The story of God’s people is a story of sin, setback, and failure. When you read the Old Testament, there isn’t a whole lot to brag about.  But through this line came the answer to all these problems! In fact, the answer to ALL our problems.  With great mercy, God became a man and redeemed… Continue reading

I’m giving a lesson on Hernán Cortés this week in homeschool history class, so I’ve got conquistadores on my mind. Which is fitting, because I’m halfway through the book of Joshua and reflecting on how amazing God is when He shows up to fight our battles and conquer enemies on our behalf! I read this… Continue reading

I just found this story, and to be honest, I’m pretty incredulous. This is Jewish wisdom literature from the first century BC. Yeah, that’s the silent period between the Old and New Testaments. And there’s a reason this story wasn’t considered scripture and included in the Biblical canonization process. I want you to compare this… Continue reading

Lately, Rychen and I have been discussing lines of logic that leads to various conclusions. And I’ve been pondering this literal Father God thing lately. It used to be so familiar, so comforting. Home. But what are the fruits of this doctrine? Where do the lines of logic actually lead? The first and most obvious,… Continue reading

In church we talk about surrendering our lives to God. Think about that word, surrender. That’s a warfare word. Surrender means you were enemies, but now you admit defeat. The other party won. They are stronger, mightier. You fought them for as long as you could. You tried to do things your way. You tried… Continue reading

“Learn of me and listen to my words” is a well-known LDS injunction (memorable to me because of a Young Women’s song we sang) from the D&C. The “Learn of me” part is Biblical 👍 Matthew 11:29: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart” Anyhow,… Continue reading

We frequently quote Genesis 15:6 and Paul’s references to it: Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness. We use this to demonstrate saving faith. But what does the word faith mean, in this instance? It does not mean merely a belief in God. This isn’t faith that God exists; this… Continue reading

When I was growing up, my parents liked to play The Messiah soundtrack a lot. I was too young to understand what it was, but certain parts stood out to me and sounded funny. Like the song that said we are like sheep. I would go around the house singing “We like sheep! All we… Continue reading

Time for me to expose another silly thing I believed as a Mormon. Except this one isn’t a weird random thought, it’s actually mainstream. It’s a commonly held belief and a commonly expressed attitude. In fact, I heard it just recently as a response to one of my Facebook posts. And this was someone who… Continue reading

Weird Mormon thought of the week #2: Bear with me. Hear my logic on this. In Mormonism, our souls have always existed. God didn’t actually create us. We existed via this little thing called an intelligence. As the story goes, we were “intelligences” when God found us and plucked us up, and then He made… Continue reading