clbent04

Lol. Very nice @SilentOne. That'll be my new theme song

My sister came to visit me in April 2019. She knew I had been really down about life and specifically not being able to quit my addiction to pornography. We are fairly open and honest with each other. I said to her sometime last year that I no longer see life in color, that everything seems to be in black and white (i.e., in terms of your passion for life). From that comment alone, it worried her enough to where she felt prompted to visit me recently. She took a day off work and flew in to Arizona for 3 days over a weekend. While here she really got upset about me being down and poured her heart out to me telling me how much I meant to her. As surprised as I was by all the emotion, it was that little push I've been needing this whole time to get my life back in order; to truly know there is someone in this world that genuinely loves and cares for me. And I know I feel the same way about her. She even called Salt Lake and got the information of a weekly pornography addiction support group sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just right down the road from me. I doubt there are very many people that take their addiction to pornography as seriously as I do. But the Law of Chastity is in fact very serious. And if you can't get over pornography despite confessing and repenting over and over again, was it ever true repentance if you never forsook the sin? So if you're like me and always had it in your heart to settle for nothing less than the Celestial Kingdom, you might understand why this addiction has had the kind of toll its had on me. What I didn't fully realize prior to my sister's visit was my need to feel loved. And for me that has made all the difference these last 2 months just from her brief 3-day visit. She reminded me that I'm needed in this world for more than just providing a paycheck to my family. She reminded me this world isn't all about greed where everyone is just focused on building their own little empires and who don't truly care for others. In a way her love for me stirred a remembrance in me of the love my Savior has for me. Sometimes remembering the love the Savior has for us can be difficult when we only see this world through a lens of selfishness and greed. It makes you question God's creation of this Earth when you can only see in black and white. She also told me how inadequate her boyfriend makes her feel when he looks at porn. She was so distraught and hateful towards women who are porn stars or strippers or anyone really that dresses immodestly or who might exercise in a provocative way at the gym. She had so much hate for these women for the way they made her feel inadequate and for the hold that pornography has had over me. I tried calming her down with a more balanced perspective that it's really us men that create the demand leading these women to behave the way they do, so in a sense men are more guilty or at least equally guilty. But seeing the perspective of my sister who is on the receiving end of her boyfriend participating in these kind of actions was very eye opening for me. I wanted to change not just for myself at that point but also for her to prove to her people can change for the best. I also want her to be able to have sympathy for these women who quite often are taken advantage of or are struggling with confidence issues and feel the need to dress for attention or what have you. So honestly, that was it, that was the little bump I needed to get my life back on track to truly see in color again. After a 3-year period of being in what I call a black hole, not going to Church and progressively becoming more imbalanced and unhinged from the feeling of hopelessness, I have had a truly transformative last 2 months. I don't know if I've ever felt as spiritually grounded and positive in my life as I do now. For the last 2+ months I've attended Church regularly. I'm wearing my garments again. I attend the addiction group every week. I follow the gospel as closely as I can with exact obedience. I even shaved my beard. I think my coworkers have finally accepted my new face. I don't cherry pick which pieces of the gospel I'm going to live. I've eliminated all the road blocks and excuses for disobedience in my life. I met with the Bishop and Stake President and have a temple recommend again. I went to the temple for the first time in a long time and attended an endowment session this last Saturday evening. For the last two Fast and Testimony meetings, I have been the first person to go up to the pulpit expressing my gratitude to my Heavenly Father for helping get me out of that awful slump I was in as well as His many blessings he has graced me with in my life. And all of this because of a little bump from my sister. That is the power of love. And with that I'm praying to God to help me love more freely so that I too may reach out to someone in need as my sister did with me. From the beginning of my participation with this forum, I have been concerned with some users' constant need to debate or prove a point rather than to base their posts out of a genuine care and love for those who participate on this forum. I share my experience here hopefully as a reminder that sharing the gospel should be approached with love in your heart for your fellowman however different their perspective may be from yours. If you're responding to someone just to prove a point rather than first having love in your heart, rethink what you're truly trying to accomplish. Here is an example of how I have been guilty of this too. I've done a disservice to my wife with my inactivity from the Church since my inactivity ultimately led to her inactivity. She didn't grow up in the Church but decided to get baptized when we dated. We got sealed in the temple and attended church together for about 3 years from the time she was baptized. I then entered into my period of inactivity and my wife decided to follow suit since she still at that point hadn't been truly converted to the gospel with an independent testimony of her own. I could have helped her get there a lot sooner had I stayed on track, but the motivation was just no longer there for me to go to church at that point. Anyway, she has since been exploring spiritualism and meditation. She talked to me this last Sunday about how she thinks God is neither male or female but rather just an energy or something to that effect. She also raised other doubts about the Church. This to me was very frustrating to listen to considering how much ground it seems like she's lost with her spiritual knowledge. At this point she will more readily accept a random internet blog's opinion on who God is rather than have an open heart to the gospel. And it was so frustrating to me that I started to debate her. I started to feel angry. I wanted so badly to prove my point over hers to get her back on track. I know what I know in my heart about the gospel, but I'm not going to get anywhere with my wife if she doesn't know where I'm coming from is from a place of love. So as with my wife, I hope to from this point forward share the gospel in the love that Jesus intended us to share it with as He said in John 13:34-35, "...love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." As with any comment you make, it can be one bump forward or backward for a person in need.

