No Coincidences

Tag: jesus christ

  • Book Review: The Joseph Smith Translation. Precious Truths Restored

    Book Review: The Joseph Smith Translation. Precious Truths Restored

    The Joseph Smith Translation.  Precious Truths Restored

    by W. Jeffrey Marsh

    Copyright 2002

    ______________________

    There are multiple ways I judge a book.  It can be so entertaining I can’t put it down.  I can feel enlightened by it, like I’m learning constantly through its pages.  Ideally a book does both.  I think this book more was on the enlightened, learning something from it category.

    I realize most people aren’t going to enjoy the books I’m enjoying.  Few people get excited about learning about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is a book I wish every active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would read.  It did so many things for me: taught gospel truths, built my testimony of Joseph Smith and his divine call, and probably the biggest thing I took away from it, better understanding of the Bible. 

    A statement from the summary on the back of the book states it:

    “will guide you through the history, significance, and insights found in the Prophet Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible.”

    The biggest takeaway I got from this book was the knowledge of how blessed I am to have the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) of the Bible and the fact that I’ve never once doubted its truthfulness and divine nature.  The book goes a lot into the history of the JST.  I didn’t know there were many years that the JST was regarded skeptically by members of the Church.

    I am truly grateful to be living while I’m living, with so much truth and light surrounding me.  This book helped me appreciate how lucky I am.  There was a part of the book where the author talked about how there would one day be a generation that never doubted the divine nature of the Joseph Smith Translation.  He talked about how that generation will know the scriptures better than any prior generation.  That generation will know Jesus Christ better than any prior generation, due to the truths restored by Joseph Smith.  He talked about this generation that will have more fullness of scriptures than any generation ever had.  Truly the fullness of times.

    This made me appreciate my place in time, my place in history, my place in the fullness of times more than ever.  It’s never been a doubt to me that the Joseph Smith Translation is holy scripture and worth studying.  It helps me trust Joseph Smith as a prophet and teaches me more about Jesus Christ. 

    I know these things aren’t to be taken for granted.  Our generation isn’t gifted greater scriptural knowledge simply by living now.  We must study and learn.  If we devote ourselves to the Word of God, there is more out there for us to devour and grow from than any people on this earth has ever had the opportunity to know.

    I’m so grateful to be alive today and I’m so grateful to Joseph Smith for the truths he restored.

    ____________________________

    To learn more about the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible go here:

    https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/revelations-in-context/joseph-smiths-bible-translation?lang=eng

    https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/joseph-smith-translation-of-the-bible?lang=eng

  • My Coincidences

    My Coincidences

    Have you ever noticed how easily we forget?  It’s a cliché statement on human nature – “humans have short memories,” but It’s so true.  Have you ever walked into work on Monday and been asked what you did over the weekend… and not be able to think of anything?  Sometimes it takes me 5-10 minutes to think of what I did 1 and 2 DAYS ago, never mind years. 

    Soon after I came back to church, I started keeping track of “coincidences” that I experienced.  It was my way of taking note of God’s daily influence in my life.  It’s a list of those answered prayers, small moments that seemed significant, things just working out.  I keep this list so I never forget God’s hand in my daily life.  I’ll fluctuate in how good I am at keeping the list.  Sometimes I’ll go weeks or months without adding anything.

    If I’m going to name my blog nocoincidences I gotta back it up with some data.

    My entries go back to 2016.  Four years of “coincidences.”  101 total entries.

    I’ve found it extremely helpful to look back on and remember how blessed I’ve been.  Even when things are hard, God is there.  I would recommend this practice to anyone. 

    My experiences vary from something I study before church being mentioned that day in someone’s talk, that always makes me pay attention; to the postcard I received the day I was wondering where to go to church.  There are tons of small moments that can become big moments.

    Reading back through them I realize most of them I can’t explain.  It was something I felt or something only I could appreciate.  Kind of like faith.  Even if you’re explaining faith to someone else with faith, your experience with faith will always be unique.  My “coincidences” as I call them are mine, and extremely personal. 

    One thing I notice as I read through these notes is even today, I don’t know the significance.  That night I felt a weird feeling as I was going to bed and decided to check the kitchen only to notice I left the oven on.  Was the house going to burn down?  I don’t know.  What I do know is the feeling I had to go back to the kitchen was distinct, and obvious.  God knows what would have happened, that’s enough for me. 

    There are many moments at work.  Moments of frustration, anxiety, worry.  Then I pray and it somehow works out.  The answer I’ve been staring at jumps out at me, someone calls and helps, I’m given more time, a boss shows sympathy.  These blessings come in many ways.  If I’m not looking for them, I would miss them every time. 

