No Coincidences

Tag: Apostles

  • The Trinity

    The Trinity

    I’m not going to cite a bunch of scriptures supporting my point.  In my experience that does nothing because individual scriptures can be interpreted in a million different ways.  Any scripture I give that seems clear as day to me to show God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost as three distinct personages is quickly explained away and followed up with another scripture that someone believes shows they are one being. 

    Instead of trying to convince anyone of this doctrine, I more want to give my thoughts on it.  I also want to briefly discuss the importance of this doctrine and why I believe it has been so adamantly fought over throughout the centuries. 

    First, the “they are one” controversy with the many scriptural references is so easy for me to understand.  They are one in intent and purpose, so they are one.  Christ, when praying to His Father said, “let them be one, Father, as you and I are one.” (John 17:21-23)  Why would Christ say this?  Given the doctrine of the trinity, was Christ praying that his apostles would morph together into one super spiritual being?  No, it doesn’t make sense.  What Christ was praying for was literal.  “Let them be one, as you and I are one” – in intent, purpose.

    Second, what sense does a unified being make?  I know we are human, and we don’t understand much of anything about the true nature of Heaven, of eternity, of what is next.  I have faith in a lot, but I understand little.  Maybe the next life is filled with multiple personality Gods and beings that I’m meant to worship.  Maybe God can split into three personages.  Maybe He did this to make us understand some deep, important principle.  Maybe?  Or maybe every person who counseled over this principle (the famous Nicene Creed) and ultimately came to a decision we follow hundreds of years later didn’t understand.  God isn’t setting out to confuse us.  He doesn’t want us to NOT comprehend Him.  He wants us to know how much He loves us.  He wants us to know He SENT His only begotten son, who also loves us.  He wants us to know the Holy Spirit can be a constant companion to us.  He doesn’t want to confuse us.  He isn’t throwing out stumbling blocks all along the way to make things more difficult.  This life isn’t intended to be a maze of confusion that we may be lucky to determine what God wants us to know.  He wants us to seek Him and to seek truth.  He WANTS us to understand.  God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are three separate, distinct beings.  I don’t know this (yet), but I have faith and hope that it’s true.

    The Godhead: One In Purpose – ToGather Saints

    Joseph Smith saw them.  That’s why that moment was so significant.  They didn’t speak to Him from the clouds.  They appeared in their bodies.  To show him, “you are like us, and we are like you.”  They have bodies of flesh and blood.  Christ really came here, His Father’s Son, to attain a body and die for us.  That principle is pure and beautiful.

    Have you ever wondered why Christ ate fish and bread with the apostles after his resurrection?  Why was that account included in the scriptures?  The scriptures are full of important information, obviously.  Why was this seemingly unimportant detail included?  Not because Christ was trying to make His apostles comfortable.  It was included because it was important.  Christ was showing that He had a body.  Just as we, when we are resurrected, will be resurrected with our bodies. 

    This brings me to the third point, exactly why this doctrine was fought so hard against for all of history.  Satan is cunning.  Satan knows what is and isn’t important to our salvation.  With the fervor and aggression Satan has fought this doctrine with, it seems obvious to me how important it is.  This doctrine is so important because the corruption of it distances us from our Heavenly Father.  That is Satan’s great purpose.  What greater way to distance us from our Father than corrupting His image into some unknowable, un-understandable, un-comprehendible being?  It is the opposite of what God is.  He knows us, He understands us, He comprehends us, and he wants us to understand Him.  This bizarre trinity He’s been morphed into makes it so hard to communicate with Him.  How do you communicate a triple being you can’t imagine?  Not the same, personal way you can communicate with your own father.  Not the way your loving Heavenly Father wants you to communicate with Him.  A father that sent His only begotten Son to save the rest of His spirit children. 

    I wish I could be more eloquent on this topic.  Of all topics I wish I had a poet’s or philosopher’s eloquence for, this is it.  Because it’s important.  But I’m not a poet or a philosopher.  My words fall short of what I want to portray.  I wish so much that everyone could know Heavenly Father the way I feel and know Him.  He and Christ are so important to me.  Combining them in one takes away one of the most important persons in my life.

