Home really is where the heart is.

Columnist Salena Zito learns an important lesson about 'home."

http://townhall.com/columnists/SalenaZito/2008/12/21/almost_home

Christmas Babies

In the December 2007 Ensign Magazine, LDS Church President Gordon Hinckley quoted E. T. Sullivan, who once wrote these interesting words: “When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn’t stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother’s heart, and she puts it into the baby’s mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies.”

I love this time of year. In the dead of winter we commemorate the births of two of the greatest babies in the history of mankind. Long ago and far, far away on Judea’s Plain, a virgin named Mary gave birth to a lad who would provide a way back to God for all of his Sprit Brothers and Sisters. She named him according to what she had been instructed by heavenly messengers – Yeshua – translated meaning “Jehovah Saves.” He is better known by its Greek rendering, Jesus.

 Thanks to need of the early Christian Church to replace ancient pagan revelries surrounding the Winter Solstice, a December day was chosen to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the World. Over the next 1800 some odd years, many such pragmatic choices made changes to truths and ordinances of the Christ’s Church.  Lack of bodies of water sufficient to submerge a human adult in the Saharan Africa indicated a change to sprinkling as opposed to immersion for baptism. A common view of the Godhead was required to push the new church forward politically – so a group of men at a Council in Nicaea compromised to say that Father, Son and Holy Ghost were really one being, capable of appearing separate in some mysterious way. The created a creed that became the confession of many, and a litmus test for those who take it upon themselves to determine who is worthy to call themselves a Christian.  At nearly the same time, the Church fathers decided that Baptism for the Dead as taught by the Original Apostles was “A useless tradition of Paul, and of no efficacy.”

Such drift continued in the centuries following the death of the Apostles. And as new opinions were developed on doctrinal matters, new entities claiming to be the Church of Jesus Christ appeared. Each of these was missing critical components, not least of which was actual authority to perform ordinances in the name of God, also known as the priesthood. In 1805, the wheels began turning to correct these deficiencies. On a winters morning, near to the Christian Holiday, thousands of years and miles away from that manger in Bethlehem, another boy was born that would change the world and prepare this tired old planet and its inhabitants to once again and truly “Receive her King.” 

His name, like his father’s, was Joseph – which translated from Hebrew means “he shall add.” And add he did, or rather, reveal that which had been hidden for centuries. His contributions have lit the way Home for millions who have heard his words. 

December is a blessed month. One in which we celebrate the birth of Our Messiah, and remember the birth of His Prophet. I thank God for both! 

The Real Meaning of Christmas

Last weekend, my wife and I went over to Kansas City so I could attend my employer's Holiday Party. On my way to the luncheon, it was a clear and bright day. The trip from Independence where we were staying and Overland Park, where the party was reminded me of how thankful I am to have a job that permits me to commute from one bedroom to the other to get to work.

I also got another, far more signifcant reminder. As I traveled south on Metcalf Avenue in OP, there is a cemetery just south of College. As I drove past, I saw three people gathered at a grave, their arms around one another, looking at the headstone.

As I considered their grief, the Spirit whispered to me, "This is the true meaning of the event you are headed to celebrate."

Death is not the end. Because of the Baby whose birth we are celebrating at this time of year, and the sacrifice on our behalf that He performed...death is a new beginning. We can indeed have our loved ones back in the worlds to come.

Gloria In Excelsis Deo! Come let us adore him, yet again. The first and greatest Christmas present of all. Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the World, and the Best Friend Forever of all of us.
How I love Him!

Could We Just Take Time Out?

Wow...only three years and three hundred some-odd days left to go before the next presidential elections and it appears that some folks in the party on the outs are already running. Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana is making an appearance in Iowa this week...he claims no grand asperations, but actually this is a smart move on his part. He needs to be visible beyond the swamps in Cajun county.

Of course, everyone's favorite Christian Leader, Mike Huckabee is making things interesting as he takes potshots at anyone he considers to be a threat to his nomination in three and half years. You have to stand in awe of his just plain hatred for Mitt Romney. I'm not going to go through all the whine in the book Mike is Huckstering these days about Mitt, but it has always seemed too personal for Mr. "Don't Mormons believe Satan and Jesus are brothers?" He lost me at that one, and I was interested until he began whipping on my belief system. People like him and his rabid follower scare me as much if not more than Obama and the libs.

