Islander

I am truly sorry you are going thru this challenge. I have read your post carefully. What I am about to say comes from many years of experience in these maters. Ultimately, you MUST gather as much information as you can about these issues, consult specialists and educate yourself thoroughly before you make a decision. Since you have no family as of yet, you have time to determine what your next step will be. Pornography is a serious addiction. It deal with quite sophisticated and primal responses of the brain that are rooted deep in our developmental history. It is very likely that your husband has been struggling with this since he was a teen. So, there is nearly a decade of addiction, failed promises to himself, intervention and relapse. It is a well documented fact that pornography addiction can last decades and well until middle age. This has absolutely nothing to do with you and there is very little you can do, specifically, to curb his addiction. These are very intricate outlines of visual recall-ideation and arousal response that create a pattern of behavior that is extremely difficult to break. It may sound like I am quite pessimistic. Well, I am just trying to be pragmatic and accurate. Difficult as it may be for you right now, a hard choice and a season of pain are always better than a life of misery and regrets. Your feelings can NOT cloud your intellect. So, this HAS to be a rational decision. My prayers are with you.

You failed to see that it is ONLY an experiment for you. Many already have done their experiment so the process is well documented. If your outcome is different, it is obvious the flaw is in the process as far as you applied it.

Amen When the "Soviets" ran out of money, they broke away from the dead weight of the "republics" and left them to their own devices. They are now calling themselves "Russians" By the way, not a peep about the economic disaster they created for 70 years and the millions that died of starvation.

It is interesting that the proponents of socialism are always speaking of it in a vacuum. They are, invariable, either the political elite that arrogantly believe they know better, or the grossly uninformed about what such systems really entail. They should renounce their US citizenship and go live in Cuba or China like a regular citizen and see how much they like it

Please bring the laugh button back!!! Pam!!!!

Soninme said: "Or.........His word is complete. 2Timothy3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Every means every, so what else do we need to know? Therefore we have all we need and our commission is to take THAT message to all nations. OK, but unless you are a Catholic Priest and a follower of the Universal Church, who was the first after the traditions and teachings of Peter, the Bishop of Rome and keeper of the keys of the Faith you are not authorized to teach or preach. For you are not ordained and schooled in the ancient languages and in the secrets of the sacrament of the Latin Rites. Right? Not to deride but to point out that some make claims that would, on its face, invalidate your position. You seem very keen to repeating what you have been taught rather than studying on your own and inquire as to our point of view. You are making the same mistake the Jewish people made when the Savior came. They had scripture from God, history and prophets. They thought they needed no more prophets, truth or God's direct instruction. But they did! Because after a while, people forget, they abandon the true doctrine and the commandments, they change the law, they corrupt the ordinance and they transgress the covenant. In fact, those that claim that they already know (scribes, pharisees and the like) are just too eager to showcase their greater intellect and insight to the point of rejecting the living prophets of God (see also 3 John 9-10). It happened then and it is happening now. That is why the word of God does not stop, it never has and the evidence rests in the fact that we have scripture that encompasses almost 5,000 years! I guess God could have said it was enough at some point since they had ALL they needed in their time!!! Why would the Lord call another Apostle to the ministry some 30 years after the crucifixion? After all 12 Apostles had been called, many already killed and the work was underway. Because it is His Church and the work rests on His Living word thru prophets and Apostles that bring correct teaching and doctrine and not on the understanding, acquired knowledge or the belief of men.

You can not be happy away from God, for it is HIM who defines happiness. We can seek euphoria and ecstasy thru thrills and intoxication with the ever growing need for more edgy and dangerous activities to achieve such emotional states. But we will never be happy involved in (whatever) activities away from, and at times, contrary to the will of God. In the distant past, I walked thru very "promising" paths and what seemed, at the time, very worthy endeavors. Inspite of the public acceptance and accolade for my achievements I could not find happiness. It eluded me until I found and embraced the Gospel. Excluding medical conditions, depression is symptom with underlying causes varied and complex but always evidence of our distance from our Heavenly Father.