    This truth is eternal, and this truth is important. 

    To learn more about the truth of the Godhead, visit here:

    https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/article/do-members-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-believe-in-the-trinity

  • God, Sin, and Joy

    God, Sin, and Joy

    *Edit -Two days before posting this I read this in Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins:

    “Let’s consider the habit of smoking cigarettes… They contribute to everything from cancer to heart disease… People have every reason in the world not to smoke. Yet the tobacco industry continues to profit, and millions of people continue to smoke cigarettes, with more starting all the time. Why is that?

    People may learn to enjoy the experience of smoking, but is that what got them started?.. What happened when they first smoked? They hated it. They coughed and gagged and felt nauseated. Their body said, ‘This stuff is terrible. Get it away from me.’ In most cases if your own physcal evidence tells you something is bad, you would expect to listen. So why don’t people do that with smoking? Why do they continue to smoke until the body gives in and finally becomes addicted?

    They do it because they’ve been reframed as to what smoking means, and then that new representation and state have been anchored into place. Someone with a great deal of knowledge about persuasion has spent millions and millions of dollars to convince the public that smoking is something desirable. Through skillful advertising, clever images and sounds were used to put us in positive-feeling states; then those desired states (paradigm shift) were associated with or linked to a product called cigarettes. Through massive repetition, the idea of smoking has been linked with various desirable states. There’s no inherent value or social content to a piece of paper wrapped around tiny tobacco leaves. But we’ve been persuaded that smoking is sexy, or suave, or adult, or macho…

    How crazy is this? What in the world does putting carcinogens into your lungs have to do with any desirable state? But advertisers do on a mass scale exactly what we’ve talked about in this book. They put out images that put you in a receptive, elevated state-and at the peak of the experience, they anchor you with their message. Then they repeat it on television, in magazines, or on the radio so that the anchor gets constantly reinforced and triggered.”

    My own emphasis (underlines) and commentary (in parentheses) were added. Eerie. This book is copyright 1986. Do you think advertisers have let up? Do we think Lucifer is deciding to go easier on us? Anyone reading the above might say, “well cigarettes aren’t cool anymore, and they’re definitely not advertised the same.” Go to any bar and look at the mass of people outside. Then if you really think things have changed, pay closer attention to the next liquor/beer commercial you see. Shouldn’t take long. We’re bombarded by them all day, every day. I’ll now get to my original post. That was a long side-tangent.

    ___________________________________________________

    Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once gave an address at BYU where he talked about a discussion he had. The discussion was about the influence of evil and the consequences of bad choices.  Elder Cook was given an interesting hypothetical: how would Lucifer present his plan to an advertising agency?

    “The adversary described his dilemma: he and his followers had rebelled and rejected the Father’s plan and had come to understand that they could not prevail against God. Lucifer understood that while the Father’s plan was about joy and happiness, his own plan resulted in grief and misery. The problem, Lucifer explained to the ad executive, was how to attract followers.”

    Lucifer would determine that the only way he could win would be to achieve a “paradigm shift.”  He would need to convince us that what he wanted us to do would result in happiness, joy, and freedom while following God would result in misery, lack of freedom, and bondage. 

    “This hypothetical meeting serves a useful purpose. The truth is, not only do the enemies of the Father’s plan attempt to undermine the doctrine and principles of the plan, but they also attempt to mischaracterize the blessings that flow from the plan. Their basic effort is to make that which is good, righteous, and joyful seem miserable.”

    It’s an amazing thing to consider how humans gravitate towards what destroys them.  As the lyrics from OneRepublic’s song Counting Stars says, “Everything that kills me makes me feel alive.”

