ryanh

But, the conversation is 10 years old. What "decline" was being talked about? The most dramatic cooling has occurred more recently than that. Although a skeptic myself, I didn't see the article articulating any real smoking gun with the decline comment.Lord Monckton, a primary critic of anthropogenic climate change gave a lecture last month regarding the issue. See the lecture .

In the April 2009 General Conference, the following was relayed by Elder Russell M. Nelson.

Well, we have your avatar to go by. There aren't many people that have glasses that incredibly thick that run around with crystal balls and reading people's tea leaves. You should be easy to spot, right? And we can all greet you on sight then!

Whether or not you will consider a future relationship with her, it seems to me it would be a good and right move to apologize. Just a simple 'sorry for doing what I did saying him or me'. We can all use friends that hear and support us, and care enough about our feelings to say sorry when we misstep.

Your experience isn't too dissimilar to my experience when trying to figure out whether or not to join the church when I was 16. It took quite a bit of time and effort to get that answer that reassured me this was the restored church and Heavenly Father wanted me to be baptized. Perhaps it just took quite a bit of time to recognize the answer. Listening to the Spirit was not something I had ever done previously (and still struggle to hear). There was a talk given in General Conference this last May that may be of help. Despite the title, the talk is about learning to recognize the whisperings of the Spirit and gaining a testimony. Finding Strength in Challenging Times You are in Alma huh? Have you made it to chapter 32 yet? Verse 17 on. I can empathize with the worry about knowing vs convincing yourself because of desires. What is the chicken an what is the egg here? "But then I'm scared that by wanting it, I'm just making myself think a certain way." Or is the converse true - that you are wanting it because you have already felt and recognized it's right and true? Just some food for thought.

The HSUS does not simply "fight to make stronger laws so that the people abusing those animals can be charged". There is nothing abusive IMO in allowing individuals the freedom to have pets - the banning of which is clearly the defacto mission of the HSUS. There is plenty enough information out there on the net to show what HSUS is really about. Sure, they do some good things, but I do not believe those come close to outweighing the bad, nor will I ever feel comfortable with an entity that fools people into thinking its donations do something other than the stated objectives. I’ve seen enough to understand the organization is PETA-like in its goals and desires. How someone could represent to be LDS, but then at the same time support an organization that seeks to force it's extreme views on society is beyond me. Reminds me of scriptures warning of those that forbid the use of meat for eating.

Context, purpose, background, etc are necessary to understand the quote. Oh, and the full quote, would be nice, not just selected portions. I don't find that quote all that moving or enlightening given it's multiple uses of the word "work". "workers only second...The work done by a worshiper" If the work done by a worshiper is paramount, doesn't that mean that work is the first priority? Seems self contradictory. Either way, I expect you will find a view among LDS different than yours. I envision a Father that is far more loving than to create humans just to give oblations to Him. A perfect being does not need such. That is the effect of having the entire plan of salvation, and our purpose of existance on this earth, revealed. It changes the understanding of the purpose of our existance.

I don't agree that it is the same question at all. Very different. I am putting my house to use in building the kingdom through raising of my family, etc, etc. That $10 probably wasn't necessary for that purpose. $10 bucks doesn't have the implications of providing for temporal welfare of others than myself, and is not wrapped up in debt/liens, legal conveyance problems, and the like. You are really mixing apples and oranges Vort, and that is why so many are balking.Why are you so hung up on the Bishop idea?

