This week in Sunday School we discussed the event in Luke 4:16-30 when Jesus read Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue in Nazareth and announced that the scripture was fulfilled that day in him. Sunday School classes typically emphasize the “no prophet is accepted in his own country” (Matthew 4:24) part of the story and the … Read more
There is a branch of social philosophy that advocates for the idea that one should live in the moment. It teaches that one should “avoid expectations” in favor of simply living in the present and seeing what comes. This philosophy posits that expectations are always false because they are constructs of the mind, rather than … Read more
In my undergraduate days, majoring in Speech/Theatre Education, I took a class called, “Small Group Discussion.” The instructor divided the class into groups of six or seven people. Each group was instructed to create a task for themselves (which the instructor would not define for us). We would be presenting the results of that task … Read more
A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge, for if he does not get knowledge, he will be brought into captivity by some evil power in the other world, as evil spirits will have more knowledge, and consequently more power than many men who are on the earth. Joseph Smith, April 10, 1842 … Read more
What is the ethical and moral responsibility of a person who sees and understands the truth when others do not? What if those who do not see the truth criticize and ridicule the one who does? What if the blind ones actively persecute the one who sees? Knowing the truth Joseph Smith had this problem … Read more
Recently in my Elder’s Quorum meeting, the Instructor asked us to look through 4 Nephi, Chapter 1. The chapter describes a society that, following Christ’s visit to the Americas, had 200 years of peace and prosperity. The Instructor asked us to point out the defining characteristics of that society. I immediately noticed verse three. And … Read more
“And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am … Read more