askandanswer

I know this is not the point you are making but this is my initial response to this post: How rude and proud and pointless it is not to approach God. God has nothing better to do, and nothing He wants to do more, than help His children. A god that is more concerned about the stage - the universe - than the actors on the stage - us - seems like a very odd kind of god and one not worthy of my worship.  

You're exaggerating again Zil. Much as you like to think of the man of your compound as being big and bold I think this is a more accurate picture

 
 
 

I'm all in favour of a guarenteed income - for me. Two incomes would be even better. Not so sure if I'm in favour of this for the other guy. 

I'm all in favour of a guarenteed income - for me. Two incomes would be even better. Not so sure if I'm in favour of this for the other guy. 

You're exaggerating again Zil. Much as you like to think of the man of your compound as being big and bold I think this is a more accurate picture

 
 
 

That's not a bad description of the relationship between the US and Persia up until 1979 and the fall of the Shah.

I'm all in favour of a guarenteed income - for me. Two incomes would be even better. Not so sure if I'm in favour of this for the other guy. 

Had a high councilor tell of an old war story he had from Vietnam at the beginning of one of his talks. To say the least it was pretty intense! He found himself all alone being chased / hunted by Vietnamese forces. He approached a secure facility where he knew he could find safety. As he was scaling the wall just about to make it over he felt someone pulling his leg... "Just like I'm pulling all of yours Brothers & Sisters, that story never happened, but what a way to start my talk today!" 
1/3 the congregation = silent in disbelief
1/3 the congregation = laughing at his joke
1/3 the congregation = angry for being strung along
100% = not thinking of the Savior
 

I'm all in favour of a guarenteed income - for me. Two incomes would be even better. Not so sure if I'm in favour of this for the other guy. 

The issue is not whether you would choose to work or not work.  Yes, most everybody has a desire to work.
The issue is WHAT you choose to work on.  A society does not function just by people choosing whatever they want to work on.  Rather, a society functions by people doing the work that is needed by society.
Yes, most everybody would choose to work.  Now, how many people will choose to work collecting garbage?
This is the paradigm of a socialist society - the government assigns the work.
The Canadian basic income paradigm is not that.  Mixing socialism with capitalism does nothing but move money from the productive to the non-productive.  I choose the word productive instead of work for a reason.  Working on cutting grass is fine and good but is not productive if there is no need to cut grass.

That was specifically for you Zil 

Yesterday, in church, I had what I think is a good idea on how to prepare talks. I’m putting it up here on lds.net partly in the hope that it might be of interest to someone else and also in the hope of getting some feedback and comments that might make it even better. I was going to present this in an attached Word document, but then I remembered that some people access this site through their phones and I wasn’t sure if everyone can access a Word document through their phone so I’ve set it out as two lists. The first list could be headed Objectives, and the second list could be called Tools. The objectives list is a list of the objectives or outcomes that the person giving a talk might want to achieve. The tools list is list of the tools or techniques that the person giving the talk might want to use to accomplish their objectives. The basic idea is, when you are assigned to give a talk, look at the objectives list and decide what you want to accomplish with your talk, and then look at the tools list and decide what tools you want to use to accomplish your objective. This process can be applied to each of the various parts of the talk – the introduction, each of the main points, and the conclusion. I suspect that this is what most of us do subconsciously, but I thought it might be helpful to make it more explicit.
Prison Chaplain, as one who frequently prepares and delivers sermons, II am particularly hopeful that you might feel inclined to provide some feedback.

 
Objectives 
Motivate

Teach

Inspire

Call to repent

Change/influence attitudes, beliefs or actions

Comfort

Counsel

Rebuke

Call to repent

Reinforce an idea or point (for conclusion of talk)

Build interest and attract the attention of the congregation (for introduction of talk)


 
Tools Personal anecdotes and experiences

Scriptures

Talks from conference or other sources

Expressing opinions, personal viewpoints and conclusions

Giving explanations

Asking rhetorical questions

Giving challenges and invitations to act

Reading from Bible Dictionary or Encyclopaedia of Mormonism

Tell a joke or funny story

Share/express feelings

That was specifically for you Zil 

My suggestion:  Take out tell a joke and funny stories.  If you like, you can change personal experiences and anecdotes to add - Anecdotes can be funny stories but need to remain reverent.  There's a big difference between trying to make people laugh and trying to maintain interest.  Trying to make people laugh is fine for Sunday School but not for Sacrament Meeting.  President Monson has this style of telling personal stories that can bring a chuckle or two, but he always maintains reverence.
 

"Call to repent" - twice, yikes
It is interesting how different folks do things, thanks for sharing this. In my earlier years I can recall doing thought processes like this. Now in life, when assigned a topic, I think about that topic, what it means to me personally and how I've been affected by it. I wait and ponder, wait and ponder and I wait and ponder some more. Without fail, inspiration will come to me and give me the direction I should go. Once that comes, regardless of what it is, I follow it, believing it to be the direction the Spirit wants me to go in rather than the direction my intellect would have me go. I never worry about giving a talk and always have 100% confidence that if I follow that prompting it will be the "right" message versus "my" message. 

