Matthew.Bennett

Amen. I'm puzzled why you're getting any pushback on this thread at all.
 
Alma 5:34: "Yea, he saith: Come unto me and ye shall partake of the fruit of the tree of life; yea, ye shall eat and drink of the bread and the waters of life freely"
 
In my life, I've found that whenever there's a long-term failure to receive the sustaining waters of life, it's because I've forgotten to abide by the basic doctrine of Christ found in 3 Nephi 11:
"32 And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me.
33 And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God.
34 And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned.
35 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost.
36 And thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one.
37 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things.
38 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.
39 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them."
 
Thanks for the post, PC.

Amen. I'm puzzled why you're getting any pushback on this thread at all.
 
Alma 5:34: "Yea, he saith: Come unto me and ye shall partake of the fruit of the tree of life; yea, ye shall eat and drink of the bread and the waters of life freely"
 
In my life, I've found that whenever there's a long-term failure to receive the sustaining waters of life, it's because I've forgotten to abide by the basic doctrine of Christ found in 3 Nephi 11:
"32 And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me.
33 And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God.
34 And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned.
35 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost.
36 And thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one.
37 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things.
38 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.
39 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them."
 
Thanks for the post, PC.

Amen Iggy, and amen Prisonchaplain. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, the Saviors way is difficult, he wants us to give him everything. He does not want a part of "our" time and "our" money, he wants it all. And when we give are all we will get his all, who is the greatest of all. While his way is difficult our way is impossible. We want to give up those things that are bad but at the end of the day are still hoping that our natural man will still have some time to do what it wants.
 
When we are neither hot nor cold we find the christian way very difficult. We end up very unhappy indeed because we begrudge giving up every moment of ourselves. However, what we can't do, what we must not do, is to work harder but still try to cling to the self. Instead, we have to humble ourselves before the Lord, acknowledge that we cannot do it and ask for a new heart. Ask, ask, ask. When our heart is broken and we our sincere we will find that we want to follow him. We have been changed!  The natural man is still there but he has much less sway over our hearts. Then the living water infuses out life and we can drink deeply. 
 
I am so satisfied with this gospel life. I feel like I want to give my joy to everyone. The waves foll and the thunder peals but deep down the spirit of the Lord is supporting me. What of the waves? What of the thunder? Let them rage on if they will, I have something much more firm, and more abiding, the rock of our Redeemer. He will lift me up at the last day and all this will seem as but a moment. This is what the gospel offers. If you have not found it then you are still on the outside, even if you have been a member your whole life! 
 
(This sounds sort of preachy, but it's the truth. How can I say otherwise?)

Prison Chaplain, I thought you were talking about my backyard at first.
 
The LORD wants all to follow Him.  He called Matthew, a Roman tax collector, to follow Him and be one of His Apostles.  Rather than stoning an adulteress woman, Jesus told her to: "Go and sin no more."  The Prophet Joseph Smith wrote: "And the woman glorified God from that hour, and believed on his name." (See the Inspired Version of the Bible, chapter 8, verse 11.)
 
Isaiah wrote: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." - Isaiah 55:1

I'm going to have to double-down on my offense.  It's possible that one or more of her husbands died--but all five?  Okay, possible, but not likely.  More importantly, "shacking up" is a bit old-fashioned.  It's not modern.  It's between one and two generations old--back when it was shameful to live together outside of wedlock.  "Shacking up" is derogatory--it's meant to be.  If you prefer the older-fashioned "living in sin," we could go with that, I suppose.  :-)
 
Mind you--I'm not casting condemnation on the woman at the well.  She ended as an evangelist (missionary) to her own people.  Talk about an "I once was lost, but now am found" story!  It's beautiful.  Redemption and grace are powerful.
 
BUT...how can we wax eloquent about grace, mercy, forgiveness, salvation, and redemption if we keep being politically correct and nice about how we label sin?  If we refuse to be "judgmental" about sin, then what exactly are we hoping folk we get saved from?

Jesus promises that He will instill in us a fountain of living water that shall never run dry. 
 
"Well, that's for the faithful folks--the active ones--those with multiple callings, up-to-date home visitations, and church giving that far surpasses the tithe and standard offerings."
 
Really?  Jesus made that promise to a 5-time divorcee Samaritan woman, who was shacking up with her boyfriend.  He promised her greenness, moistness, and vitality.  Life--a fount that would never run dry.
 
Maybe it's time to get back to the essential--to Jesus?  When He is the center we can endure/bare all things.

Haha, yeah.
 
Thanks!

In my opinion, we have been blessed with certain faculties for a purpose which is to prayerfully study, analyze, dissect if necessary and come to our own conclusions after much analysis and prayer. It is a combination of both, study and faith.
 
When we talk about Mormon intellectuals (generally speaking) we seem to assume that the persons in this group only believe what sciences such as Psychology, Sociology or Philosophy has to say about certain issues and they disregard completely the Scriptures. It is not so. Real intellectuals use a combination of both.
 
The article is very generic.
 
Overemphasizing the importance of personal revelation? One can say that those against Mormon Intellectualism overemphasize that once a General Authority has spoken, the discussion is over and we shouldn't question at all their words.
 
Overemphasizing the importance of "Thus said the Lord"? One can say that those against Mormon Intellectualism overemphasize that once a General Authority has spoken, he speaks for the Lord.
 
Overemphasizing the importance of Church history? One can say that those against Mormon Intellectualism overemphasize that when you are studying certain topics about Church history, you are given a warning that you are in the road towards Apostasy because of course, you cannot be a good member in good standing and study the good and the ugly in Church history. The best part is when you discuss a certain topic in Church history and you are given raised eyebrows and suspicious looks and someone asks: Have you been reading Anti-Mormon literature?
 
Overemphasizing the fallibility of Prophets? One can say that reminding ourselves the responsibility to pray and seek confirmation from the Holy Spirit after hearing the words of the Prophet it is vital to our eternal/spiritual journey.
 
In conclusion, I believe we can achieve a balance in both. One OR the other isn't a solution. One OR the other does not demonstrate "greater" faith or "greater" understanding. We aren't a cult, we are Christ's Church.

Whenever someone tries to give me advice about how to view my religion and uses the language of sociology and philosophy instead of the scriptures, my red flags start to go up.
 
The philosophies of man are many and variegated, and the only way to successfully navigate through them is by using the gift of personal revelation.
 
Hopefully, that statement doesn't count as overemphasizing personal revelation.