Vengeance is Mine saith The Lord

These last few weeks I have had the opportunity to look at justice and the outcome there of. Among the various things that could be said of justice is first the scripture Roman 12:19 and secondly is the quote my friend Doc Thompson said "Justice is not an outcome, it's not a verdict you like; justice is the process. Period."

For years I have held the belief that justice was always going to be fair or that it was like karma. Its not. Those that are bullied do not always see karma 'get' their oppressors, the truth when revealed doesn't automatically get a officer of the law or someone with Force Lightning to come correct them. I have been so wrong and keep forgetting that even Alma the prophet saw people burn to their deaths; himself and his companion  put in prison because of the law. It was a harsh reality to see that the justice of God is different then the justice of the law.

The law isn't always fair. Justice, with as much evidence to convict, will send criminals to jail nor round up the varmints and lynch them. Cowboy justice and vigilante justice isn't the way of a just society as much as we might want it to be because we didn't get the result we wanted. Guilty men and women will get away from punishment we believe that they should receive but they cannot escape the vengeance of God.

In our society we do our best to mimic the way that God would have us run ourselves and do our best to be a rule of law and not a rule of men. However there those that want to exercise their own vengeance without justice first looking at the facts and while its true that the facts do not always reflect the truth we must not discount what it is able to reveal. The end result of those that would exercise their own 'justice' has lead to pillaging and looting; rape and murder.

I recall in my personal life the experience of a bully that had tormented me for months in Junior High and for the longest time I wanted justice. The truth was that I wanted vengeance. Some years later, like Alma the Younger who had become righteous, I saw the young man (my tormentor); he had cleaned up his life and had gone out and served the Lord. I inadvertently attended his home coming. I am certain that the Lord had made that arrangement. I was angry like Jonah who had waited for vengeance on the Ninevehites. It wasn't supposed to go that way thought it was. Jonah had thought that Nineveh had hurt his people so much and expected that they would not repent when he prophesied the destruction of the city but even the king called for repentance of his people and took not chance that even a maid or manservant, mule or camel not repent. Together they went through the gull of bitterness of repentance and had become pure in the sight of the Lord.

So where are we? These days I fear that we want 'justice' (really vengeance) for the law breakers and for the senseless killing, rape murder and disobedience that had run a muck. We want illegal aliens shipped back to where they came from and executions carried through. Why? We want vengeance but we are just children of the Lord not adults. We do not see what our heavenly parents see and like children in a car lack the experience that our parents do who are navigating our lives to where we will learn the most. We desperately want the Lord to say that He is going to turn this car around if we don't quit it and yet the call never comes; the car continues its course. I would put a charge of Israel to remember who is behind the wheel and that the Master will do what must be done but we must continue to be diligent to be a children of law and leave the vengeance to the one that will do it righteously and fairly. There will be times of pain and sorrow but God will wipe our tears and heal our wounds.

Be of good cheer for God will give us the best experience that we could ever have.

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Basking in the Son.

Today I want to talk about the last son of Krypton. No I am not going to talk about the allegory messiah aspect of him but that there is something that each of us members of the church have and that is the Holy Ghost; ultimate cosmic power, itty bitty living space. I’ll explain.  

While at church I was privilege to hear a lesson in sacrament about the lessons of abiding by the rules of sports. When we engage in a sport we agree to honor the boundaries and rules of that sport. For Olympiads abiding by the rules is strictly important and a tenth of a second could mean winning and losing. What the Lord did for us here on Earth was he gave us a plan and with it came the rules of the game with eternal consequence and reward. Our boundless spirits with boundless understanding and potential would be given boundaries. The game was hide and seek and all we needed to do while here on Earth was find our Father in Heaven. Now with no memory of who he was he would make it fair by giving us the Holy Ghost and for many that companion would be a constant companion; a gift.

In the mean time we would have bodies not unlike our spiritual bodies with arm, legs, eyes and what not but it would have boundaries; limits. Being spirits we knew nothing of boundaries because we had been limitless so this was new but we were up for the challenge. Ok find Father and we will have a partner in the search; great.

Our bodies while here on Earth have been an asset for some of us and a hindrance to others. Without knowledge of the Spirit that can be a real crippling blow but with the spirit you realize how powerful you are both spiritually and physically. I have come to a realization that the give that was given to me as a young eight year old was the best thing I could have had; it like the yellow sun to the son of Krypton.

The power of the Holy Ghost unlocks to your spirit truths that you would have not had if you had not taken the time to learn it though the prism of the Holy Ghost. What I mean is every day that you spend with the Holy Ghost in your life you become more and more enlightened and you begin to see the world differently; you are able to do and say things in such a way that it changes you and those that you intended to change. 

Each day you expose yourself to prayer and the scriptures you gain a new color to your rainbow.Although Satan would have us think that we will be like Icarus and fall because we attempt to gain power from the Son (see what I did there), it is completely different we become more powerful and gain the chance to win the challenge of seeing Father, well, that just comes easier and easier. It just takes time to bask in the power and influence of the Son.

Image found here.

Familiarity Breads Contempt

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I was thinking about our most recent lesson at church in Bothell WA (God bless the Saints there). We were talking about relationships and how to improve them and the thought occurred to me if we are seeking to improve our relationships and the most important one is the one with our Heavenly Father then why don't we?

