60,cloudy, and hazy

here's another one of those legitimate brain dumps:

i will put a disclaimer on this post and say that it is purely my opinion and not anything i can actually document or reference in the scriptures; it is purely my speculation.


it's about both the law of moses-like things and scribe-like and pharisaical practices in the modern-day Church. when Christ came, He completely fulfilled the Law of Moses and the new law became (1) to love God above all other things and (2) to love thy neighbor as thyself. that was it. excepting those two, the commandments were totally gone and there was no longer any need for them *if* the people obeyed those two (everything else would simply fall into place).

fast forward about 1800 years exactly and Joseph Smith receives the revelation about the Word of Wisdom, laying out a an entire litany of specific things we should or should not ingest.

i think these two paragraphs have completely and totally contradicting ideas--the first saying that we need only love God and that we don't need any other specifications, while the second saying to do this, avoid that, etc.

so why all the specifics?

here are my thoughts:

we aren't spiritually mature enough to obey the spirit of the Law of Christ completely. people often talk about "the spirit of the law" as if it were somehow more lenient and easy to live/obey. i totally disagree; when we live the spirit of any law, we generally follow MUCH stricter policies or guidelines.

take, for instance, the word of wisdom: what is the spirit of the law behind that one (or in other words, what was the Lord wanting us to do when He gave that law?)? in my opinion, it was to take care of our bodies. the spirit of the law wasn't "don't ingest alcohol, tobacco, tea, drugs, or coffee," but rather, "keep your body in good condition." this would of course include all those other things mentioned, but it would also include eating healthily in general and exercising. so many people concentrate on all the things you can or can't do that they lose sight of what the law is really about. this is EXACTLY what happened with so many of the scribes, pharisees, and saducees. as a result of this, [i hypothesize] we have a ton of people in the Church who are just terribly unhealthy because of their eating habits, etc, but by all technical terms, are still "worthy."

another example of this is the sabbath. a couple of weeks ago i went to church at a branch in Glennallen, AK, where the lesson was on the sabbath. we talked about all the things people should or shouldn't do on sundays. i have to confess that i did NOT like the lesson because it was totally law of moses. i felt like we were totally shooting past the mark and losing sight of what the law was really about.

The law is about keeping the Lord's day as holy as possible, not about doing such and such activity and not doing another because it is or isn't on a list. frankly,i could do all those things on that list, but not keep the sabbath holy if i din't do them with the right spirit or focus.

now i'm going to go off my train of thought and write some stuff my roommate and i were talking about, just so i can get it sorted out in my head.

the Spirit will teach us at our own pace. in the lesson i was talking about, in that list, there were a few things that were put out by the Church that i wouldn't do because i don't feel comfortable doing them on Sundays. conversely, i do some things on sundays that others don't do because they don't feel comfortable doing them. so, in essence, we all do what we feel comfortable doing, according to the promptings and teachings of the Holy Ghost. the Spirit could come to us and tell us to work on some aspect of our spirituality, while He may tell someone else something else. it is then of course our responsibility to obey that and make it a part of our lives. as we do that, HE will teach us the very spirit of the laws we are attempting to live at the time.

what i am trying to get at is that we must live the laws as we know how to live them. in 1st corinthians 8:4-13, the new converts who had previously practiced the law of moses were upset about the gentile converts eating the used sacrificial meat (now why they were still doing sacrifices is totally beyond me) because they felt that it was totally irreverencing it. however, the gentiles didn't have any problem with it because they had not lived under the law of moses and had no dogmas attached to the meat. paul's response was to simply be careful that the meat not become a stumbling block to the saints in corinth.

similarly, i believe we musn't let the specific guidelines the Church or more importantly, the Church MEMBERS attach to the commandments be stumbling blocks for us or we will "look past the mark," and fall short in keeping the commandments.

and now i will step down off my soap box and stop preaching logan doctrine. i realize that some of this is not terribly accurate and is instead opinion, but i thought i'd write it down nonetheless. let me know your thoughts, especially on my point about the Lord giving us specific guidelines about the commandments as a result of our spiritual immaturity to fully live the commandments without specific delineation as to how to live those commandments.

it's now been about two months since i wrote this (it's 0ct 17th and i am editing this post) and President Uchtdorf said something absolutely brilliant in his talk at conference:

The Savior Himself provided the answer with this profound declaration: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”1 This is the essence of what it means to be a true disciple: those who receive Christ Jesus walk with Him.2
But this may present a problem for some because there are so many “shoulds” and

“should nots” that merely keeping track of them can be a challenge. Sometimes, well-meaning amplifications of divine principles—many coming from uninspired sources—complicate matters further, diluting the purity of divine truth with man-made addenda. One person’s good idea—something that may work for him or her—takes root and becomes an expectation. And gradually, eternal principles can get lost within the labyrinth of “good ideas.”

i have no comment on this, except "AMEN!"

