Mastering the Mind

I really liked this podcast today - "All In" podcast with Craig Manning. Transcript here. I'll try to come back later to note out my favorite parts

Trusting When Things Look Scary

"There are things, say in learning to swim or climb, which look dangerous and aren’t. Your instructor tells you it’s safe, you have good reason from past experience to trust him, perhaps you can even see for yourself by your own reason that it is safe. But the crucial question is will you be able to go on believing this when you actually see the cliff edge below you, or actually feel yourself unsupported in the water. You will have no rational grounds for disbelieving; it is your senses and your imagination that are going to attack belief. Here, as in the New Testament, the conflict is not between faith and sight. We can face things that we know to be dangerous, if they don’t look or sound too dangerous, our real trouble is often with things we know to be safe but which look dreadful. Our faith in Christ wavers not so much when real arguments come against it as when it looks improbable, when the whole world takes on that desolate look, which really tells us much more about the state of our passions and even our digestion, than about reality.

When we exhort people to faith as a virtue to the settled intention of continuing to believe certain things, we are not exhorting them to fight against reason. The intention of continuing to believe is required because, though reason is divine, human reasoners are not. When once passion takes part in the game, the human reason, unassisted by grace, has about as much chance of retaining its hold on truths already gained as a snowflake has of retaining its consistency in the mouth of a blast furnace.

The sort of arguments against Christianity which our reason can be persuaded to accept at the moment of yielding to temptation are often preposterous, reason may win truths, without faith she will retain them just so long as Satan pleases. There is nothing we cannot be made to believe or disbelieve. If we wish to be rational, not now and then but constantly, we must pray for the gift of faith, for the power to go on believing not in the teeth of reason, but in the teeth of lust and terror, and jealousy and boredom and indifference that which reason, authority or experience, or all three, have once delivered to us for truth.

And the answer to that prayer will perhaps surprise us when it comes, for I am not sure afterall whether one of the causes of our weak faith is not a secret wish that our faith should not be very strong. Is there some reservation in our minds, some fear of what it might be like if our religion became quite real? I hope not, God help us all and forgive us.”

C.S. Lewis, Religion: Reality or Substitute?

The Rising Glory of the Son

From a facebook post I saw today and liked: Amy Killingsworth:

I’m a 3rd generation pastor’s kid. I grew up in a religious environment which was obsessed with the “end times.” By the time I was 10 years old, I had been exposed to so many sermons, movies and conversations about the mark of the beast, the Great Tribulation and the rise of antichrist that I legit had a panic disorder that persisted well into adulthood. I would come home from school and not be able to find my mom and panic because I thought I had been “left behind” in the rapture.

As I got older, thanks to some awesome mentors and logical inquiry, this narrative began to crumble. The one question that I apply to nearly everything that doesn’t add up is this: “who benefits?” That along with the words of Jesus, “you shall know it by its fruit” are what is needed to sharpen discernment.

Who benefits when believers are:

✔️ Looking for the rise of the antichrist instead of the Return of the King

✔️Obsessed with the mark of the beast instead of being marked by Christ’s love and presence

✔️Focused on escaping the earth instead of redeeming it

✔️Immersed in fear rather than hope

Darkness benefits. Yes there is darkness and it seems to be increasing (side note, the presence of darkness isn’t increasing, only the exposure of it) AND according to prophetic scripture, when darkness is at its thickest, that’s when the glory of the Lord rises upon us! Which side of the same coin do YOU want to focus on?

The end is indeed near, but it’s the end of the reign of terror that has kept God’s children enslaved to a matrix of lies and hopelessness.

Those of us who are alive during these times, get the incredible privilege of seeing with our eyes what prophets of old only dreamed about.

Let us fix our eyes on the rising glory of the Sun of Righteousness instead of the momentary darkness that quakes and trembles at the mention of His name.

