7 responses
as i read #6 i am compelled to say that i must repent.
— Ben Jessop
That also happens to be one of the main messages of the BofM doesn't it?
— A posthaven user
Yes. It seems an almost Insurmountable task to bring these things into the light. Is there any that i can do?
— Ben Jessop
Once enough of our people have sufficient knowledge of these atrocities and clearly understand that the Lord has provided a system to correct it, they will hopefully insist that the council then does their duty. Help people by letting them know of this blog and then aiding them in their withdrawal symptoms as they process the "vomit and fecal matter on every table." Teach them to be courageous and strengthen them in their testimonies that this is the Work of God that we are involved in. There is no other place to go!
— A posthaven user
This is the first time I've read this blog and I'm wondering if someone can explain to me why the names are written with periods within the letters as in Mus.ser, Ow.en, Rich.ard?
— Alma Allred
Comments Blog 6 Page 1, para. 1. This addresses the nub of the problem of worthiness to succeed and the witness of God that His will has been obtained. Bro. Steve is here presenting that the standard of God’s priesthood in good standing is that the Lord will manifest his presence and approval by enveloping those in the household faith, particularly those who ask, with a feeling likened to exposure to an electric current. As to the man who holds the keys, himself, he has the privilege and duty to receive such manifestations, but also to talk with the Lord person-to-person. By what right has any man or men to declare that such strong manifestations are nowhere more present among us, or needed? The blessing is obtained on meeting the conditions upon which it is predicated. The man who holds the keys does not need a righteous people in order to have the oracles of God; what he does need is to meet God’s standard of worthiness and receive a valid ordination from one who is worthy. For those of us who are actively engaged in obtaining the voice of the Lord more surely, we know when that extra measure of the force that confirms us in our decision to sustain or reflect is present, or not. The fact that Bro. Dave presents the need to strain to obtain this witness (or a satisfactory portion, thereof) reminds me of Elijah before the priests of Baal. (They stirred up themselves to a frenzy, but Elijah didn’t have to strain at all to manifest the power of the Lord.) My experience is that although the still, small voice to me is really still and small, I still can get a signal if I will align my mind with the problem, and with what I understand is the Lord’s loving intention in furthering the gospel of salvation. We’re on the same side. When I’m praying, I don’t retain an attitude of self-accusing, or devaluing. I’m there to listen! “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth not.” (Jas. 1:5) It worked for Joseph Smith. It works for those who follow Joseph. I can also ask related questions. If I am too upset or closed-minded to get an unambiguous answer, I recognize that and say so. It is not enough just to climb the mountain of faith and ask the sage just one question and expect it to be delivered with force and then go away. I’ll take any answer that bears on the problem and build from there with follow-up questions. Asking in behalf of another person or persons I love and have the responsibility to protect, sometimes will produce a result. This question of worthiness and fitness bears upon us all; it’s not above our calling. By eternal measurement, we are every close to worthiness of the great prophets and patriarchs if we will stick to perfecting our faithfulness and power to make a right decision in every choice we face in life. We are not perpetual peons; we are underclassmen. The Church of God (and there’s only one) is about empowering individuals through giving them the tools, the associations, and the environment to better recognize the good and refuse the bad. It’s like the principle of the hologram, in which the same information is encoded in each fragment, although with less detail, less power. Churches of men are about control to the extent of keeping others down by keeping them ignorant, guilty, fearful, distracted, and under perpetual chastisement. “You can lead a horse to water, out you cannot make him drink. You can lead a man to reason, but you cannot make him think.” One of the reasons behind why so much preaching and scripture quoting is going on here is because people simply don’t believe in the gifts of the spirit applying in our time, or to them. There is a disconnect, and this is so because the building blocks upon which having these gifts depend have not been honored or believed in. People have accepted that what is proclaimed as truth by own prophets in the very-near past are not, and are not to be -a part of our reality. If we won't admit to them, we won't admit them into our hearts and we won't have their power in our lives. There is another reason why these gifts are not present in our leaders to inspire us with, either through their direct exercise or through their behaviors in upholding such things as truth and justice, the inviolability of celestial covenant marriage, accountable financial stewardship, the sanctity of human personhood – and so on. That reason is the subject of these blogs – it is a record of out and out sin. They cannot lead us by example, they cannot testify truthfully of the gifts of the spirit if they don’t have them, themselves. As with the LDS church, they have to imagine the presence of gifts through sheer will power, the power of positive thinking, the every real power of crowd suggestion as Bro. Dave has asked you to do in gaining a testimony of Bro. Lynn. I should rather invest this sort of “will-worship” (See Col. 2:23.) in something benevolent and harmless, such as Santa Claus, or the Great Pumpkin. Save straining for the W.C.; ask the Lord, doubting nothing, and he will answer. Don’t take my word for it; take the word of the Lord, himself in scripture. The ones who are going to be told off by the Savior-as-Judge before His throne aren’t going to be the one’s who tried (and thus had an equal amount of success) in serving the Lord all along, but the ones who ruled and profited in his name, while doing their own will apart from him. (Put as much distance between yourself and them as possible.) If you don’t want to be in the “you never knew me” (Inspired version of Mt. 7:23) crowd, then don’t think that you can’t approach him by seeking and accepting the tutoring of the Holy Spirit. “Who’s afraid of the big, bad wolf, big, bad wolf, big, bad wolf? Who’s afraid of the big, bad wolf? Oh, no, no, not I.” The Three Little Pigs - Walt Disney
— A posthaven user
