20171026

Start of with story of Picture this Jaden's story Necessity of doubt Progression Christ and his accusers Searching Searching within Asking tough questions Being open and honest Clarity and purpose where It is what it is Let go live free Greater compassion Kindness, outward Guilty until proven innocent Joy in all things The Necessity of Doubt The title is a loaded statement. First, let me define the interplay between doubt and questioning. To “question” does not equate to “doubt”. Doubt is a litmus test; it either pushes us to sincere questions, or it forces us to choose an easier path of apathy. Essentially the question I am proposing is: "Is doubt necessary?" I propose that it is. Before I joined the church, I had much doubt.  I did a lot of research. I studied and checked out books at the library. I read books by those opposed to the church. I read the words of the prophets. I read those who obviously had an axe to grind. I sifted through the bias and sorted out the truth. Even while reading anti-Mormon literature, I joined the church. For a time after I joined the church, I did not question. I flowed along, blindly, if you will. I was content to float along. It was safe. The world became black and white; there was faith on one side and doubt on the other. There was no mingling of the two. When questions arose, I put them aside, or didn’t bother searching them. I became stagnant, and my faith felt empty. I have revisited many of those questions and found that even though answers may not be apparent, the questioning itself leads to inspiration and greater faith. Do I question at times whether God is there? Unequivocally yes - I would be lying if I said otherwise. Does this mean that I have no faith? Absolutely not - faith is hope in things we cannot see. I rely on my spiritual feelings to tell me what lies just beyond my eyes. I continue to get answers in many different ways: the spirit testifies, the fruits of good choices and right living, the knowledge in my heart and mind. I continue to search out my questions with a desire to understand, knowing that I may not always get answers right away, or at all. I rely on the many wonderful spiritual promptings from the Holy Ghost; confirmations of truth which I have had and continue to have. I may be tempted to generalize those who question as just not having enough faith. However, faith grows and is garnered by the very questions that hope to define and explain. Questioning with a sincere desire, as Moroni entreats in Moroni Chapter 10, bolsters certainty in a world of uncertainty. Therein is the key. If we have sincere desire to find answers, doubt and questions will lead us to greater faith. Ultimately, faith and doubt work together. They are opposing forces that are a necessity of mortal probation. Faith and doubt are much like good and evil, polar opposites that we interplay between while traveling through this necessary condition of mortality. We need good and evil in this life to help us choose, as we need faith and doubt. Ultimately faith and doubt will no longer be needed when this mortal probation is over. In the meantime, I am as the father who said to Christ in Mark 9:24; “…Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” Progression Christ and his accusers Searching Searching within Asking tough questions Being open and honest Clarity and purpose where It is Picture this Jaden's story Necessity of doubt Progression Christ and his accusers Searching Searching within Asking tough questions Being open and honest Clarity and purpose where It is what it is Let go live free Greater compassion Kindness, outward Guilty until proven innocent Joy in all things the Sea of doubt Once you step off the safety of the shore of blissful ignorance or are summarily shoved off, you are then neck deep in the sea of doubt being either thrashed by the waves against the rocks or treading water. and undoubtedly this is disconcerting. So how do you manage? Rash decisions usually are not the best idea, and how do you plan for something that you've never experienced? On how the Spirit works with us enter Showing different pictures on screen people situations old people child children crying helping praying etc Undoubtedly he helou felt many different emotions when looking at these photos aand may have brought you back to experiences in your own life. The emotions undoubtedly we each feel during looking at this phone photos R not all the same. In general the emotions may be the same hi looking at a child crying you may have compassion depending on the context of the photo when they feel some other emotions. The spirit of astronaut strike that undoubtedly also we feel when they have felt the spirit during looking at these photos. Undoubtedly the spirit touched each of us in different ways . We have also general ideas and how the Spirit works with us. Add scripture reference. These are guideposts along the way rather than specific not directions but what's the word? Indicators? Specifics? Definitions. No 1 can really tell you how you will feel this. There are many strike that because spirit is this so personal and it is spirituals only you really know when you feel it. But that doesn't mean that there aren't hunters with help exactly what you will feel, hand will be able to give you some indicators and 2 what you will feel may feel. Modern revelation, speaking of spiritual gifts, notes that while to some it is given to know the core truth of Christ and His mission, to others is given the means to persevere in the absence of certainty. The New Testament makes the point that those mortals who operate in the grey area between conviction and incredulity are in a position to choose most meaningfully, and with most meaningful consequences. Terryl L. Givens letter to a doubter Forgiveness comes easily thru the atonement of jesus christ. Ask and ye shall recieve seek and ye shall fi d knock and it shall be opened unto you. It takes a lifetime to work out who you are inside. Everyone has darkness and light within. The darkness grows the light chases out the darkness. Hopefully ove time the darlness is diminished and light shines forth. 