No Coincidences

Tag: organized religion

  • Organized Religion

    Organized Religion

    What do you think the point of organized religion is?

    I had an obvious realization recently, only recently.  The point of organized religion is to bring you closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  If organized religion doesn’t bring you closer to God, then why do it?  I think it’s why we see so many people disenfranchised with organized religion.  In their hearts and souls, they know and hope what organized religion will bring – closeness with God.  When it doesn’t do that (and in fact sometimes does the opposite) they move away from it.

    The second point of organized religion: to bring us peace. 

    This second part isn’t as simple as “I belong to a church so I am happy and peaceful.” We know that Christianity is not always comfortable. This peace is bigger than worldly comfort. This peace is the knowledge that you are right with God. This peace is more eternal than this life.

    Why don’t organized religions do these two things?  Some do, and I’m not discounting those who come closer to God and find peace in any faith.  My point stands, that a lot of people have moved away from organized religion.  Why?  Why don’t most organized churches bring us closer to God or bring us peace?  They don’t have the proper authority from heaven to do so.

    God, through revelation has told us exactly what we need to do to come closer to Him and to have peace:

    1. Faith in Jesus Christ
      • Start by simply believing in Jesus Christ.  Believe He was born, believe He lived, believe He is the son of God, believe He died for you and your sins.
    2. Repentance
      • Once you believe, be better.  Don’t take for granted the suffering Christ went through for you.  Pray to God and ask forgiveness for the mistakes you have made and continue to make.
    3. Baptism
      • Religion has corrupted this simple principle.  All God asks is you make a symbolic gesture to show that you have faith in Him, faith in Jesus Christ, and will remember them.  Then use that show of faith to change and be better.  God has asked us to be baptized.  Follow His commandments and be baptized. 
    4. Gift of the Holy Ghost
      • The world is ever distracting and evil.  God has given us someone to provide strength.  The Holy Ghost is one with God and Jesus Christ and can be with us always.
      • I have the perfect example to help illustrate the important role the Holy Ghost plays.  I received a text from a friend one afternoon while I was working telling me his dad had passed away.  My friend didn’t want me to find out over social media, so he texted me.  When I read it I initially thought selfishly.  I was at work.  There wasn’t anything I could do.  I wanted to kneel and pray and cry.  But as I was sitting there something happened.  As clear as if a person whispered in my ear, I heard and felt a message.  Clear as day I knew important things.  This was my friend.  He was hurting.  Clear as day, “go to your friend.”  I’m not affectionate, it’s hard for me, ask my wife.  Beth knows that better than anyone.  It’s not in my nature to want to go comfort and cry with a friend.  That seems hard and vulnerable.  But in that very important moment I know the Holy Ghost came to me and directed me.  I know it was important for me, and I believe it was important for my friend.  The Holy Ghost did that.  I know that because I’ve worked so hard to be able to hear when the Holy Ghost speaks to me.  I have so many examples of that.  I could go on for days about the important moments that the Holy Ghost guided me.

    After the Holy Ghost, the final step: endure to the end.  Take the sacrament each week to renew your covenants from baptism.  Repent every day.  Remember Jesus Christ every day.  That’s it.  That brings you closer to God.  I know because it has for me.

    People don’t change overnight.  I know to many it seemed like I changed overnight.  I didn’t.  It was years of slowly changing habits, changing thoughts.  Many saw first-hand who I used to be but didn’t see the slow, gradual change to who I am now.  I always told myself I was “good.”  What good was me telling myself I was good if my actions and my selfishness said otherwise?  Four years ago, if I received the text I mentioned above I would have said “I’m sorry” and “let me know if you need anything.”  Today, I’m different.  I’m different because of Jesus Christ.

    What’s important?  I know why I’m here.  I know where I come from.  I know where I’m going. This brings peace.

  • 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.

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    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.

  • Rameumptom

    Rameumptom

    It’s amazing to read the Book of Mormon and compare those people to our day.  One story from the Book of Mormon that recently stood out to me was the story of the Zoramites and the rameumptom.

    The Zoramites were a people who corrupted religion in many ways.  They built a large tower.  This tower was called a rameumptom and it was used for prayer.  People would go to the top of the tower and loudly proclaim a rehearsed prayer.  In the prayer they would thank God that He chose them.  They would thank God that He had enlightened them and saved them while He would damn all the others to hell for their false beliefs.  They would say their prayer, leave the tower, and go about their week without another thought towards God.  They would use their week to serve no one but themselves. 

