He is Risen!

Yesterday, my grandson was baptised.  I couldn't help thinking that it was so fitting that this ordinance was done on the day before Easter, with his confirmation following today.  Fitting, because yesterday represented the day when Jesus' body was in the tomb.  When we decide to be baptized we repent and confess our sins, "killing" the old and sinful person we had been.  Then we are buried in the water as Christ was buried in the tomb.  When we come up out of the water, it is symbolic of Christ's resurrection.  We come out of the water clean, risen from a watery "grave" as a new person in Jesus Christ.  As I said, fitting. 
 
Paul wrote to the Romans:

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (6: 3-6; 8-11)
 
So I celebrate today in remembrance of Jesus Christ who took upon Himself the sins of the world, who died for us, and was resurrected.  He holds the keys to death and hell.  Through Him, all who live and die will be resurrected, for death is conquered, man is free.  He unlocks the gates of hell for all who come unto Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit; who are buried with Him in the baptismal waters and arise clean to a new life.  Like my grandson.

He is risen!  Christ is risen indeed!

Text copyright Gebara Education Easter Sunday 2013

 

Picture from various sources on the web including www.lds.org

Seeing is Not Believing

The Roman soldiers hastened to break the legs of the three men on the crosses to hasten their deaths as the Jewish Sabbath was fast approaching.  However, when they reach the man on the middle cross, he was already dead.  To make sure, the soldier punctured the pericardium and water tinged with blood flowed out, the sign of a heart that was no longer beating.

The man's followers took his body from the cross and laid it in a borrowed tomb.  In their haste, they wrapped him in a linen cloth without the usual preparations for the dead.  The women would come back with their jars of ointment on the first day of the week to finish the preparations of their beloved teacher's body.  

 

~  ~  ~                    

 

For many years, controversy has swirled around a linen cloth known as the Shroud of Turin.  On the shroud is the image of a crucified man.  It is stained with human blood.  There was blood around the man's head as if a thorn of crowns were place there.  There was blood in stripes down his back as if he had been severely beaten.  There was blood on the hands, feet, and wrists from the crucifiers' nails and a blood stain on his chest just below where his heart would have been.

 

 

Is this the image of Jesus Christ?  For the past few decades, scientists have done everything they could to prove it is a fake - a medieval forgery.  But a new scientific study out of Italy is making the claim that the shroud is far older than earlier research indicated - over 2000 years, and could very well be the real deal.  But even that doesn't prove it was the shroud of the body of Jesus Christ.  Only that it is a real shroud of a crucified man with similar injuries at about that time.

 

In the end, does it really matter?  After all, seeing is not believing; believing is seeing.  Even if scientists had the DNA of God (an impossibility) against which to test it, the shroud and similar relics won't build faith or testimony.  If you want to have faith in Jesus Christ, you need to do it the old fashioned way - in the scriptures and on your knees.

 

And celebrate tomorrow.

 

Just sayin'.

 

Text copyright Gebara Education March 2013

 

Picture of Shroud of Turin from many sources on the web

Gethsemane and Calvary

Most Christians believe that Jesus’ suffering for the sins of the world took place only on the cross.  To them, the cross has become the symbol of His grace.  Latter-day Saints understand that His suffering began in the Garden of Gethsemane and ended on the cross.

The word Gethsemane is a clue in itself, and I do not believe it was by accident that Jesus went there to pray the night before His death. Nothing He ever did was coincidental.  The word Gethsemane means olive press.  It was so named because of the olive presses that did and – so I understand – still do exist in the garden.  I’ve never seen olive oil being pressed, but I have listened to those who have.  The olives are ground to a pulp under large stone wheels.  The olive mash is then placed into the press where a heavy stone presses down with such force that oil and water are extruded from the olive mash and run out through an opening in the bottom of the press into a collecting trough.  Those who have seen it firsthand say that the first liquid to come through is a deep, blood red and that it will stain anything it touches. 

 

I believe that the symbolism of the olive press is a description of Christ’s suffering when the weight of the sins of the world pressed down on a sinless man.  Let me walk you through the Biblical account and then follow up with the Book of Mormon and modern-day revelation.

Prophesying about the atonement, the Psalmist wrote: “I am full of heaviness; and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none. . .” (Psalm 69:20).  The first thing Matthew tells us is that as Jesus goes deeper into the garden with Peter, James, and John, He said that He felt “sorrowful and very heavy . . . exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death . . .” (Matthew 26: 37-38).