Yesterday, in church, I had what I think is a good idea on how to prepare talks. I’m putting it up here on lds.net partly in the hope that it might be of interest to someone else and also in the hope of getting some feedback and comments that might make it even better. I was going to present this in an attached Word document, but then I remembered that some people access this site through their phones and I wasn’t sure if everyone can access a Word document through their phone so I’ve set it out as two lists. The first list could be headed Objectives, and the second list could be called Tools. The objectives list is a list of the objectives or outcomes that the person giving a talk might want to achieve. The tools list is list of the tools or techniques that the person giving the talk might want to use to accomplish their objectives. The basic idea is, when you are assigned to give a talk, look at the objectives list and decide what you want to accomplish with your talk, and then look at the tools list and decide what tools you want to use to accomplish your objective. This process can be applied to each of the various parts of the talk – the introduction, each of the main points, and the conclusion. I suspect that this is what most of us do subconsciously, but I thought it might be helpful to make it more explicit.
Prison Chaplain, as one who frequently prepares and delivers sermons, II am particularly hopeful that you might feel inclined to provide some feedback.

 
Objectives 
Motivate

Teach

Inspire

Call to repent

Change/influence attitudes, beliefs or actions

Comfort

Counsel

Rebuke

Call to repent

Reinforce an idea or point (for conclusion of talk)

Build interest and attract the attention of the congregation (for introduction of talk)


 
Tools Personal anecdotes and experiences

Scriptures

Talks from conference or other sources

Expressing opinions, personal viewpoints and conclusions

Giving explanations

Asking rhetorical questions

Giving challenges and invitations to act

Reading from Bible Dictionary or Encyclopaedia of Mormonism

Tell a joke or funny story

Share/express feelings

Yesterday, in church, I had what I think is a good idea on how to prepare talks. I’m putting it up here on lds.net partly in the hope that it might be of interest to someone else and also in the hope of getting some feedback and comments that might make it even better. I was going to present this in an attached Word document, but then I remembered that some people access this site through their phones and I wasn’t sure if everyone can access a Word document through their phone so I’ve set it out as two lists. The first list could be headed Objectives, and the second list could be called Tools. The objectives list is a list of the objectives or outcomes that the person giving a talk might want to achieve. The tools list is list of the tools or techniques that the person giving the talk might want to use to accomplish their objectives. The basic idea is, when you are assigned to give a talk, look at the objectives list and decide what you want to accomplish with your talk, and then look at the tools list and decide what tools you want to use to accomplish your objective. This process can be applied to each of the various parts of the talk – the introduction, each of the main points, and the conclusion. I suspect that this is what most of us do subconsciously, but I thought it might be helpful to make it more explicit.
Prison Chaplain, as one who frequently prepares and delivers sermons, II am particularly hopeful that you might feel inclined to provide some feedback.

 
Objectives 
Motivate

Teach

Inspire

Call to repent

Change/influence attitudes, beliefs or actions

Comfort

Counsel

Rebuke

Call to repent

Reinforce an idea or point (for conclusion of talk)

Build interest and attract the attention of the congregation (for introduction of talk)


 
Tools Personal anecdotes and experiences

Scriptures

Talks from conference or other sources

Expressing opinions, personal viewpoints and conclusions

Giving explanations

Asking rhetorical questions

Giving challenges and invitations to act

Reading from Bible Dictionary or Encyclopaedia of Mormonism

Tell a joke or funny story

Share/express feelings

Meanwhile, my neighbors now hate me.  I finally moved the Klipsch 5.1 speakers into this room where my laptop is, and hooked them up (with an adapter that takes their poor 2-speaker output and pumps it through the Klipsch speakers), and holy cow, Batman, the walls are vibrating.

I'm not sure what you mean by too many desserts. Can there be such a thing? The very idea of too many desserts is something that I'd like to seriously test out to see if it is really possible. 

I'm not sure what you mean by too many desserts. Can there be such a thing? The very idea of too many desserts is something that I'd like to seriously test out to see if it is really possible. 

Here's an Evangelical's positive take on LDS Church growth, and six reasons why it might be so:  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frenchrevolution/2012/07/10/six-reasons-why-mormons-are-beating-baptists-in-church-growth/
Here are the 6 reasons in a nutshell:  1.  LDS have bigger families.   2.  LDS have lower divorce rates.  3. LDS evangelize.  4. LDS are orthodox (members know and believe what the church teaches).  5. LDS leaders ask a lot of their members.  6.  LDS are less selfish.
 

Mountains are not funny - they're hill areas

When the wife of Boaz died, he became Ruth-less

Here goes another @MormonGator thread derail...

Viscous lyres!