    Consider the most obvious examples.  Everyday millions of people drink literal poison.  Here’s the amazing thing, you just read that and depending on who you are you thought of a different beverage from someone else.  There are multiple poisonous drinks consumed every day.  Am I referring to soda or alcohol?  Both?  How about cigarettes?  I’m blown away every time I see someone smoking one.  Like, “you know that is actually decaying your body from the inside out right?”  Don’t care.

    There are certain things that we have been asked to avoid in this modern day.  We don’t always know why we avoid certain things.  What I do know is that faithfully trying to follow God leads to blessings, both spiritual and temporal.  

    This leads to an important question.

    Why do you think God doesn’t want you to sin?

    Is it because He wants to control and tell you what to do?

    Why wouldn’t He just force you not to sin then?  He’s God.

    Why does God hate and abhor sin?

    God hates and detests sin because He know what the results of sin are: unhappiness, pain, suffering.

    God doesn’t hate sin; He hates the unhappiness it leads to.

    God is love.  God is peace.  God is joy.

    I think about this often.  I used to wallow in my sin and wonder why I was so miserable.  Now that I’ve drawn closer to God, I’m so much happier.  I see others stuck in the same pattern I was in and I desperately wish they would see there is another way.  You don’t need to drink alcohol until you forget, to find happiness.  You don’t need the lifestyle you think is bringing you joy, but you know is not.

    Does God want you to be happy?  An emphatic YES.

    Does God want you to have freedom?  An even more emphatic YES.

    God would rather you have freedom even more than happiness.  Otherwise, He would force you to make the choices that bring you joy.  He refuses to do that.  Your freedom means more to God even more than your happiness.  To find true happiness you must choose it.  To find true love you must gravitate towards it.  We see this in what He’s given us, our agency. We always have the option to choose.

    God’s plan, the Plan of happiness is meant to do just that.  Bring happiness.

    That doesn’t mean we all find joy the exact same way.  That doesn’t mean we’re all on the same path.  But I do believe the path of greatest joy leads to the being who gave us this whole experience.  If life is hard, come to God and he will lighten your burdens.  If life is joyful, we owe it to Him.  Joy, growth, and freedom go hand in hand.  We are meant to find these things during our mortal journey. 

    I use alcohol as an example because I believe it’s the easiest to use as an example, and because it’s what I have personal experience with.  I’ve tried that life.  I know alcohol doesn’t bring happiness.  In fact, the terrible impact of alcohol on young brains and adult lives is now medically established. 

    A study from Harvard in the 1940s on success and happiness found:

    “This study contains three significant insights.  First, adult happiness has a high correlation with childhood family happiness, especially love and affection from parents.  Second is the importance of a healthy, stable marriage to lifelong happiness. Third is the negative effect of alcohol on marital and lifetime success and happiness.  Alcohol abuse touches one-third of families in the United States and is involved in one-fourth of hospital admissions.  It plays a major role in death, bad health, and diminished accomplishment.”

    The above quote was from the 1940s!! Has alcohol consumption gone down?

    Notice the three things this study found that lead to happiness:

    1. Love and affection from parents
    2. Stable marriage
    3. Alcohol avoidance

    It’s no wonder the family has been attacked so aggressively the past 80 years. The paradigm shift has officially happened. Society says it’s about me, not my kids, kids take away MY freedom. Divorce. Drink and be merry. This isn’t happiness.

    When the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored on the earth, soon after, the advice was given to abstain from strong drinks (Doctrine and Covenants section 89).  The Word of Wisdom has blessed my life.  It was established a century before studies started to prove its temporal benefit.

    The Gospel of Jesus Christ brings happiness.  I know this personally, from my experience following it.  It only occurred to me recently that many of my friends and people I care a lot about really don’t think this happiness is an option for them.  I know many of my friends and people around me are happy.  That’s not what I’m saying.  What I’m saying is there is always more joy to be gained.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t an exclusive club.  I wasn’t chosen to be a part of it because I’m lucky.  I’m a part of it because it makes me happy, and that option is available to everyone. 

    I know a lot of people think “organized religion” or “God” or maybe even “a family” isn’t meant for them.  I just want to remind anyone taking the time to read, happiness is for everyone.  Happiness is something we all can find.