Then, how can we know we have done "enough"? Again, and excerpt from Believing Christ: BUT WHEN HAVE I DONE ENOUGH? I have a friend who always asks at about this point, "But when have I done enough? How can I how that I've made it?" This misunderstands the doctrine of grace by asking the wrong question. The right question is "When is my offering acceptable to the Lord? When are my efforts accepted for the time being?" You see, the answer to the former question, "When have I done enough?" is never in this life. Since the goal is perfection, the Lord can never unconditionally approve an imperfect performance. No matter how much we do in mortality, no matter how well we perform, the demand to do better, the pressure to improve and to male progress, will never go away. We have not yet arrived. In this life we are all unprofitable servants, or to use a more modern term, we are all bad investments. (See, for example, Luke 17: 10; Mosiah 2:2 1 .) From the Savior's perspective, even the most righteous among us cost more to save and maintain than we can produce in return. So if we're looking for the Lord to say, "OK, you've done enough. Your obligation is fulfilled. You've made it, now relax," we're going to be disappointed. We need to accept the fact that we will never in this life, even through our most valiant efforts, reach the break-even point. We are all unprofitable servants being carried along on the Savior's back by his good will - by his grace. However, the Lord does say to us, "Given your present circumstances and your present level of maturity, you're doing a decent job. Of course it's not perfect, but your efforts are acceptable for the time being. I am pleased with what you've done." We may not be profitable servants yet in the ultimate sense, but we can still be good and faithful ones in this limited sense. So if we are doing what can reasonably be expected of a loyal disciple in our present circumstances, then we can have faith that our offering is accepted through the grace of God. Of course we're unprofitable-all of us. Yet within the shelter of the covenant, our honest attempts are acceptable for the time being. In fact, there is a way we can know that our efforts are acceptable, that our covenant is recognized and valid before God. If we experience the gifts of the Spirit or the influence of the Holy Ghost, we can know that we are in the covenant relationship, for the gifts and companionship of the Holy Ghost are given to none else. This is one reason why the gift of the Holy Ghost is given- as a token and assurance of our covenant status and as a down payment to us on the blessings and glory to come if we are faithful. Paul refers to the Holy Ghost as "the earnest of our inheritance" (Eph. 1: 14)) a reference to "earnest money," which, though only a token payment, makes a deal binding when it changes hands. Thus the "earnest [money] of the Spirit in our hearts" (2 Cor. 122; 5:s) assures us of the validity and efficacy of our deal, our covenant, with God. Do you feel the influence of the Holy Ghost in your life? Do you enjoy the gifts of the Spirit? Then you can know that God accepts your faith, repentance, and baptism and has agreed that "[you] may always have his Spirit to be with [you]." (D&C 20:77.) This is perhaps one reason why the Holy Ghost is called the Comforter, because if we enjoy that gift, we can know that our efforts are acceptable-for now-and that we are justified before God by our faith in Christ. And that is comfort indeed. Now go buy your own copy.

First, I agree with Stephen Robinson that we often misintrepret 2Nep25:23. It makes no sense that there is any "grace" if it actually requires any works. It is afterall, grace, which by definition is unearned. From the book Believing Christ: "AFTER ALL WE CAN DO" In my opinion some of the blame for our misapplication of gospel superlatives and other similarly obsessive reasoning comes from a misunderstanding of 2 Nephi 25:23: "For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (Italics added.) At first glance at this scripture, we might think that grace is offered to us only chronologically after we have completed doing all we can do, but this is demonstrably false, for we have already received many manifestations of God's grace before we even come to this point. By his grace, we live and breathe. By grace, we are spiritually begotten children of heavenly parents and enjoy divine prospects. By grace, a plan was prepared and a savior designated for humanity when Adam and Eve fell. By grace, the good news of this gospel comes to us and informs us of our eternal options. By grace, we have the agency to accept the gospel when we hear it. By the grace that comes through faith in Christ, we start the repentance process; and by grace, we are justified and made part of God's kingdom even while that process is still incomplete. The grace of God has been involved in our spiritual progress from the beginning and will be involved in our progress until the end. It therefore belittles God's grace to think of it as only a cherry on top added at the last moment as a mere finishing touch to what we have already accomplished on our own without any help from God. Instead the reverse would be a truer proposition: our efforts are the cherry on top added to all that God has already done for us. Actually, I understand the preposition "after" in 2 Nephi 25:23 to be a preposition of separation rather than a preposition of time. It denotes logical separateness rather than temporal sequence. We are saved by grace "apart from all we can do," or "all we can do notwithstanding," or even "regardless of all we can do." Another acceptable paraphrase of the sense of the verse might read, "We are still saved by grace, after all is said and done." In addition, even the phrase "all we can do" is susceptible to a sinister interpretation as meaning every single good, deed we could conceivably have ever done. This is nonsense. If grace could operate only in such cases, no one could ever be saved, not even the best among us. It is precisely because we don't always do everything we could have done that we need a savior in the first place, so obviously we can't make doing everything we could have done a condition for receiving grace and being saved! I believe the emphasis in 2 Nephi 25:23 is meant to fall on the word we ("all we can do," as opposed to all he can do). Moreover, "all we can do" here should probably be understood in the sense of "everything we can do," or even "whatever we can do." Thus, the correct sense of 2 Nephi 25:23 would be that we are ultimately saved by grace apart from whatever we manage to do. Grace is not merely a decorative touch or a finishing bit of trim to top off our own efforts-it is God's participation in the process of our salvation from its beginning to its end. Though I must be intimately involved in the process of my salvation, in the long run the success of that venture is utterly dependent upon the grace of Christ.

