- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
Old-Timer wrote:
No, mackay11, that paragraph wasn’t about you. It is about someone who is a good example of a “hobby Mormon” (someone who obsesses over one topic) and who thinks anyone who disagrees with him on that topic is, at least, borderline apostate. He wouldn’t dream of participating here.
No worries Ray. Just wanted to check
Another buffet Mormon like the rest of us I guess.
On personal revelation in the church and who has trouble with it … Two weeks ago, as I sat listening to the testimonies on what my wife and I call “Open-Mike Sunday” (when the leaders swallow hard and hope the members don’t talk weird during testimony-bearing) I was struck with the thought that Mormons – almost as second nature – talk to God in a very casual and non-assuming manner. Just listen to any of the prayers by members and you will mostly hear them talking to their Dad, albeit in a respectful and reverential manner.
“Talking to Dad” was one of the things that eventually placed me in conflict with leadership regarding personal revelation as it relates to orthodoxy and conformity. You see, I really thrived over the years by my own application of what I call the Moroni Promises. Those chestnut verses have had incredible potency in my life because of the literal way I took the promises and applied them according to standard LDS challenges and teaching.
If one talks to God in prayer and is lacking in the fearful reverence that suggests that you are only supposed to ask “approved” questions of God … you have your own “open-mike” access to God and carte blanc to ask anything you want as you apply the mystical magic of the Moroni Promises.
Ask God anything … ANYTHING … and not simply or merely that which Church programming seeks to limit your curiosity.
Ask if Joseph had multiple wives …
ask if Brigham flubbed his handling of the handcart disaster …
ask what took so long to get priesthood availability to all worthy males …
ask sincerely whether or not LGBT is the mortal sin most churches insist it is …
ask whether or not social justice is significant …
ask whether or not there are limitations to the First and Second Great Commandments based on official Church rules …
ask anything.
As a young father and husband, when I realized I would never be limited to asking only what the Church said I could ask, it was liberating … like the feeling you got when the Church tells you a prayer to Mother in Heaven falls on deaf ears (Prove it!)
When I realized I could ask sincerely if a church calling was from The Lord or from the Bishop’s organizational chart, there was significant freedom from guilty consciences.
When I refused a calling to teach the High Priest Group after having been released as the Group Leader, when the new HPGL told me that the answers to my prayers (which disagreed with the promptings from his prayers) were from “the wrong source,” I only smiled.
Me and the Moroni Promises have kept me much saner than otherwise I would be.
Thanks all for your comments. I have much to ponder… Quote:Ask God anything … ANYTHING … and not simply or merely that which Church programming seeks to limit your curiosity.
:thumbup: Arthur Ruger wrote:On personal revelation in the church and who has trouble with it …
Two weeks ago, as I sat listening to the testimonies on what my wife and I call “Open-Mike Sunday” (when the leaders swallow hard and hope the members don’t talk weird during testimony-bearing) I was struck with the thought that Mormons – almost as second nature – talk to God in a very casual and non-assuming manner. Just listen to any of the prayers by members and you will mostly hear them talking to their Dad, albeit in a respectful and reverential manner.
“Talking to Dad” was one of the things that eventually placed me in conflict with leadership regarding personal revelation as it relates to orthodoxy and conformity. You see, I really thrived over the years by my own application of what I call the Moroni Promises. Those chestnut verses have had incredible potency in my life because of the literal way I took the promises and applied them according to standard LDS challenges and teaching.
If one talks to God in prayer and is lacking in the fearful reverence that suggests that you are only supposed to ask “approved” questions of God … you have your own “open-mike” access to God and carte blanc to ask anything you want as you apply the mystical magic of the Moroni Promises.
Ask God anything … ANYTHING … and not simply or merely that which Church programming seeks to limit your curiosity.
Ask if Joseph had multiple wives …
ask if Brigham flubbed his handling of the handcart disaster …
ask what took so long to get priesthood availability to all worthy males …
ask sincerely whether or not LGBT is the mortal sin most churches insist it is …
ask whether or not social justice is significant …
ask whether or not there are limitations to the First and Second Great Commandments based on official Church rules …
ask anything.
As a young father and husband, when I realized I would never be limited to asking only what the Church said I could ask, it was liberating … like the feeling you got when the Church tells you a prayer to Mother in Heaven falls on deaf ears (Prove it!)
When I realized I could ask sincerely if a church calling was from The Lord or from the Bishop’s organizational chart, there was significant freedom from guilty consciences.
When I refused a calling to teach the High Priest Group after having been released as the Group Leader, when the new HPGL told me that the answers to my prayers (which disagreed with the promptings from his prayers) were from “the wrong source,” I only smiled.
Me and the Moroni Promises have kept me much saner than otherwise I would be.
Thanks. The idea that anyone else can hear God’s will for me better than I can hear God’s will for me is kind of crazy when you think about it.
It’s all about the personalised curriculums in my mind.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.