks to God for me, and if he and I disagree on what God tells me, I am-by default-the one who is wrong). Talk about hell and misery! Obeying men's views of what God demands of you! I find God to be much more forgiving and understanding than humans of any age or sex.

I will take my 3 wild white horses and others can keep their human masters.

A Broken Heart - the death of a friend

When I heard that Bret Corbridge had asked to be let go, and was taken off all machines, my heart broke. There have been other trials in my life recently, my children's lives, my siblings' lives, and in the lives of other friends. All of them were pushing me down, creating meltdown types of stress, but this news (and his subsequent death) was the final straw. My heart broke wide open. Samantha, I'm crying with you. A lot of us are. 

 This morning, I got a sense that this life is not really that much, that there is so much more to our lives than this little place and that it's okay when someone dies because they are just continuing their journey. Their work here is actually done. This was in response to my strong feelings about Bret and Tyson dying (because this brought up stuff from when my friend Tyson died, too). 

(There is a link at the bottom of this post where a mutual friend created a go-fund-me to help with Bret's funeral expenses.) 

 I think I was being shown that we put far too much emphasis on losing someone when they go, and not enough on seeing that this place is temporary. So temporary. For all of us. 

In my life, I have found that songs comfort me when I am stressed, depressed scared, angry, terrified, and so on. I get more from singing than from listening, but both can be powerfully healing. 

I am sharing some below. There are two that are not videos and 5 videos that are videos.

 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/bret-corbridge-memorial-fund-for-wonderful-family

Hope for humanity - Reddit post

This is so awesome that I wanted to share a couple of posts from the thread. It reminds me that God sends natural disasters so we have a chance to come together and remember what is actually important. Race, covid, politics forgotten as people pull together. The first quote is from the opening post. The other quote is one of the comments in the thread. https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/pg9vg1/theres_still_hope_for_humankind/

I live in Southeast Louisiana and we just got slammed by one of the most powerful storms to ever make landfall. Not sure how CNN or Fox News is making it out to be since we don’t have any service (currently at a family member’s house away from the damage) but this storm was bad. We’re talking worse than Katrina. A local ship captain clocked wind speeds at 172mph, the strongest ever recorded. Entire parishes wiped off the face of the earth, power outages expected to last for a month, and gas supplies dwindling. New Orleans is an absolute shitshow right now with no end in sight. They dodged a major bullet since the levees held (Corps actually got something right). Anyways I digress, back to the people.

The people in south Louisiana are a special kind of people, resilient in the face of destruction. I live in the suburbs of NOLA and everywhere you look you see utter destruction. Homes gone. Schools gone. Hospitals barely hanging on. But all around those places are people. People with smiles. People who understand. People who want to help. They don’t care what color your skin is, whether or not you’re vaccinated or who you voted for. Chances are these people lost everything just like you and are battling the same battles. Extension cords cross the streets underneath the utility company’s lines so neighbors can share their generators with those who don’t have any. Restaurants opening up just to cook all their food and give it away to those who are hungry. Whole blocks gathering and cooking all their meats so they won’t go to waste.

It’s truly something to experience a life-altering hurricane. It feels like everything has reset. I feel like I’m in a community that cares. No politics are discussed and covid fear is looooong gone. I almost wish it could be like this forever. The time spent with family and friends circled around a lantern drinking and eating is humbling and peaceful. My friendships have gone stronger, my love for my community has grown stronger, and most importantly, my hope for humanity has grown stronger.

The comment (jefftopgun):

Tennessee resident. My inlaws literally lost everything in the flooding. Talking a majority of small items from house found a mile down the creek, coffee table over 10 foot up in the trees. Flood insurance was not possible after the 2010 flood, after insurance paid out, they rezoned the flood plane to include their home, and thus eliminate their ability to renew.

Spent many days down there since. The overwhelming support, even from those who also lost everything, is truly touching. Feast for more than double the people helping pick up dropped off 3 or 4 times for every meal, no matter the objections we gave about having plenty. While its not alot, or enough for a new home, this woman literally has more money than she's ever had at one time in her life from the donations. We're hoping to build her a dream home (modest 2k sq ft bardaminium) on another piece of property they bought last year (out of harms way) and I truly hope we'll be able to trade enough sweat labor and wheel and deal a bit with some of my customers (hardwood lumber and plywood distributor) that she has a free and clear home.

Amazing how beautiful life is, and amazing people can be when the powers out, and no ones on facebook.

3 Dads Address School Boards about critical race theory/pronouns

This four-minute video shows 2 black men challenging critical race theory, and another man challenging pronouns. Very much worth watching, in my opinion.

Highlights from the video: Father number one:

"I am a direct descendant of the American slave trade. ... I am not oppressed and I'm not a victim."

He mentioned that he travels all over the U.S. then said,

"I am treated with kindness, dignity, and respect literally from coast to coast. I have three children. They are not oppressed either, although they are victims. I have taught my children they are victims of 3 things. Their own ignorance, their own laziness, and their own poor decision-making. That is all."

"I can think of nothing more damaging to a society than to tell a baby born today that she has grievances against another baby born today simply because of what their ancestors may have done two centuries ago."

Father number two:

"Their job is to teach our kids math, science, biology, literature. That's it. Not ideology. Now you want to push garbage-crap like pronouns?" "You want to push that garbage down my kids' throats, I will make you call my kids king and queen. That's how you will address my son and my daughter. And you look at me, you will call me master. You want [those] pronouns to be in your mouth when you look at me?"

Father number three (he was rushed because he was trying to get all he wanted to say out in the few minutes he was allowed, so some of his sentences trailed off):

"You talk abut critical race theory, which is pretty much going to teach kids how to hate each other." "It's pretty much what it's gonna all come down to. You gonna deliberately teach kids this white kid right here got it better than you because he's white? You gonna purposely tell a white kid, oh, the black people are all down at the foot. How do I have two medical degrees if I'm sitting here oppressed?" "You gonna tell me that somebody who looks like all you white folks kept me from going there? Are you serious? Not one white person ever came to me and said, 'Son, you ain't going to get anywhere because the black people ..." "Black folks are being told by other black folks, 'You ain't going to be able to do nothing out there because them white folks ain't going to let you get nowhere.'" "The white man going to keep you down. Well, how did I get where I am right now?"

Hymn - How Firm a Foundation

 This one is also from the hymnbook. It's one of the public domain songs.

 

 

Hymn - Hope for Zion

This is a hymn from a hymnbook put together by a total amateur who could not afford the Adobe PDF writer program. Their heart is in the right place. (The book is to be freely given, never sold. Because they didn't have the Adobe PDF program, they couldn't rearrange the pages as they'd like, so some of the songs with two pages have to have the page turned to see the rest of the song. If this person can ever get an Adobe PDF writer, they will rearrange the songs so that all of the two-page hymns can be seen at once.) Denver's Christmas carol (O Come, Let Us Adore Him) is also in the book.

This hymn's tune matches the LDS tune of hymn #259 in the green hymn book. The words are by someone who wishes to remain anonymous, so it isn't written on the hymn. The pdf version.