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Mothers Day 2023

A couple of weeks ago on Mother's Day, I gave a talk in church about how women in the scriptures exemplify attributes of Jesus Christ.  I'd like to share it here so we all can appreciate together the great examples of righteousness we have in the scriptures. In church I had to shorten my talk somewhat, so you could consider the version here the "Director's Cut" :) Growing up I was grateful for my mom, for the same reasons that many young people are - she drove me to school, cooked dinner, and did the laundry.  But there's a lot more to motherhood than doing chores, which I've been learning about in the past few years as I've watched my wife raise our 2 daughters. She sacrifices so much of her free time and personal desires for the benefit of our kids.  I am continually in awe of her selflessness, and will be forever grateful for her. I was asked to speak about "Christlike Attributes shown by women in the scriptures".   With it being Mother
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"What Is Truth?"

I recently watched a video where science nerd Kyle Hill responded to the various social media conspiracies that have been popping up about the "fake snow" in Texas.  Although I expected him to call them silly, foolish, or something worse, I was surprised when he instead talked about a more serious topic he calls the “information apocalypse.”  Beyond being a good example of avoiding name-calling, it was an interesting discussion about information, truth, and our responsibilities as citizens of the world (13:00-17:20). We are indeed living in a time where there is so much information available, it can be hard to tell what is true and what isn’t.  Some, like Pontius Pilate, may believe that it is not possible to determine the truth.  He expressed this, perhaps cynically, perhaps dejectedly, when he asked Jesus, “What is truth?” ( John 18:38 ).  Others may believe that there is no truth that applies to everyone. I believe that there are some facts which are always true.  These wi

Jesus Approves the Words of Isaiah

Earlier this year, I did some comparisons of chapters in the Book of Mormon which include quotations from Old Testament prophets (links below).  It is interesting to see what the slight differences are between what we have in the King James Version of the Bible vs what the Nephites had in the brass plates . Christ with Three Nephite Disciples, by Gary L. Kapp The reading for the Come, Follow Me curriculum this last week covered 3 Nephi chapters 20-26 .  These chapters contain commentary from the Savior on the words of Micah and Isaiah, as well as direct quotations from Isaiah and Malachi.  Chapters 20 and 21 are (I think) the most interesting, as the quotations are interspersed with explanation from Jesus as to how the prophecies refer to the gathering of Israel in the last days.  The other three chapters are nearly quoted verbatim, though I include them here for completions sake. Here are the links to the comparison pages for each the chapters in 3 Nephi 20-25.  The quotation from ch

What Can I Learn From the War Chapters?

The last two weeks of the Come, Follow Me readings have been what are called the "war chapters" of the Book of Mormon.  Trying to get through all of this can sometimes be daunting, so I thought I would offer a few thoughts that might make it easier to feel a connection to this part of the Book of Mormon. Captain Moroni and Zerahemnah -  www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media There are three periods of time during the history of the Nephites and Lamanites that is covered in detail in the Book of Mormon.  The first is the exodus of Lehi and his family from Jerusalem, the second is the 100 years leading up to the coming of Christ (beginning with Mosiah II establishing judges and culminating in 3 Nephi 11 ), and the last is the destruction of the Nephites around 400 AD. We are living in the last days before the coming of Christ, so we should pay particular attention to things that happen in the Book of Alma and onwards.  There are so many lessons to be learned here: how to deal wi

The Sword of the Lord

I am a big fan of swords.  My favorite kind of sword (currently) is the Japanese Katana .  I also really like the Bolo swords of the Philippines. Today, however, I will be talking about how swords are used in the scriptures, both literally and figuratively. Captain Moroni, as depicted in " Firm in the Faith of Christ " Heavenly Swords Chronologically, the first sword mentioned in the scriptures appears when Adam and Eve are kicked out of the Garden of Eden: "So I [God] drove out the man, and I placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life" ( Moses 4:31 ). I have always wondered, did the angel actually have a sword, or is this verse a metaphor to emphasize the power that the angel had?  Isaiah certainly uses metaphorical descriptions of angels.  In either case, I think whatever the angel looked like, it was clear to anyone approaching the tree of life that continuing would be a dang