Seven of Everything

I am a categorizer. I love to see the order of things. As such, I hate the word ‘miscellaneous.’ To me if it is truly miscellaneous then it doesn't belong and should be thrown out. A few years ago in a singles ward I served as the membership clerk. Among my duties, I was in charge of recording and keeping track of member’s callings. It was very hard for me at that time to see the order to many of the callings and where they fit into the mission of the church. As I was writing my blog Sets of Three I was reminded about what I came up with regarding the order of callings and mission of the church and what I have pondered about it since. Here are some patterns that I found in talks and manuals of the church: Proclaim Redeem Perfect Preaching Ordinances Government Instruct Serve Unify Nurturing Responsibility Friend If you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I want you to see if you know where all four of these sets come from. Also, I want yo...

A few years ago I had a discussion with an evangelical minister who did not believe that the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon was the primary distinguishing factor between evangelicals and Saints. Although I do not agree with this, he did state that our definitions of grace differed. I did agree with that, but at the time I could not pinpoint a definition for grace. Since then I have done a lot of research and now feel that I understand grace much better and can define it much more clearly from a Saint's perspective. The two best discourses I have ever heard or read on grace is in the book Believing Christ by Stephen Edward Robinson (in the chapters Saved by Grace and Misunderstanding Grace) and a general conference talk by the Apostle, Elder David A Bednar titled In the Strength of the Lord . Here is how I would simply define grace - a gift of God's enabling power . There is a question of whether this is deserved or undeserved - it can be both. In a previous post I dis...

It is necessary for a man first, to be born. And having come into being, to increase. And having increased, to be strengthened. And having been strengthened, to multiply. And having multiplied, to become great. And having become mighty, to receive glory. And having received glory, to behold his Lord; for God is He who is to be seen. The sight of God is perfect immortality and immortality makes one to be very much like God." Irenaeus ~175 AD 1 Be born 2 To increase 3 Be strengthened 4 To multiply 5 Become great/mighty 6 Receive glory 7 Behold God (immortality)

I know that this is a blog about sets of seven but I have found several sets of three over the years and I want to share them. First I will make a list then explain some of them. The order matters on each of these. If I reordered them it would not have the same effect or power. Meaning what is first must be first. What is second must be second and is central to the set. And what is third must be third. Think → Do → Become Know → Commit → Behave Autonomy → Mastery → Purpose Preaching → Ordinances → Government Instruct → Serve → Unify Believeth → Baptized → Saved Repent → Baptized → Become Nurturing → Responsibility → Friend Proclaim → Redeem → Perfect Believe → Obey → Endure Marketing → Sales → Research and Development Rules → Transactions → Plans Prepared → Chosen → Inspired Philosophy → Art → Science Learn → Apply → Understand Faith → Repentance → Baptism Faith → Hope → Charity Learn → Live → Share Think, Do and Become. I don't remember where I got this. ...

This is from a talk I gave in May of 2010 which started with my post from September 2009 Why Do We Need a Body? I then linked that with the General Conference talk Generations Linked in Love by Elder Russel M Nelson an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. God, the Creator of all things, was so brilliant in the creation that we can look at anything that He created and be taught of Him what we must do. We are created in His image so I like to look to the body as one of the most magnificent teachers. I would say that our body has three purposes: One is to digest food, another is to unify the spirit with the body and the last is to improve its function or skill. In other words our body has a three-fold mission. To integrate a lower form of life into the greater form of the body. To do for the spirit what it could not do for itself, to be unified with the spirit in preparation for the day of its redemption by Jesus Christ. And to perfect the body in function, structure and ability. I...