Mark also tells us that Jesus felt very heavy, but he also said that Jesus “began to be sore amazed . . .” (Mark 14:33).  Jesus had known from before the foundations of the world that He would suffer for the sins of the world.  But as the weight of that awful burden began to press down upon Him, I think He was sore amazed.  He was a sinless man.  He had known grief and sorrow, but never the tormenting grief of sin.

Mark also tells us that Jesus “went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed . . .” (Mark 14:35).  The Greek verbs translated as went, fell, and prayed are in the imperfect tense describing, not an action that happened once and then stopped, but rather a series of actions that went on and on.  So Jesus went forward and fell and prayed; went forward and fell and prayed; went forward and fell and prayed. The crushing weight of the sins and sorrows of the world had to have been almost unbearable.  Only Mark tells us that, as He prayed that the bitter cup be taken from Him, He addressed His Heavenly Father as Abba – a close translation of which is daddy.  His torment must have been unfathomable.

Luke was a physician.  He gives us an insight into Jesus’ suffering in the garden that none of the other gospel writers could have.  Luke tells us that in the depth of “agony, he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

Scholars are conflicted as to what Luke meant.  The confusion surrounds the Greek word, hos.  If the word is used as an adverb, it means Jesus sweat was like blood.  If it is used as an adjective, it means His sweat was blood. The question cannot be answered by an appeal to the Bible alone, but men have gone both ways on the issue.  Our phrases for severe stress - “sweat blood” and “blood, sweat, and tears” - certainly come from Luke’s account of Jesus’ suffering.

King Benjamin, a righteous Nephite king and prophet, wrote this about 125 years before Jesus was born:

And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.  And he shall be called . . . the Son of God . . . the Creator of all things from the beginning . . . (Mosiah 3: 7-8).

In modern revelation, Jesus Himself said that He sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane.  After calling the Latter-day Saints to repentance, He told the Prophet Joseph Smith:

For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit – and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink – Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men (Doctrine and Covenants 19: 16 – 19).

Jesus bled further that same night as he was beaten severely and more than once.  These are the “stripes” with which we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).  This, too, was part of the price He paid for our sins.  Only then did He go to the cross.

Crucifixion was a brutal, painful, and shameful death.  Certainly, there was bleeding with nails driven into feet, hands, and wrists.  But its victims didn’t bleed to death.  They died from suffocation when, through shock and fatigue, their legs could no longer hold their weight and they slumped, crushing their lungs.  Men sometimes hung on the cross for days before dying.

Jesus was on the cross for six hours – from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM – before He died.  We know He was already weak from loss of blood because He said He was thirsty, a sign of low blood volume.  When He died, He did not die from the effects of the crucifixion.  He died because He gave up His life; no one took it from Him. Luke tells us that He said, “Father into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost” (Luke 23: 46).

The Jewish Sabbath would begin at 6:20 PM that year.  The three men on the crosses could not be left to hang during Sabbath so the soldiers moved to complete the executions before then.  The two thieves were still alive and the Roman soldiers broke their legs to hasten their deaths.  But when the soldier approached Jesus, He was already dead and, therefore, he did not break His legs. This fulfilled prophecy that none of His bones would be broken.  The Paschal lamb was to have no bones broken during the sacrifice (see Numbers 9:12) and the Psalmist wrote, “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken” (Psalms 34:20).

To make sure Jesus was dead, a soldier pierced His side with his sword.  Blood and water gushed out like the virgin pressing of the olive mash and the atonement and suffering for our sins was over.

Text copyright Gebara Education 2011

Pictures from multiple sources on the web

There's No Place Like Home

Feeding the giraffe.

I had a wonderful mini-vacation for spring break.  My sis's daughter came and we went to Out-of-Africa in Camp Verde, AZ.  It was a fun adventure.
 

Me.  Oh, my!

I thought I'd be back online yesterday, but I was suffering from the car trip equivalent of jet lag.  I'm still not up to climbing mountains or studying Revelation this morning!  Maybe tomorrow? 

"There's no place like home.  There's no place like home."

In the meantime, it is good to be home.

I will be away from my computer for a couple of days.  See you back on Wednesday!

