"Understanding the Atonement by Understanding the Body"

Absolutely amazing blog called "ONE Climbs" by Steven Reed, that I've just discovered this month, with much of it devoted to symbolism, a passion of mine...this post is a bit different, but still fascinating!

I love this part:

"Sins and transgressions are not just ethereal ideas, but an actual physical record we create that resides within us. This is why thoughts can be sins.

Whether you act it out or not, you have instructed the synapses in your brain...to produce an incorrect or impure sequence of data; you have willed something evil into existence. It may not exist in the world as an action, but it exists in your brain just as data exists in a computer in the form of ones and zeroes. A being who uses their will to instruct matter to from into imperfect structures cannot ever participate in eternal life where creation and the instruction of matter and intelligences is the entire purpose.

In this life, your brain is your own private universe, with every facet and fragment created by you and through your actions, brought into the sphere of this world to influence the lives and futures of your fellow beings for good or for evil.

This is why we can only receive a 'remission' of sin through baptism. Just like cancer in remission, it still resides in your body, but it doesn't effect your progression and ability to act. The cancer may be removed through surgery or a change in the physical body. Likewise, sin, or "imperfect code" must be removed from the body of man through another process we understand as "the resurrection'."

And it only gets better from there...do pay Steven a visit; you'll be glad you did! Thanks, Steven!

Another Great LDS Blog: "Father Thy Will Be Done"

I've been neglecting putting the great things I've found up on this blog, and was just throwing everything up on Facebook, but I'd rather start back linking the gems I find on here. One blog that has been absolutely an eye-opener for me has been one called "Father Thy Will Be Done" by the amazing Rosabella Knightly. Her work on the underlying dangers of the New Age "religion" and the self-help books that have grown out of it is thorough, massive, and highly enlightening (I started with one called "Law of Attraction and Luciferianism"). Lots to read there, do spend some time checking it out! One place to start is a post on a recent Ensign piece by R. Kim Davis called "Are the so-called New-Age spiritual beliefs opposed to Christ?" under the "I have a question" section. Rosabella also served as a consultant to Wendie L. Edwards on her latest Millenial Glory book, "Adam-Ondi-Ahman." Thanks so much, Rosabella, for all your work and for sharing it!

Molly's Sourdough Bread

Just saw a very simple recipe for making your own sourdough bread from scratch, at my friend Molly's website. I've tried sourdough before, but it was far more complicated, and well, I didn't manage to get any bread out of it. But this one looks easy enough even for me. Molly's whole blog is great, so have a look around! Thanks, Molly!

New blog: "We Gotta Fix This Somehow"

Well, I've been lightly blogging for years now, but I finally convinced my better half to start his own. He'd written a lengthy letter to send to our legislators, and I told him he should post it in a blog. Here's a taste:

Hi, my name is John Cahill, I live in Charlotte, NC and I'm the sort of guy that writes his legslators about issues of the day. I've done this for a while now and have written two or three times a year to the powers that be explaining my position on things, as issues arise or the mood hits me. This sort of approach got me through the Bush years alright. However on the occasion of the 100'th day in office of the current administration, the thought came to me that the Obama Agenda is moving so fast through the halls of power, and my old approach of commenting here and there, issue by issue won't work because too much is happening too fast. You just can't keep up! I figured that it might be best to write one long letter to Senators and Congressmen covering as many of the issues as I can think of at present. The Memo to Legislators that follows is the result. These are my views. They are also the views of thousands of folks that I met at Tea Parties, talked to after church, bumped into on the bus etc… I believe this to be a pretty good sample of the opinion of Freedom Loving Americans, those who honor the founding fathers. The people who sacrificed so much to give us this country which we all hold so dear. My intent was to put this open letter in the hands of as many legslators as I can because they all need to know that there is a groundswell of feeling out there amongst the people that we have had too much change, there is too much spending, there is too much government control of businesses, there are too much radical progressivism. Our legslators have to quickly recognize that these problems exist and recognize that they need to become part of the solution now, because those that are part of the problem will most likely lose their next bid for re-election. This country is broken and We Gotta Fix This Somehow..............

And he goes on to tell them what needs fixing! It is posted as several pieces, so read them all!

from "Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Political Correctness, and Soft Totalitarianism"
by Thomas F. Bertonneau at The Brussels Journal

My favorite portion (but do read the whole thing!):

Elsewhere in The Martian Chronicles, in the story whose title is a line from Lord Byron, “And the Moon be still as Bright,” a complicated character named Jeff Spender, in a tense dialogue with his senior officer Captain Wilder, sketches the socio-cultural path by which society went from freedom to slavery. The first phase consisted in the destruction of long-standing symbols in the name of reason. A cult of the hard fact arose that stood in implacable hostility to metaphor and intuition. “That’s the mistake we made when Darwin showed up,” says Spender: “We embraced him and Huxley and Freud, all smiles. And then we discovered that Darwin and our religions didn’t mix.” As a result, when “we tried to budge Darwin and Huxley and Freud,” they refused to move, “so, like idiots, we tried knocking down religion.”
Spender’s peroration is worth quoting in full:
We succeeded pretty well. We lost our faith and went around wondering what life was for. If art was no more than a frustrated outflinging of desire, if religion was no more than self-delusion, what good was life? Faith had always given us answers to all things. But it went down the drain with Freud and Darwin. We were and still are a lost people.

Two new LDS blog links!

I've recently received emails from a couple of beautiful new LDS blogs that I wanted to highlight.

The first is Latter-day Saints Abroad, whose intro statement is: We are now living in the small community of Sasebo, Japan and we hope to keep in touch with all the members of our home ward back in the States, the Salem Ward, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or with any other LDS friends of ours, who may wish to come here and Blog with us. All are welcomed, none are turned away. The Gospel is true. The Savior lives, and loves each of us.

The second blog is Mormons Made Simple, whose tagline reads: Who are the Mormons? The term "Mormons" refers to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the following videos, we'll try to explain a little about who we are and what we believe.

I am excited about both blogs, and can't wait to view all of the videos on the last one. It is so wonderful to see Latter-day Saints putting in such great effort to increase the light of the world! So, go over and pay them a visit, and link to them, and let us all lift one another!

Thank the Soldiers

I wanted to share a YouTube Video from a dear friend, Brent Jackson, called Thank the Soldiers. A moving tribute to those who stand between evil and all those who enjoy freedom.
(The writer used to be our home teacher, and is currently in our stake presidency...thanks, Bro. Jackson!)

Merry Christmas, and may God Bless us all!

Worshippers in Lansing, MI assaulted by liberal activists

November 11, 2008
by Rick Moran at American Thinker

Suppose you were sitting in church one Sunday peacefully minding your own business, praying that God grant our new president the wisdom to do what is right when suddenly, the sanctity of the church is violated in the most horrific way by vandals, thugs, and screaming lunatics. This is what happened at a small church in Lansing, MI called Mount Hope.

Prayer had just finished when men and women stood up in pockets across the congregation, on the main floor and in the balcony. "Jesus was gay," they shouted among other profanities and blasphemies as they rushed the stage. Some forced their way through rows of women and kids to try to hang a profane banner from the balcony while others began tossing fliers into the air. Two women made their way to the pulpit and began to kiss.

Their other props? I'll let them tell you in their own words... from another of their liberal blogs:
"(A) video camera, a megaphone, noise makers, condoms, glitter by the bucket load, confetti, pink fabric...yeh."

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I pray we never have to see this in our own LDS chapels!