Answers are Found in the Scriptures

NewScripturesI often have this feeling that the Lord wants to talk to me. It usually comes on a Saturday night. It is also stronger if I haven’t been to the temple in a while. We were last there three weeks ago and typically make it at least once a month. I’m not sharing this to brag, only to point out that there is just something about regularly attending the temple that brings a feeling of peace to my life.

Stay on the Right Path

I suppose what I’m looking for most is a feeling that I’m on the right path; that I’m pursuing goals that are pleasing to the Lord and am using my time in the best way possible. I have always felt this life is short and that my time is to be used to advance myself in some way or another. I suffer a feeling of “Divine Discontent” when I’m not sure if I’m where I should be on the path.

Read the Scriptures

I don’t know if you can relate. When I get like this, I go into my bedroom alone, kneel in prayer and pour out my spirit to the Lord. It never fails. The Lord says, “Go read the scriptures.” I don’t know why that kind of bugs me. I keep expecting that maybe the Lord will send an angel or a strong impression of the Spirit telling me what to do with my time – that’s what I wish He’d do.

We are Blessed with Free Time

I have so many projects and so many possibilities of what I can do with my free time. We are so blessed with living in this modern day and age. We don’t have to spend all our time trying to get enough to eat or keep our house in good repair or whatever our ancestors worried about. They spent their time and energy on things other than spiritual when they were living on this earth.

Ministers Among my Ancestors

Or did they? On my father’s side, my ancestors were mostly poor dirt farmers, not very well educated but good Christian folk. I know this because I have read many of their life stories. Many of them were Baptist preachers. On my mother’s side, the standard of living was higher, they were more educated, and coincidently, there were a lot of Presbyterian ministers there.

I am a Mormon Minister

I’m a Mormon minister of sorts. I had an ecclesiastical license to preach that I carried with me when I was a missionary. I’ve taught the gospel and spoken in church all my adult life. I love this church and love to serve wherever I’m asked. Tomorrow I meet with the Stake Presidency to review the financial status of the stake. It’s just part of my job as the Stake Financial Clerk.

Uplifting Sabbath Days

I love Sundays because they are so rewarding and fulfilling. I come home from church feeling spiritually fed and uplifted. Sometimes I wish every day could be Sunday. But something seems to happen to me during the week. My spirituality balloon tends to get a slow leak in it. I think it comes from the normal course of events as I do my daily work and “fight the worldly dragon.”

Counsel With the Lord

I do a lot of gospel study during the week, but sometimes, I simply need a one-on-one study session with the Lord in which I think about things that are bothering me, ask the Lord for some inspiration on where I can find some help in the scriptures, turn to what he inspires me to read and then sit and ponder it for a while. Mostly, He tells me in no uncertain terms I need to repent.

Scrupulosity – Thank you John Dehlin

And that kind of bugs me too, because then I find myself hesitant to read the scriptures. But I persevere and ask exactly what I do need to repent of so He can bless me that way I want – with that feeling that I am doing with my time what is pleasing to Him. I sometimes wonder if I am a candidate for what my friend John Dehlin taught me about scrupulosity, but with no real OCD.

Getting Direction from the Lord

I hope you’ll pardon me for rambling on about such a vague subject – getting direction from the Lord in our lives. But after all, this is my journal and it helps me to write and share. I wonder if any of my readers are as concerned as I am about wanting to know what the Lord thinks about them. Most people I know don’t care, and think it’s kind of nuts to even be concerned about it.

Gifts of the Spirit

Maybe growing up in the LDS Church does that to the men of the church – not all – only some. We’re taught how important it is to be spiritual and to be “in tune” with the whisperings of the spirit. We look up to men – and women – in our faith that we consider spiritual, or who seem to have some sort of gift of the spirit to be able to speak with inspiration when asked their opinion.

Blessings of Fast Sunday

It’s Fast Sunday tomorrow which means we go without food until the evening meal. A lot the brethren I know who serve in leadership capacities do this every Sunday, mainly because they are involved in meetings – public and private – from early in the morning until sometime late in the evening. I’ve served in some of those positions – bishopric counselor, high counselor.