I am disturbed that the act of intercourse outside of marriage would be described as “sweet romance and time together” by someone that espouses to believe in the teachings of the restored gospel. Even moreso from someone that has referenced The Miracle of Forgiveness, which book would condemn such abuse of procreative powers in no uncertain terms. It is never a "sweet" or good thing when we crucify Christ anew. Between this post, the one insinuating that ‘every young man masturbates anyway’, and other references to adultry, I’m concerned that your posts might be lead the uninformed reader to an inaccurate understanding of the sacred nature of procreative powers, and the responsibility and seriousness connected with their misuse.

I'm too slow to point out the truth before you posted. You've been snookered by the very name confusion the HSUS is using to confuse the public and garner donations to ban pets.

For those that don't already know, your local Human Society, and the Humane Society of the United States are in no way related. The HSUS does not support local shelters/societies, and does not run a single shelter. Their mission is very PETA-like, and IMO, they are using the similarity in names to garner donations deceitfully.

What makes you qualified to judge her? And without specifics of the circumstances none the less! If find so much of your commentary and judgments so extremely distasteful. Glow in the dark - some of the best missionaries I met were those who had lived enough life to understand what true repentance was. Those that chose to right themselves and follow the right path - not those that happened to just live the right patch by matter of habit without the pain and mistakes that cause them to make a choice. Ignore Charlyc's ignorant remark, and do what you, and your local leaders feel is right. Pray and fast about it, see what Heavenly Father thinks is right for you. Only He can see what is the best path for you. You and your local leaders need to find out what His will is.

I'm interested.

Coming from SD, IMO you should be far more worred about the temperatures that produce the snow rather than the snow itself! I love driving in the snow. I just don't like it when there are other drivers around me that I can't control, and who can't control themselves!

Tuesday? 12/27? My calendar says 12/29 is a Tuesday, and 12/27 is a Sunday.

Is there reason to think that the missionaries can't handle themselves appropriately? If she isn't a sincere investigator, they'll figure that out quickly enough on their own. Edit: I see Janamarie covered my thoughts pretty well. See the post above.

Thanks for typing all that up. What comes to mind when I read the stories of your friends, and when considering other notable individuals that have left the Church, it seems apparent to me that they were simply following their heart - what they loved most, and that didn't happen to be our Heavenly Father or promises of the eternities. 'Where your treasures are, there will be your heart also' type of thing. It would seem to me that one litmus we can apply to gauge if "is it I", would be to analyze what we love most. Where are our interests? Is it in worldly things? Physical passions? Are there things that are more important to me than loving and serving my God? Is my heart set upon the treasures of heaven, or things of the earth?

I've had it both ways. Some wards have the teacher/participitant mix that make for good discussions. Then, there are others that just seem to be lacking any pulse in the class despite what the teacher does. There is no "standard" IMO. It's what the ward makes it, and what the ward is made up of.

Here is recounting by Hugh B. Brown regarding a conversation he had with someone that did not beleive there to be prophets on earth any longer. Even if not doctrinally based, or specifically addressing the two verses you quoted Curtis, still I thought it might be a worthwhile read. Given the rapid changes in society, and the signs that are being fulfilled of His coming, we need a prophet now as much as any time during the history of man on earth.

The greenhouse show on KSL radio (ksl.com) was talking about growing butternuts from seed this am. You might check to see if a podcast is available there. Seed grown from squash likely are not be true to the originator variety. As it was put, squash are very "promiscuous", and depending on what pollen fertilized the fruit that you got seeds from will affect what hybrid you actually get. You may not even be growing butternuts!

I skimmed through the first FAIR link LM provided. Being near SLC, I hear the news twice a year about these individuals. Quite frankly, I'm a little surprised if they simply can't swallow the idea that the advesary is somehow 'related'. Don't they believe in God being the creator of all things? What really is their theology regarding the creation/existance of the advesary? Or are they simply blowing something out of proportion because they feel it can be made into a logical argument if couched just right? It seems most people don't struggle much with the idea that ALL on this earth are the creation of God - his children. That we are all brothers and sisters. There are some on this earth that I'm not too excited to call my 'brother' (cain, hitler, bin laden, etc). Just because of what they do doesn't mean I "can't" be spiritually related without making either me, or God Himself, less. It's seems to me that the creative process of our earthly children in at least some respects reflects the creation prior to this earth life. Most of our children are "average". Once in a while, someone has a child, that despite their upbringing, chooses evil - some very much so. And then every once in a while, a prodigy pops out.

I would highly suggest the book (also suggested by mnn727 in another of your questions) Believing Christ by Stephen Robinson That book walks through the LDS perspective on faith/grace/works and how it is all balanced. It's not a long or difficult read - 125 pages.

Looks like the job numbers reported are even less reliable than initially thought. Reports Show Conflicting Number of Jobs Attributed to Stimulus Money - NY Times