Zion

 I don't believe Zion will be an intentional community. I don't believe a group of people (led by a "moses" or not) will buy or overtake a plot of land and build Zion. I believe it will happen naturally. I believe that people will become zionlike in their own minds and hearts, then in their families. I believe it will spread to friends. I believe God will physically move like-minded people together in small groups, and that none of them will be thinking, "We are creating Zion."

I believe Nephi when he said he saw many small groups of people all over the planet, "armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory." (1 Nephi, chapter III, page 24 in the 1840 reprint of the Book of Mormon I have). I believe they may not even realize they are armed with righteousness, nor that they are armed with the power of God. I believe they may just think they are ordinary people. I believe these groups are "zion" even though they are not the official Zion built in the western hemisphere (likely "in the tops of the mountains" as recorded by Isaiah), with the temple that the Covenant Christians are waiting for the command to build. (See Denver Snuffer's most recent conference talk if you haven't heard of Covenant Christians.)

I believe God is working among all peoples, among all nations, quietly and diligently. I believe there may already be such groups of people as Nephi saw. I believe there will be more. And I think it possible that most of these groups will be unknown to most of the world (except to local people).

I think it's wrong and prideful to attempt to buy a piece of land for the express purpose of creating a Zion. All attempts I know, from two or three hundred years ago until today, have failed.

May we be humble and teachable before God, willing to do God's will even if it is as simple as learning not to be critical of others, and allowing people the freedom to be who they genuinely are, with out complaining that they are "trammeling on my rights" while being blissfully unaware that the truth is that we are trammeling on their rights.

May God bless all of us on this planet to be humble enough and teachable enough that not one of us is a danger to another person on the planet. 

Trammel - to deprive of freedom of action

Gethsemane - Forgiveness - Repentance

This morning, I read the Gethsemane chapter in Come, Let Us Adore Him in preparation for my personal celebration of Easter (the Resurrection) tomorrow. I don't know how anyone can read it and not be sobbing by the fourth page in.

For this post, I just wanted to share a few quotes from this chapter, which is an apostolic eyewitness of Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection as seen by Denver Snuffer. All emphases are mine.

To enter into the kingdom of heaven, all [people] must lay down their sins. But this they cannot do when they claim the right to restitution for any offense from their brother [meaning all other humans]. All claims must be set aside, the greater and more difficult being the righteous claim against another for their deliberate offense. Yet in asking for justice for yourself, you always require justice be answered in turn for all of your offenses. A [person] will not be given mercy if he is not merciful. (pp 228-9)

Denver talks about paired waves of torment our Lord suffered, the first being the suffering for those who harmed others (the perpetrators) and the second being the suffering for those who have been harmed by others (the victims), then he writes the following:

The greater difficulty in these paired waves of torment was always overcoming the suffering of the victim. With these waves, the Lord learned to overcome the victims' resentments, to forgive, and to heal both body and spirit. This was more difficult than overcoming the struggles arising from the one who committed the evil . . . The victim . . . always feels it is their right to hold resentment, to judge their persecutor and to withhold peace and love for their fellowmen. (pp 220-1)

In the final wave, the most brutal, most evil, most heinous sins men inflict upon one another were felt by Him as a victim of the worst men can do. He knew how it felt to wrongly suffer death. He knew what it was like to be a mother holding a child in her arms as they are both killed by those who delight in their suffering. He knew how it was for ambitious men to rid themselves of a rival by conspiracy and murder. He knew what it was to have virtue robbed from the innocent [this would include the rape of toddlers and children]. He knew betrayal, treachery, and abuse in all its worst degrading horror. There was no cruelty, no offense, no evil that mankind has suffered or will suffer that was not put upon Him.

He knew what is it like for men to satisfy their ambition by clothing their hypocrisy in religious garb. He also felt what it was like to be the victim of religious oppression by those who pretend to practice virtue while oppressing others. He knew the hearts of those who would kill Him. Before confronting their condemnation of Him in the flesh, He suffered their torment of mind when they recognized He was the Lord, and then found peace for what they would do by rejecting Him. In this extremity there was madness itself as He mirrored the evil which would destroy Him, and learned how to come to peace with the Father after killing the Son of God, and to love all those involved without restraint and without pretense, even before they did these terrible deeds. . . .

As a result of what the Lord suffered, there is no condition - physical, spiritual or mental that he does not fully understand. He knows how to teach, comfort, succor and direct any who come to Him seeking forgiveness and peace. (pp 222-3)

I share the above in the hopes that it gives comfort to some, and that it helps someone who is struggling to forgive a person or people who have caused them harm, no matter how terrible that harm.

P.S. You can forgive without putting yourself in danger, and without ever having to contact or talk to a person who is dangerous to you.

To those who are suffering

 - especially at the hands or words of others.

May I offer up the words to this hymn. (It is found on #285 in the 1985 green LDS hymn book.

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Ye fearful Saints fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his works in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain

 Some background:

One of the ways I receive things is through pieces of songs playing in my mind. Most of the time, they prove prophetic. Sometimes, they're more on a comforting level. So, I was going through a week that felt like hell, with so many things pressing down on me. I reached my breaking point over and over again. I was at the point where I was wondering if God was even real - and if God is real, do they really have any actual power to help alleviate the hell this place is?

And after a week, I broke down yet again and told God that I wanted to believe. (I mean, there's no other direction or being for me to focus on, so it's them or no one.) "I want to believe . . . but I can't." And pieces of the above hymn started playing in my head, and all that day pieces from that hymn played. It was "louder" than I've ever "heard" the songs in my mind - and more constant. I would like to believe, and I do think, it was God/heaven communicating with me, to let me know there is a purpose for this suffering. Some day, at some point, it will be made plain.

And so, to you who are reading this blog post, I offer up the song in the hopes that it will likewise give you comfort in the trials, unjust suffering, and even hell you are going through when you read this.

Church of the Lamb of God

The Great and Abominable Church/the whore of all the earth has dominion over all the earth, among all nations kindreds, tongues, and people. This Church includes everyone who is not a part of the church of the Lamb of God. All the nations of the Gentiles fight against against the Lamb of God.

But

There is also the church of the Lamb of God (I made it small c because it isn't a legally organized entity of any kind, nor does it try to hold itself up as some kind of authority that tries to force others to obey its every whim). The people belonging to it are also all over the planet, even though there are very few of them in comparison to the earth's population.

The saints of the church of the Lamb of God and the covenant people (I find it curious that it's worded as two groups - or is it saying that the "saints" of the church of the Lamb are also the covenant people?) are armed with the righteousness and with the power of God in great glory. That description deserves a lot of humble pondering and self-introspection.

At some point, Satan will have no power because of the righteousness of the people. He has no power over their hearts. I think that also deserves a lot of humble pondering and self-introspection.

Sources: RE 1 Nephi chapter 3, paragraph 28

RE 1 Nephi chapter 7, paragraph 5

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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