A Time of Reflection, Part One
I consider it a gift and blessing from God to have the work of the restoration continue through Denver Snuffer, whom I consider to be the latter-day Davidic servant prophesied by Joseph Smith.
Journal
An Update! A Book Even!
Hello everyone. Yes a post by someone other than Tim. We still exist! Thanks again Tim for letting me post stuff here. What have I been doing some might ask? well many things, but the topic of this post is to say sometime ago I decided to write a book. The book remained in a …
Praying on the Mountain Top
Why did Jesus seek solitude when we went to pray? Can benefit by seeking the mountain top>
Oh Babylon, We Bid Thee Farewell
One of the disadvantages of putting so much of one’s energy into a worldly career is the drain on both time and energy to focus on the true purpose of life – finding ways to bless one’s fellow man. Being at the epitome or last days of this worldly career seems to have sapped from …
Strengthening One Another in Fellowship
Fellowship is designed to strengthen one another: to bear one another’s burdens and encourage each other in this life.
Obeying the Voice of God
How can you know what to believe about the purpose of life unless it is revealed to you by someone who knows – by a God =, for instance?
Life and Death of a Blog
A blog requires passion. I say that from eight years of experience. It takes vision. It requires time and effort. It is a labor of love. I loved blogging in Latter-day Commentary, especially in the years 2012-2014 as I was discovering, reading, digesting, pondering and praying about the writings of Denver Snuffer. Obviously the content …
Vision of the Abandoned Temple
If you don’t mind reading through a personal journal entry you might find some symbolic insights in this post.
Farewell – May God Bless you
Almost eight years I took a leap of faith, began to write short items I thought might be interesting to others, and posted them on Blogger. For years I labored, seeking to share what I thought would be helpful and enlightening. Sometimes, I know I hit the mark. Other posts were a complete waste of …
Parting the Veil
I yearn to connect with the powers of heaven. Each morning in my prayers I ask the Lord to walk with me. Each night I ask Him to part the veil that I may see and understand His will for me. On occasion, He does just that. May I share two such experiences from many …
Conversation With The Bishop
This is a fictional account. It is based on current events, but it is NOT how things went down with my Bishop. I have promised to keep that confidential. I share it because of the intense interest in the excommunication of various LDS bloggers in the news lately, including the impending disciplinary actions against Mormon …
When Good People Oppose Your Best Work
A while back I wrote an article entitled, “When Religion Comes Between Spouses.” It was my best effort at that time to share my ideas, successes and failures in dealing with a personal problem I was experiencing – and continue to experience in my marriage: a spouse who does not feel comfortable with, understand or …
Concluding Testimony at my Disciplinary Council
I shared my testimony in our regular monthly testimony meeting this morning. I wanted to make sure the Bishop and a member of the Stake Presidency present – he’s also in our ward – heard me say I sustain the general authorities and local authorities of the church. Of course these words were in addition …
True Order of Prayer – Part Two
Last week, I dedicated an altar in my home and prayed according to the true order of prayer as I have been taught in the temple. It was an amazing experience that opened up a whole new world for me. My only disappointment was that it was not shared with my wife, or at least …
Investigating Alternative Viewpoints
My bishop asked to visit with me again on Sunday afternoon. We spent an hour discussing my health – both mental and physical – my career, my financial condition and my blogging activities. Although he doesn’t read my blog, others in the ward do and have shared misgivings about me. I thanked him for the …
The Lord is Specific in Answering Prayer
This is going to seem like a really random post, but I promise if you will stick to the end you will find something worthwhile. I’ve prayed about it as I do all my posts and have decided the Lord would like me to share a few things about answering prayer. First off I want …
Gratitude for Those Who Build the Kingdom
Teaching the High Priest’s Group I’ve been asked to substitute teach the High Priest’s Group this weekend. I always enjoy teaching but wish we had more time. After the opening section of priesthood, we get about a half hour to teach. That’s barely enough time to say hello and introduce a topic. Well, I prayed …
