Or maybe the question should be: Does God think of the Bloggernacle? I’m reminded of that great story in told in general conference a few years ago about a priesthood leader that was in need and had the name of a certain man come into his head as the right person to ask for help. This saint made the requested sacrifice and said it was worth it all “just to know the God in heaven knows my name.” This post is to assure you, good readers, that God knows your names. (more…)

And “We’ll make the air with music ring, shout praises to our God and King” because of it.

I am only home for a few minutes so I haven’t had time to check the Bloggernacle or even the comments here, but based on the number of comments here I can only assume my plea for prayers here made a difference. Here is the update: Our baby boy Quinn is well on his way to a full recovery. (more…)

It’s just past midnight. I just came home for a few minutes from the ICU to write this post because I believe it could make a difference.

We found our sweet three year old son Quinn face down in the pool this afternoon. He is alive and stable now but there remains a very real risk of brain damage. You bloggernacle citizens are righteous people — I can tell. We are praying for a full recovery for Quinn. Can you please help? Prayer is a form of work but my family can’t do all this work alone. We need saviors on mount Zion to help us with this work. All we ask is one sincere prayer for the boy to have a full recovery. (If you can muster any more we would be very grateful). Our extended family and our ward family are already joining in the prayers. I came home tonight to beg for your prayers on behalf on Quinn as well. I got the feeling that it would be worth it.

UPDATE — Thank you all. We got our miracle. All is well.

I can’t get no, genealogical excitement
And I try
And I try
And I try, try-try-try-try, tryyy
I can’t get no! (Guitar riff)

Feel free to sing along. I had the Stones version in my head but you can substitute a cover like the one Devo did in your head if you’d like.

My last post about how our ancestors might be sending us messages through the Holy Ghost reminded me of a problem I have: I don’t feel any connection to my distant ancestors at all. I have nearly no desire to search them out or learn about them. I have only a passing interest in their stories and histories. In the church we call the invisible pull many people feel to learn about their roots “The Spirit of Elijah”. Well I ain’t got none. And to be honest it makes me a little nervous. (more…)

Have you ever seen an angel? I haven’t. In fact I’ve never met anyone who has claimed to have seen one. Yet I have met thousands of priesthood holders who hold “the keys of the ministering of angels.” Now I’ve read the statements by Wilford Woodruff and others that explain why God will only send us angels if the job at hand can be accomplished in no other way. But it has always seemed odd to me that there is so much emphasis on the restoration of the keys of the ministering of angels if we never get to use those keys. Well I have learned something new recently that has helped me better understand and now you get to learn it too… (more…)

Before I make those predictions on the timing of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ I promised you earlier, I thought I’d stir things up further by suggesting God probably has not even decided yet when the Second Coming will be. He is probably waiting to see when the time is right. But wait, you say, doesn’t God have perfect foreknowledge? As I have written before — not necessarily. I have been reading Blake Ostler’s marvelous book Exploring Mormon Thought: The Attributes of God and in it he makes very compelling arguments that actual perfect foreknowledge requires a fixed future and a fixed future means we aren’t really freely choosing (even if we think we are). The good news is that, as has been discussed elsewhere in the Bloggernacle, perfect foreknowledge is pretty useless anyway. (more…)

If you were in my house tonight you would have heard my five-year-old daughter proclaiming at the top of her lungs “Daddy is awesome! He’s the coolest boy I know!” Awwwww Yeeeaaahhhh! Daddy is awesome tonight. What makes dad so awesome, you ask? I got skills — video game skills. (more…)

Have you ever had a revelatory dream? I have. In fact I had one last week. I won’t go into detail about it because it just doesn’t feel right yet… but maybe someday. It was the first one I have had in several years. The last one I remember was in 1999. The prophesies in that one came to pass just as the dream indicated. I had a few on my mission too. My current stake president recently had one that has been appropriately quoted as local scripture in many meetings since he shared it with us at stake conference. (more…)

Tonight for family scriptures I broke out the parable of the sower from Matthew 13 for my little children. It was slightly over their heads (I got questions like ?what is God?s special word?? ? as in singular) but as I read the parable and succeeding explanation out loud it dawned on me that this parable was further support for my theory on the Devil?s GPA!

The Devil?s GPA is the code name I use for what I think is the fundamental content of Satan?s playbook as explained in the scriptures. I introduced the concept in an earlier post, but here is the list temptations we?ll face in mortality from greatest to least:

G: Greed and Getting Gain (Plus the power wealth brings)
P: Popularity, Prominence, Praise of Men, Pride, Power (at least the influence part)
A: Appetites and Addictions

I have loved this idea since I read somewhere that President Mckay taught similar things. I hadn?t seen it in this parable until tonight. Here goes:

The seeds by the wayside = Appetites and Addictions

(more…)

As demonstrated by today’s Sunday School lesson (D&C Lesson 7) exaltation can be attained through 5 simple steps on our part — all the rest of the work is taken care of by the atonement of Jesus Christ. You know the steps already:
1.) Exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
2.) Repent
3.) Be baptized
4.) Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost
5.) Endure to the end.
(See references here, here, here, and here)

But the problem with this list is that we have a huge amount of scriptural detail on steps 1-4 and nearly no scriptural detail on step 5. To make things worse, one can accomplish steps 1-4 by the age of 8. We have been instructed that Step 5 generally includes keeping baptismal covenants and making and keeping of temple covenants, but why is there so little other specific instruction from God and the prophets on the step that will take the next 92 year of life to accomplish? Read on gentle friend, I think I’ve discovered the answer… (more…)

Naming a blog is a lot like naming a band. I’ve named a lot of bands in my day, but only one blog. It was pretty common in the past for me to do a couple of gigs under one band name and then change to a more appropriate name based on the sound and personality of the band. I’ve been thinking about changing the name of my blog now that it’s been live for about six weeks. So when I saw that Jonathan had mentioned that the name “New Cool Thang” was a little disturbing I knew the time had come… It’s time to seek advice and votes on the blog name! (more…)