Whenever that was in the eternities! Infinity plus or minus one = infinity! He was the First, the ONLY Begotten of the Father and was with HIM from the beginning. He was is and forever will be God. You are NOT reading the scriptures. ALL things were made by Him. One second after or a million years it makes no real different when infinity is involved.

Oh, that is a fairly easy one! "In the beginning [of eternity] was the Word [Christ] , and the Word [Christ] was with God, and the Word [Christ] was God. The same was in the beginning [of eternity] with God. All things were made by him [the Word-Christ]; and without him [the Word-Christ] was not any thing made that was made. In him [the Word-Christ] was alife; and the life was the light of men. And the alight shineth in bdarkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." John 1:1-6 English lacks the ability to express time in such magnitude. Christ was and is from eternity to eternity

Your description and assertion that the creeds and councils held 300 years after Christ as "biblical" denotes your limited knowledge of the subject. Those traditions are no different from the rabbinic hedge and traditions the Jewish rabbis developed that the very Christ publicly rebuked and chastise. They were based on theo-sophical and historical interpretations rather than revelation and truth. Nobody questions your devotion and faith. All we are saying is that by your very words based on your adherence to the the creeds, a Rabbi would declare you a polytheist since you claim that there is a Father-God, a Son-God and a Spirit-God. And that definition in itself was "decided" by men in a political compromise forced by a pagan-unbeliever despot-emperor. It may serve you well to research the facts surrounding these political events before you base your understanding and declaration of faith on who and what God is when HE has declare and shown HIS own nature, in fact and thru revelation. Of course, your argument is not new and there are hundreds of threads on the very same subject here in the forum. But since you already made up your mind on the matter the exchange may have limited value.

Much has been said, so I will be brief. A few suggestions may be worth considering 1. DO NOT HAVE CHILDREN (yet) until and unless the marriage has been on very solid ground and fully functional for at least 2 more years. 2. Seek some counseling for yourself, gain insight and dimension about your marriage-relationship, your history, his behavior and how that relates to your future. 3. GO to the Temple by yourself. Difficult as it may be to realize, your salvation IS NOT tied to his. Seek to gain a greater and closer relationship with your Heavenly Father so that the Spirit may reveal to you what you should do in order to deal with this difficult situation. my prayers are with you

I think you misread the scriptures. The hellish-firepit-forever-terment condo is a perpetual lease for those that willfully and intentionally rebelled/defied God-the-Father and denied/rejected the Lamb. It is not a very large co-op so not many will be retired there. In the other hand, if you kill, harm and do truly evil things in your neighborhood, you are sent to be fried in an electrified easy-chair. The nature of the punishment is directly proportional to the extent of the sin.

I would give up 20 years of my life to be you, right now and without hesitation. The story is simply too long but sufice to say that I agree with much of what has been posted above. Seek to understand the Lord, His doctrine, His plan and purpose for you and I know it will not be difficult for you to discern what you should do at this stage in your life. Discuss it with you Bishop and seek some guidance from him as well. It will help you significantly.

Welcome back, Jody. Like grandma' used to say: "The Lord is not so much concerned with who you were yesterday but who you can become in the eternities." We are all glad ou are here today and willing to look ahead instead of behind you. Yes, welcome!

I do not mean to "argue" as in "disputation." Rather in the most basic sense of the word: they attempt to "bring clarity or explain" to me the errors of my ways. I did not quoted any one in particular but some obviously thought Isaiah 43 proves "we" are mistaken in our claim to inheritance of celestial royalty, exaltation and divinity. So their logic leads to their circular reasoning that thus we are not who we claim to be. I just wanted to state my position, for clarity sake.

We tend to spend a lot of time debating with those that ONLY seek to argue about what they think we stand for without the intent of actually learning. I know what I know with absolute and complete certainty and I do not expect others to comprehend. My commitment to the Gospel of Christ has very little room for theo-sophical arguments. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate before the adversary, negotiate with whom has declared to be my enemy, or ponder at the pool of popularity. I will not give up, shut up or lay low until I have given my all for the cause and the work of Christ, the Lord. I will preach till all know, work till He stops me and go until He comes. And when He return for His own, I will bow to Him in humility but soaring in the happiness of my heart; for He will recognize me. My stand had always been clear.