Life in the Church for an Old Guy
I wrote this yesterday after my tech class was over for the day. Would have published it last night but we went to the local Community Writers Group to learn more about how to be a good poet. Ah, the things we do for love. Somehow, it looks like our empty-nest years are going to …
Personal Evidence of Casting Out Devils
I could have put some benign headline on this post, but who would read a story labeled, “Miracle in Agoura,” or “Man stops taking drugs cold turkey?” I want to make a point with the headline and I hope it catches your attention. This story needs to be told in this modern day and age. …
When Religion Comes Between Spouses
Over the years, I’ve read with interest many stories of conflict between husbands and wives where one spouse was a believer in a religion and the other wasn’t. It always hurt my heart to read such stories. Some even made me cry to think of two people who loved each other enough to marry and start a …
Meeting with a Mental Health Professional
Broken Things to Mend – Part two (another journal entry) I met with the first of the five psychiatrists yesterday. If you’ve never met with a mental health professional, you might want to consider it. The experience was enjoyable. He was a little older than me – OK, maybe by about ten years, but fit …
Broken Things to Mend – Part One
This is not a review of Elder Holland’s excellent book, but I have borrowed the title. This is a journal entry that may or may not be of any interest to you. It’s about mental illness in an LDS family – mine. Some may feel it is too personal to share on a public blog. …
Finding the Lord in Your Daily Work
Personal Journal Entry I sat down about a half hour ago, waiting for the guys to finish putting the carpet down and put the new desks in. I’m at work today, but I have nothing pressing to do. It’s a Saturday. I came in about 1pm to help put the fifteen computers back together in …
The Last Post
Warning: This may not be Uplifting I’m in another computer class this week. This makes week number sixteen this year. For those mathematically challenged, this will be 640 hours by the end of the week. I’ve got three more weeks to go – another 120 hours for a total of 760 hours. I got to …
A Moderate Approach to Denver Snuffer
In a private email from Denver Snuffer earlier this year, I had an epiphany about myself and my writing style. I was surprised when he answered my email directly and pleased that he would do so. He shared some advice and an observation which stopped me in my tracks. He said I had a “fair …
Our Libraries Get in our Way
I just discovered the scan icon on my Goodreads iPhone app. What I thought would be a totally manual process of entering my 2,000+ library of books into Goodreads has now turned into a manageable project. I just scanned a dozen and entered them in about ten minutes. You can even scan a whole bunch …
Answers are Found in the Scriptures
I often have this feeling that the Lord wants to talk to me. It usually comes on a Saturday night. It is also stronger if I haven’t been to the temple in a while. We were last there three weeks ago and typically make it at least once a month. I’m not sharing this to …
A few Thoughts From Ephraim’s Rescue
This is not a review of the movie. There are spoilers. It is a commentary on priesthood blessings. Here in the Mission Field On this Pioneer day down here in California we went and saw Ephraim’s Rescue. I think it played one time last week in Simi Valley and tonight’s showing in Ventura was a …
Blogging the End of the World
I think I’m getting excited about blogging again. When I started back in 2007 I did a lot of work to promote this thing. I registered with all the appropriate sites. I left comments on numerous other sites similar to mine. I made sure I stuck to my three themes so my readers would know …
Becoming the Pure in Heart
I’m grateful to worship with you in church today. I’m grateful also to remember the Lord through the ordinance of the sacrament. There’s something wonderful that happens when we partake of the sacrament. It’s not magic, but even after all these years, I can’t really explain why it’s so special and sacred. It just is. …
Mormon Youth and Drugs
A long time ago I read a book that profoundly influenced my life. It seems I start a lot of my blog posts this way, but it’s true. Reading can do that for you. This one was by Gerald Neils Pearson. You may recognize the name. He was the husband of Carol Lynn Pearson. Gerald …
Interview With a General Authority
Unless you count my Mission President who later became one, I have only been interviewed by a General Authority once in my life. I was serving on a High Council when a new Stake President was called. The visiting GA interviewed all the High Councilors and Bishops. It was short. I was happy for the …
