Posted by Ben
Thu, 13 Oct 2005 10:00:00 GMT
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved. (2 Nephi 10:24).
These past weeks after General Conference, its really started to hit me how serious this life really is. There are so many distractions with the busy reality of modern life, that I think I’ve often failed to recognize that the most important things we do while on this earth are of a spiritual nature.
Since recognizing this, I’ve made an effort to bring more spirituality into my life. I’ve began by just re-reading through some of the talks given at the last conference.
I read through Elder Eyrings this week, which is an extremely timely message. As part of his talk, he quotes the above scripture. Something jumped out at me as I read them that really hadn’t hit me before, and that is the word reconcile.
I was curious what exactly that word mean, so I looked it up in the 1828 websters dictionary, and here’s what I found:
To call back into union and friendship the affections which have been alienated; to restore to friendship or favor after estrangement;
To bring to acquiescence, content or quiet submission
The first defenition is especially fitting, I think. When we reconcile our selves to the will of God, we do bring our will into submission to his laws. As we do this, we are also restoring the friendship and affections which we’ve not enjoyed because of our own sins and because of the fall.
After we have regained our Father’s friendship and affections, then he can save us through the grace of his Son. That is just perfect doctrine.
Posted in Religion | 1 comment | no trackbacks
Posted by Ben
Thu, 13 Oct 2005 09:03:00 GMT
Jeff Lindsay has a great blog post wondering if we take the Book of Mormon seriously enough.
He talks specifically about the warnings throughout the Book of Mormon about secret combinations, although I think there are a ton of prophesies in there that we need to start paying attention to.
Hugh Nibley liked to say, “Woe to the generation that understands the Book of Mormon.” I think we’ve come to the point that we’re going to be in bigger trouble if we don’t start understanding it a little better. The big trick is being able to see prophecy being fulfilled as things happen around us. Its much easier to see things as a fulfillment in hindsight, but such recognition isn’t quite what the Lord had in mind, I think.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about political philosophies, parties, etc. Through it all I keep getting disgusted at what a mess all of it is. There is way too many backroom deals, unnecessary spending, bowing to corporate pressures going on in America today.
I suppose its pretty easy to slip into outrageous consipacy theories when thinking about this. At the same time, the Book of Mormon doesn’t tell tale after tale of secret combinations obtaining control of the government for nothing. The whole book is meant as a warning to those of us in the Latter-days, as well as a testament of Christ. Indeed, it is only through upholding the gospel of Christ that we have any hope of conquering such combinations that flourish in our own day.
There is no doubt that the powers of darkness are hard at work. Perhaps that is why I find it so disheartening that so many Latter-day Saints seek to seep themselves in the culture of the world. Maybe being so focused on the world, its entertainment and glamorous immorality is one of the things that blinds us from seeing the prophecies being fulfilled all around us.
Posted in Politics, Religion | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Ben
Mon, 15 Aug 2005 03:45:00 GMT
This past week was the annual LDS Booksellers Assosiation convention down in Sandy, Utah. I’ve had the opportunity to attend a number of these conventions during the past 5 years that i’ve worked for Deseret Book.
I’ve always enjoyed browsing the different booths looking for good books that will be published in the coming year. I suppose I’m in the minority in that reguard, because the number of book publisher’s booths has dwindled significantly. When I walked the floor Thursday, I could hardly believe all the junk, trinkets, etc that are being marketed to LDS members. This year, especially, I felt like there was something very wrong going on. Most of the people at that convention had reduced the LDS faith to some kind of ware to be bought and sold in the persuit of money. Many publishers of serious works had disappeared completely from the floor (FARMS), and those publishers remaining had really watered down their offerings.
In the past, I’ve sort of justified to myself that merchandising to LDS people is all right because it helped bring good books to the church, but that isn’t happening as much anymore. Serious works aren’t selling like they used to (a subject for another post), so to stay in business publishers have to turn to the trashy feel-good ‘inspirational’ titles that have very little, if any, substance.
I seriously want to start my own little publishing house that would specialize in serious, doctrinally sound works. In wanting such a company, I would not join the ranks of the merchandising mormon, because it would be done on the side, and not be my primary income source. Also, books would be sold very close to cost, so the markups would be kept small. The key to making the whole thing work would be to use publishing technology such as print-on-demand to lower the cost of producing a book.
To start, I guess it would be prudent to offer some works that are in the public domain that haven’t been widely available for some time. I’ve got a number of ideas and I’m going to start today. I hold no illusions that my little effort will change the industry, or drive the money-changers from the temple, so to speak, but maybe I can help bring something of worth to my fellow saints that wouldn’t have been been available otherwises.
Posted in Religion | no comments | no trackbacks