201510 The first general attribute that I had chosen was "oneness", Jesus Christ was the ultimate example of oneness. In everything he did, he was following the spirit and doing the will of his father in heaven. There's been many times in my life that I have had an inkling of this one this semi colon giving blessings reading the scriptures, fasting and praying, sharing the gospel. On these occasions of feeling the spirit, and feeling the one that's with God, makes us as humans Sycamore spirituality in their lives, and crave to have that constant companionship. Striving to define the school and put it into workable smaller goals, has been difficult because the attribute is more of a feeling and closeness. the smaller attributes goals that I have chosen like spending more having more meaningful prayer and time in the thankfulness , are guideposts along the way to this ultimate goal of 1 this. Vienna number themselves will not attain the oneness butt will help to keep me on the right track toward that goal. it has been hard to describe and hard to put into words, a lot like then if you have ever studied Eastern philosophy. Zen is not a religion or philosophy but is what the taoist would call tao, a Buddhist would call and lightning meant, the Hindu Westwood call Dharma , and Nephi would describe as the spirit consuming his flesh.. It is important for me to continue to strive after seeking this, because it is one of the reasons that I joined the church in the first place. the first time I felt the spirit when the missionaries were talking with me was the most profound and powerful experiences of my life one of. I have worked at developing this connection in my life at some points more than others. There were and have been many times in my life of things are so busy and pressing needs of just surviving R overwhelming and crowd out these feelings. But ultimately that is what we are to gain in this life, a closeness with the spirit to have it as a constant companion. I have felt like something has been missing all morning like I forgot to do something or take one of my meds. Only taking one. I've been working on what it means to have a daily walk with God oneness etc I finally understand hat it meant that moonlit few drops are a wall before the truth. I was out playing ingress and only.hacking a few portals. I was walking in circles around a small building, The thought occurred to me that maybe this is my daily walk with God. Slowly at first then building like like an opening flower, the universe came alive. I try here to explain and define in words the spiritual enlightenment which is impossible. I realized some things mainly that ingress, and before that reading, although reading can help gain knowledge, and before that just daydreaming were distracting me from the feelings and experiences that were all around me in the present. That the people the trees nature the sound of mail trucks horn the clouds, all around to be experienced and I was disconnected from it all. Distracted from the truth of existence all around. It occurred to me the interaction between people. The church building that shuffles people out of the chapel, all the while people are there conversing. The conversing is the gospel. The interaction is not zen but don't know how to put it but that's the point of the building. The interaction of these individuals. Zen is personal An Honest Doubter Elizabeth Deutsch - Shaker Heights, Ohio As heard on The Bob Edwards Show, September 3, 2010  At 16, Elizabeth Deutsch was the youngest essayist to appear on Edward R. Murrow’s This I Believe. She discusses her search for philosophical and spiritual beliefs that can guide her as an adult. (Read a new essay Deutsch wrote in 2005.) Age Group: Under 18 Themes: faith & religion, purpose, question Audio Player 00:00 Use Left/Right Arrow keys to advance one second, Up/Down arrows to advance ten seconds. 00:00 Sponsor This Essay  At the age of sixteen, many of my friends have already chosen a religion to follow (usually that of their parents), and are bound to it by many ties. I am still “free-lancing” in religion, searching for beliefs to guide me when I am an adult. I fear I shall always be searching, never attaining ultimate satisfaction, for I possess that blessing and curse—a doubting, questioning mind. At present, my doubting spirit has found comfort in certain ideas, gleaned from books and experience, to form a personal philosophy. I find that this philosophy—a code consisting of a few phrases—supplements, but does not replace, religion. The one rule that could serve anyone in almost any situation is, “To see what must be done and not to do it, is a crime.” Urged on by this, I volunteer for distasteful tasks or pick up scrap paper from the floor. I am no longer able to ignore duty without feeling guilty. This is “the still, small voice,” to be sure, but sharpened by my own discernment of duty. “The difficult we do at once, the impossible takes a little longer.” This is the motto of a potential scientist, already struggling to unravel the mysteries of life. It rings with the optimism youth needs in order to stand up against trouble or failure. Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan minister, resolved never to do anything out of revenge. I am a modern, a member of a church far removed from Puritanism, yet I have accepted this resolution. Since revenge and retaliation seem to have been accepted by nations today, I sometimes have difficulty reconciling my moral convictions with the tangled world being handed down to us by the adults. Apparently what I must do to make life more endurable, is to follow my principles, with the hope that enough of this feeling will rub off on my associates to begin a chain reaction. To a thinking person, such resolutions are very valuable; nevertheless, they often leave a vacuum in the soul. Churches are trying to fill this vacuum, each by its own method. During this year, I have visited churches ranging from orthodoxy to extreme liberalism. In my search for a personal faith, I consider it my duty to expose myself to all forms of religion. Each church has left something within me – either a new concept of God and man, or an understanding and respect for those of other beliefs. I have found such experiences with other religions the best means for freeing myself from prejudices. Through my visits, the reasoning of fundamentalists has become clearer to me, but I am still unable to accept it. I have a simple faith in the Deity and a hope that my attempts to live a decent life are pleasing to Him. If I were to discover that there is no afterlife, my motive for moral living would not be destroyed. I have enough of the philosopher in me to love righteousness for its own sake. This is my youthful philosophy, a simple, liberal, and optimistic feeling, though I fear I shall lose some of it as I become more adult. Already, the thought that the traditional thinkers might be right, after all, and I wrong, has made me waver. Still, these are my beliefs at sixteen. If I am mistaken, I am too young to realize my error. Sometimes, in a moment of mental despair, I think of the words, “God loves an honest doubter,” and am comforted. When Elizabeth Deutsch was 16, she won a This I Believe essay contest in the Cleveland Pressnewspaper. Her prize was a trip to New York City to record her essay for broadcast on the original series. Deutsch went on to become a professor of plant breeding at Cornell University. Related Essays 20150107 I search for the words that enlightened me and I find that they were never written Pathway 2 week 8 Posted on March 13, 2016 thankful for the opportunity to talk. When I have been given assignments, I don’t recall ever having said no. There is a culture in the Church of accepting opportunities and challenges, because we have been taught that we should learn through our trials and that we can grow from tests. Along with the adage that “that which does not kill us makes us strong”. All trials help us to grow, even trials that we grumble with and trials that we curse our luck for having.  We may look at our lives and say, I have done everything that I should have, married in the Temple, gone on a mission, kept the commandments. Why am I not being blessed in the way that I think I should. We may wonder why God is punishing us, or not blessing us with our rights to the blessings we so fully think we deserve because of our stalwartness. When I was 14 I started taking the missionary lessons, I had friends who are members.   I was not particularly active in my own religion, nor particularly studying at the time, but my friends shared tidbits of the gospel with me. My friends and I were definitely not perfect, but they seemed to have a knowledge inherently that I did not have. Perhaps looking back, it was that they had a knowledge of their place with God, and at this time I was unsure of my own standing with God. So I started meeting with the missionaries was 14 at my friends house. About on the second or third lesson they showed the Joseph Smith’s first vision story. What a fantastic story I thought. I was skeptical to say the least. I had no way to tell whether or not the story was true. I couldn’t go back in time and see it for myself. Yet as the missionary explained his feelings on it and shared his testimony about the spirit, a feeling came over me so powerfully that I never felt at that magnitude before, the missionary recognized it in my eyes and told me “and you’re feeling it right now”.I knew that what I felt did not come solely from within myself. I was on splits with a member in Hamilton Ohio in 1991 we were visiting with a part member family named the Plowmans. Her sister had expressed an interest in learning about the church, and we had one or two discussions with her. We decided to kneel and pray about these things that she was learning. As she and prayed, she started to cry. She said that the feeling that she felt as she prayed, she had only felt one other time in her life, that was the time that she gave her life to Christ. There exists as much proof that God does not exist as there is that he does. When we look around this beautiful and sometimes tragic world that we live in we see both of these evidences. We see suffering and pain, and we cannot comprehend a god allowing all this injustice. And at the same time we see blessings and miracles that we cannot fathom how they came to pass in our lives. We are truly free to choose whether God is there or not. My younger sister was involved in an off-road accident that took her life. I could not understand why God would allow such a young spirit to have such a tragic end to a short life. I questioned whether he existed or not. Whether he was involved in our lives, and if so, whether he had any cause in the orchestration of these events. Many questions circled through my mind and troubled my spirit.What eventually came to mind was my experiences with feeling the spirit and knowing what was it I need to do in my life. I reflected back on my discussions with missionaries, the plan of salvation and the feelings that I knew were true. In this life you see what you want to see. There is just as much evidence that the Book of Mormon people were here on this continent as there is that they were not. We have the testimony of the witnesses who said they saw the plates, and yet the plates are not here. If they were here there would still be squabbles and debates on whether they