Good questions. I suppose being in the presence of the Father and the Son might replace the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit, but I imagine however the Lord lift's us up in exaltation that it would be accompanied with a permanent feeling instilled within us by God of peace and love from that point forward (or so I hope).

Yes, this is breaking the Word of Wisdom (IMO). For a while, I was drinking a bunch of Dr. Pepper (maybe 2-3 cans a day), plus eating out for lunch and dinner every day (Smashburger, Cafe Rio, Cane's Chicken, Chick-Fil-A, Mexican food...). While I wasn't breaking the blacklist of the Word of Wisdom (coffee, tea, tobacco, alcohol, drugs), I certainly was breaking the spirit of the Word of Wisdom. I got up to 187 lbs and had to get on Lipitor for what I was doing to my body. Fortunately, I've made a lot of positive transformations lately and have been working out and eating clean almost every day. I'm at 168 lbs now which is more normal for me. Granted, I think I abused the Word of Wisdom much more than you do, but it's my opinion that anyone who consumes a lot of soda on a daily basis is most definitely breaking the spirit of the Word of Wisdom (plus most people agree these days that soda is horrible for you, even the diet stuff. poison in an FDA approved can).

I like that you agree because that is my gut-level reaction too. It would be somewhat disheartening to me if we weren't meant to feel the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit regardless of whether it's something possible to achieve in this life. Who wouldn't want that feeling with them forever and always?

Do you think it would be representative of you to read someone's autobiography, summarize it in two pages, and then call it your story?

I see your point, but again, not parallel to the original point I'm making. When Moroni abridged the Book of Ether from those 24 plates, the Book of Ether didn't suddenly become the Book of Moroni simply because Moroni abridged the record.

Ether was written by Ether, abridged by Moroni. Regardless of who wrote the book, it's not misrepresentative to name the Book of Alma as the Book of Alma when it largely details the life of Alma.

Not parallel to what I'm saying with the Book of Mormon. The books within the Book of Mormon being named by those who wrote those accounts makes sense. However, Mormon didn't write every book in the Book of Mormon. Again, it's misrepresentative.

When you wake up and forget how to spell. The way "onion" is pronounced led to my brain misspelling it. A botched job of trying to phonetically spell it.

Lol good catch. Thx

A lot of members thought the same thing about us no longer referring to ourselves as "Mormons" especially considering the resources dedicated to the "I'm a Mormon" campaign that was launched not too long ago.

