MLG Gun Control

         Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico Governor, is going nuts on gun control.  She is passionately pushing gun control as a response to our big crime problem in Albuquerque, NM.  A major part of her re-election campaign was abortion or women's reproductive rights.  But Genesis 9:6 says, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man." This was probably given more as a law, but it is interesting for today.  Is it a coincidence that in a place where we have celebrated women's reproductive rights, we also have a high rate of homicide?  Abortion certainly devalues life.  Abortion implies that life is so cheap, that we can throw it away if it is not convenient.  When a murderer is pointing his gun at the innocent, life has already been cheapened in his mind.  Evolution further devalues life.  It claims that we are unplanned accidents of time and chance.  We are descendants of the animal kingdom.  This does not make the gunman feel like he is aiming at anything valuable.  The victim is perceived as an evolved animal, but who is to say that he should be allowed to keep evolving?  Creationism, on the other hand, gives great value to people.  We are designed by the greatest designer in the universe.  This gives us great value!  We are also made in the image of the most valuable being in the universe.  This adds even more value to our life.  The problem for Governor Grisham in New Mexico may not be guns.  The problem may be that New Mexico does not value life.

Black Blood on My Hands

 Black Blood on My Hands

        "Maga is racist, Trump is racist, Republicans are racist" and anyone who disagrees is racist.  This is the political mantra of our day. We have racism in American history.  The Democrat party was pro-slavery.  The Democrat party was home to the Ku Klux Klan.  The Democrat party was against the civil rights movement and for segregation.  Today, the situation for our black community is worse than ever.  Abortion has been carefully leveraged against black people.  The black baby has been 4 times as likely to be aborted than the white baby in America.  We have white-washed it in the name of women's rights or reproductive rights.  But we have probably aborted about 20 million black people in America.  So in the last 50 years, we have reduced the black population by at least 40 million black people. Since abortion was legalized in 1973, the first aborted black babies may have been grandparents by now.  In Genesis 4, Cain killed his brother Abel.  God confronted Cain and said, "...What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground."(Genesis 4:10)   If the blood of Abel cried unto God from the ground, how much more so the blood of 20 million black souls.  So, how does it concern me?  I go to work and pay taxes.  My taxes go toward decreasing the black population.  Their blood is on my hands through my taxes.  If you are voting for reproductive rights, you have their blood on your hands as well.  God's eyes are certainly on the innocent. 

Gift of Repentance and the Bad Neighbor

        Some people are saying, "I am so thankful for the gift of repentance."  Many are seeking to be worthy through their good own works, but the law requires perfection.  When they cannot reach that perfection, some fall back on the "gift of repentance" idea.

        It is similar to having a bad neighbor.  Suppose your neighbor steals from you and a week later apologizes and returns your property.  The next week he steals from you again and again apologizes.  Every week you find him stealing and apologizing.  Soon you would start to believe that your neighbor is insincere and his apologies mean nothing.  If your neighbor declares, "I am so thankful for the gift of apologizing", you are not going to take him seriously.

        On the other hand, you would believe your neighbor was sincere if he apologized for stealing from you, never stole from you again and was a great neighbor for the next 30 years.  The need for daily repentance highlights a person's daily failure.  True repentance involves forsaking the sin.

        So where does real worthiness come from?  2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."  Why do many ignore this truth?  Romans 10:3 states, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."  

        Here is the question: Are we focused on ourselves or on Christ?  Are our eyes on our good works and many acts of repentance or are we focused on Christ and his work on our behalf.  We all must repent, but are we looking to Christ for salvation or are we looking to ourselves for salvation?  God saves in God's way which is through Christ Jesus.  We cannot save ourselves with even our best efforts. 

The Honored Dancer

           "And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod."(2 Samuel 6:14)  As King David celebrated the Ark of God, his wife Michal despised him.  She attacked his character and integrity.  She said, "...How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!"(2 Samuel 6:20)  David responded, "It was before the LORD...therefore will I play before the LORD.  And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour."(2 Samuel 6:22)

        David was all in.  His heart was 100% with God! His wife Michal was half-hearted.  She did not approve of the king's level of worship. Jesus described being whole-hearted in Matthew 13:44-45, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.  Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."

        Jesus described a woman whose heart was 100% with God in Mark 12:41-44, "And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living."

        Are we all in today?  Does God have all of our heart like King David or are we like the critical Michal, who was half-hearted and not wanting to go to far in worship?  Are we seeking the approval of man or the approval of God like King David, the honorable dancer!?

