A few things I have learned

Back in June, 2016 I wrote: I have learned a few things this past year.  1. Don’t judge (just don’t) 2. Ego is pride (diminishing it brings you closer to Christ. 3. The Law without Grace produces Sin.  4. Waiting on the Lord is good.  5. Love is more important than all other things. 6. Our country is denying the Christ (Trumpism (Ego and bigotry) and Socialism (the desire for the government (transfer payments) to take care you since you don’t BELIEVE that God will help you). 7. Meekness brings power.

Improving His Grace (#3)

In response to:




Our God is pleased when we improve His grace and seek his perfect love.





Perhaps it has a similar meaning as the talents, or God is pleased when we avail ourselves of His grace, when we make the most of it?




My response:




Improve His grace and seek his perfect love. Improve is a strange word. It must have meant something to the composer. I think you are right. Availing ourselves of His Grace. Grace is not will power or self-control. We, Western Calvinists think that way. Everything is self-control and will power. Where does Grace meet us at? I will force myself to do the right and then grace saves me? I look at it differently. I humble myself, knowing that I am powerless to change. I am meek knowing that I am nothing without my Savior. I want the Father and the Son in my life. I want to be rescued (saved). I tell them that I want them. I choose to love, be peaceable, and have joy. I ask God to prioritize my bad habits. Which one do You want me to work on? I then receive revelation on my next repentance project. Now I am aligned with God ready to avail myself of His Grace. I hope with anticipation to overcome the weakness. I am now able to deny myself one more ungodly thing. I move from grace to grace, receiving grace for grace. This means that I first need to get on the Grace Bus. Once I receive one grace I start gaining momentum. (grace for grace).



Well that is my theory. I try to put it into practice.





I just listened to Elder Bednar’s talk again. Amazing talk. Joseph said baptizing a man without receiving the Holy Ghost is like baptizing a bag of sand. Something like that. So, taking the Sacrament each week without coming to the meeting with a broken heart and contrite spirit is like eating sand.

How does my understanding of Grace change my old Mormon ways of Thinking? #2

Grace is the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ in the life of a Christian.  Jesus died for each us.  He paid for our sins, past, present, and future.  Christ's grace lays the foundation for our faith in Him and our repentance.  It is as if Jesus is telling each one of us to have joy and be happy since His mercy has satisfied the demands of justice for everyone who has come unto Christ through faith in His name and repenting of our sins.  At the point in which we decide to rely wholly on His merits and trust in Him alone, he causes a change in our hearts. We are filled with joy, receive a remission of our sins and have peace of conscience.  We have entered by the gate.  From this point on we walk the strait and narrow path back to the presence of God.  We are no longer in rebellion. He is now the author of our faith and later on will become the finisher of our faith. We are now perfect in Christ.  We still have our weaknesses.  As we let God order and maintain our lives we advance from grace to grace, overcoming our weaknesses.  We deny ourselves all ungodliness.  We believe in Jesus' ways and strive to act accordingly.  And, all this is on the foundation of grace.  And, this personal knowledge gives us joy.  All our sins are paid for!  Our love for our Savior, or Rescuer makes the process of recreating ourselves in the image of Christ, a joyful process.  Jesus is with us every step of the way, as if we are walking hand in hand with him.

In the past I believed that I earn my way to heaven by keeping the commandments.  There was no joy in keeping the commandments because my foundation was wrong.  Sure, I believe in Christ and His atonement.  But, I don't know how to apply it.  I believe that I must do all the commandments before grace kicks in.  Inadvertently, I don't realize that I am giving lip service to Jesus but really don't believe Him.   Somehow if I just keep the commandments as I perceive them I will eventually get there.  The sins that I am still doing are not covered by Christ.  Christ goes into pain every time I repeat the sin.  I start getting frustrated.  I can't seem to overcome certain sins. My paradigm isn't working.  Without first building on the Rock, establishing the foundation of Grace, I delude myself into thinking that my works will save me.  I become self-righteous, judging others that don't keep the commandments I keep.  Trusting in and relying on Jesus sounds absurd.  Too easy.  Too gentle. And, foolish.  How can do that and still be self-sufficient?  And, self-made?

My heart starts breaking. I become contrite. My current way of thinking isn't bring my joy and happiness.  I am stressed and judge myself and everyone else as bad.  I am always comparing.  I finally turn to God and look to Jesus.  I want His mercy.  I want His love.  I begin to realize that I need Jesus in my life.  I turn to Him with full purpose of heart.  Something starts changing inside of me.  I start feeling joy. I like it.  It tastes delicious.  Upon thinking and feeling this way, immediately doth the great plan of redemption come to me.  I have finally started to build my life on the Rock of Christ, the foundation of Christ's grace.