The answer came from the stake president when he said (and I'm paraphrasing here) We look upon the Messiah with love because he loved but the Father with fear as we think that he will judge harshly with us and demand only justice and Jesus has to be some buffer. Our Father loves us very much and we should really get to know Him and his Only Begotten. Our Father is really rooting for us and hoping for our success. That is why He has sent us so many gifts for our success.

I thought about that for a while and sometime later a instructor brought up the question of why we were harsh with our love ones and not our associates, friends and those further away in relation? I then brought up familiarity breeds contempt and we as humans fear that, in getting to know God, we might become contemptuous and reject him or begrudgingly obedient.

I thought about what I said. We tend to take advantage of our most precious relationships and for what? We think that they will always be true and faithful (so long as we don't screw it up) but we forget we cannot be just recessive in our behavior but outward and hard working to improve our relationship with others especially Jesus and our Father. A wise person once told me that we need to constantly improving our relationships and that means dating our wives. I am sure that it could also apply to our relationship with our parents, children friends and the Lord. The only thing that we have to fear is not familiarity but alienation of the Lord. I believe that the ole adage is true but it is up to the individual to change that in themselves. They can either fear to get to know God or they can get to know him at a deeper level and really reap a blessing and experience.

God help us all in our attempts to strengthen our vigor and tenacity to become the men and women that we want to become and really get to know the Lord and our families; strive to become who you were meant to be.

Spirit vs. the Letter

The law of God as given by Moses was simple and direct. It wasn't until after the simple law was given that people begged Moses to elaborate and thus the Law of Moses was created; A bit more complex and detailed.  Time has passed and the law has become somewhat skewed. Much like the simple law of God is the Constitution of the United States; simple and direct. The assignment of elaboration was given to the states and the Bill of Rights was produced (thanks to some serious effort of the 5th president). Again it was still simple and direct but specified more about what the country could and could not do. Each state in the Union created their own Constitution that was in perfect rhythm but was more elaborate to the area that it influenced but because it was simple to read and maintained the spirit of the law it could be interpreted to suit the citizens that it protected.

Time has passed as it has for the original Ten Commandments and now such laws have backed us into a corner and have segregated us. Of course the passage of time was going to do that. We have been a country for over 200 years but might I purpose that we get back to the basics and scrape away some of the crud that we call law that hurts us and contradicts the original law that our forefathers wrote. The laws now attack our roots needs to be done away so that we can breathe again. Let us be courageous again and break from the fear that has us bound as a flaxen cord. This year I encourage you to vote for real 'hope' and 'change' that will strengthen our country.

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Happy to be damned?

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Some have asked themselves (inside and outside the church),'why should I care about what faith I belong to'? To those that have this question in mind I would ask about your favorite place to take your car, why care? Aren't they all the same? Of course you would tell me about the product and service that they provide and the extension on the life of your vehicle, maybe even talk up a technician or two. The same principal applies to religion. The fact that we are called to dig deep into our souls for the purpose of life and meaning there of means that we have an innate desire to know the unknown, to see beyond ourselves and discover what is out there and what is next. Such stretches have allowed us to create science, math and other things but has also rooted us in whom or what is god and what does he have for us next.

Now the Mormons (LDS faith) are unique in that they dare say that there is a place for everyone and that this place is a place of happiness. To some this is hard to believe, a Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu (or any other religion other than Christian) would find happiness, but it’s true. Why not? God who is the creator of all things wants all his creation to be happy as he his. To some, they want to be as he is, a God; reasonable request from a child of God. Doesn't every parent want their child to have it all? Just look around you children are given more and more than what their parents had as children all the time. These children grow up to be as their parents, mature full grown adults with all the privileges and powers of being an adult. Mom and Pop look at their offspring and show pride that they got the child to where they were and allowed them to progress from there on their own.

Now comes the part where this title comes from. There are those that want to play house, pretend to be adults and frankly rely on the merits, money and abilities of their parents. Some ask themselves, 'why would God want that kid around; all they do is mooch of their parents?' God wants happy children, period. Many a parent has watched as their child plays the play-boy (girl) all their growing up and when they are pushed out of the nest, let’s faces it they almost kill themselves. God knows that some of his children will want to worship an attribute/ideal of God or even God himself but they do not want the responsibility of being a God because they feel either inadequate or unworthy or better yet satisfied where they got in life. All of that is fine (sad but...). The God of Israel has a place for someone of that caliber, HELL!! Just kidding. It would not seem right for God to damn that kid to be with Satin and his angels who are murderers and deny the Holy Ghost. No God would have to find (create) a place where those kids can be in their own little piece of heaven. Why you ask? Why not be with God and those that want to be Gods. I believe that its best described like this. Imagine you were a silver winner of a race. Now there had been several contests though out the day and many metals given out. Those that had won a gold metal gravitated together, those that had won the silver gravitated together and so on. Not necessarily because of their achievement but because of comfort. If you were to be rewarded to hang out with the Gold winners for all eternity knowing that you were only Silver you would begin to feel uncomfortable, whether or not you were treated differently. To know your place in life would be discouraging.

That is why Mormons believe what they do. We know that God wants to put us in our own winning circle where there is pleasure in what we have accomplished and where we feel great. God does love us. Sometimes looking around yourself you may not realize it but he put you here for a reason. Be happy and when you are not be comforted in knowing your creator.