 

An Eastern Thought

 An Eastern Thought

    Do you know someone that waits for you to make a mistake and then brings up all of your past shortcomings?  It reminds me of this verse:  D&C 82:7 says, “…unto that soul who sinneth shall the former sins return.”

     Suppose you had a problem with lying.  Then, through geniune repentance, you stopped lying.  And your repentance was so sincere that you didn't tell another lie for 15 years!  However, after the 15 years of not lying, you tell another lie.  Would all of your former lies come back on you, according to D&C 82:7?  This is probably not what this verse is saying.  It just says, "former sins".  So this would include lies, stealing, coveting and anything else that is a sin.  That is what would be added back onto you after you speak the new lie.  Spencer W. Kimball called this a "heavy load" in his book, Miracles of Forgiveness.

    On the other hand, Micah 7:19 says, "He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our inquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."

    Now consider Psalm 103:12.  “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”  If you go north, you can reach the north pole and then start going south.  If you go east, you can continue going east forever!  You never reach the end of east.  This is a great Eastern Thought about God's forgiveness!

Mental Health Awareness Month

     So we are wrapping up the month of May, Mental Health Awareness month.  It seems like a cruel joke.  It is like sticking a band aid on a cancer patient.  Why is Mental Health Awareness becoming more popular?  According to Pastor John MacArthur, transgender people are 19 times as likely to commit suicide.  Secular sources sources claim that LGBTQ students are 4 times as likely to commit suicide. What are students being told?  They are NOT being told that God can deliver them from sexual addictions.  The are being told that they were born that way.  So if they were born that way and it is not a matter of choice, then there is no way out of their unhappy "life style".  Rather than continue living in bondage with no cure in sight, some kids decide to end their life.

     Why are we afraid to tell people that God can heal their mind?  Christians are falsely blamed for the mental illness of others.  If we speak up, we are called homophobic, transphobic, intolerant, haters and the list goes on.  Sometimes we just want to be left alone and live our lives in peace.  Our culture wants to force us to accept their beliefs.  If we don't accept their beliefs, they threaten to "cancel" us, destroy our reputation and ruin our lives.  We say, "just leave the kids alone."  They say they are coming for the kids first!  We should give our children to God.  We should not give them to our culture's god of sex.  So we have quite a challenge.  Do we leave our faith at the front door of the church as we leave on Sunday morning and just go with the flow?  Or do we take our faith with us?  

     If there was ever a time when we needed the power of God, it is now.  God has the power to save anyone from the bondage of addiction!  Just as God empowered David to kill the lion, the bear and  giant Goliath, no enemy is too powerful for God.  It doesn't matter what we have done or how we have messed up our life, God is able to deliver.  Perhaps we are the only question.  Christ laid down his life for us.  Are we willing to lay down our life and reputation for Him? 

LDS Survey on Forgiveness

 

LDS Survey on Forgiveness

1.                 Do you believe 1 Nephi 3:7?  Are we without excuse when it comes to fulfilling the commandments of God?  Has He prepared the way for us to accomplish every one of them?

Yes            No

 

2.                 Do you believe 2 Nephi 25:23?  Are we saved by grace “after all we can do”?  How do you know when you have done all you can do?

Yes            No

 

3.                 Do you believe Moroni 10:32?  Is God’s grace only sufficient for us when we have denied ourselves of “all ungodliness” and we have loved God with all of our “mind, might and strength”?

Yes            No

 

4.                 Do you agree with D&C 1:31?  It says that God cannot look upon sin with the “least degree of allowance”.

Yes            No

 

5.                 Do you believe D&C 58:42-43? If a man truly repents of his sins, he will confess and FORSAKE them?

Yes            No

 

6.                 Do you believe that God does not “dwell in unholy temples”?

(Helaman 4:24)

Yes            No

 

7.                 Do you believe Alma 11:37 when it states that “no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven” and we “cannot be saved in our sins”?

Yes            No

 

8.                 Is it important to be sincere when we repent?  (If your neighbor steals from you and then apologizes on a weekly basis, we would say that he is insincere.  If your neighbor steals from you, apologizes and never steals from you again, we will think that his apology was sincere.)

Yes            No

 

9.                 Do you believe D&C 82:7?  “…unto that soul who sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God.”  If we tell a lie, do all our former sins return?

Yes            No

 

10.            Do you believe Romans 10:3?  Giving us some perspective, 2 Corinthians 5:21 states, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”  When we look to Jesus, He takes our sin on the cross and we receive the righteousness of Christ in return.  Romans 10:3 states, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”  Do you believe that some people fail to submit themselves to the righteousness of God and go about to establish their own righteousness? 

Yes            No

 

11.            Where do you stand today?