Magnifying Your Calling

But nothing beats being a Bishop or a member of the Stake Presidency. I work closely with these men and see the dedication they put into doing their church job – magnifying their calling. I asked our new Stake President last month why he spent so many hours in his callings, knowing that it is at least twenty hours a week. He said, “I do it for the same reason you do Bro. Malone.”

An Offering to the Lord

I had to think about that. I know why I put up with so many meetings and go out to train my fellow clerks on how to use the church computer system. I know why I gratefully accept every opportunity to teach or speak in church when asked. I do it as an offering to the Lord as a token of my appreciation of my love for Him and for what I know He has done for me all my life.

Taught by Good Leaders

I’m looking forward to whatever our High Priest Group Leader will teach us tomorrow. He teaches us each Fast Sunday. He’s a good man, a former bishop. I enjoy his lessons taught with love and with a desire to help us understand the gospel and to be motivated to live it more fully. I enjoy participating in the discussion – always have – especially when I was a HPGL in our ward.

The Purpose of Adversity

In Sunday school tomorrow we’ll be studying lesson 28 in church history – The purpose of adversity. It’s about the time the prophet Joseph and others spent in Liberty Jail. I have been to that jail and seen the terrible conditions under which they lived for so many months. It was a low time in Joseph’s life. He asked the Lord why he had left him alone. He received D&C 121-123.

Rare Spiritual Experiences

Sometimes I feel like that. Why hast thou left me alone so long, Lord? When was the last time I had a truly uplifting and edifying spiritual experience? You know the kind I’m talking about – the kind where you come away feeling like you haven’t a problem in the world, that everything will be alright, all is right with the world and the Lord is pleased with you and loves you dearly.

Purpose of Daily Prayer

I’m aware that some people say they have those kinds of spiritual experiences every night in prayer. I confess my prayers are not like that. In the morning I tell the Lord what I’m planning to do that day. In the evening, I tell the Lord what I’ve accomplished and ask for His blessings upon my work that it will not have been in vain, especially as it regards helping others along the way.

Peace Be Unto Thy Soul

So I’m reading D&C 121 tonight in preparation for tomorrow’s lesson. I love verses 7-8: “My, son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then if thou endure it well, God shall lift thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all they foes.” There’s more, but those two verses got me thinking of a whole series of events in my life.

The Foes in My Life

I don’t really have foes, especially not like Joseph did. Oh, sure I have people who mock me or make fun of my beliefs and writings I share on my blog. That doesn’t bother me so much. But I am concerned about people who oppose what I believe in so strongly about the events that are happening now in the last days. I have foes in the sense that they dissuade others from the path.

Things we are Losing in Church

For example, I have long been convinced that we are losing or have lost some basic knowledge that was taught in the early days of the church about the operations of the spirit world. In other words, there are people in the church today who do not believe that there is a devil or that we are bothered by evil spirits who try to keep us from accomplishing good things in our daily lives.

Signs of the Times

I am also concerned by those in the church who do not believe in the signs of the times. What I and many others plainly see as something prophesied and something about which we should be concerned, others poo-poo the subject, the event or the change and tell us we are being overly melodramatic about it. “Change is good,” they say. “You’ve got to accept things are different.”

Emphasize Certain Doctrines

These are otherwise believing members of the church who oppose my writings when I declare the Lord inspired me that some doctrine we used to believe needs to be emphasized more in the church. Of course, it’s not my place to say what we should be teaching but it concerns me they can’t see the loss and are not concerned about it. Oh well, I should be content with my lot.

Knowledge by His Holy Spirit

I’ll close this journal entry with a few more of the wonderful words from section 121, verse 26: “God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, that has not been revealed since the world was until now.” This promise was not just unto Joseph. It is intended for each of us to receive knowledge from God. But we must ask and listen.

Constant Companion of Holy Ghost

“…let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion.” There’s more and I’m sure you know the verses well (45-46). God bless us to seek the Lord and ask Him to reveal truth to our souls.”

3 thoughts on “Answers are Found in the Scriptures”

  1. Jan Marie Terry

    Dear brother Tim, I enjoyed your blog…I am new to your site, found you while looking up NDE LDS…..my daughter is studying bro. Snuffers works and is thoroughly convinced. She has told me, and I am feeling like it is helping me to find greater light and knowledge. So far, it is great information. I read your thoughts on him, and found it very interesting. I am 72 female, parents joined church when I was 5, I always loved the church, married in az temple, 8 wonderful kids, sent out 5 missionaries, but lived thru many years of abuse finally divorced.