Palm Sunday ~ Amazing Grace

Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem during His final Passover here on earth.  As He was hailed King of Kings with palm fronds and cloaks spread before Him, only He knew how close He was to Gethsemane, Calvary, and the empty tomb.  This day marks the holiest week in Christendom.  I thought you might enjoy this rendition of Amazing Grace to set the tone for the week leading up to Easter.  I hope it may help us to focus on our Savior and His inestimable gift of grace.

For Palm Sunday: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/photo.php?v=10151347886086843&set=p.10151347886086843&type=2&theater

 

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth

True and Righteous are His Judgments ~ Alleluia!

And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.  And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.  And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. (Revelation 19:1-4, KJV)

Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!  The righteous in all of creation rejoice.  The war begun in heaven before the foundations of the world is about to draw to its close.  Those corrupt combinations of politics, economics, and false religion that have tormented mankind throughout history are destroyed.  Christ comes again; not as a helpless babe in a stable, but as a warrior in conquering red, crowned as the true king of heaven and earth.  That false prince, the man of darkness, who would claim to be the king of this world, is about to be chained, disempowered, and imprisoned.  What a glorious day!

But what is this?  God rejoicing that His fallen children are destroyed?  The righteous jeering at their fallen brothers and sisters?  I don't think so.  I believe the rejoicing is because of the final victory of good over evil; the final end to the misery and suffering on the earth.  Corrupt organizations and evil combinations destroyed so that men's souls will be purchased for a price no more.  But as to individuals?  I believe that God weeps.  Mercy cannot rob justice.  Man has his agency.  Individuals have multiple opportunities to repent and come unto Christ.  If they continue to choose otherwise, then judgment must fall or God would cease to be God. (Alma 42:5)  And I believe God weeps.

Something similar happened before the world was destroyed in the great flood.  The prophet, Enoch, in a vision, sees God weeping.  Enoch is amazed that a perfect being would weep.  After all, these people who will die are wicked.  But God answers Enoch thus:

And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?  And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?  The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;  And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;  But behold, their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers; Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?  Wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep, yea, and all the workmanship of mine hands. (Moses 7: 28-29, 32-33, 37, 40; Pearl of Great Price)

So before the great and terrible day of the Lord, I need to make sure where my loyalties lie; but I also need to reach out in love and compassion to my brothers and sisters - those who struggle; those who doubt; those who have made choices in their lives contrary to God's will and don't know how to come back.  There is a way back.  Christ loves you.  He wants you to be His.  He wants you to be happy.  He wants you to be prepared for His wedding feast.  And you can be. Alleluia!

Text copyright Gebara Education March 2013

 

Both pictures are from multiple sources on the web

Two Other Towers

I was working at the school on 9/11 when the planes hit the towers.  Like most of America, I was stunned by what I saw.  I couldn't wrap my head around it.  Later, as the towers collapsed upon themselves, it was as if someone had hit me in the stomach: I felt sick.

Most of the teachers had their classroom televisions on that morning once the world spread about what was transpiring.  Because I was the school counselor, I was visiting the classrooms, comforting staff and students alike.  The news broadcasts kept replaying the iconic moment when the plane hit the second tower.  Over and over again, the scene dominated the airwaves.  I watched the children.  each time the plane hit, I could see them flinch, terror on their faces.

I hadn't visited many rooms before I became aware that when these young children watched that plane explode into the building, what they were perceiving was a separate plane hitting a separate building, as if the entire nation was under attack.  Little children do not have the cognitive ability to understand that this was the same picture being shown multiple times: to them it was multiple attacks.  I talked to our principal and we quickly agreed to call each classroom and to tell the teachers to turn off their television sets.  I wrote a memo to the teachers explaining the cognitive development of their students and took them around personally. 

Later that night, a child psychologist on a TV news show told the parents of America the same thing.  Even adults needed to check the news once in the morning and once in the evening, then turn off the TV and take care of those things over which they had both control and responsibility.  Those who didn't were soon mired - some almost crippled - by depression and despair.

Reading the Book of Revelation could create the same experience, and, I suspect, does for a lot of people.  Perhaps that is why so many of us avoid it.  Yet while the plagues and destruction are described by many different symbols, the common themes remain the same: God will ultimately win.  Those who choose to stand with Him will be saved.  The wicked will be destroyed, in many cases by the natural consequences of the fact that "wickedness never was happiness." (Alma 41:10) Systems built on evil and yoked with Satan and Babylon will share their fate.

What can I control?  I can control where I choose to stand and how I choose to live.  I can choose the God I worship.  I can choose to love and serve Him and to love and serve His children.  That is what I can control.  What can you control?

