Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Yet another, great day in Tennessee

So, here I am.  Fresh and alert.  Well, fresh anyway.  Up at 7AM and an inner urge to get back to the "work" I started yesterday.  First, the news.  Terrible train wreck, many dead.  Fodder for the news outlets, that they can be talking about it for days - at least, until another calamity.

Have you realized yet, they - those voices on the radio and on TV, may own your life, directing your thoughts away from the thoughts that God would have offered if you had been listening.  Oh yes, I am not talking to you.  I am talking to myself.  How easy it is - to lecture, when you have so much to say.

I am not, however, here to lecture.  Relax.  I want to share with you, some of the "life" I have been led to follow in the forty years I mentioned yesterday.

A reminder came yesterday as I was enjoying a picnic lunch with two of my closest spiritual advisers. The purpose of the lunch was so that they could share a lesson from the scriptures with me and it was about - Words of Wisdom.  Fascinating.  We began to concentrate on the Ten Commandments and they were about to learn, it has been a long time since I had attempted to memorize them, ver batim, word by word.  A few years ago, I developed a new theory on how to "memorize" them and it goes like this.

The first one is all about God (Exodus 20:2-5) and it is summarized in Deuteronomy 10:12.  "What does God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.  Also, see Micah 6:8

The second through the ninth commandments (Exodus 20:6-16) all have to do with our actions: - love others, do not offer curses, observe the Sabbath, honor your parents, do not commit murder, nor adultery, nor steal, nor lie.  Many of these are also taught by parents who have little or nothing to do with church as we commonly know it to be.

Now comes the greatest stumbling block in the Bible (Exodus 20:17) "You shall not covet what belongs to others, their relationships, or anything else" - my paraphrase.  Covet means to desire the properties of others.  Reality has to include even the accomplishments of others.  We live in a world where "more" is the common denominator.  You cannot escape it.  It is everywhere.  There is nothing wrong with it, except that we are always going to be tempted to take a short cut, here and there, even if it just ignoring for a moment or two, violating a traffic law.

Back to the DNA, briefly discussed yesterday.  Have you ever realized that God had a purpose for you that came into being when He blessed the union between your parents?  The Bible makes it clear when Jesus relates to us as the sheep in a pasture.  Sheep may be docile to some, but they are also guilty of wanting what they want, when they want it.  Look closely at your mirror.  Before God, that was me and I believe it was you as well.  Listen to the voices all around you.  Listen even more closely to the commercial advertisements that abound in our society.

The DNA proves that you and I are not like the others, basically.  Of course, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" but that is no excuse for our abhorrent behavior.  We are loved. There can be no greater motivating factor than that fact.

Unless of course, you don't believe in God,

How sad!  All you have to is listen.  The voice from within and from without.  Observe the tree for example.  Why is it there?   Many see some of them as a source of food.   Mankind also uses the leaves, the bark, even the roots and the lumber for construction purposes.  I love them for a much more practical reason; they provide shade in the summer and the promise that summer is on its way. And I well remember being out on a desert where there are no trees and I longed to have just one to get out of the blazing sun.

A greater truth is this, long before we were conceived, there were trees and all sorts of foliage from of a billion or more other plants, designed to sustain our lives,

All of that because the Creator saw the need to sustain the lives of His greatest creation, you and I.

I could spend hours, in fact days, perhaps months, describing all that I have seen and learned more about in my eighty-five plus years and you and I would be together for longer than I probably have the breath left to describe them.

All you have to do is accept the love that God longs to shower upon you and act accordingly..

The neat thing, I find, are those who came before you and I were even thought of and so God, knowing we were on our way, entered the heart and mind of Joseph Smith to create a trust in Him and ask him to interpret some writings that had been waiting for such a person..  The rest is history and is found in the Book of Mormon.  A book that I have examined closely, from cover to cover and know that what I have read is true.  Others may say that it is not true, but there are more who would even claim that the book we call the Holy Bible is not factual.  So that you know, the Bible and the Book of Mormon are in accord with the greatest truth mankind has ever been confronted with and that is there is a Creator and to prove His love for all of us, He sent his only begotten Son to pay the price for the sins that might otherwise dominate our lives

I have heard the voice of the critic again and again in the past forty years - after leaving the "world" behind and placing my trust in Jesus Christ, and they will be around long after my grandchildren have grandchildren.  My very life is more than enough proof that He lives in reality and longs that you will join us.

Eternity is a long, long time and to waste away one's life, not believing what has proven to be true, is a lot like placing yourself in prison where few will acknowledge you and even fewer will care about your tomorrow.

It has been said before, I will say it again, the best time to make a right decision is when the facts have become obvious to you.

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