Is there a possibility of good in this world without God? My answer is, Of course there is good without God. Evil has been described as the absence of God or good. There are pockets of evil wherever one goes as well as pockets of good wherever one goes. I have become acquainted with many…
Tag: Agency
On Liberalism and The Power of Ideas
After eighty-three years on earth, I happen to know how easy it is to influence some people. While in the army (1953–1955), I remember going to a special entertainment performance for military personnel at the Presidio in San Francisco where I was stationed. The performer was a hypnotist, and we were warned that he was…
On Saved By Grace
Grace, a subject many of us (humans) have a hard time understanding. It is the missing link, what we cannot do in the process of our personal salvation. We can try to be perfect in our behavior, repentant, truly repented of all of our misdeeds and, too, we could have been forgiven of all transgressions,…
On Irreversible
Is any action or human behavior, activity, etc. irreversible? Is there anything that cannot be changed, forgiven, taken back. Obviously there are things that friends and even married couples say in moments of anger, weakness, that are harsh enough that the one hurt by it may forgive but it will not be forgotten. That is…
On Someday
The other day, I heard a song that reminded me of my younger years when it seemed that we had so little that everything we wanted would have to wait until “someday.” The song was by Rob Thomas and part of it went like this: “And maybe someday we’ll figure all this out, Try to…
On Bad Guys In the Bible
There have always been bad guys, and there always will be bad guys, and if we were to carefully evaluate each of our lives, we may bring to remembrance a time when we might have qualified as a bad guy ourselves. Bad guys were probably not always bad guys or were not considered bad guys…
On Perfection vs. Natural Man
I was contemplating some things this morning and had a couple bursts of thoughts. We sometimes accept our inability to ever be perfect in this life as an excuse to not obey all of the commandments. This is a falsehood. We are expected to be strictly obedient to all the commandments. Our imperfection is a…
On Coming To Oneself
I have heard that statement, “Coming to oneself,” several times in the last few months, and prior to that, I seldom remember hearing it. Yet, the other day, someone quoted from the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:17): “And when he came to himself…” When I heard that quote, then I remembered the parable,…
On His Hands
A young couple spoke in church one Sunday, and I enjoyed their thoughts very much. The young husband referred to an experience he had as a young boy living on a farm where his dad raised horses. His dad had given him the responsibility to raise a young colt and train it to be a…
On Satan’s Powerful Influence
In our pre-earth existence we were spirits formed from intelligent matter through a birth process of which earthly births are patterned after. We are the offspring of a heavenly and eternal couple, and we progressed in that pre-earth state, in the presence of our parents. We were to a point of maturity where further progress…