    I know many of my friends think I’ve become a religious nut.  Good.  I have.  The reason is because I’m happier than I’ve ever been.  I used to invite people around me to bars, or parties, or to gamble. I’ve invited people to participate with me in things I thought brought me happiness.  So why wouldn’t I invite every person I come in contact with now that I’ve found real happiness?

    I wish I could shout it from the rooftops.  I wish I was bolder about it than I am.  I wish I could tell the entire world:  you deserve to be happy.  Find your happiness, however you need to.  But I will tell you this, Jesus Christ is the source of all love.  Therefore, He is the source of all truth and light.  For that reason, He is the source of all happiness.  I’ve learned that for myself and hope we all can, on our timeline.

    I know where I come from.  I know where I’m going.  I know why I’m here.  I know what happens when I leave here.  I know I’ll be with my family forever.  I know my daughter and my wife, who I’ve known for countless days, going all the way back to our premortal existence, I know I will be with them for eternity.  This is true joy.

    I know these things.  Knowing these things bring me comfort.  Knowing these things makes me happy.  The choices and changes I’ve made in my life have brought me happiness I never thought I deserved.  This happiness is for everyone.

  • He Lives

    He Lives

    The Book of Mormon.

    The Apostles, Prophets, Bishops, leaders.

    The Prophet Joseph Smith.

    The temples.

    The missionaries.

    Knowing why I’m here.

    Knowing where I’m going

    These things are all amazing.  These are all fruits of the gospel.

    But.

    Why are they amazing?

    After seeing a great vision of eternity, of all the heavens, of the glory, love, and light we will all receive in the next life, after this vision, Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon wrote this:

    “And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!

    For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father.” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:22)

    How I wish I could scream this to the world.  Jesus Christ lives!  He died for you, for each of us.  He died so you need not fear death, trials, or tribulations.  You needn’t fear anything.  He died for your reassurance.  He died for your comfort.  He died for your sins.  He died for you.

    All those things mentioned at the start are amazing, glorious, and wonderful because they point to one thing:  Him.  Jesus Christ.  The Savior of the world.  Without Him all of it would be for nothing.  Temples, prophets, scripture, what good are they?  They are only good for what they point us to.  The light and love of this world.  Jesus Christ.

    I wish the world could see this.  I wish the world could see that all these things are just tools pointing to someone far greater.

    Ultimately the gospel of Jesus Christ brings comfort.  The Plan of Salvation brings peace.  The Plan of Happiness makes this life a joy.  How could this life be anything less when you know the bigger picture?

    I don’t fear trials because I know they help me grow.

    I don’t fear tribulations because I know they benefit me for eternity.

    I don’t fear death because I know where I’m going if I continue to look to Christ.

    I wrote this months ago. Now I’m coming off a situation that has been a trial and tribulation.  I believe I can say with a little more confidence today that I don’t fear death.

    It can be naïve to say I welcome trials and tribulations when life is wonderful and peaceful.  I appreciate that my life is wonderful and peaceful because of the Gospel and the peace it preemptively brings me before trials.  It’s easy to say these things when everything is going well. I’m glad I can say them when things are hard as well. 

    Despite current challenges, I feel so blessed.

    Of course, I don’t want tests and trials, but I know when they come, they are for a great purpose.  I hope when opportunities come for my faith to be tested it can feel like an open book test.  I hope I can face trials in life as if I have the answers, which I believe I do.  It’s easy to say until a true tragedy hits my life.  I don’t hope for a true tragedy, but I hope for the strength and faith to endure tragedy if it comes.

    Coming off the accident I had, I still don’t feel like I’ve gone through a tremendous trial.  It has been challenging, but not overly.  I don’t feel like it has been that difficult at all.  I don’t know how much of that is the fact that the challenge wasn’t actually difficult or due to all the support I have around me, especially the support of God.

    These are all the benefits of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I wish the world had this same peace I have been profoundly blessed to be given.

    He lives!