    Look for the blessings in your life.  If you don’t look for them it’s easy to feel alone or like things never work out.  Write down all the blessings in your life, everything you’re grateful for.  Look at all the moments that just work out and realize you’re being watched.  Look at all your “coincidences” and appreciate them. I have 101 coincidences I’ve written down in 4 years.  101.  It will be so amazing to one day stand before my Father in Heaven.  He will laugh jovially at my 101 remembrances and He will open my Book of Life and show me the countless, infinite times His hand was with me.  That will be a good day.

  • Seer Stones

    Seer Stones

    Imagine giving someone a spyglass in the year 600.  A spyglass is the refracting telescope you picture pirates using on the open sea before finding their target.  The sinister pirate stands on deck, extends the spyglass to its full length, looks through one small hole and sees what his own two eyes could barely make out on their own.  A ship.  Ripe for plunder.  The spyglass wouldn’t be officially invented for 1000 years, in 1608 by most accounts.

    Imagine giving that to someone in the year 600.  They would be amazed; it would be such a phenomenon to them.  Another example is the microscope, also invented around 1600, but perfected over the next 400 years to what we have now.  That would blow someone’s socks off in the year 600.

    The James Webb Space Telescope is replacing the Hubble Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope known to man.  Imagine showing that to someone in 1830.  There’s a good chance they wouldn’t believe their eyes.  There’s a good chance the people from these times would consider what they’re being shown witchcraft or sorcery.  If you showed someone a modern-day microscope found in every high school science class and told them you could see the cells of a plant they might put you to the stake for burning i.e. Salem Witch Trials.

    The James Webb Space Telescope is described:

    “will provide improved infrared resolution and sensitivity over Hubble, and will enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, including observing some of the most distant events and objects in the universe, such as the formation of the first galaxies.”

    I don’t know what all that even means, and I’m here, in the year 2020.  The word “events” seems to imply that this telescope will be powerful enough to literally look so far away that we’re seeing the past.  I won’t get anymore into the science of telescopes and microscopes because I didn’t pay enough attention in my science class to give accurate information about that.

    My point is this: if in history you showed someone a device that wouldn’t exist for 1000 years, they might not believe it, or they’d think it was some sort of magic.  That is exactly how people reacted in 1830 when Joseph Smith talked about seer stones.  Miraculously, it’s how people react today to the idea of Joseph Smith using seer stones.

    The natural eyes of Joseph Smith were seeing revelation and things of the spiritual realm just like we look through a telescope and see things that we previously could not.  God-fearing people everywhere believe in heaven and hell, God and angels, and yet can’t accept a prophet of God seeing things we don’t.  The concept of a stone being the medium should not be a stumbling block.  Who in the year 600 would have thought glass would be the medium with which we look into the cosmos? 

    Our nature today is to be so skeptical of anything of a spiritual nature.  If you stop and look at it in a logical sense, the principle is sound, the logic is there.  The same people today who hold a cell phone, press an icon on a screen, type in a statement, and suddenly have billions of results, scoff at the idea of a stone that helps translate ancient scripture.  How crazy is that?  99% of people today don’t understand internet, email, or electricity yet use it every single day.  To be clear, I don’t understand how most of those things work, I don’t understand the intricacies involved.  I don’t have to understand, I see it in front of me, whether I understand it or not, the proof is there.  It exists.

    Seer stones are not cooky, bizarre, unprecedented technology.  They are a different kind of telescope.  When Joseph Smith looked into them, he saw, through revelation and the power of God, things he couldn’t see with his natural eyes.  A person in 1830 couldn’t comprehend a mobile phone. Many today refuse to comprehend the thought of a seer stone.  It doesn’t mean seer stones didn’t exist.  There’s so much we don’t understand, and we are marveled by technology daily.  Is it that difficult to think God had a device that would allow man to do extraordinary things long before the mobile phone?

    I know that seer stones exist, just like cell phones.  I know that Joseph Smith used them to translate an ancient record.  The Book of Mormon wasn’t written by a natural man.  It was translated through the medium of a seer stone, provided by God.  All of us here in the year 2020 who don’t understand how the very phones we hold provide all the miracles they do, how can we be so skeptical?

    ______________

    For anyone who would like to learn more about seer stones the link below is a great resource and watch this short video:

    https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/seer-stones?lang=eng

  • Love is Powerful

    Love is Powerful

    I was once asked a question I surprisingly had never truly dived into.  What was different about the first time I met with the bishop when coming back to church?   Why did I come back?

    I’ve written about some of the coincidences leading to me getting to the Bishop’s office and ultimately coming back to church.  But how did I stay?  Coming back once, for a fleeting moment of revival, that’s easy.  What really brought me back?

    I wrote in The Inspiration about cancelling that first appointment with the bishop.  That appointment eventually got rescheduled. 

    I remember walking into Bishop Thurston’s office.  It was a small room, like most bishop’s offices.  I believe there was a picture of the First Presidency, and Christ.  At other points in my life both pictures might have made me feel uncomfortable, unworthy, judged.  Maybe not the picture of Christ.  His image has always brought me warmth, if not alongside guilt.