You seem to have taken the "road well traveled" when you picked this passage to argue. I called this "verse shooting" and it is a very silly sport. Before you throw out a scripture text, you MUST consider the "context". The scripture (context) is directed at Israel to stop worshiping false gods and idols. Since YHWH is eternal, all creation of every kind post date Him. and is subject to Him. So even other heavenly beings, for example, within the divine councils in heaven (gods?) (Ps 82:1 and 86:5-8) are subject to Him. It is clear from Revelation and Hebrews that we are heirs with Christ of eternal life and exaltation and partakers of all the Father has. But we will always be subject to Him. Absolutely nothing challenges the supremacy of YHWH, especially not His own creation.

Oh! Yeah, I know, you can barely tell.... Besides, you know I like to keep a low profile...:)

What is truth, as determined by God, has been and will forever be truth. It should not be confused with man's understanding or awareness of it for many times we state a "fact" only to realize sometime ater that it was not so. Thus what "we believed" to be the truth was not so. Because it was NEVER so. We can afford to err now and again. Except when we ignore that we are doing so and affirm our belief that we are in fact right.

I actually get a kick at seeing people react when I tell them I am LDS: "You are what???!!!" Hehehe...I am black, you see? hehehehehe. To say they are shocked is an understatement...Few can utter anything else after that. It makes my day.

I suggest that the Bishop would be well equipped to make a determination even when no specific "rule" exists on the matter. We go back to the doctrine of correct principles. If a young man will not serve a mission for no clear and justifiable reason, it is unlikely he is prepared to understand and receive his endowment. This is not a judgment of worthiness but of readiness, rather.

Yeah, and the devil wears Prada!!! What Ninjormon was referring to was a generality. What you describe are exceptions to the rule. Most overweight, unkept people have no thyroid or medication issues. And yes, we do make certain assumptions about people initially and time validates those. So your dirty, cheat, drunk but pretty ex-girl-friend will end up with a host of divorces and 3 kids by 4 different men. so don't worry about her.

In his famous and lengthy refutation of gnostic doctrine, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, France, goes on to give a list of all the Bishops of Rome, from Linus at the time of the Apostles to Eleutherus (AD 173-188) in his own day. He does not mention Peter anywhere. The issue has been debated for 2000 years and I suspect the RCC will stand its ground on the subject. But any objective student of history, with no theological agenda, looking at the pages of history will fail to conclude that Peter was the Bishop of Rome, but rather that the later claim of the bishops at the seat of the Empire was nothing but a geo-political claim. I arrived at such conclusion 10 years before I decided to join any church after living in an atheist country for most of my life.

The US is a micro-cosm. It is a very small yet strident bugle that constantly trumpets to the wind the observations of very short term social experiments as if they were existential truths of some kind. In just about any other society, social norms, values, traditions and training takes place with the explicit intent of preparing the individual to be a productive member of such society. In the US we have elevated the practice of being self-centered to a cult. What I think, feel, want and desired equates to truth that demands validation from the larger society. Nothing could be closer to an aberration as that position. We tend to ignore what GOD has said when it comes to who we are, what we ought to believe and do. Yes, the Lord has opened heaven once more and poured upon a lost and slumbering world His light and truth once more. According to such, we agree of our own free will, to enter into a covenant to receive His Priesthood authority and power on account of absolute faithfulness, devotion and a vocation to service. We promise to care, protect, provide, serve, love and honor our wives after His example and before His eyes for time and all eternity. In order to do the previously mentioned, I must prepare and demonstrate my willingness to "walk the talk." Young men are asked to prepare and serve a mission, to serve His children, prepare spiritually and academically to effectively provide for a future family and keep themselves unspotted from the sins of the world as to be worthy to present their brides at the altar in the Temple. Is it too much to ask that she is ready and actually willing to do the same? Is her preparation to be a strong, effective and enduring companion, wife, mother and servant of the Lord less important?

That is kind of a silly question. Have you heard about regret, remorse, repentance? Yes, you could have done wrong and then recognize it and thus point others onto the right way.:)