Mormon Direction

Yesterday, as I finished paying for some groceries at the cash till, another lady behind me went next. The lady asked for some cigarettes and the cash till clerk asked the lady for some identification, since she looked young. As the lady was getting her identification to prove her age, the cash till clerk stated in a guilty type of tone as she tried to excuse herself, saying, “Sorry, but I have to cover my butt“.

This struck me as very interesting and odd.

In Canada, it is law in most of the provinces that a person must be 19 years of age to purchase cigarettes and all merchants are under law to confirm that age by proper identification or risk a hefty fine. The purpose of this law is to reduce the use of tobacco by younger persons. Since it is law, where is the reason to be guilty or feel bad to ask another for proper identification when the there is legal right and authority to do so?

continue reading…

We all know of what God said about faith and what diminishes it. The most common thing is sin, or to be wicked, to abide in Satan’s rule or influence and so forth, but what many people do not realize is there are other things that also diminishes faith, such as the act of remaining in fear or fear based thoughts, choices and actions. Allow me to explain.

Everyone has shortcomings, personal faults that affect their life. God gave us shortcomings so that we may be made humble by them (Ether 12:27), but also by them, through faith and enduring, God can help us make these weaknesses into a strength when these shortcomings or faults are overcome in the right way (2 Nephi 3:13 / 2 Corinthians 12:10 / Hebrews 11:34).

What many do not realize is that by these inward personal faults, a person can easily diminish his or her faith instead of increasing it and this is all by their own doing, in how they use free will and choice and the manner of beliefs they carry and choose to live. This speaks of two sides, the good and the bad.

When a person chooses to overcome their shortcomings or personal faults, this is the good side, but only if they choose the help of the Holy Spirit and that person allows the Spirit to humble them. Then that person’s faith is increased, made deeper and more rooted and he or she gains an inner spiritual strength that withstands negative spiritual influences. This is a process that takes time if a person perseveres, abides in the Spirit, journals, prays, repents, remains obedient, that person will overcome their fault, made stronger and faith surer.

When a person chooses not to overcome their shortcomings or personal faults, ignores the Holy Spirit, whether or not they pray, chooses to forsake humbleness as part of the process, gives in to their faults or justifies them in any way to keep them, ignore them or both, that person’s faith is diminished, and the scriptures say so.

continue reading…

IN the scriptures, it is said that if we deny Christ, he would deny us (Matthew 10:33,Luke 12:9,2 Timothy 2:12) and those who deny Jesus Christ are also denying his power thereof (2 Timothy 3:5). It was warned for these latter-days that many will deny him even though they profess to be with him. When hearing all the claims by Christians, one may wonder how this can happen, well it already has.

I was reading a magazine published by the Seventh Day Adventists named “Adventist World”. In it was an article titled, “Adventists and Muslims: Five Convictions – How to build on what we have in common”, written by William G. Johnsson. This article appeared OK until I came to a paragraph at the bottom of page 26. What William G. Johnsson said surprised me. In light of the intensity that most Bible only believers call themselves Christian, his paragraph on page 26 addressed the usage of the name “Christian” when interacting with Muslims. In the context of that article, William G. Johnsson wrote about how he chose to interact with those of the Muslim faith. Mr. Johnsson said,

“In meeting Muslim leaders, I emphasize from the outset that I prefer to be known as an Adventist rather than as a Christian. For Muslims the name “Christian” carries such negative associations—associations that do not belong with Seventh-day Adventists—that I would rather avoid the term. And “Adventist” captures well the driving pulse of who we are—our hope in Jesus’ return and sense of divine calling to tell it to the world.”

On-line URL: http://adventistworld.org/article.php?id=708

As I re-read that paragraph and then again the remainder of the article, I understood Mr. Johnsson to say that he does not want to be identified as a Christian because of the negative reputation it has and the negative reaction by the Muslims. Was I incorrect in reading this? To get some clarification, I emailed the magazine asking for clarification and I received an answer from William Johnsson himself and is as follows.
continue reading…

I spoke of self-esteem and a relation with God ( see “Self-Esteem and Faith” ). Now I wish to speak of what self-esteem means to me and what works.