were man made in the 600’s or in the 18 hundreds. Evidence does not foster true belief.Heavenly Father wants us to see the evidence and proof of a good life and choose THAT for ourselves. Those who believe solely on evidence and proof RATHER than spirit, will fall away at the first showing of so-called evidence or proof to the contrary. Our heavenly father wants to choose for ourselves and in this life and I believe that he does not want to influence our decisions but will rather bless us for doing good and what is right, hence allowing us to “see” that he exists. I am amazed as I grow older and as I look around me at all of the examples of people that continue to show up and continue to work at this imperfect system called the church. There have been many times that I have struggled with not wanting to come to church. When I finally did join the Church at 18 it was  only a little difficult to caome to church, a single new member in a predominantly family ward. I was able to internalize the lessons that were about how to be a good father, and rather than be upset that the lessons were not tailored for me, still learn and grow and allow myself to be teachable. There have been times though that people, disagreements, and even mean spirited unintentional or marginally intentional conflicts with others have made it difficult to want to continue to attend church.We are imperfect beings dealing with other imperfect beings and we are doing it in imperfect ways. But I believe that God is smart enough to use all of that imperfection and all of our mistakes and still accomplish his work. He has to. Otherwise there would be no way for him to get anything done. The work on the earth would cease completely. Because he relies on us to complete his work, imperfect beings. So then what? We all know or should know that we are imperfect. So I do look at others and be critical of their imperfections?.I Matthew 7, Christ gives the parable-And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye,but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?The meaning of this verse is fairly clear, it is an attack on the hypocrites who attack others for their small flaws, while ignoring their own massive ones. Those who judge others, but do not evaluate themselves. It has a dual meaning, first attacking the hypocrisy of those who criticize others while ignoring their own much larger flaws, and since the flaw is in the eye it is a metaphor for how such flaws can blind one.The metaphor is a rather extreme one. The word translated as mote or speck can refer to a tiny splinter or piece of sawdust, or colloquially to any minute object. The word translated as beam refers to a log or a rafter such as would hold up the roof of a house. A rafter is a difficult thing to get in one’s eye, but it functions as a humorous and hyperbolic metaphor for an extreme flaw. The metaphor comes from woodworking, and is often seen as rooted in Jesus’ traditional employment as a carpenter.Christ said in the parable of the mite in the eye that there was also a beam in the eye of the accuser. In other words to look around at each other and point out all of the flaws each other has, when we don’t see our own flaws, should not be. There is only one true judge of all of us and he was the only one perfect enough to do the judging. Consider when you’re frustrated with someone that they may have struggles greater than your own or that there is something to learn from the experience,  to look at it as a trial of your own. Will you grow from the experience or will you receed?I decided while ago not to let anything affect my church attendance. This is my church. This is your Church.My faith evolves as well. When I first joined the Church everything was very black and white, there was no grey area between right and wrong. As Ihave grownStand strong in holy places”TempleChurchHomeWith friendsIndividuallyFirst thought that comes to my mind can stand in holy places is the temple. the temple in and of itself is a holy place where essential ordinances and promises are made. To get to the temple we must have already been standing in holy places. We have been conducting our lives in a way that is pleasing to our Heavenly father. When the Nauvoo temple was destroyed after the Saints left it fell into ruin and eventually was demolished. It was no longer a temple in the spiritual sense that was destroyed, it was a building. It stopped being a temple when the saints stopped performing the ordinances within it.Regularly attending the temple helps us to keep standing in holy places by continually working and applying obedience and sacrifice in our daily lives. Your body is a temple the Spirit of God can dwell within you. Wherever you go, stand in Holy Places.It is not the physical manifestations of what is done inside the temple but is the covenants and promises and spiritual nature of what we promise. If we internalize the temple it helps by refining us and helps us to live a happier life. Forgiveness comes easily thru the atonement of jesus christ. Ask and ye shall receive seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you. It takes a lifetime to work out who you are inside. Everyone has darkness and light within. The darkness grows the light chases out the darkness. Hopefully over time the darkness is diminished and light shines forth. Careful! Even moonlit dewdrops, if we are lured to watch, are a wall before the truth.This phrase is always intrigued me it’s from Lao TsuWhat are your moonlit dew drops? mine was music. As I listened I realized I didn’t think as much, and my thoughts were scored to the mood of the music.silence then became my teacher because it allowed me to think on my own and allowed my mind in my spirit to by open to inspiration. Silent waterEverything in life is perfect balanced, between good and evil, wrong and right, faith and nothingness