Let’s find out where our position is - because if you are alive, you have a part to play! Let’s declare the solution instead of wringing our hands over the problem. The end is near, AND the future is bright! Remember who you are. Rise up and reign.

_________________________

Go forward with faith! Find Joy in the Journey! 

Elder Holland in "An High Priest of Good Things to Come: "You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.”

“Yes, and . . .”: The Creative Art of Living

THIS WAS SO GOOD, I love love love it!

Amazing talk, what a powerful message and she and her husband Christopher are such powerful examples for good. I want to be better. I'll at more time stamps and notes as I relisten to this again and again. I've listened to it 3 times, will start taking notes

14:32 - I've learned that a lot of humor and joy is found in the unexpected or seeing the unexpected happen. But to see it or experience in it, we have to accept the offering we have, be honest about it, and make a choice to act. President Nelson taught that our circumstances don't have to dictate our happiness when he said "And I promise you that your capacity to feel joy will increase even if turbulence increases in your life."

18:08 - Serve God, Love me, and Mend

Thriving Spiritually

This is a great talk that we listened to today. 

The story at 16:46 was shared during our Sunday School class today and then I shared with the kids later tonight. Very cool! Elder Holland's talk "The Laborers in the Vineyard"

My notes from class today - 

(I'll enter them in after my kids give me back my phone)

Proving Contraries

I'm only in the firs 25 minutes of this weeks scripture study by Jared Halverson, but I loved all the thoughts about proving contraries - starting at 1:38

Complementary virtues that keep each other in check: Justice & Mercy - Truth & Tolerance - Love & Law, Faith and Works, Agency and Inspiration - this active tension that allows us to balance in our discipleship. 

Any virtue, when taken to an extreme, becomes a vice (like Javert in Les Miserables who is all justice and no mercy) But Mercy can become a vice too merciful and overly permissive. We're working to find the goldilocks zone in the middle, the celestial center.

As the winds and the waves of culture push us, we seek to keep balance through our extremity.

Jesus always proved these contraries.

The Cross - vertical and horizontal - 

Am I supposed to look up or am I supposed to reach out? YES. 

Love God - Love Thy Neighbor - 

Christianity - there is a contradition and thus constant course correction. Sections 60, 61, 62 are so merciful. Section 63 comes along to remind them of justice and they are called to repentance. Section 64 - Forgiveness which is an amazing combination of justice and mercy itself. The Lord gives messages depending on which extreme we are listing to. 

History (minute 11) the Engligthenment period was too much head, Romantic period came after and overcorrected saying it was all about heart. French Revolution fought hard against tyranny, but overcorrected too much into anarchy. Ask a gymnast - what does balance take? Incredible core strength. That is what the Lord is trying to develop within us all. 

Humbly Bro Halverson suggests that no other religion does as careful a job as the restored church at seeking to balance those furious opposites, those opposite positives. The pulls of the opposites of Catholocism and Protestantism = the Restored Gospel. The genius behind Judaism and Christianity = "Mormonism" (13:30)

Divinity and Humanity in the church - divinity (it is guided by God and contains his true and restored gospel) humanity (it is run by mortals who make mistakes along the way)

We Struggle Even After We Commit to Follow Christ

I really liked this. We shared it with the kids tonight. 

We will still have war with our flesh after we are saved by Jesus. It happened with followers of Christ anciently and it happens with followers of Christ today. I have been saved and I seek God's heart daily, but I struggle daily. My struggles are not the same as others, but we all struggle and are all on our own journey. There is redemption and it's beautiful. And it's for all of us. and that is why we need Jesus. 

I have loved watching the Chosen. It truly has helped me see Jesus through new eyes. I trust that I will continue to be impacted by Christ in the same way they were, I hope it will help me to change and become more like him. I can identify with their struggles, I can identify with their sin patterns, you can identify with their questions, and therefore I can identify with the answers and the solutions:

It's Jesus, it's loving as he loved. By this shall men know ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.