Seven of Everything

I was asked to give a talk (sermon) at church last Sunday on Things as They Really Are by Elder Bednar an apostle of Jesus Christ given back in May. Here is the beginning of my talk: In “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles declare that as spirit sons and daughters of God we “accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize [our] divine destiny as heirs of eternal life” (“ The Family: A Proclamation to the World ,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102; or Liahona, Oct. 2004, 49). My mind has often wondered in recent years - What can we do now that we could not do then? - specifically: What can we do with our physical bodies that we could not do as spirits? Why is it so beneficial for us to have a physical body in our progression? This leads to the question: What could we do then that we cannot do now? We know the answer to this one - almos...

This is one of the original sets of seven that I found several years ago. It is one of the fundamental sets that is very accurate to the seven structure. I originally saw it in Alma 36 . Then I saw it in a Sunday School lesson that I taught, in the additional teachings section ; this was taken from a conference talk by Richard G Scott called Finding Forgiveness , which takes from the book Miracle of Forgiveness by Spenser W Kimball . The full process of repentance 1 Recognition of sin 2 Sorrow for sin 3 Abandonment of sin 4 Confession of sin 5 Restitution for sin 6 Obedience to all the commandments 7 Forgiveness for sin Recognition of sin - We will not choose to change if we do not know that we have sinned. Alma was brought to recognize his sin by an angel . We need to actively repent, and in order to do this, we need to study the words of the prophets and seek the inspiration of the spirit to learn how we need to improve. We can seek it out or be brought to recognize our sin but ...

I would like to connect the gospel with the allegory of the olive tree, the sacrament prayer and your life to see if I can help the spirit inspire you to live better. When we were born we died spiritually because of the fall of Adam; that is, we left God's presence to come to earth. The Lord caused that we should die physically, symbolic of that spiritual death and the second spiritual death that should come except we live by certain conditions. Those conditions were taught to us and shown to us by Jesus Christ and his prophets and faithful saints. In the allegory of the olive tree the Lord compares the tree to the house of Israel or to you who are of the house of Israel . In the allegory the Lord talks about what He does to bless you and help you come back to Him. He starts out with your spiritual fall and what He does to keep you from falling further ( v4 ). Then talks about how He puts thorns in your side (wild branches) to inspire you to rely on your roots - your covenants ma...

To some it is difficult to tell what the dividing line is between heaven and hell. Here I am not talking to Christians as a whole, I am talking to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: The question 'what is the dividing line between heaven and hell?' is answered by many members of this church as the celestial kingdom. That is where God the Father dwells. That is where faithful members of this church go. Some say that it is the only kingdom that requires baptism. All those who do not dwell with God the Father are in hell. Other people would say - its not that easy - heaven is the celestial kingdom and hell is outer darkness but there are two kingdoms in between. Well, as far as the scriptures are concerned there is no in between; either one goes to heaven or to hell. Others would say that the dividing line is between the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms because everyone that goes to the telestial kingdom are the murderers, whoremongers and liars. Those wh...

The old English word gospel means good news, we've all heard that. It comes from Latin's explanation of its own word evangelium (bona adnuntiatio), borrowed from Greek euangelion (or euangelos) , which may be from Hebrew bisser which is bring (good) news - good is implied. But despite the etymology of the word there is a scriptural definition. Christ when He came to the American continent defined doctrine and defined gospel - His doctrine and His Gospel. The doctrine is the witnessed facts - Christ is the Son of God as witnessed by all members of the Godhead, God. God the Father is the literal Father of Christ and the Father of all mankind as witnessed by God. As our Father He loves us and gives us commandments with promise: repent and believe in Christ and we shall be saved or in other words inherit the kingdom of God. That is the doctrine of Jesus Christ upon which the gospel is founded . The gospel is more than just news, it is the doing of the witnessed doctrine. It is ref...

Fasting is a practice in many religions across the world. It is practiced by animals in nature and also by each of us when our bodies require it (fever or other sickness). In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fasting is defined as abstaining from food and water for a period of time, typically two meals or twenty four hours. It is practiced monthly accompanied by a worship service whose purpose is for the members of the congregation to strengthen each other spiritually as well as temporally. In all scripture, fasting is mentioned as a regular practice, as well as for special occasions where assistance is requested from God. It is also a commandment from God with many blessings for obedience to the law of the fast. These blessings also come with obedience to other commandments in conjunction with this law, like obedience to the law of the gospel and prayer. Some of the blessings mentioned in Isaiah 58 are directly related to health: "Then shall thy light break for...

Do you ever get the feeling that if God truly loved us He would find some way to talk to us again? Guide us again? Do you ever read the scriptures and wonder why God favored the people of the bible more than the people of today? They talked of gifts: gifts of healing, tongues, visions and revelations. Tongues, where whole congregations understood what was being spoken and were enlightened and enlivened by the word of God. And yet today there is not much talk of visions and revelations. I hear people say that God doesn't speak to men any more because he said all that needs to be said. What time on earth needed the voice of God more than we need it now? There is also talk of faith and miracles in the scriptures. There was the large exodus and a major defeat of many cities and a large nation under the command of God. Many nations were miraculously destroyed attempting to attack or defeat God's people without a sword being raised. There were many blessings of unity, health and pros...