The more I think about this, the more I feel Church leaders may very well be currently discussing the possibility of changing the name of The Book of Mormon especially considering President Nelson's recent directive of using the Church's full and official name. Why change the title at this point after we have had such a long and rich history with it this far? Because just like saying "I'm a Mormon", it's misrepresentative to who we truly are. We are not Mormon's people. We worship no man. We only worship God the Father and His Son. The Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ. Throughout its entirety, it's a book of Jesus Christ, not Mormon. The whole initiative of President Nelson steering us away from referring to ourselves and the Church by anything but the full and official naming was sprung from the title The Book of Mormon. Misrepresentation bred further misrepresentation and I think the Church may very well make further revisions by removing the name Mormon from the title of that sacred testament of Jesus Christ.

@MarginOfError @Mores This is just onion news, meaning it's fake news. I don't think the Church would ever do this, but I guess it could be possible. I see them always maintaining the current URLs to redirect to the Church's website.

June 3, 2019 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced it will no longer allow online users to access its website through URLs such as www.lds.org or www.thechurchofjesuschrist.org. Online users will now be required to enter the Church's full and official name to access the website: www.thechurchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints.org The change has been received with mixed reviews. Tom from Georgia writes, "I like that it's the official name of the Church in the URL, but I keep forgetting if I need to add the hyphen in between "Latter" and "day". Cindy from Michigan writes, "I think this is a good move." John from Ohio states, "Everyone just needs to suck it up and get their GWAM on!"

To your point, I hate the stuff

More odd you assume the guy likes kimchi by assuming he served a mission in Korea. Do I have to serve a mission in Mexico to like tacos?

Carb is of the Asian persuasion.

Seriously, guys, where is Carb?

This was pretty much gonna be my exact response to the OP. +1

Looks like Carb deleted his profile. Does he post under another profile. Can someone tell him I miss him?

@Anddenex If you made a concerted effort, do you think you could experience the Holy Spirit as described in Doctrine and Covenants 9:8? "But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right." I think everyone can receive answer to truth and light through this form of experiencing your bosom burning. As of this last month, I've been on a mission to get a burning-bosom-answer to know if Jesus Christ is the Savior, if the Book of Mormon is true, and if Joseph Smith was a prophet. What I don't know, however, is how much obedience, fervency in prayer, sincerity, or faith in Jesus Christ must be mustered in order to receive the Holy Spirit in this fashion upon specifically praying for an answer. I've experienced this burning bosom before, but never through prayer. This last Friday, for example, I prayed for an hour to know these things for myself. I prayed as sincerely as I could. I concluded praying not having received an answer and was left thinking that I must be lacking in faith in Jesus Christ, that I am not sufficiently humble, that I need to pray with greater fervency and so forth. And I know it's probably those impressions that I was left with afterwards that were an answer in itself as a precursor I need to focus on before receiving these spiritual truths. I know God will answer me by way of being visited by the Holy Spirit and experiencing a burning in my bosom, but I just don't know how far away I am from that happening.

I agree. I used the number 1,000 more as an arbitrary number to illustrate a point saying even if I've conscientiously experienced the Holy Spirit that many times in my life, it's still a small fraction of my life here on Earth. So I'm just trying gauge myself to think how far away I am at truly allowing the Holy Spirit to constantly abide with me.

I've always thought "the fruit of the Spirit" is synonymous with the feelings you are supposed to have when the Holy Spirit accompanies you with the principal feelings being love, joy and peace. How do you interpret Galatians 5:22-23 in relation to having the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit? Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law" Does it seem possible that Joseph Smith or even any General Authorities today experience the loving, joyful, and peaceful feelings of the Holy Spirit 24/7? These men are the most fit, spiritual body builders on Earth. They are basically like a bunch of Arnold Schwarzenegger's in his physical prime with how much closer they are to the Spirit compared to average members in the Church. Having observed them personally makes me think it's possible they are continually and conscientiously feeling the fruits of the Holy Spirit 24/7.