Upward Thought

The Lord is fair and impartial. What he does in reaction to the choices of one people, he will always  do when others do the same. 2 The which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. 4 And the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. 5 They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever: 6 And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. 7 Yet...

A reader wrote: "Please don't pull your punches!  I will do anything possible to change my standing with God.  I will continue to give him everything I have. I will give away all of my sins to know him!   To be honest I'm a little scared.  What if I fail?" We all begin the race in loss. [1] We begin  “condemned already.” [2] We ought to be scared, but not of failure. [3] We are already there, and hell is much worse than can be imagined. [4] We ought to say, as the apostles did, “where (else) will we go? You are the only one who has the words of eternal life.” [5] It is scary approaching God.[6] If you knew him, you would not be scared,[7] but you can’t know him except through approaching him.[8] He dwells in everlasting fire [9] of full awareness [10] and pure holiness;[11] he requires the sacrifice of all things, [12] and no sin can dwell in his presence.[11] He will burn you,[13] he will cut you,[14] he will flood you,[15] and he will convict you.[16] But...

As I'm writing elsewhere, the Lord told me to pause and write this here. Recently, someone replied to one of my YouTube videos by saying "An angel has taught. Again, we have been blessed."[dont_know] The Lord showed me the hearts of some who would be offended by my not telling her not to call me that, and believe it or not, I do think about and try to avoid offending people when it is not necessary or helpful. The said, "leave it stand." I always do what he tells me to do, as most reading this promised to do, and as all of us should do. The Lord shows me a lot of internal reactions of people, and all I can say is that I know what the last verse of John 2 means, and it is heartbreaking.[heartbreak] Do you marvel [dont_marvel] that a mortal person can correctly be called angel? If so, you do not understand Jesus, nor do you understand what it means to minister.  Jesus said: "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give h...

Jesus has plainly said that repentance means ceasing to sin: 42 Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more. 43 By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins—behold, he will confess them and forsake them. (D&C 58) He has plainly said that only those who obey his commandments are forgiven of their sins: Who am I that made man, saith the Lord, that will hold him guiltless that obeys not my commandments? (D&C 58:30) We have been told plainly what it will be like in the resurrection for those who do not keep all of his commandments: 3 …Do ye suppose that ye shall dwell with him under a consciousness of your guilt? Do ye suppose that ye could be happy to dwell with that holy Being, when your souls are racked with a consciousness of guilt that ye have ever abused his laws? 4 Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than y...

I recently received a letter from a polite and well-meaning person asking me to consider making my materials available as a podcast. Because I get requests like this on a regular basis, and can't spend the time writing a unique reply each time, I am writing this here. You aren't the first to ask for more convenient forms of what I produce. These requests are hard to respond to, because there is so much that is not seen, some of which can be relayed in words but not in a way that doesn't offend a lot of people, and some of which can't be known by any who have not done the same. So please give me grace in interpreting my best attempt to say this. I do not have an extra minute to devote to this ministry. I have a full-time (plus) day job earning my daily bread, which was recently made more difficult by the unjust theft of my prior career from malevolent people who knew what they were doing aided by a mob of ignorant people who did not. I have a family who has rights on my ...

Last August I posted what I am reposting below. The author is recording and releasing himself reading the book, which might be more accessible to you. You can find it on his YouTube channel. ==== Joseph Smith taught a surprising amount on the principles of government. Unfortunately, very little of his ideas are evident in the governments of areas where the majority of people profess to believe he was a prophet of God. Over a year ago, a man named Marc Martinez did an excellent job writing a ~200 page summary of these ideas, as well as those of later Latter-day Saint leaders. The ideas in the book are worth thinking about for all people, and the book is well-written and easy to read. Marc is not a scholar by trade, but a carpenter. I mention this because I know from experience that it is not easy to write books when you have a full-time job to attend to that has little to do with your writing. To me, if someone in such a situation is willing to spend the time involved, and manages t...

I found this video to be a nice presentation on a chunk of ideas related to truth. You'll probably find it quite sharable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-d4xuhIOvg