NightSG

Hmm...my bishop didn't buy my claims that I was treating my nicotine withdrawal symptoms with cigarettes. IMO, if you feel the need to ask anyone, you should be able to ask your bishop...especially more easily than a bunch of strangers on a message board.

Thank you for saying this. I've been very frustrated the last couple of weeks trying to get the same thing through to a very good friend, with no luck, a lot to lose and little time remaining to make good on the Spirit's counsel. It means a lot to know that I have at least helped someone with it.

Matthew 22:37-39 Work on those first, and all the others will follow.

This is what occurred to me after thinking about it a bit more; if you commit any other sin, but are honest about it, you're more likely to seek - and receive - forgiveness for it than if you get accustomed to lying to the point where you can even justify your sins to yourself. What got me wondering in the first place was a Baptist friend complaining over a year ago about how hard it is to write a really good sermon on lying and still fit it into the time frame of their service. I tried to write one for a public speaking class after he told me that, and even the outline I came up with made it clear I would have taken the full class period. There's so much source material in the Bible alone, and it's such a pervasive problem that it just begs for all the time you can possibly give it.

Just looking over some things the other night and decided to count the instances in scripture where: 1) honesty is directly encouraged (as Proverbs 12:22 "they that deal truly are His delight") 2) dishonesty is directly discouraged (Proverbs 12:22 "Lying lips are abomination to the Lord") 3) honest people are held up as an example (Alma 27:27 "they were perfectly honest and upright in all things") 4) dishonest people are condemned (Revelation 21:8 "But the fearful ... and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.") I came up with 118 on a quick run through the TG and a search program. (FWIW, I was using "honesty" "truth" and "lying" as the keywords, and eliminating duplicate passages, so Proverbs 12:22 and others were only counted once. Adding "theft" etc. would bring the count still higher.) Oddly, murder only came up with 53 and adultery 50. Does the Lord really hate dishonesty more than murder and adultery put together, or is He just harping on it because we still don't listen to that one, while we're more careful about the other two? I mean, some otherwise very good people have told me that "little white lies" don't really count, but nobody tries to justify just a little murder. Maybe if you only murder midgets?

I think the other thing to remember is that agency is also the ability to screw nearly anything up. As an example, if you get a blessing for your health, then choose to eat the furry stuff in the fridge with a tall glass of Drano, you're probably going to negate that blessing. By the same token, when the Spirit tells you something, whether it's a commandment or a suggestion, disregard it at your peril, as you may be giving up a blessing you otherwise would have had.

Benji the Hunted had that much of an effect on you?

I would tend to think that just finding a way that could theoretically work but that can't be practically tested with any technology that we have time left here to come up with wouldn't actually be that much of a problem. After all, the issue with the Tower of Babel wasn't that they were going to get there, but the hubris that led them to believe they could...at least by such a simple method. IMO, the Lord wants us to keep looking for answers to everything. Curiosity is just too much a part of us to believe that it wasn't put there for a reason. Physics as we know it encompasses a massive amount of information, and there's still plenty of room to have left Himself lots of "back doors" that we don't understand yet, to do things entirely within that system. He would certainly still be able to act outside of the system as well, but doing things within it would leave certain traces for us to find, making us even more curious. Pretty much every scientific advancement for a long time was just explaining how some sort of "magic" works. Just because we now know how He makes the sun shine and birds fly doesn't mean we've run out of secrets that He's willing to let us in on. Realistically, even if someone did find a human-traversible route to the afterlife, He's still got a lot of ways available to stop them, or simply negate their efforts.

And by extension, since He didn't have an iPhone, I now have another excuse for not liking them.

Why take the chance? If it's good counsel, and coming from an omniscient source, then follow it and you'll be better off for it. Whether it's technically an order or not, He's not going to lead you astray, and He's not going to punish you for following His advice. That's why I say the difference between a commandment and counsel is pretty much semantic in this case; either way, you run a fairly high risk by disregarding it.

