Second Coming is Real

Okay, lame title. I couldn't think of a better one.

I think the words below from a true messenger of God bears repeating. This stuff is real. Jesus is real. He is really going to come. From here on out, in the world, it will be less and less fun.

The Lord's return is always a subject He wants us to keep in mind. All the latter-day events that will mark the time for His return will happen in a single generation. (D&C 45:30; JS-M 1:34.) Therefore, when that generation begins to witness the signs of His coming, they should prepare so the return of the Master does not find them abusing others. (Matt. 24:44-51; JS-Matt. 1:49-55.)
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I am sent as another witness to testify He will return. Signs have been, and are being given both in the heavens and on earth.
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He has authorized baptism as His own covenant to preserve all who receive it. I have seen His return and I know this newly offered baptism will be respected at His return by those who will return with Him. Baptism is offered as a covenant between you and the Lord. There are no institutional demands made upon you as a result of receiving the ordinance. It is an invitation to renew your relationship with Christ and take an act of faith to show Him you keep Him in your heart.
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Every nation, kindred, tongue and people, black and white, male and female, young and old, are invited to be baptized. There is no charge, and you make no commitment to men. You only covenant to follow Christ.

He is aligning events to complete His work, and the signs of His return are being given to this generation. The time will soon come when it will not be possible to receive this invitation any longer. Do not procrastinate the day of your repentance.
denversnuffer.com/2015/12/come-unto-christ/

How long is a generation? I don't know that God counts it in years. Speaking of only one genealogical line, I had two generations in Nauvoo: Shadrach and Lorenzo Wesley Roundy. Then, there was Joel Jesse, Sarah Elizabeth, then my mother. Counting from Nauvoo, I am the 4th and 5th generation. (LW-JJ=1 JJ-SE=2 SE-Mom=3 Mom-me=4) 

How to translate that into now, I don't know, but if we take the year the "saints" were kicked out of Nauvoo and subtract it from 2015, then divide it by 4 (generations), we may come up with a general ball park number. However, the time when "it will not be possible to receive this invitation any longer" will probably be sooner than that. If the Book of Mormon is any indication, there comes a time when people cannot repent (because of their mindsets).  They are "past feeling."

I don't know about you, but the possible fact that Jesus could return as early as 40 years from now gives me cause for concern. Who will be ready? Will I? But my concern is more for my loved ones. My children, my siblings and their families, my cousins and other relatives, my friends and acquaintances, even those who seem to be enemies of some sort. 

Would to God that all people might repent, turn to Christ, and follow Him. 
Why must we suffer? 
Why must we harden our hearts? 
Why must we hurt each other? 
Why must we live in fear, anger, vengeance, and contention? 

Let us lift up our hearts together. 
Let us unite in love! 
Let us cease contending. 
Let us cease lifting up ourselves or others on pedestals as one(s) to be heeded above others. 
Let us humbly turn to our Lord, Jesus Christ. 
Let us see ourselves for the fools we really are. 

Holy, holy, holy is the most High - for it is by His grace and His grace alone that we are saved, not by any act of ourselves. 

We may repent, we may accept His awesome grace and incredible mercy, but it is He who has trodden the winepress alone. It is He who has opened the door to our salvation and peace. With all my heart and mind, I throw out into the "ethers" the invitation to come unto Christ, and to be one with Him. Amen.

Egypt and Truth

I have been interested in Akhenaten for quite a while, wondering if he was inspired by God. You know, on the order of a true prophet. He changed the worship of many gods to one god, for example. Just now, I came across this (emphasis mine):

When historians first began to study Akhenaten carefully, in the late 1800s, the first thing that naturally came to everyone's mind was that Akhenaten was divinely inspired. However, it does not seem likely that Akhenaten simply decided out of the blue to make such a major change. Many early historians, determined to link Akhenaten's religion somehow to the Jewish religion, said that he was inspired by Joseph or Moses (Redford, p. 4, 1984). This is a possibility, considering that Joseph, at least, was around in roughly the same time period as Akhenaten. However, after close examination of Akhenaten's religion, this hypothesis seems unlikely. Akhenaten's religion did center on one god, but his major emphasis was on the Aten's visibility, tangibility, and undeniable realness. Akhenaten placed no emphasis, therefore, on faith. (source)

Holy Cow! If that isn't the best proof that he was inspired of God, I don't know what was. We have inherited a Christianity that says God is unknowable, that says He cannot be seen. And here, Akhenaten was preaching (like Denver Snuffer does in his 10-lecture circuit) that the Lord is visible, tangible, and undeniably real.