Text copyright Gebara Education March 2013

 

Picture of twin towers from www.whitegadget.com

Babylon and the Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel, by Pieter il Vecchio Bruegel, 1563,
16th Century, oil on wood panel

The Book of Revelation is full of references to Babylon as the symbol of all that is evil in the last days.  It is part of the name on the crown of the harlot who sits upon the scarlet beast.  When I have read those references in the past, I have thought of the Babylon of the Book of Daniel and of Nebuchadnezzar and of the 70 year exile of the Jews.  But recently, I have come to look more deeply for the meaning of Babylon and all it represents.

To get the full impact, we have to go back to the Book of Genesis, right after the Great Flood and to Nimrod, the King, a descendant of Ham.  I am going to quote from a website called The Tower of Babel because I like the way they explain it and I like the fact that I can show you the name Babel in the original Hebrew:

The Tower of Babel (Hebrew: מגדל בבל‎ Migdal Bavel Arabic: برج بابل‎ Burj Babil) according to chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built at the city of Babel, the Hebrew name for Babylon (AkkadianBabilu). According to the biblical account, a united humanity, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, took part in the building after the Great Flood.

Babel was also called the "beginning" of Nimrod's kingdom. The people decided their city should have a tower so immense that it would have "its top in the heavens"(וְרֹאשׁוֹ בַשָּׁמַיִם). However, the Tower of Babel was not built for the worship and praise of God, but was dedicated to the glory of man, with a motive of making a 'name' for the builders: "Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.'" (Genesis 11:4). God, seeing what the people were doing, came down and confounded their languages and scattered the people throughout the earth. [1]

Herein lies the significance: "[Babylon has] the reputation of being the first [place] where men combined against God with the deliberate goal of frustrating and wresting control from him  It was where a false theological system fought against the true. . . . Babylon incarnates arrogance, pride, and insatiable corruption in opposition to God and His kingdom." [2]  No wonder the Saints rejoice when Babylon falls.

[1] http://thetowerofbabel.net
[2] Richard Draper, Opening the Seven Seals, pp. 189-190

Text copyright Gebara Educaton March 2013 except direct quotes where noted above

Picture for www.yahooimages.com

There is No Third Path

Webster's dictionary defines mayhem as - 1 a: willful and permanent deprivation of a bodily member resulting in the impairment; b: willful and permanent crippling, mutilation, or disfigurement of the body; 2: needless or willful damage or violence

 

Satan is sometimes referred to as Master Mayhem, the creator of chaos.  From that title comes a description of a socio-economic philosophy known as the Mahonic principle.  Strictly defined, it means turning human life into property.  It is an apt description of the dragon, the beast, the anti-Christ, and the harlot of Revelation.  The goal of these earthly kingdoms, both political and religious is the gaining of wealth and power at the expense of human rights, dignity, and moral values.  I believe the harlot of Revelation is the embodiment of the Mahonic principle: loving property and using people instead of loving people and using property.

 

When I did a search for images of mayhem, I found the above picture.  I thought it was an apt display of the values of our society today.  The positioning of the cross in the picture is particularly apropos.  The fact that the Mayhem in question here is a band by that name only underscores for me where we are as a culture (i.e., this is entertainment?)  

 

These same themes appear over and over in the Book of Revelation.  The images changes, but the main ideas continues as a single thread throughout.  There are two paths in the last days: the path to Jesus Christ and the path that leads everywhere but to Jesus Christ.  There is no third path.  That, to me, is the key: there is no third path.

 

For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.  But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.  (Moroni 7: 16-17)

 

In the end, Christ will win, and those who gloried in the harlot will mourn her passing and, at the same time, eat her flesh:

 

And the ten horns [degenerate earthly kingdoms] which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. (Revelation 17: 16)

 

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.  And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: (Revelation 18: 9-11)

 

Text copyright Gebara Education March 2013

 

Picture from www.lastfm.de

 

Ideas That Hadn't Occurred to Me

Dr. Draper draws an interesting contrast between the harlot of Revelation 17 and the high priest of Israel.  It is another point of comparison between the Church and Kingdom of God and the church and kingdom of the devil.  These are little things I would have missed on my own.  The symbols used include colors, predominantly scarlet and purple, a golden cup, and a crown or miter with a message identifying the person wearing it.