This is a continuation of the previous posts: Keeping the Proper Focus in Life . and Does Grace Really Save You? Here I want to explore the full extent of the pole vaulting analogy. I'm going to outline the fourteen graces mentioned in the previous post and describe how each one is symbolic of the God's plan of salvation for us, his children. The first element is the person. The person is symbolic on many different levels. He could be symbolic of you, the individual. He could be symbolic of the family unit or an organization, like a church group or unit, an entire church body, a company, a state, a nation or the world as a whole. Ultimately, the body of Christ is represented here. He is the life of the world . We are to become like him. The second element is the pole. This is symbolic of the word of God, the iron rod , or all truth. The word of God can be learned through two methods: One, through hearing the words or reading the writings of His authorities, and two, t...

This is a continuation of my blog post titled: Keeping the Proper Focus in Life . Here, I want to explore two aspects of the pole vaulting analogy - grace and works. I initially joined the track team when I was a sophomore in high school because I had seen my oldest brother do it and I loved running. He blazed the trail and I gained the courage to try something new that now seemed possible. My senior year, after joining pole vaulting, I knew I would need help because I had no skills. I relied on my teammates to teach me the rules. I trusted the most skilled members of the team and treated the one with the personal trainer as a coach. I practiced as the season progressed and when the time came we went to our first track meet. I signed in with the officials and when they said it was time to start, I ran down the track, placed the pole in the box and jumped. The bar was set to the minimum height which I had to pass to continue on; that height was eight feet. (To give you an idea, the...

I just finished a book called All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. This is my summary of the book and principles of square foot gardening. Some of this material is quoted from the book. This is in order of chronological set-up not necessarily "seven structure" order: 1 Box size and Placement 2 Build up 3 Nutrient Rich Soil Mix 4 Grid structure 5 Plant 6 Water 7 Harvest 1 - Standard square foot gardening is done in squares of up to four feet in one dimension. A square foot garden would typically consist of several 4X4 foot squares. The idea behind the size is to optimize the amount of food grown in a small area. It does not take any tilling and is not organized in the standard single row style. You could think of it like putting four rows together, thus optimizing your garden space. A typical person's arm reach is comfortably two feet long, and therefore to reach in more than that would get difficult. The four foot maximum dimention is so you can...

Several times in the past, including recently, I have had a sore, stiff neck. Usually this is caused by overexerting myself. Most recently I went down to Lake Jackson Texas to join the Mormon Helping Hands and clean up fallen trees all day after Huricane Ike. Whenever I get a stiff neck it makes me think of Laman and Lemual as well as other wicked men in the scriptures. I felt like I could understand what was meant in the scriptures by having a stiff neck, not after actually having a physically stiff neck, but after understanding that the head of the body is symbolic of God. God is the head of the body, the head of the church, and needs to be our head in life. The head gives instructions to the body and the body follows. When God asks us to obey we need to follow. It is obvious that whenever there is a reference to stiffneckedness in the scriptures it is in reference to someone who chooses not to obey. When you have a stiff neck it is difficult to turn your head. The full range of moti...

My senior year of high school I decided to try pole vaulting. There were not very many people on the team that did pole vaulting and we needed more people, so I decided to try it out. Shanna Mailloux on the team had a personal trainer and was very skilled at pole vaulting; we often went to her for advice. One day we asked her to watch us and give us suggestions on how to improve. When it was my turn, I ran down the track towards the bar. After reaching the bar and inevitably messing up, I went to her to see how I could improve. She quizzed me to see if I could tell her what I did wrong and I tried to think of what it was. She asked me where my eyes were while I was running. So I told her that I looked at the box, the bar, her and the other girls standing by. She was very pretty and so were most of the girls on the track team. Then, she proceeded to teach me a lesson that I will never forget. I have heard it many times before and since in various forms but mostly theoretically, here it ...

The compost cooking process: 1) Air 2) Water 3) Heat 4) Organic Materials 5) Mixing 6) Structure 7) Rest 1 - A compost pile needs to breath. This allows for aerobic decomposition. If it does not breath the compost goes through an anaerobic fermentation; this causes foul odors, amongst other things. Aeration is necessary for rapid odor-free decomposition. There are two typical methods for aeration. Turning the materials is the most common or forced air systems usually for larger piles. Oxygen is needed for the soil organisms as well. 2 - All living things need water. A compost pile has a host of living things both being broken down and doing the breaking down. If the soil is too wet the air is removed causing anaerobic fermentation. If it is too dry there can be no chemical reactions to break down the materials. It needs to be moist like a sponge. The proper moisture level is about 55% to 65%. You can take a handful from the pile and squeeze it and it does not drip with wat...