    I have felt real bad ever since, afraid I blew my celestial chances.

    I remarried a very nice man, however a non member, moved to Australia….I feel kind of lost…somewhere out in a spiritual desert. I do a lot of genealogy work, but the divorce is always on my mind. I appreciate your blog…may God bless you…Jan

  2. Hi Jan,

    When I read your comment I knew I needed / wanted to respond but could not find the time until today. I hope you get a chance to read my response.

    First: about Denver Snuffer. His lectures over the next year through the heart of Mormon country will bring him a lot of attention, and not all of it good. I have been writing about his stuff for a year and half. There are definitely two camps out there – those who want him excommunicated and those who say he is the Lord’s servant just biding his time until the Lord calls upon him.

    I am somewhere in between. I love his writing. He makes me think. He can be outrageous and entirely politically incorrect. But above all, he makes me think deeply about the gospel. That’s why I read his work and will continue to do so. I have had more “ah ha” moments in the middle of a Denver Snuffer book than just about any other gospel writer in the last thirty or forty years.

    I wanted to respond to the part where you mentioned you have felt bad ever since the divorce. I am fairly certain you don’t want pity, but I feel the desire to express sorrow at your sorrow. I do not like to ever hear about daughters of God being treated poorly by priesthood holders. I have four sisters and love them each dearly. I am especially pained when they share with me some failing of their husband to be kind, thoughtful or where they are just plain jerks, which we men can be – just ask Carol, who has stayed by my side for thirty-one years, not all of them pleasant.

    As far as blowing your celestial chances, I’ll use one phrase, hopefully not in a condescending tone – not a chance. You did not blow your celestial chances. I’m sure you are aware the important thing is to receive the ordinance, and that it is something that can only be done in mortality or by proxy. I can understand why you would feel less than perfect. Aren’t we all? Isn’t it wonderful to have a Savior who understands the purpose of life far better than we do, including the purpose of living together in love as best we can? Sometimes, it just doesn’t work out.

    If the divorce is always on your mind, then talk to the Lord about it. I’m sure you have, but I mean, really ask Him, “What was I supposed to learn from living with an imperfect man, who caused me to reach the end of my limits of tolerance?” Ask, and keep asking until you receive the peace that can only come from him. We teach each other this life is so short. The older I get, the more I realize what this really means. In our limited time, if we focus on loving and forgiving others, especially forgiving, then we have fulfilled the purpose of life. It is the key to our joy.

    Thanks you for your comment. I always appreciate hearing from those who read my posts. God bless.

  3. CAN I UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE?

    Is it possible for Christians to read the Bible and comprehend it without church leaders interpreting it for them? Did God intend for the clergy to search the Scriptures; then write their private interpretation in a creed book so the laity could understand His doctrines?

    Colossians 4:16 When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea.

    The apostle Paul instructed that his letters be read to the churches. Paul did not tell the church leaders to interpret his letters and write them in a creed book so the common church member could understand them. NOTE: PAUL’S LETTERS WERE SCRIPTURES.

    Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hears the words of the prophecy, and heeds the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

    The apostle John said blessed is he who reads the things written, he did not say interpret my letters, then write them in a catechism so the laity can understand them.

    2 Timothy 3:15 and that from childhood you have know the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

    The apostle Paul told Timothy that the Holy Scriptures were able to give him wisdom that leads to salvation. Paul did not mention anything about the church hierarchy writing their opinions of Scripture in a creed book, catechism, or statement of faith, so he could understand the Scriptures.

    God wrote the Bible so all men might know and understand His doctrines.

    GOD DID NOT AUTHORIZE CHURCH LEADERS TO WRITE PRIVATE INTERPRETATIONS OF THE BIBLE IN THE FORM OF CREED BOOKS, CATECHISMS, STATEMENTS OF FAITH, ETC.

    YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY CHRISTIAN BLOG. Bing search>>> steve finnell a christian view

Comments are closed.