 

COLORS: The dragon in Revelation is described in Greek as purros - fire engine red.  The woman's robes are described as kokkinos, crimson and blue - scarlet. (see Draper*)  "A ribbon of this color, representing the sins of Israel, was tied round the neck of the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement before it was driven into the wilderness to its death.  It became indirectly associated with harlotry and the deep sins of ungodly conduct.  The color stand in contrast to the white robes of the redeem and the gown of the bride of the Lamb [Christ's Church]." (*p.187)  Scarlet and purple are also colors found in the hangings within Solomon's temple.  The Levitical high priest wore garments of purple/blue and scarlet over his white robes.

 

CUP:  The high priest has a golden goblet with which he offers a wine offering to God in the temple.  The woman has a golden goblet full of the "wine of her fornication" - sin, corruption, filth. 

 

MITER The high priest wears a golden crown or miter around his cap with the inscription: "Holiness to the Lord."  The woman's crown reads: "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." (Revelation 17: 5)  Draper suggests that this is a deliberate contrast between the harlot and the high priest.  As the lamb with two horns is a counterfeit of the Lamb of God, the harlot is, among other things, a counterfeit of the priesthood of God.

 

I wouldn't have thought of that!  Thank you Dr. Draper.

 

* Opening the Seven Seals. Richard D. Draper. Deseret Book. SLC. 1991

 

Text copyright Gebara Education March 2013

 

Picture of harlot from www.comicvine.com

Picture of high priest from www.prayerthoughts.com

The True Source of Knowledge

I love my laptop!  I was trained as a researcher when I worked on my graduate degrees.  In the beginning, it was difficult to develop the discipline to do the work, but I grew to enjoy it.  I am naturally curious and research helped me learn.

Then, about 15 or so years ago, I became acquainted with the Internet.  Oh, wow!  I was like a child in a toy store!  Information so profuse that I couldn't study it all if I studied non-stop for the rest of my life!  When I was born, information was doubling about once every 500 years.  Now, it is doubling every few months.  A veritable feast!  It would be easy to become a glutton; an info junkie.

Fortunately, while my research skills were growing, so were my spiritual research skills, for there is a source of information the worldwide web cannot touch.  I am talking about the Holy Spirit.  He is the source of true knowledge about the things that matter the most.  On the web, it is easy to become caught up in the thick of thin things (Neal A. Maxwell.)  With the Spirit as my guide, the things I learn are never thin nor trivial: they are vital.  The Spirit can download knowledge, testimony, affirmation, confirmation, and comfort at speeds of which Microsoft can only dream!

 

Even my online research can be affirmed or refuted as I seek the Spirit to sift through the dross that is out there.  An ancient prophet once wrote: And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.  And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. (Moroni 10: 4-5)

 

Yes, I love my laptop; but I love my connection with the Holy Spirit far more.  If I had to do without one or the other, it is a no-brainer which I would choose to delete.

 

Text copyright Gebara Education March 2013

 

Picture of laptop from www.expert-insurance.net

Picture of Holy Spirit as a dove from www.turnbacktogod.com

Just Sayin' Saturday

I suppose you've noticed that I've posted some semi-mindless drivel this week.  I'm still trying to get myself back on track after surgery, so mea culpa.  I have posted a few words of wisdom from other people without comment because my comments would be semi-mindless drivel.  Sigh!

While I've been down, I've been reading a lot and watching a few videos.  I've read the same three chapters of Revelation at least twice each and still struggling with the message.  Revelation is not good post-surgery literature! Pain medication dulls the Spirit, so I've taken none the past three days except at bedtime.  I've now found that pain and fatigue aren't much better.  I am hoping to have my chops back next week and can get back to thinking in words beyond two syllables.  I tell myself, this is just a little bump in the road.  I'll tell you that, too, if you're listening.

Just sayin'.

Out-of-Africa

 

My niece is coming to visit in a little over a week.  We will be going to Out-of-Africa in Camp Verde, AZ.  I am really looking forward to her trip and the fun times she, her mom, our mom-by-marriage, and I will have!

 

A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers but borrowed from his children.  ~ John James Audubon

 

Picture from http://outofafricapark.com/

Some Thoughts for This Morning

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space. ~ Johnny Cash

 

When you live in reaction, you give your power away.  Then you get to experience what you gave your power to. ~ N. Smith

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'! " ~ Audrey Hepburn

There is no better opportunity to receive more than to be thankful for what you already have. ~ Jim Rohn

You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.~ Eckhart Tolle

CorrieTen Boom & I on Faith & Fear

Faith is like radar that sees through the fog -- the reality of things at adistance that the human eye cannot see.

Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles…. it empties today of its strength.

1 John 4:18:

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

I had a little apprehension going into my surgery, but not much.  I think that is because of the love I have in my life.  So many people were holding me up in love and prayer and, I believe, on both sides of the veil.  I felt their prayers.  My sister and a dear friend were at my side all the way and I felt very safe in their love.  Because of all the love I felt, there was no fog and there was no worry.  I am blessed in my healing and am feeling better every day.

I choose faith, not fear.  How about you?

 

Text copyright Gebara Education March 2013

 

Picture from www.yahooimages.com

Please pray.

I'll Try to Remember This Tomorrow.

 

Please pray for me.  Thank you.

When the Cold Winds Blow

When I was in high school, I was required to memorize the fable, The Grasshopper and the Ant in French.  There was a line where the ant queen asks the grasshopper what he was going to do when the cold winds blow if he didn't prepare now.  I remember the line clearly (although I can no longer spell it in French.)  I think of it whenever it is a cold and windy day.  In the spring, I think of it a lot!

March always means cold wind in the White Mountains of Arizona.  One of the old-timers told me that Brigham Young told them to stay here until the wind quit blowing and they are all still here!  That may be a myth, but it is certainly applicable.

Life is like that.  Some days are sunny; some seasons, enriching.  Other times there are storms.  It pays to fill your emotional well when the sunny days and enriching seasons are upon you so that you don't fall apart when the cold winds blow. 

I have tried to do that, not only so that I don't fall over but that I will have the strength to stand as a calm and steadying anchor for those who are being battered by the storms of the their lives.  It works.

 

He ain't heavy; he's my brother.

Just sayin'.

Text copyright Gebara Education March 2013

If Doctors Are Honest, Why Do They Wear Masks?

Having some surgery Monday.  Don't know what my posts will be like nor when I will post them for the next week.  All prayers welcomed.  Thanks!

Of Brides and Harlots

 

In the 25th chapter of the Book of Matthew, the Savior taught His apostles about a wedding feast yet to come.  In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, He warns that not everyone who has been invited to the wedding will be prepared with oil in their lamps.  It has always interested me that He doesn't call them the 5 wicked bridesmaids, or even the 5 naughty bridesmaids.  He calls them foolish.  They were invited to the feast, but they were all-mosters and procrastinators. 

The bridegroom in this story is Jesus Himself and the bride is His Church. Prior to His Second Coming and before the final wiping clean of the wicked from the earth, Christ will come for those who are prepared to greet Him; those with clean hands and pure hearts, dressed in spiritual white and with oil in their lamps and to spare. 

Think about the image of a bride preparing for her wedding, then translate all that joy and purity to the image of Christ's Church.  More importantly, think of that image in terms of each individual who has a relationship with Jesus Christ.  I ask myself: do I have oil in my lamp?  Am I worthy to be dressed in white? (see Revelation )  Do I have clean hands and a pure heart?  If not, I'd better work on that so that I won't be shut out of the wedding feast of the bridegroom.  It may be more difficult for a man to see himself in this image of the bride, but think about the kind of bride you would want to have look at you across the altar.  You must be as pure as she.  I have never believed in a moral double standard.

 

Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Thou hast a few names . . . which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. (Revelation 3: 1-5)

 

Then in Revelation 17, we meet another kind of woman all together.  He is called a harlot, the great whore of the earth, with all of the images that go with that title.  She is drunk with the blood of martyred saints.  The world is drunk with the blood of her fornication.  I have always had a problem with our society's attitude of acceptance - even embracing - of fornication, adultery, and homosexual activities as being natural, normal, and all right.  It's not about having a desire: it's about what you do with that desire that makes the difference.  If you act on it in a morally unclean way, then it is not all right.  All through the scriptures and especially in the Book of Revelation, the wickedness of the world is depicted as a morally unclean woman.

 

If the bride is the Church, then the harlot is Babylon:

 

Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. (Revelation 17: 1, 2, 4, 5)

 

How do I want to be described by God?  I think that's a no-brainer, don't you?

 

Text copyright Gebara Education March 2013

 

Picture of bridegroom from www.myspace.com

Picture of bride from www.boosisteralert.wordpress.com

Picture of scarlet woman from www.home.earthlink.net