“Let us once & for all establish our residence in Zion & give up the summer cottage in Babylon.” —Neal A. Maxwell

There are a growing number among us who have gone far beyond that. Some have returned from Babylon not to renounce the summer cottage but to demand dual citizenship. Some have only seen Babylon on the horizon & desire permission to visit. Some have gone into Babylon as though to rescue & returned w/a delegation to demand negotiations w/the leadership. Some assign themselves diplomatic authority by nature of their experience in both cities.

“If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart & with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, & all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days…” “…if thou turn to the Lord thy God, & shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.” (Deut. 4:29-31)

We often share our testimonies by expressing how we feel. This is understandable—the Spirit speaks & our emotions respond. But emotions are not the testimony, they’re a physiological response to a spiritual conversation. Spirit speaks to spirit. Hearing it can be overwhelming. It’s especially important to understand this bc God has reached out to you by the power of the Holy Ghost & touched your soul to an eternal truth. If you demote such knowledge to the status of mere emotion, the foundation of that truth will not hold when challenges arise.

“The multitude of the earth was gathered together in a large & spacious building, & the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world & the wisdom thereof; yea, behold the house of Israel hath gathered together to fight against the 12 apostles of the Lamb...” “…& it came to pass that I saw & bear record, that the great & spacious building was the pride of the world; & it fell, & the fall thereof was exceedingly great…”

“I believe in the sun even when it’s not shining
I believe in love even when I feel it not
I believe in God even when He is silent.”

—writte on a wall at Cologne during the Holocaust

St. Olaf Choir - "Even When He Is Silent" by I absolutely love concert choirs. 🎶😌🎶 My daughter (the missionary one) was a soprano soloist w/ Grand Rapids Symphony Youth Chorus. I miss those concerts! Catch St. Olaf Choir w/@TheTabChoir broadcast this May.

To the YSAs from me: True love exists. It’s what you decide to create w/the person of your choosing. Your soulmate exists. It’s the person w/whom you decide to bond souls. Sweet emotions are a product of healthy, selfless relating. They are not a moral compass. You decide. There are many ppl that cld be a good soulmate for you. Sounds terribly unromantic, yes? On the contrary—by retaining your ability to choose, by considering your partnership a matter of self-creation & not mere incident, you can exponentially improve its quality. Love is a verb.

Did you know it’s possible to build a testimony of the gospel apart from your own emotional responses? Some of us are cerebral beings. Instead of adding reason to our faith, we add faith to our reason. We begin with experimentation, practice, logic, & then step into the unknown. This is not to say feeling will never happen: for most people it’s inevitable. But my emotional responses are a byproduct of spiritual confirmation, they are not spiritual confirmation in themselves.

We can suppose from Pres. Nelson’s #GeneralConference remarks that there are young men among us who haven’t signed on for missions merely bc they’re dragging their feet & need a boost of initiative. There are also many who cannot serve or aren’t quite there yet. Don’t judge them. There are YSAs who have mental or physical ailments they don’t talk about. Some are still gaining or strengthening their testimonies. There are some w/life situations where their service at home is already imperative. Whatever the reason, your judgment won’t help their progress.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; & they shall turn away their ears from the truth, & shall be turned unto fables.” (2 Tim. 4:3-4) Fables=that which stimulates but never reproves. This “itching ears” is a state C.S. Lewis described as a quest for absolute novelty. Rather than savor truths in their time to their proper use, we grow an appetite for new highs. When nature runs out, we turn to perversions of it.

“The word of the Lord also came unto me, saying, Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.” (Ezekiel 12) The cultural cry for ‘visibility’ means “I demand that others look at me & validate me.” God commands a different kind of improved visibility—“Help me to see clearly. Cause my eyes to see. Cause my ears to hear. Cause my heart to understand.”

Story time: When I was a senior in hs, I had need to make a last-minute change to my class schedule. To do so, I had to see Mr. Peterson so he would sign off on me joining his class. When I entered, I saw the desks in a circle against the walls & all the students looking at me. Mr. Peterson had placed a desk for himself in the center of the circle. He was a squatty, toad-faced, balding man with a round belly and thick glasses. He had a reputation for being tough, unyielding, impatient w/his students. Now he & his class were staring at me.