The world provides a lot of advice about boosting self-esteem, but the main problem with worldly advice that it does not work well for the faithful, those who abide with God and want to keep themselves spiritually healthy. When I spoke of self-esteem and a relationship with God, I spoke against worldly opinions, ideas and thoughts because they work contrary to gospel principles and faith. I understood what self-esteem meant in regards to faith and from that I understood what it meant to myself in life, both spiritually and temporally

Not long ago, I thought I had good self-esteem, until the Lord led me to see I did not. When I spoke of self-esteem to another, I was also seeing myself and when the Lord turned the light bulb on, I realized that my self-esteem was not what it should have been. In this I realized that God does care about self-esteem and he does teach that low or lower self-esteem is bad for faith because it hampers the person from actually giving their best to God. Sure, God loves us either way, but God loves to see that we perceive ourselves rightly and his love cannot work for us when we allow ourselves or give excuse to lower our self-esteem. Simply, when we reject ourselves, we reject God also because we are in his image and the rejection is of his own image. It is the same as a loving parent feeling rejected when their son or daughter, who are born in their image, rejects themselves. Thus, God loves us to learn to love ourselves in the right way.

What then can we do to raise self-esteem and include our faith in it?

continue reading…

Everyone deals with shortcomings about their self-esteem or self-image. How they perform at work, at home, in relationships, in their personal or public performances, whether they feel worthy or unworthy. At one time or another, if not repeatedly, everyone has some issue with their self-esteem, but in this struggle, has there been any concern about self-esteem versus faith?

When it comes to faith, it is a matter where each person must take account of themselves and evaluate the nature and degree of their self-esteem and then see how this affects their faith.

Faith is the expression and act of love, devotion and obedience to God and for him. It is the trust in his will and trust that he will help and bless. Faith is also the expression of oneself to God, the who and what we are. In this expression of oneself comes the value of oneself. This personal value is the gift that we, as sons and daughters of God, give to God.

IN the scriptures God speaks about the value of how we give a gift where he said, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” (1 Cor 2.9:7). Gods speaks of the value of the heart and mind in things that we give to him and to others. Giving our faith grudgingly, is not faith at all. To exercise the commandments of God because you believe you have to, what value is this to God and his kingdom?

continue reading…

The end goal. Is commitment all about the end goal? I found that commitment is not about end goals, I found that commitment always comes before the end goal, especially if faith is the a goal. If a person wants to have good faith in God, to establish a relationship with God that works and is faithful, then commitment to faith must occur first, else the end goal of faith cannot occur.

Commitment, in itself, does not automatically denote or become faith. Commitment is a “trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose” toward something or in something. Once the object (faith) is chosen to pursue and achieve, then commitment will be “the act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action”. Once this is established, then faith, being “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  is exercised. The binding of oneself, intellectually and emotionally to the act of faith causes faith to be true and does not end up as just a word or lip service.

Let’s take a life example. A boss makes promises that he will do this or that, saying that to do those things are required and needed. Those things are good to hear, even if they are things that you had hoped for at work, but the results, or fruits of his labor proves otherwise. The things promised never manifest and in fact the old status quo remains or the things done were so inadequate, they proved as useful as doing nothing. The result for you is disappointment and discouragement. The problem with all the promises and things said, even if they were great to hear, was the absence of commitment. The failure to bind oneself to the course of action, to be sincere and steadfast.

continue reading…

When someone looks at the world of Christianity, there are diverse beliefs about God and the scriptures. It is no different in regard to the range of beliefs about how God answers prayers. I could write a book about it, but my purpose here is to address only a concern about how prayers are answered.

It can be hard for a floundering member of this Church when he/she doubts the doctrines taught by the apostles and prophet, then go out, investigate and compare the doctrines and beliefs of other Christian denominations, especially in terms of how God answers prayers, leading themselves to think that another church or another Christian denomination or group knows more about prayers and God. This usually happens through accounts given by other Christians of how their prayers were answered.

