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Signs of the Times: #27 The Sun Will Be Darkened and the Moon Will Become as Blood
I recently purchased a copy of David Ridge’s “65 Signs of the Times Leading Up to the Second Coming.” Though most likely not a complete list, Brother Ridges lists 65 signs that the faithful Saints are to be watching for as written by prophets throughout the course of history. The author categorizes each sign with one of three categories: Fulfilled, Being Fulfilled, or Yet to be Fulfilled.
Helaman has already touched on one of these signs.
A Look at the Old Testament Chronology: Adam to the Split Kingdom
For some time now I have been interested, as many people before, in the chronological timetable from Adam’s removal from the Garden of Eden to the conquer of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 B.C. To this date, nobody has been able to come up with a complete, exact and proven timetable for the individuals we regard as the Patriarchs of the Old Testament, and I doubt anybody ever will. The goal of this serial is to lay out my current LDS views of the chronological problem and allow others to discuss them.
In undertaking this task I will be referring heavily on the standard works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which include: the Holy Bible (KJV), the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. In an instance where a discrepancy may exist with regards to the timeline, I will favor the LDS standard works over others, such as we will see with the lifespan of Enoch, and the age of Noah at the birth of his three sons.
Signs Of The Time: #35 The Spirit Will Stop Woking With The Wicked
Meditation
So the next stop on the bus ride to the second coming is one that got me thinking due to the first paragraph. I’ll quote a few bits of it so you can see how my train of thought proceeded.
When the Spirit stops working with the wicked, they lose their ability to think rationally...Righteous people are seen as their enemies, and a threat to personal freedom and independence, a threat to the exercising of their agency…evil deeds and cruelty become routine…[emphasis added by me]
Those key points got me thinking about today, don’t get me wrong though there have been isolated cases of evil through out our short history. But it seems to me that there’s an increasing amount of this in our day to day lives. Just turn on the TV, or read the news (especially on the internet) and you’ll understand what I mean.
Restoration of the Priesthood (Sacrament Talk)
Receiving the Aaronic Priesthood
Now I have to preference this and say that I thought the talk came out good, but like my normal mode I was still editing it right before I got up s0 the hard copy differs from the soft copy. But I’ll post the what I have and you can be the judge of it. It would also seem that I get the opportunity to speak in sacrament a lot, well it’s more because we end up moving a lot and so as new move in’s we get to talk more than normal.
I was given the topic of the Restoration for my talk, and after spending a number of days and nights trying to decide how to approach such a vast topic, I decided I wanted to focus on the restoration of the Priesthood.
Methods in Combating Negative Effects of the Media
From a talk I gave in 2009, upon moving into my current ward:
I. Introduction:
With the convenience of modern medicine, doctors can counter seasonal allergy attacks by injecting the patient with tiny doses of the particular allergen over a long period of time. This process slowly desensitizes the patient’s body to the specific allergen, even though their doses continued to increase.
Much like this method of treatment, Satan deviously introduces many immoral “allergens” into our lives through the media and entertainment. His intent is to desensitize our hearts and dull our spirits so that the evils of the world are less noticeable over time. Once successful, he continues to barrage us with the intent to “ensnare the hearts of men” (Alma 28:13). The majority of these evil pollutants can be found in movies, music, television, the Internet, books and magazines.
Finding Ways to Share the Gospel as a Return Missionary
From November 1998 to October 2000 I served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Ohio Cleveland Mission, fondly referred to in the Doctrine & Covenants as “the Ohio.” My mission was a roller coaster of an experience. There were good times and bad times, success and failure, obedience and slothfulness. I developed a love for some of the areas I served in, made a lot of memories and had a lot of faith-building experiences.?
In looking back on the time I spent in northern Ohio I will openly admit that I could have done better; but, more often than not we did the work, the Spirit converted individuals, people were baptized (in a fairly difficult mission), and the field was harvested.
Family S.W.O.T
Today at work we had a meeting that discussed the strategic planning method known as S.W.O.T. As we went through concepts and ideas for out IT group, it occurred to me this might make for a great FHE lesson. While I didn’t have a complete idea for how I would approach this with my family, I knew I needed to present it.
So I busted out the white board and basically put 4 columns on it.
Column 1 was for Strengths. Which I had the family discuss what they thought were our families strengths.
Column 2 was for Weaknesses. Again had then give me what they thought were our families weaknesses.
Signs of the time – getting started
Men and Women are Equal Partners
I’ve started reading a fascinating book “65 Signs of the Times Leading up to the Second Coming” – David J. Ridges and I thought I might start a series of posts that opens the discussion for them, because I like to go beyond what he highlights in the book, to more of a let’s show examples in the world. Let’s talk about after effects, etc.
The author makes a good point to say this book isn’t written to scare people and uses quotes from prophets to try and set the tone. I’ll probably put these quotes on each of the posts so that we don’t forget and end up getting caught up in the signs. That isn’t what I want to do either.
My New Year's Resolution
In my ward I am the Aaronic Priesthood adviser. I teach the young men, ages 12-18, a lesson each week about being bearers of the priesthood and how to be righteous boys who will turn into righteous husbands and fathers.
The first Aaronic Priesthood lesson of this year was on Who Am I? Since the beginning of each new year often brings New Year’s resolutions, I led off with instructing the boys that sometimes the best resolutions we can make are not necessarily the ones that others can see. While the stereotypical resolutions of “go to the gym,” “lose weight,” and “stop smoking” are noble pursuits, cleaning the inner vessel is possibly more important as it affects our spirituality and can help bring us closer to God.
Sacrament Talk – Family
Eternal Family
This is the talk I was asked to give on the family – there might be some mistakes because I was editing it right before I gave it…lol. Also not long before church was to being, I was informed that one of the speakers wasn’t going to be there so I needed to speak for about 20 minutes – I’ve never spoken for that long before and had to bulk up my talk quickly…
I want to tell you a story about my parents.
I t takes place some years ago when they met each other and fell in love. They decided to start a family, but were later devastated when their first born daughter died only hours after being born. Out of her death grew a desire to find answers to why their baby had been taken from their lives and would they ever see her again.