Akhenaten's name was originally Amenhotep IV, but he changed it. His new name meant "living spirit of Aten". He was the younger son (his older brother had died). (source)  A different source says the name meant "He who is of service to the Aten" or "Effective Spirit of Aten" (source)

Another interesting bit of the puzzle (emphasis mine): (source)

Akhenaten was the son of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiyee, a descendent of a Hebrew tribe.

 Amon was one of the deities that Akhenaten replaced. Apparently, he "presented the Aten as a variant of Amun-Ra." (source) (Could it be that Amun had roots in the true God, but had been changed and perverted over time? I don't know. I'm just wondering.)

He was King Tut's father. Tut was the boy-king who died young (we don't really know if it was "natural" or if someone did him in so that they could revert back to their old religion).

About Akhenaten's wife:
The Eighteenth Dynasty was characterised by powerful women, but Akhenaten seems to have granted his chief wife, Nefertiti, with power surpassed only by the Pharaoh himself. Some scholars even suggest that she ruled as co-regent for part of his reign. (source)

That shows an equality that is rarely suggested among apostate religions, an equality that it seems God believes in.

Anyway, here are the sources, if you want to go to any of the links:

http://www.crystalinks.com/akhenaten.html
http://discoveringegypt.com/ancient-egyptian-kings-queens/akhenaten/
http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/akhenaten.html
http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/akhenaten.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun
http://www.heptune.com/Akhnaten.html#Akhenaten%20of%20Amarna

A Dream

I had the most curious dream last night.

First, I was visiting a family who was pretty much a merger of two families I know in real life. Violently contentious families (the parents were not kind to their children while raising them). In the dream, the children were still young.

Then I visited a friend whose name is Denise. She lived in a house or an apartment (I'm not sure which; I only saw the inside, as far as I recall). Then I visited my mother, who lived in a house. The inside walls of both places were "exceedingly" white.

I was trying to decide which one to room with, and came up with the idea of all three of us rooming together. Denise was willing, but as I visited my mother, I was pretty sure she wouldn't go for it because Denise was a worse housekeeper than my mother.

While I was visiting my mother, she was washing clothes and/or dishes. It was a curious machine. Apparently, you could open the front and put in dishes or open the top and put in clothing. It was running when a man came. His job was to make sure the machine was running correctly before it was used for the first time. However, my mother had been using this machine for a long time (a month or two, I would guess), and the man was so unacquainted with this machine he was supposed to be an expert on that he didn't even know it was running when he opened its door. Mom had to tell him to close it because the water was about to be poured in (he had opened the dishwasher side).

My mother was explaining to me how the washer was automated/had its own mind so to speak. You put a row of detergent in (They looked like short upside-down test tubes, maybe 2-3 inches wide and 4-5 inches tall, two rows of 6 each, inserted into a board made of ... it looked like plastic, but it wasn't) and the machine would take one tube of detergent each time it ran (but it may not have used the whole beaker of powder in one wash load). A person rarely had to put soap in. I guess it practically put the clothing/dishes in for you.

Both my mother and friend were living in what looked like it could be St. George, Utah. Definitely Utah, and I knew that I had been brought to Utah from Arizona because I had failed in my Arizona life. Basically exiled to the lesser place. I was trying to find a place to live, and in my plan to room with these two people, I was looking for a place for the three of us. I thought of my uncle's apartments, but realized they were long gone. Besides, I wanted a place that was much better than that.

I never became aware of the fact that I was dreaming, but I did become aware of one real life fact: Both of these women are dead. That startled me.

When I woke up and went over the dream, I realized that the homes these two were living in - the walls were more white than any earthly thing could ever be. I also realized that they were both perfectly happy where they were, and I had no right to disrupt that by insisting they move. 

I also wondered about the fact that they are dead. Was it telling me that my time on earth is about done? Have I failed at what I came here for? I'm not ready to die. I haven't done what I believe I need to do to be saved (see the Lord in person, not in a dream, nor simply sensing that He is standing near me), and my children are not all settled in their own place (one they can afford without my input - not that my input is much. I'm rather a beggar at the moment). Were my children settled in homes they can afford, with jobs to keep them there, I would be more willing to go, though I would prefer to know that I have accomplished what I came here to accomplish.

It was a troubling dream, in a way, though both Denise and Mom were very happy where they were and with their lives.

After proofreading this post, it occurred to me that it wasn't my time to go because, if it was, there would have been a house for me. Even the contentious, angry family had a house, so being a failure at life (AZ being life) would not have prevented me from being given a home immediately upon my arrival into the place I was.

If anyone would like to take a shot at interpretation, I would like you to post it (I have to approve posts -too much spam- so don't be discouraged when/if your reply is not immediately visible). Also, Denise is the real name of the real friend. We met 40 years ago. She died around 2000, of cancer. My mother also had cancer, but died of the treatment around 1998.