    A Zoramite man prays on the Rameumptom in the land of Antionum.

    Let’s compare the many false beliefs of the Zoramites to our society today.

    First, praying on the rameumptom.  What good deed is done today without proclaiming it to the world?  We’re all guilty of it.  Social media is our modern day rameumptom.  It is where we proudly shout our greatest deeds for the world to see.  Prayer and good deeds should be done in private.  Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.

    Second, the Zoramites had a temple that only the rich were able to go to.  Churches today have become much more about prestige and power than about humility and kindness.

    Third, rehearsed prayer.  The Zoramites used a rehearsed, scripted prayer to talk to God.  There are many problems with this.  It takes any effort from the procedure.  The prayer has no thought or feeling to it, it’s like reading in class.  There’s no genuine questions, no genuine requests, no genuine gratitude. It is a script.  We see this in many churches today.

    Fourth, prayer without action.  This is a byproduct of rehearsed prayer.  What does prayer without effort lead to?  Life without effort.  The Zoramites loudly spoke their prayers from their tower, stepped down, and that was the extent of their worship.  They wouldn’t speak to God again until the next week when they would give their five minute rehearsed prayer and move on with their life.  This is the worship of our society today.  With all God has given us we can’t even give Him a day of worship in return.  Most don’t go to church at all.  Many who do go, go on Sunday, listen for an hour, and the rest of the week don’t do a selfless act.  Christ was our example.  He taught us to pray always, serve others, and love others.  If we aren’t doing that, we aren’t of Him, no matter how loud our prayer.

    Fifth, the Zoramites thanked God that they were chosen by Him.  They thanked Him for enlightening them and turning them away from the foolish traditions of their fathers and neighbors.  They were selected by God and would be saved.  All others were fools who would burn in hell.  Sound familiar?  Many churches today believe you will only be saved if you follow their beliefs or belong to their church.  What kind of selective God is this?  It spits in the face of a loving, caring Heavenly Father who is no respecter of persons. This is a blasphemous and poisonous teaching that goes back to the pride and selective nature of churches.  God loves all His children and will provide a way for all of them to attain as much glory as they desire.  The doctrine of Jesus Christ taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that there are many mansions in heaven and God’s wonderful plan has provided a way for a vast majority, almost all of His children to go to Heaven.  All that repent,  follow His commandments, and believe in His Son will find a place worthy of their righteous hearts.  This is truth.

    I have a close friend of a different Christian faith.  We have many good religious conversations.  One day the topic of heaven came up.  He told me that surely I didn’t believe he would go to heaven as he wasn’t a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, my church.  This made me so sad.  I told him with complete sincerity and 100% certainty that I knew he was going to heaven.  Whether he joined the Church (my church) or not, I knew he was a good person.  I knew he loved Jesus Christ.  I knew he tried every day to seek Christ and to do good.  I knew he sought God with all his heart.  I knew he was kind and liked to help people.  I know, without a doubt in my mind, that there is a place in heaven for him.  I know this because I know God.  I know he loves all of us.  I told this to my friend, and I’ll never forget the look on his face.  A little shock, a little awe.  I know that he believes I am going to hell, he has told me so.  He believes I have been fooled and I will have to pay for my ignorance.

    I know that God loves him, and I know that God loves me.  I know that Jesus Christ is the perfect judge.  We will be judged perfectly.  Even those who are fooled will be given mercy and love from God.  That’s the God I know.  I feel sad for those who don’t know that same God.

    False teachings have corrupted and destroyed religion.  False teachings have turned many away from the truth and light that religion should provide.

    I have an invitation to anyone who read this and thought “I do hate how churches say everyone who doesn’t do this or that is going to hell,” or “I’ve never understood rehearsed prayers,” or “I can’t stand the hypocritical church goers who are the meanest people during the week.”  My invitation is to come and see.  Come and learn of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Come and learn what Christ intended for us.  Come and learn true principles and ordinances of Christ’s gospel.  Come serve with us, come worship with us, come pray with us, come be with us.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not perfect, not yet.  Not until Christ returns.  We can still be hypocrites but we’re trying.  Christ’s Gospel is perfect and we’re working toward it.  Come and see.