Knowing Christ, part 2.

My last blog concentrated on how we can get to know Christ. It was really quite the dilemma in my head and I was having a really hard time resolving it. I counseled with quite a few people, including my very knowledgeable father and insightful brother-in-law and have come up with some things that have helped me out quite a bit.

Here we go:

In John 14, Christ is talking with His disciples about how He is going to leave them. They get concerned and do not want Him to go, but He promises them the Holy Ghost to be their companion. Said He:
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

These next verses are particularly poignant:
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

So, what Christ is saying here is that as we keep His commandments, we will qualify for the company of the Holy Ghost, and through the Holy Ghost will Christ make Himself known unto us (or in some other way….”manifest” is a little vague, but I would presume it would be through the Holy Ghost that He would do it.).

And in 23, He says, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

If Christ and Heavenly Father abide with you through the Holy Ghost, then surely you will come to know them. I wrote in my last blog that if you know President Uchtdorf, you know President Monson. That isn’t true because they are not completely perfect. Not even they have perfect, singular desires, as the Father and Son have; they are imperfect and differ in their opinions, but the Father and Son have are perfectly one in desire and opinion.

The interesting thing in this instance with the Apostles is that they had been with Christ for three years already and yet did not truly know Him (It was only Simon Peter who actually recognized Jesus as the Christ.). And to further illustrate this point He says:

25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Christ had taught them many things while with them, but even still, they had not truly grasped who or what He was or meant in their personal lives. It was therefore necessary to grant them the Holy Ghost as a means to “bring to remembrance” those things He had taught and spoken to the disciples.
In 2 Nephi 26:13, it says:

13 And that he manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith.

The Holy Ghost is the great revelator. It is through Him that we can come unto Christ and truly know Him.

26 God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost
(Doctrine and Covenants | Section 121:26)

33 How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints.

(Doctrine and Covenants | Section 121:33)

Heavenly Father wants us to come to know Christ and has appointed means by which it can be accomplished. We need to do our part and come unto Him with full purpose of heart so He can see our desires, abide with us, and thereby manifest Himself unto us.

75 degrees, sunny, with a forest fire haze

I’m back after a longer hiatus than I would have liked it to have been, due to my first highway tour, followed by a bunch of city stuff, during which I was really tired.

Anyway, the name of this blog is loganbraindumps, right? So, we’re using the verb interpretation of that (as opposed to the adjective interpretation) and are going to explore something here that I’ve been thinking over in the past few days.

It’s the following: we are to develop a close, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, both as, and in order to come unto Him. My dilemma is that I develop relationships with people by interacting with them and talking with them. Now I believe that we can partially come to know Christ on a personal level by taking part in His Atonement, but I believe there are more sides to Him than just His Atonement. I know we can study His life and His teachings, but even still, I think that won’t take us far enough. That’s like saying we can study the life and writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and thereon build a relationship with him—it just doesn’t work like that. Now, we are given the Spirit to lead and guide us unto Christ, etc, and we pray in the name of Christ, but I feel like that is one of the only times we are really interacting with Him directly. When we pray, we pray to the Father and interact with Him, but merely go through Christ, as he is the intermediator. When we are repenting, we are feeling his power, but not that is only one side of Him—not the whole Him.

So there’s the conundrum that’s in my head. My one possible solution is that when we pray, we are to by guided by the Holy Ghost, and if we are in tune with the Holy Ghost and follow His promptings, we will pray for those things that He desires for us to receive. I believe we can come to know someone fairly well simply by coming to know their desires.

So there is one way I believe we can come to know Christ on a much more personal level. I think there are other, better ways to do it, but I just don’t know them. I want to hear your thoughts on this one. Go ahead and post, correcting, answering, or building up anything I’ve propounded here. Thanks!