“The true Christian ideal is not to be happy but to be holy. The whole purpose of God in redemption is to make us holy & to restore us to the image of God...” —AW Tozer “To accomplish this He disengages us from earthly ambitions & draws us away from the cheap & unworthy prizes that worldly men set their hearts upon.” —AW Tozer

“Attacks against the Church, its doctrine, and our way of life are going to increase. Because of this, we need women who have a bedrock understanding of the doctrine of Christ and who will use that understanding to teach and help raise a sin-resistant generation.” #RussellMNelson “We need women who can detect deception in all its forms. We need women who know how to access the power that God makes available to covenant keepers & who express their beliefs w/ confidence & charity. We need women who have the courage & vision of our Mother Eve.” —RM Nelson

“Israel, Israel, God is calling,
Calling thee from lands of woe.
Babylon the great is falling;
God shall all her tow’rs o’erthrow.
Come to Zion, come to Zion
Ere his floods of anger flow.” “Israel, Israel, God is speaking.
Hear your great Deliv’rer’s voice!
Now a glorious morn is breaking
For the people of his choice.
Come to Zion, come to Zion,
And within her walls rejoice.”

“The fearful, & ​​​unbelieving​, & the abominable, & murderers​, & ​​​whoremongers​, & ​​​sorcerers​, & idolaters, & all ​​​liars​, shall have their part in the lake which burneth … which is the ​​​second​ ​​​death​.” Rev. 21:8

‘Fearful’ is the sin listed first. (THREAD) Context is important. To be fearful is not merely to feel sudden fright: it means ‘to be inclined to fear, to cause fear, or to display fear.’ The coward, the fearmonger, & the weakling—people who passively or aggressively bring others to harm. This is sin.

“Grace is free. Works can’t save you.” Correct. Works make you. Christ saves you. “Claim Jesus & you’re going to heaven.” Correct. There are three heavens. Short of denying Christ, you’re going to one of them.

(THREAD) The problem w/this oversimplified version of theology is that it stops short of explaining what God intends to make of *you* if you’re willing to live the higher law. This maturation of the eternal species—you—begins here with your works.

“Let us suppose that we are doing a mountain walk to the village which is our home. At mid-day we come to the top of a cliff where we are, in space, very near it because it is just below us. We could drop a stone onto it. But as we are no cragsmen we can’t get down…” “We must go a long way round; five miles, maybe. At many points during that detour we shall, statically, be farther from the village than we were when we sat above the cliff. But only statically. In terms of progress we shall be far ‘nearer’ our baths and teas.”

“Are you not ashamed of such pretentions?” she said. “You, who are no more than any ignorant plow boy of our land!”

Joseph testified simply: “The gift has returned back again, as in former times, to illiterate fishermen.” —#Saints Vol. 1, & “Vicissitudes Illustrated,” Towle God chooses the “weak things of the earth” to do his work. There are many good reasons for this. A humble man is teachable & obedient to his Lord’s will. Most importantly, Godly miracles wrought by humble beings cannot be misinterpreted as intellectual sophistry or might of arm.

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one & love the other; or else he will hold to the one & despise the other.” -Matt. 6:24

We all worship something. If God is dwelling on the periphery of our hearts, it’s likely something else is already enthroned there. Worship begins as admiration & becomes adoration. We then invite that thing to enter & make its home in our souls where it can banish other kings & change who we are. There’s only room for one monarch. All other members of “court” either serve that monarch or suffer expulsion.

“The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than anyone.” —Dostoevsky

The armor of righteousness is forged in the fires of truth. No falsehood can pierce it. Lies are but a loincloth in comparison. A liar’s doctrine cannot protect him. His only chance is to ambush. Even with a blindsided attack, a follower of unsound doctrines only succeeds if he locates the weakness in *your* armor. He cannot pierce the truth with which you are shielded. He will offend your pride, your personality, your obedience. He will offend that which you hold sacred.

When you view everyone you meet thru the single, myopic lens of your favored injustice, you’re not viewing them as God’s children anymore. Eventually it’s not about the injustice, it’s about you—the wound you keep reopening, the hole you expect to fill by digging it deeper. Even in his earthly ministry, our Lord looked upon the heart, one by one. Each person he met w/new eyes, as though no one had yet disappointed him. He looked for their pain & sought healing, he looked for sin & offered forgiveness, one by one. He does the same w/ each of us now.