I have heard and read personal accounts of prayers answered from a range of people, both in and out of this Church. I have heard accounts of the results from prayers that range from the mundane to the impressive. From all of that, I heard other Christians claim that God’s Spirit is therefore always within them, as they explain about their answered prayers, believing wholeheartedly that God is working in their life and guiding them. With all the differing accounts, especially from people outside the Church, how can a member discern if what was said is true and prevent getting pulled into the deluge of false claims about God and his Holy Spirit?

continue reading…

The new YouTube channel named “Mormon Messages” is online. It has quality videos, excellent messages and teachings. It is good to see the Church is taking advantage of media sources as YouTube. Here is a presentation of hope, to have hope, to endure with hope, to live with hope. When listening to this message, it shows me that unless we have hope, faith will falter.

Hope is not just having a manner of faith that all will be OK in the face of despair, but hope applies to every part of life and faith. Hope is to have the intent that things will be fulfilled and I can see in this, that hope to receive spiritual guidance from the Holy Ghost is that very thing, or hope that you will receive a true spiritual testimony, or to receive further spiritual testimony and understanding of the gospel.

To some these things are easy, to others they need to make the effort, but when there is a loss of hope, a different kind of despair occurs and I will call it the faith of despair, which is despair in faith. Without hope a person will fall from faith and loose their connection with God. Sort of makes one wonder if that is what happened to members who left the Church?

Here is the video on hope from the Lord’s apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

The link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbsU3b2srQA

There is no work that God does that is not by or for faith. Any work that is by popularity, or by fame or by popular acceptance is not the work of God but is the work of man. God requires faith and to have this faith, the gospel, its truths, faith must be present. Anything other than that is not of God and not of his gospel, which is the basis of calling something another gospel.

God does not gain faith through popularity, exciting things, fanfare, celebrities, neither does he entice anyone toward him through or by any of those things. For God to use those things means that God is a god of fanfare, or popularity, celebrity show or any of these kind of things.

The first commandment should have made that clear to people, but sad to say that people are still believing that all those things are part of God’s Church, gospel or his doctrines. I speak in a general application to the communities of Christians, not specifically to this Church.

continue reading…

There are some who believe and feel within the Christian communities that we are not to judge other beliefs or faith. When something is said about someone’s beliefs or faith, the retort given is “we cannot judge them”. This can be especially disconcerting when the matter at hand has to do with determining the value or truth of another person’s faith or beliefs. It seems by this, that nothing can be said or determined in order to avert false beliefs and false faiths, that we would then, by this restriction of not judging another, would likely have to accept false beliefs or faiths.

It is true, in the Bible, that we are to be careful about judging one another, as per Romans 2:1, but this passage does not prohibit judgement, it clarifies bad judgment. In Romans 2:1, Paul is speaking to the Romans and as anyone should see, the context which Paul is addressing are bad judgments from wicked people. In another part of the Bible, John 7:24, we are to make righteous judgment. So what of this concern by some that we are not to judge the faith or beliefs of another? In particular, if these faiths or beliefs are subject of condemnation?

The idea or philosophy that we are not to judge others because that belongs to God, goes against the Bible itself. The dilemma occurs when a person fails to understand the scriptures and what God has really done in what he has revealed to us. Poor interpretation, poor understanding, abiding in false doctrines or personal philosophies cannot and will not allow that person to properly understand the word of God, his gospel and what God has given as his will through revelation.

This shortcoming of many, both in and out of the Church, causes many to falter and fall from faith and even fail a good relationship with God. Failing in a good relationship with God occurs when a person falls to false beliefs, doctrines or personal philosophies that are of the world and because of these things, a relationship of God is affected and diminished (John 8:47), all because that person is not able to exercise God’s judgments against false beliefs, doctrines, philosophies and ideas!

continue reading…