My Story (Read in Order)

Saturday, January 9, 2021

Socialist Media

Get off socialist media platforms. Cut out Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, most of its content is mind-numbing nonsense that will degrade your intellect. With the amount of time young people spend on social media, I fear the degree of darkness that will fog the minds of the masses in years to come. It will look like a scene from Huxley's "Brave New World" or Orwell's "1984".
Read good books, get lost in novels, learn a hobby or skill. Spend quality face to face time with your loved ones without the need to photograph and share every moment. Explore the world without having to validate your every adventure to the world. You can be taught many things from countless of teachers on the web, but the most important lessons in life can only be learned through the medium of personal relationships. Connect with authentic people, not with strangers who care little about your wellbeing. You don’t need hundreds of friends online; you just need a few friends who love you and who want the best for you. Your ability to give something your attention is sacred energy allotted to you by God, don't waste it by casting it before swine. It is far more important to be a profound and positive influence in the lives of your family and close friends than to be a “social media” influencer to thousands.
Continue to engage in political discussions but do so in a place where you are not censored or repressed. Big Tech companies make money off your usages of their platforms. Don’t support their wickedness just because it is convenient.

Thursday, January 7, 2021

Grateful To Be In Healthcare

When he (the Lord) shall appear, the saints will be like him; and if they are not holy, as he is holy, and perfect, as he is perfect, they cannot be like him; for no being can enjoy his glory without possessing his perfections and holiness, no more than they could reign in his kingdom without his power.”

(Lectures on Faith 7:10)


When He appears, you need to be like Him. Lay down the burden of guilt, lay down the burden of sin, stop focusing on that stuff, and become like Him. You become like Him by doing His works. And you do His works by serving other; by ministering to the needs of others. When you do that, it is a natural by-product of that process, ordained by laws established before the foundation of the world that light and truth will grow within you. You will have compassion when you minister to the needs of others with compassion. Your heart will open too and receive within it light and truth, when your conduct reflects the same conduct as a merciful, holy and just God, whom you claim to worship. Worship Him by imitating Him. Worship Him by doing His works. Worship Him by making a living sacrifice. Set aside the junk that occupies you and go do something that is holy for someone else.  However mundane and trivial it may seem to you, when you relieve the suffering of other people something changes in you. You become different. You become better. You become more like our Lord, because when you give whatever it is you give away, you get more in return. But make sure that what you give goes to relieve the suffering of others.


(40 Years in Mormonism talk 3, Repentance

                    


 

I left engineering school in 2018 and have been working in healthcare ever since.  Working in an industry where I am constantly helping to relieve the suffering of others has made me a much different person.  Grateful to be a healthcare worker during these times- to be burdened and privileged to be part of a work that has broken and grown my heart.   

Sunday, January 3, 2021

Beloved Bridegroom, Spiritual Dynamite

 


I just finished this book my friend Parker gave me.  It is an easy yet beautiful read and full of many gems! Written by an LDS scholar.  I would highly suggest this to anyone who wants to learn more about the Messiah through ancient Jewish marriage and family customs. ]By better understanding the cultural context of marriage in Judaism my adoration for Christ the Bridegroom has deepened.  

 

For many years I have been seeking to better understand the Holy Ghost and Jesus Christ's roles as the first and second Comforters.  I found this insight from the book very enlightening.  

The Holy Spirit is the person through whom there comes to us the strength and grace of God to enable us to cope with life.  Certainly, part of this work is to comfort, but only part.  To call the Holy Spirit the Comforter, and to stop there, is to have a limited and rather sentimental view of the Spirit, whereas in the Greek the word is full of power and of the promise of the God-given ability to face and to master any situation in life. 

How then did this word Comforter get into the English translation of the Bible?  It came in with Wycliffe about 1386, and it has stayed ever since.  But in the days of Wycliffe it was a perfect translation.  The word “comfort” is derived from the Latin word “fortis”, which means “brave”, and orginally the word meant someone who puts courage into you.  Let us take two other examples of it in Wycliffe.  Wycliffe translates Ephesians 6:10 as “be ye comforted in the Lord.”  And he translates 1 Timothy 1:12, “I do thanksgiving to him who comforted me.”  In both cases the word in the Greek is “endunamoun”, whose root is “dunams”, power, from which the word dynamite comes.  In Wycliffe’s day to comfort a person was to fill that person with a power like spiritual dynamite.  The Holy Spirit does not simply come and wipe our tears away; he gives us a dynamic power to cope with life.