Our Candlestick How many times did Jesus warn his church that he would remove its standard out of its place if its people did not repent? See the Book of Revelation. (Chapter 2, verse 5) We have a choice placed before us in how we shall serve the Lord. Should we serve the Lord through the ministry of Lynn Thompson and those who sustain him, or shall we serve the Lord some other way? How can we prepare to recognize that the choice must be made? How can we choose the right way? 1) We need to treat other people in a Christian manner and have a Christian outlook. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (Jn. 13:35) 2) We need to be familiar with scripture enough to prioritize it into governing or core principles and supplemental principles that depend for their understanding and practice upon accepting the first. 3) We need to be able to be proficient with prayer so we have confidence in hearing God’s word above the world’s, or men who are [full] of themselves. “My sheep hear my voice and I know them.” (Jn. 10:27) All three go together to make a strong and effective testimony and sure in discerning right and wrong and knowing what the Lord would have us do. If we were practiced in valuing others and felt reward in doing good, and packaged the same in an appreciation and love of God as our master teacher and mentor, if we were proficient and confident, and teachable, we would easily recognize elemental good from evil, and truth from error held of men. Absorb – pray - do. Three abreast, they go down life’s road together with us if we will create them and hold them in our mindfulness. Absorbing transforms becoming into being. Praying keeps us oriented and on the path. Doing builds character muscles. This is how one becomes like a Rulon, or a Brigham, or a Joseph, handling one’s affairs in one’s sphere as they would do. Be proven in small things and greater things will follow, but be aware and accept the task. “God can do anything He wants.” This is a notion of fallen men. This is a notion of ignorant men. God can't do anything He wants in the way sinful men understand Him. The “anything He wants” God does what he does because He wants only to do right, and He takes joy in it. The same must apply to his prophet and spokesman on the earth. God is a God of law. God is supremely law abiding, He just practices an advanced set of laws that govern how He judges and acts. If we would inherit a fullness of reward, if we would return to the presence of the Eternal Father and the company of the Son, then we must be law-abiding also, [as well as require it of those who would lead us in the path of righteousness]. We have a responsibility, not only to observe the way of personal holiness, we must sustain those senior in experience and worthiness to us to exercise their more developed abilities in behalf of all of us. Unhappily, this duty to sustain is not automatic, as though we were a part of the crowd at the Nuremburg rallies that sustained a fuehrer and invested him in faith with a godlike authority. Our sustainment must be accompanied by knowing and discerning. Priesthood responsibility is the same for all, the difference lies in the degree to which it can be exercised. Part of that responsibility is to sustain righteousness and remove the presence of that which is not worthy from our reverenced association. How do we know such a thing as evil exists in our midst? (Call it what you will.) 1) We know by the mind and the intelligence with which we have been endowed, comparing the record of perverted justice in this Work to the standard of God’s justice. 2) We know by the line of arguments and justifications and calumnies presented to devalue and deny the testimony and the motivation and the character of Bro. Steve Murphy. 3) We know by their policy of sanctioning the advocate, rather than addressing the issues, themselves. 4) We know by the crying out to our conscience of the victims of abused and perverted authority. 5) We know by the absence of the Lord in power among us. 6) We know by past history of how the Devil subverts, invades, transforms, destroys and converts the societies and governments of men, and continues to do the same. 7) We know by the signs of the times in which we live that the Devil has taken possession of all governments and societies of men, or effective control wherein it matters most, to bring about his open lordship throughout the earth. The rate of this advance is accelerating with each News broadcast. At the same time, our Lord is preparing to bring forth a great work for which a valiant and holy people is required. Why stand we idle here? 8) We know by the standard of belief and conduct that the Lord requires of us all – small and great. 9) We should know by asking of the Lord, who upbraideth not. (Js. 1:5) 10) We should not only know the truth of their and our situation, but what the Lord would have us do. The spiritual illness we have is like an inoperable brain tumor that has wrapped its destroying tentacles around the living pathways of our souls. This illness, and those who benefit from it, are so much a part of who we are that by our own light and strength we are unable to be freed from it. The Lord Jesus Christ is our physician in this. We must step aside from our emotions that seize upon doctrines misapplied and a counterfeit gospel of traditions. We must ask our Savior to show us the truth and direct our course, or we shall be not checked, but damned. Take that to the Lord. The way God handled Worth Killgrow is a warning to us all, both as individuals and as a group. I believe that God allows us to have some wiggle room with regard to doing things our way and still be worthy of being sustained in our callings, but the more the line is crossed in terms of abusing and violating others or forsaking our sworn responsibilities, the more we are in danger of God simply letting us have our own way. See Rev. 2:21, 22. If as a group we cannot put God’s standard of Christian treatment to the fore, and invite a cleansing and a mighty change of heart for ourselves and for our leaders, beginning with unequivocal and uncon-ditional repentance, accompanied by full disclosure and scripturally-mandated atonement, we like Worth, are facing God’s hospice program. We can neither run nor hide from God’s just judgment. God will have a people who are seeking Him and using the enhanced knowledge and other privileges bestowed by Joseph and other proven men of God to overcome every challenge. We have to choose right from wrong. It’s right in front of us how we should govern ourselves. We are supposed to be a part of the Lamb’s plan of salvation. That’s what our ancestors have hoped for us. We can no longer kick the can down the road for another generation to handle. We are that generation and our children will also call us blessed, or they will have to look elsewhere. “. . . pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things... (Lk. 21:36) Better, pray and be worthy by helping God to establish justice and a love of truth among this people. “I want you to have faith enough concerning myself and my counselors for the Lord to remove us out of the way, if we do not magnify our calling, and put men in our places that will do right.” Brigham Young (J.D. 9:142) What I am recommending is that we make this a matter of active prayer, not passive endorsement.
— A posthaven user