I have realized that Christ's atonement not only made it possible for everyone to resurrect to a kingdom of glory but His sacrifice made if possible for me to progress and continuously recreate myself in the image of Christ.  The Way becomes easy.  I am in a state of daily gratitude for my Jesus.  This was His plan all along! For me to walk with Him, relying on Him, my weakness being changed one by one and my light becomes brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

And, if I die along the path of change, no matter.  The point of this life was to find the path and get as far as I could before I die.  We just continue on the same path after we die. We are saved.

Grace and All I Can Do, Attempt #1

This is the first of a continuing discussion on what grace means to me.  I am addressing the contrasting views of works and grace.  I have had many conversations with friends discussing the different perspectives in how 2 Nephi 25:23 is interpreted.  This post is just one of those discussions.

A friend of mine wrote me the following:

I take it you have a problem with:
As noted by Church scholar Robert J. Matthews:

“Mortality was an essential step in the progress of the human family. . . . God does for human beings only what they cannot do for themselves. Man must do all he can for himself. The doctrine is that we are saved by grace, ‘after all we can do’ (2 Nephi 25:23)” (A Bible! A Bible! [1990], 186).

My response was:

Yes, kind of. I do believe 25:23 in its correct context. Some LDS scholars have misinterpreted that one verse of scripture, thus, negating the many other verses of scripture that clarify what Nephi meant. This one verse is used as the end all by those who believe that you must ‘work’ your way to heaven. I believe I first come unto Christ through faith (wholly relying) on his name and repentance (a complete about face toward Christ and his loving ways), taking Jesus by the hand (fear not), submitting to Him as a little child, and keeping His commandments, advancing from grace to grace (adding one new (for me) commandment after another through the strengthening and enabling power of the atonement (grace)), recreating myself day by day, until I arrive into the presence of the Lord. If this is what R.J. Mathews really meant then I am complete agreement. The problem is that words don’t convey what we really mean. I suppose Matthews may have meant what I just said above.

Let me know if you would like me to list all the other verses on grace and all you can do.

By the way, Paul is grossly misinterpreted by the Christians. The Christians are tainted by Augustine who changed the true Christian doctrine of grace to a mystical supernatural doctrine requiring that all you have to do is declare Jesus and be saved showing no results (works, actions nor deeds) to validate your HEALED state. The KJV uses the word SAVED in place of HEALED in many places. HEALED is more appropriate since it seems to connote a change of heart in the here and now. SAVED seems to connote in our minds the end result. Both words are really synonyms.

I will send you more on the blasphemies of Augustine later. Let me know what you think of what I said above. I hope I was clear.

What Does One 'Do' to Receive Mercy and Always Rejoice?

I have heard much of my life that we have to do, do, do.

What I ‘did’ to receive ‘always rejoicing’ and ‘the love of God’ was a specific thing spelled out in the scriptures.  Read Mosiah 4 and 1 Nephi 8 and see if you can find what Lehi and the people of King Benjamin did to receive joy and love from God.  King Laman and King Lamoni did the same thing and received the same thing.  Moroni 10:3 exhorts the reader to do something about something.  Read verse three and tell me what those two somethings are?

So, there is always something to be done our part.  Unless, God exercises His agency and decides to give something to someone who didn’t look like he deserved it (from our limited knowledge and judgment).  An example might be the Israelite at the pagan pool in John 5.  He was at a pagan pool for crying out loud! And, the Lord told him walk and take his bed with him.  He didn’t even know Jesus.  He was trying to get into the pool when the water 'troubled'.   He had decided to resort to trying anything he could to resolve his problem (being infirm and unable to walk for thirty seven (of our) years).  He was a natural man.  He had never came unto Christ.  Why did Jesus to it?  Maybe it was to show the Jews (and us) that He is God and can do whatever He pleases.  Maybe it was to inspire countless people including myself that God has done things for me without any 'doing' on my part.  I had a dream back in 1997 where the person in the dream told me, “I am only trying to get your attention, read John 5:3”.  I did so the next morning.  I interpreted the dream all wrong.  Looking back a year or two later, I realized that God was making miracles happen in my life, that I wasn't alone and that I didn’t need to keep on trying to jump into some metaphorical pool to solve my problems.  That jumping is 'doing' but the incorrect ‘doing’.  Two years ago I came to the realization that I was the crippled unbelieving Israelite that God decided, on His own volition, to snatch me out of a bad situation (multiple times).  He did it even when I was in a state of unbelief.  The second time He did it, I was trying to believe.  The third time He did it, I was believing  but still unworthy of His healing.  What a wonderful, amazing God!  I love Him so much!  I am so grateful that He cares for me.