Jarrings, Contentions, and Envyings

Pray.

Pray for the movement in general:
Pray that darkness will be vanquished, that hearts will be healed no matter where or who, that this time the restoration will be completed, that this time our Lord and our God will find a people who can stand in His presence and survive.

Do you not think it is painful for Jesus, our Beloved Lord, to see - over and over and over and over again ad nauseum - what we do with what He gives us? Do you not think it saddens Him?

From the beginning of time, we humans have thrown His gifts into His face, often while chanting His name and claiming His approval of our jarrings, as if HE was the one who commanded us to take offense, to persecute, to kill, to harm, to harass, to backbite, et al. We use our Lord's name in vain when we claim His approval for such things, or consider ourselves justified before heaven for our hurt feelings, for our tendency to persecute, to jar, to envy.

Can we not see that we are less than the dust of the earth? We are disobedient to a fault. Really, truly. In that thing we are perfect. We have perfected our sins: anger, jarrings, contention, fault-finding, mocking, persecuting, taking offense when none was intended. We have perfected listening to the dark spirits and to our own vanity. We have perfected calling such dark things revelations, inspiration, visions, and from God.

Can we not see our own fruits?  Can we not recognize that when our hearts are filled with hurt feelings or offense or fear or anger or accusations or self-righteousness that we are being filled with the wrong spirit?

My heart cringes at the thought of any of us being captured by hell, at the horrible, horrible feeling we will have at the feet of our Maker when we are filled with the sinking regret of having done such harm to our God, when it is everlastingly too late - when we can to nothing to change the harm we have caused to our fellow-humans and to ourselves, when we finally see the utter pain and agony we caused the Lord  by throwing His gift of pain and suffering into His loving face.

I have seen friends and acquaintances in this movement offended. I have seen them argue. I have seen them withdraw.

I have seen and heard of groups falling apart or on the verge of collapse.

I have seen offense taken when none was intended.

I have seen issues, that should have been taken to the Lord for healing-of-self, brought out in fruitless discussion as people fought to be understood, when true healing could never happen as long as their base of belief was rooted in the very real wounds of the past that was causing their tendency to take offense in the first place.

I have seen many, many solutions brought forth that seemed -to me- to be the solutions of men (meaning people in general). I have seen many solutions brought forth that seemed straight from God. And I have seen most of those many solutions dropped by the wayside as people focused on solving the problems from a Babylonian mindset, even while they thought they were going about it in the manner God wanted.

Don't get me wrong: I am absolutely NOT setting myself up for a light. I  have also taken offense. I  have also reacted by defending myself verbally, thus causing even more offense because I could not objectively see what was actually being said. I was filled with fear. I tried not to return the threat I felt, but I think it was returned - as none of us knew how to communicate with Love and without our baggage and wounds.

Being unable to fully trust people, having been beaten down and kicked too hard by life and by people in these last nearly 60 years, being unable to even comprehend real Love let alone show it, I turned to my God for solace. I could not open up to other people and say how threatened I felt, how scared I was by the perceived attacks, so I turned to the Ones (the Father and the Son) who knew my soul.

I was given answers. I was given understanding. I was given revelation. And that understanding was very specific: Pray for those who are frightening you, making you angry, offending you. Have compassion for their weaknesses, even the ones that make no sense to you because there are many things in your own life that someone would look at you and say, "You can't do that?!! That's easy-peasy. You're awfully lazy and worthless if you can't even do that simple thing that everyone in our society does!"

So I should give what I desire to receive, even if I never receive it. And that is - kindness, praying for those who we think are against us (and definitely for those who we are sure are against us). Let us pray for their happiness, for their healing, and do so with an attitude of understanding that their weaknesses don't feel good to them. They need our help to overcome. And we give that help by doing what Eva and Andrew have done: forgiving, praying for those who despitefully use you, slow to take offense.

Let's Do This, People! Let us rise up and fulfill the measure of our creation!  Let us find the Lord. Let us live by every word that proceeds out of His mouth instead of by what proceeds out of our own broken souls.

Let us all not cause our Lord more sadness and pain because of our own selfishness, and pride.

Look what He has done for us. Cannot we not at least love Him in return enough to ask for His help to see our weaknesses? To see when we contend, jar, and hurt each other? To own our fears and offenses (hurt feelings) and take them to our Lord and to our God so that we may be healed from those pains? To learn to actually trust Him more than we trust anyone and anything else? And let there be no mistake, I am preaching to myself just as heartily as I am preaching to others. Perhaps moreso, because my fears extend to fear of being alive. I hate this place called "life" most of the time. I am more broken than any of you, of that, I am sure.
Amen.