Upward Thought

Do you believe that God's expectation of people is based on their opportunities and potential? In other words, do you believe that where much is given, much is expected? Do you have an accurate understanding of what you have been given? Do you know how poor people in the United States were just 100 years ago compared to today? Go search the internet. Look at photos from the 1930s. You'll see "normal" people living in housing that would be condemned today, wearing their only good outfit, and shoes that Goodwill wouldn't accept as a donation. These people worked from sunup to sundown. Still, the fathers dedicated themselves to their families, the mothers focused on their husbands and kids, and the kids listened to their parents. Everyone knew how to work hard, and for the most part, they valued things that were good, and they eschewed things that were evil. You have more time, more money, and more information than any generation in history, by far. What have you don

At one point, the brothers of Nephi complained against him, saying: And thou art like unto our father, led away by the foolish imaginations of his heart; yea, he hath led us out of the land of Jerusalem, and we have wandered in the wilderness for these many years; and our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death; and it would have been better that they had died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered these afflictions. (1 Nephi 17:20) At this point, Nephi had yet to complete the ship that would take him and his extended family to the New World. I marvel that Laman and Lemuel believed that the things that they had suffered included everything a person could suffer in this life, excepting death. What would it be like to suffer everything that could be suffered in life? What would you need to go through? You'd need to suffer the death of a child, the death of a spouse, and the de

Do you have any idea what good you could do for yourself and for others if you stopped impeding God's influence in your life through fear? I am tempted to fear things every day. But I cannot honestly fear anything, for two reasons: First, I love God.  John wrote:  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18) I love God, therefore I cannot fear. He has overcome all things. No matter how much I may be tempted to fear any circumstance this world provides, I have a greater reason to fear God: Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. (Isaiah 8:13) If you love God, you will come to see things as they really are. You will learn to see consequences the way he does: you will value what is good as he does, and you will devalue what is evil as he does. This valuation will be your motivating understanding. It will be your "dread." This

At some point during the creation of this earth, God "roared" and the waves parted to reveal the dry land. This happened all at once, and made an incredible sound. You can read many references to this event scattered across the scriptures. I'm not sure whether the ancients were more versed with this event, or whether it is just the case that the writers who referred to it had seen it in vision. Regardless, it's an image that comes into my mind from time to time when I find myself struggling to contain what God has, is, and will teach me.  He has made it clear to me that I need to contain these things and lay them out in clarity in books rather than make sloppy ejections of them in this blog. That is one reason why I don't blog much anymore. I only have so much time, and writing here takes away from the time I can spend on books. The topics addressable there are greater than those here, for various reasons, including the fulfillment of eternal law. For example, it

The prevalent attitude seems to be that God is no longer a god of miracles. That is wrong, and he is going to show that quite plainly in this generation. In the meantime, here are three quick anecdotes on the topic of inspired dreams. I want to showcase three cases of people I know well having inspired dreams.  One person received a series of more than a half dozen dreams over the course of a few months. They were extremely detailed. This person related these dreams to me after they happened, and then I watched what they showed happen, then the next dream was given. It all happened exactly as described, they needed no interpretation. This person reacted to this series of dreams by turning away completely from what they knew was right. God sent them a glorious chain of miracles to prepare them for the test, and they failed miserably anyway, because they refused to believe these dreams were more than lucky imagination. One person received a glorious dream accurately depicting a watershed

 The mp3s of the audio recording of "Through Faith" are now available on the sidebar of this blog or through this link . Enjoy!

 Hi all, As the audiobook chapters for "Through Faith" are finalized, I figured I'd try an experiment by uploading them to the upwardthought youtube channel . Youtube requires a video, not audio, so it takes some time to do this. I will interpret the number of views as a gauge of interest. Hopefully, you find it easier to share youtube links than audio files, and youtube links than print books. If this gets sufficient views to merit my time, I will upload the rest of the book in the same format, and put the chapters in a playlist.  I have a feeling that most people don't download mp3s these days. -Rob