I am happy and at peace. Did I ask and receive? I did but I did more than that.  See the first paragraph.  Ponder and pray about what everyone in the Book of Mormon did to receive Mercy.

Here's a common response to Moroni 10:3:

1. read the Book of Mormon
2. remember that God has been and is merciful.
3. ponder it in our hearts, so that the Holy Ghost has an opportunity to testify to us it is all true.

I believe there's something more Moroni is trying to get across:

4. Ponder it in my heart: this means to me to ask myself if Christ can be merciful to me as he has been to everyone from Adam to the present time.  This is more than knowing by the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true or that Christ can be merciful to me.  This pondering, to me, means to actually realize that the individual message of the Book of Mormon is that Christ will be merciful to me as he has been merciful to all that have come unto Him in the past.  So, the DOING is to pray for mercy as Lehi did in 1 Nephi 8 and as the people of king Benjamin did in Mosiah 4.  Deep humility has to be attached to this contrite and sincere prayer.  And, if anyone does this, with all sincerity and contriteness, he will receive mercy and know it.  And, all this is done by God through the Holy Ghost.  I believe that receiving mercy is the same as receiving a remission of one’s sins or being baptized by fire.

Of course, all this takes as much time as it takes, for you (me) to demonstrate to God a broken heart and contrite spirit and for God to say “it is a enough”.

Why aren't there three days between Christ's crucifixion and Christ's resurrection?

I wrote this post on April 13, 2018 right after Easter.

From my studies a better date for Resurrection Sunday would be last Sunday, April 8, 2018, not Easter Sunday, April 1st?  The Nicene Council at 300 A.D. couldn’t figure out the timeline of Christ's last week before he was crucified so they arbitrarily assigned days.  So, the crucifixion was placed on Friday since they thought that the Passover was only on Friday, the Passover day that Jesus was keeping during the last supper.  But, this was a high holiday. This means that it was also a Sabbath day like Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath).  So, the leaders wouldn’t dare crucify someone on a Sabbath day (fearing that the people would riot).  Samuel the Lamanite says there would be three days that Christ would remain in the tomb.  Being placed in the tomb Friday night and resurrecting on Sunday leaves only ONE day in the tomb.  Have you ever wondered about why this is?  The Book of Exodus states that Passover is a seven day event with a high holy day at the beginning  and at the end.  The first Passover meal commemorates the saving of the first born of the Children of Israel.  It is called the Lord’s Passover.  The holiday on Day 7 is Israel’s Passover.  It commemorates passing over the Red Sea.  This was a big deal:  Israel being saved.

So, the chronology goes something like this:

Friday (March 30^th – this year) – Jesus has his last supper and institutes the Sacrament.  He doesn’t go to  Gethsemane that day.  This day (the first day of Passover) is calculated based on the Spring Equinox and the full moon.

Saturday – Jesus gives his sermons at multiple locations about The True Vine, and the Father and the Son being one, etc.

Sunday – Jesus continues teaching his disciples.  He may have initiated them according to Mark’s apocryphal text.

Sunday Night – He goes to Gethsemane and suffers, is captured, and is tried.

Monday (April 1) – He is delivered to Pontius Pilate.  Pilate sends him to Herod.

Tuesday – Herod interviews the Savior.  He sends him back to Pilate.

Wednesday – Pilate flogs Jesus and presents him to the people.  They cry out, Crucify Him!  He is place on the cross around 11:30 am and remains on the cross until 3:00 pm when he gives up the Ghost and dies.  The Sadducees want to get to their Passover festivities (Passover #2) by 6:00pm and need to have everybody taken down so they aren’t defiled, thus, not being able to participate in Passover #2 with their families.  They break the legs of the thieves.  But, Jesus is already dead.  Jesus is placed in the tomb.

Thursday – Day 1 in the tomb.

Friday – Day 2 in the tomb.

Saturday – Day 3 in the tomb

Sunday (April 8 - this year) – Jesus resurrects and the tomb is found empty.

This, I believe, is the correct Chronology.  The council of Nicea apparently didn’t know the Lord’s commandment in Exodus of a seven day Passover with two feasts days.  They called Christ’s crucifixion, GOOD FRIDAY.  This is very strange.  It was the lowest, worst day in the history of the world and the galaxy.  Good Friday occured on Friday of the previous week on the first Passover Seder.  They couldn’t figure where to put Ash Wednesday so they made up a new holiday 40 days earlier called Lent.  Ash Wednesday was what the early Christians called the day of Christ’s crucifixion.  A very sad day.  A day of sackcloth and ashes.

If anyone is interested in the scriptural references, just let me know.

Scott