    First Presidency February 2008 – January  2018

    I remember being so nervous.  What were we going to talk about?  It had been almost 10 years since I sat in a bishop’s office.  Was he going to grill me?  Was I going to have to confess all my sins?  Was this going to be a moment I looked back on in disgust?  Was he going to judge me?  Was he going to wonder what brought this messed up individual into his office?

    And then he smiled.  He shook my hand.

    If you’ve seen the smile of Kody Thurston, you know it.  If you’ve seen the smile of a loving bishop anywhere in this world, you know this smile.  They’re the same anywhere.

    He asked me to sit and I believe he offered the prayer.  Then we started to talk.  I remember not knowing what to do with my hands, I was fiddling with them in my lap.  I remember looking down a lot.  Every time I looked up he would be looking right at me.

    We talked about where I’d been, where I was going, my family.  We got to know each other.  I don’t remember much about the exact conversation.  I do remember what I didn’t feel, judged.

    Then he asked the question, I think it was, “Do you have anything you need to talk about?”  It was a loaded question, but it didn’t feel like it.  I knew if I said no he would move on.

    I had come into that room with zero intention of confessing my sins and opening my heart to a stranger.  Then this strange thing happens in a room with a person who has been sent and commissioned by Jesus Christ for this very purpose.  There’s a feeling in a room when the spirit is there.  It’s overwhelming.  I didn’t say much.  I implied some things; I got some things off my chest.  He didn’t ask much.  He moved forward.  That’s what I remember.  Moving forward.

    I talk about no coincidences.  I know it wasn’t a coincidence that I came back at that time.  Maybe it’s an excuse for me taking so long, but I know that God knew who and what I needed when I came back.  I firmly believe that God waited until I was ready and put Bishop Thurston in a position to be there when I was ready.  I don’t think I would have made it without him.

    When I was getting ready to leave, he said he wanted to see me again soon, within the week.  He told me to reach out to his assistant and schedule it soon.  He told me to tell his assistant to make it happen in the next week no matter what, even if I had to come to his house.  That’s another thing I’ll never forget.  Come to his house?  Why did this stranger want to see me again so soon?

    I was once asked what made me come back?  Love.  Love made me come back.  I knew when I left that office, without a shadow of a doubt, that the stranger I just met cared about me so deeply.  Is that something I could know?  I guess not, I couldn’t know it.  He could have been faking it.  The reason it has stuck with me, and the reason I came back, is because it wasn’t something I knew, it was something I felt. Like testimony or faith, it was something I couldn’t deny and something I’ll never forget.  At the end of that meeting I felt like I’d just met somebody who would do anything in his power, anything he possibly could, to help me.  I felt the love of Jesus Christ for me, displayed through this stranger so potently, with such power. 

    I left that office feeling good.  I’ll admit something.  I tried to keep it together.  I really tried.  I drove away from the building.  I pulled over within a minute.  I cried and I cried.  It was like the love I wouldn’t allow myself to feel Christ giving me for so long poured over me with such intensity.  I cry today thinking about it.

    Those first few weeks coming back were really hard.  Really, really hard.  When it got to feel like too much to continue on that path, like I couldn’t do it, I thought about the love I felt that day. I thought about that little bishop’s office where I felt something, and my heart changed.  I thought about the moment in my car after.  I realized I never wanted to be without that love, ever again.  That’s what brought me back and kept me coming back.

    Love is powerful.

  • Light You Reflect

    Light You Reflect

    Alexandros Papaderos

    In a book titled It Was on Fire When I Lay on It by Robert Fulghum, he tells a story about when he asked Alexandros Papaderos the question, “what is the meaning of life?”

    Robert Fulghum relates that Dr. Papaderos pulled a small round mirror out of his wallet.  He said he had found the mirror and scratched it on a stone until it was round.

    Dr. Papaderos said, “I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine-in deep holes and crevices and dark closets.  It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find… As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child’s game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life.  I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light.  But light-truth, understanding, knowledge-is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.

    “I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know.  Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world-into the black places in the hearts of men-and change some things in some people.  Perhaps others may see and do likewise.  This is what I am about.  This is the meaning of my life.”

    Doctrine & Covenants 45:7

    “For verily I say unto you that I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the light and the life of the world-a light that shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.”

    The mirror found by Dr. Papaderos was not rounded and clean when he found it.  It took scratching it on a stone.  This symbolizes the refining process Dr. Papaderos undoubtedly went through to become a source that could reflect light.  We are born with the light of Christ.  When you look upon a young child you easily see that light.  As we grow the light we reflect dims, or it brightens.  It is our effort that determines this.

    Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are blessed to know by what source we can reflect light.  We reflect the light of Jesus Christ.  He is the light.  We can all be the reflection. We are made in the design and shape of our Heavenly Father, made in His image.  The source of all light.