Oh, and while we are declaring moratoriums, could we please give poor Sarah Palin a break? She was chosen as a scapegoat for the RINOs in the McCain campaign to take the blame when their campaign bit the big one. Too bad for them that she electrified the conservative base. No way they could have anticipated her connection to the real people of this country. Washington repugs and leftist media types alike have their pants in a wad over this woman. If all they say is right, she is no threat to either group. I suspect they are feeling her heat, and not the kind she saves for the First Dude. It will be interesting to see what choices she makes down the road.

And my man, Mitt? He is following the Ronald Reagan post 1976 primary playbook. Go out and speak for people, help raise money, speak ill of no republican, and collect the chits in four years. Even though his people say he won't run again, I don't think it out of the question.

But for now, can we simply appreciate the irony of the President elect of "Change" naming every former Clinton appointee to his administration before we begin the games again? The last cycle was far too long.

I am Mr. Popularity!

Wow! I never thought that I would ever see the day that I could be so totally rejected! Thought I'd left all that behind after college. But here I am. I have a confession to make. I am...a conservative...and not only that but (gasp!) a Mormon. If the Mainstream Media can be believed..and they can't, I am totally out of touch, and an evil, overbearing bigot to boot! Not exactly how I view myself, but hey, I'm past 50 now. My eyesight is not so good.

Here's what I do see, though. I see some folks that may not have my country's best interests at heart soon to be running things. You know, Abraham Lincoln said that you can't fool all the people all the time. He was right. A fellow Illinoisian did just prove that you can fool 53% of the electorate some of the time. Our President-Elect is already backing off many of the more dramatic domestic promises he made. However, he appears to be poised as of this writing to honor the wishes of some members of his constituency that don't even live here in the US.

His transition team is floating a trial balloon about backing a treaty between the Palestinians and the Israelis that would take all land taken in each action since the 1967 war away from Israel and give it to the Palestinians. That's a divided Jerusalem. That is a recipe for trouble. Emboldened by their new friend in America, the Arabs might just invite another dust up, this time with technology that could make the Holy City a glowing parking lot. I wonder if the rocks on the Mount of Olives are warming up for a spectaular earthquake? Have the key holders been called to Northern Missouri? Kinda scary, huh?

I guess not if one is prepared. OK..show of hands...who here is really prepared? Not just ready for all this to be over. I would be in that category. However, I suspect that I am not nearly enough like Christ to recognize Him when He comes back. Yeah...that's what I thought. It's OK, we're supposed to help one another prepare. And man, I think its gonna get tricky holding onto that Iron Rod. And tough.

It would appear that our brothers and sisters in the Great and Spacious building have decided that they are not had as much success befouling our minds and spirits as they would like. Seems as though with the passage of Proposition 8, they feel they now have license to flow out of that building and after bathing in the filty streams they so love, will now come for the righteous (and some non-righteous...membership only puts you on their hit list) to make sure that we approve of their every whim...no matter what God may say about the matter. And if we still cling bitterly to that rod, they will get a court order to make us let go! (not bloody likely!) 6000 years of history and organization being thrown out with the bathwater AND the baby. (the baby is whole 'nother post!)

To a degree, I wish I could work up even a moderate mad about all of this. I can't. At the risk of sounding overly apocalyptic here, I get the feeling that it has to be this way. People are making choices and in many cases, their eternal beds, if you will. I suspect we may be pushing toward a turning point where once again believers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, restored by and guided today by a Prophet of God, can be driven, injured and killed with not only impunity, but the approval of people of normal goodwill. After all, we alone (several million votes for Prop 8, and only 750,000 Mormons in California) took the right of all those poor people to be approved of in their sin. I pray that we will grasp the rod more tightly than ever before.

But now is not the time to go run for the shelter. It is time, more than ever, to be out in the community, living our testimonies so that it is indeed clear on whose side we stand. As Joshua of old said..."As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

"So what do we do now?"

Kinda like the Robert Redford character in the movie "The Candidate," and possibly our President-Elect, I am here...not really sure what to do...

I am not totally sure how this is going to turn out. There are several things that have captured my passion, but I am sure my wife would prefer that I not talk about her on here, so there's one that can be ruled out. Well, most of the time.

So tell you what. Since odds are I will be talking to my self most of the time on here, (and my Carol Ruth will be happy with that, I bet) This will be what I think...from my perspective. If I provoke a thought, great, and sometimes I may just whine.

So hang in...if this blog ends up like my life...it will be anything but boring.