If God tells you to do something, is it really a good idea to get caught up in semantics?

Why didn't somebody tell me about this sooner? I need to go find a Sunday job and then insist I can only sit around using their air conditioning, reading scripture and posting to LDS.net.

Could you please list all other things it would be difficult to rape one's brain around, so that I can make a hat of several of them and get people to stop trying to rape my brain?

Oh good, I was afraid I'd lost my Annoy-a-tron.

"God will never permit him to lead us astray. As has been said, God would remove us out of our place if we should attempt to do it.” -- Harold B. Lee There is no process to remove a Pope from office before his death. (Though he could step down of his own accord, IIRC.) In essence, we remember that the President is still just a fallible man. He's free to be wrong on his own time. The Catholic view is simply that God won't let the Pope do anything wrong, period. ("Removed from all possibility of error" I think is the traditional wording.) Thus, if he converted, (and didn't immediately die or resign) it would have to be the right thing to do under the official dogma. IMO, the actual result of converting a Pope would likely be some sort of split, with the Catholic Church itself figuring out some creative way around Papal Infallibility, while a lot of the members would follow the Pope in whatever he does.

For that matter, Suits on the Loose has a couple of not-so-wholesome characters.

We should convert a Pope, just to see what happens. (I mean, think about it; as the effectively unchallengeable head of the Catholic church, his conversion would essentially convert the entire church. Talk about efficient missionary work...)

In summary, I think the general answer to how to tell your wife you're leaving the church is: very carefully.

Not shouting per se, but it certainly does have a way of getting through even when we're really not listening. In my experience, and that of others who've had it happen, though, it rarely does it for the benefit of the person being told. All of us had been told something that allowed us to help someone else.

I suspect that faith, immediacy of action and strong routine were important factors. One of the things LtC Grossmann recommends is that people be trained to do something for a while after a high-stress encounter, just to occupy their minds during the initial period when they're trying to make sense of it all. Since killing humans is an inherently abhorrent action, sometimes a logical, righteous reason like self defense or defense of country doesn't take the forefront early, and the brain gets overwhelmed. Seven days of prayer and cleansing rituals would tend to get one through the hardest part.

If you want to know about PTSD, go to an expert on the subject; LtC Dave Grossmann. I highly recommend his book, On Combat as a means of understanding why some people get PTSD and some don't. The language isn't all PG-rated, but that's partly because a good bit of it is quotes from people who have been in situations that most of us pray we will never be in. I haven't read On Killing yet, but as I understand it, that one may be geared more toward the causes of severe, violent PTSD, where On Combat seems to be more targeted at the guilt and depression that some of us may face in jobs that tend to put us into smaller violent conflicts. (Security, law enforcement, etc.; jobs where you're going to get a few days off anyway after having to overcome the normal human aversion to having to kill or seriously injure another person.) As a former Army Ranger and West Point psych professor, Grossmann has experience in the subject of stress, combat and the human mind that no sane person would want to get firsthand.

I can definitely say that tobacco does it for me. It's not obvious when it's happening, but I do notice that something is just not right for an hour or two after a cigarette. After some observation, I noticed that I never get any answers during that time unless they're really big ones that I need right then, and even then, they're not as clear. It's like I'm just not able to notice things unless the Spirit is shouting anyway It's definitely an incentive to step up the efforts to finish quitting. I'm not fond of the "disconnected" periods 2-3 times a day, but nicotine has a strong grasp, even after cutting down that much. (Besides, the bishop keeps working in discreetly worded comments during sacrament meeting that I know darn well are directed at me and the other struggling smoker. )

Had a neighbor who did that (to a 3/4 ton Chevy though) because of senile dementia. How long will it be before aging is prohibited by the WoW?

Yes. You must wear a very silly hat to an important event. See how much better this guy feels? http://www.fun-shop.com/show_image.php?im=/img/08/81004.jpg&size=300

I've known plenty of women who rushed to marry guys that thought they could walk on water. How many would line up for one who could prove it?