Healing the Inner Self
I am meeting sometime this weekend with Dr. Mel Fish of Cedar City. I bought his books a few years back, have enjoyed them and felt impressed to write an essay about them. Since this blog is my personal gospel study journal, I like to involve the Lord in what I write. I knelt down …
What Denver Snuffer Teaches
This essay contains my study notes from chapter one of Passing the Heavenly Gift, written by Denver Snuffer, a Utah attorney and published in 2011. I have read this chapter half a dozen times in the past year, shared it with my wife, looked up the quotes and spent considerable time on my knees trying …
The Encouragement Talk
This is a talk I prepared a long time ago for an occasion just like this. It’s a talk I’ve always wanted to hear from the pulpit and one I hope is helpful. It has to do with encouragement. Paul said, “…be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a …
Whisperings of the Holy Spirit
A line in my patriarchal blessing reads, “if you will listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit, that comes to you, you will be directed into the path that you should go, that your advancement will not be detained, that you will use every possible moment in your development for the work that you …
Elder Perry Visits our Sacrament Meeting
We had a visit from Elder Perry to our ward in Camarillo today. He told us he was in town on one of the last days of a week-long series of meetings in California. He started in San Jose on Tuesday and had one more half day Monday in San Fernando. He has been meeting …
Miracles and Angels
A car lurched from the Oklahoma country road into the highway. The driver didn’t stop at the stop sign. Instead, he stalled on the road a hundred yards in front of us. “Why doesn’t he get out of the way?” I asked from the middle of the front seat. Dad didn’t respond. He locked up …
Sandinistas
“Everyone get down.” A rock crashed through the front window of the bus. We didn’t have to be told twice. Some passengers ducked in their seats. We got on the floor. My heart raced. The bus sped up. I looked at my companion. It was hard to see him in the dark. He seemed terrified. …
The attitude of mocking
The attitude of mocking those who are believers in God and followers of Christ is common among those who have embraced the Hippie movement. The Great and spacious building is full of hippies whose acceptance of illicit sex and drugs is promoted through much of the music found at the modern rock concert.
God even loves computer geeks like me
It is easy to think that God doesn’t love us or isn’t interested in our mundane lives. But if we stop and take the time to think about it, God is very involved in what we do each day. We just have to look for ways that mean something special to us.
The teaching and testifying missionary
Although I have previously shared a couple of stories from my mission, I have been wanting for a long time to express how much I enjoyed my mission and how it changed my life. There is no doubt that serving a mission was difficult but it was also a period of unequaled and appreciated spiritual …
Faith, Magic and a Patriarchal Blessing
Patriarchal blessings are wonderful things. They are especially wondrous when received at a young age. The promises in them almost seem magical because the idea of righteous living as a cause and effect of fulfillment of those promises is usually not understood at a young age. There is nothing magical about the blessings, just as …
A Church Employment System miracle
Several years ago, my family and I faced a Christmas season accompanied with an ongoing period of unemployment. Through no fault of my own, I had been laid off six months earlier from a high-paying job that ended as a normal course of business. The manufacturing computing project I had been hired to support had …
A tribute to a great dad
Dad suffered a stroke today. He is 86 years old. Mother died a few years back but Dad is not alone. My brother moved in with him last year and was there to call the paramedics and get him to the hospital. From what we can tell, the stroke is not that bad but will …
A testimony of living prophets
Where were you when the spirit first bore witness to you that God does call prophets in this day and that man can speak for God with authority and power from on high? Have you received that witness and testimony for yourself? I have. May I share it with you? It may sound simple in …
A mother who knew
My mother was a Presbyterian and a pretty darn good one. In fact, I’m sure she was one of the best, meaning that she knew the doctrine better than most. That’s probably because she came from a long line of Presbyterians, many of whom were ordained ministers. Mother was an educator. She loved the Bible. …