EXPERIENCING GOD'S LOVE

My lost car keys! Has anyone seen them?

We often talk about feeling and experiencing God's love. This happens when we find lost car keys, when we feel encircled in the arms of love as an answer to prayer, or when we help someone in need.

Where do we really find this love? In the Gospel of John, Nicodemus is taught the following now famous words.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." (John 3:16-17)

The love of God is epitomized and personified and consummated in the birth, life, mission, suffering and death of Jesus Christ. Giving his only begotten Son as a ransom for the vileness and unbelief and pride of the world was a total act of love. No living thing in this world deserves Jesus Christ. He is a gift from God.

Receiving gifts is hard for the self-sufficient modern man and woman. We are independent and free to walk our own way and rarely acknowledge or become aware of our dire need for other people, even more so with regards to Jesus Christ. This is true, even though "he comprehends all things, that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth ... The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things" (D&C 88:6, 13)

Since God's love is most perfectly expressed in Jesus, the best way to experience this love is through trust Jesus, believe him and come unto him. Jesus was sent so that we might be saved, not that we might feel all warm and fuzzy. Being saved is then the ultimate reception of the love of God. Forgiveness, therefore, is at the heart of God's love.

The highest manifestation of the love of God is salvation. So, maybe the best way for us to experience this love is through the redemptive relocating of lost keys, or having our prayerful petition mercifully answered, or saving someone else from their distress, big or small. This we do well in remembering until the perfect day when we see as we are seen, and know as we are known, having received of his fulness and of his grace. (D&C 50:24; 76:94)

A BOOK!

For the last month or so, I've been kind of absent from the blog. The explanation - I've spent my time writing a book.

Or, since it's written in Swedish - Jag har skrivit en bok. (More English follows below.)


Boken heter "Att vakna för Gud" och handlar om hur jag upplever mig ha blivit väckt och vaknat till Gud och många "nya" sanningar. Jag har även vaknat till insikt om många falska traditioner och människobud jag tidigare trott var från Gud. Utöver detta har jag även vaknat till en förståelse för hur någonting som varken är helt sant eller helt falskt faktiskt kan vara användbart.

Boken hittar du här. För den som hellre läser boken i pappersformat kommer även den möjligheten att finnas. Den kommer då endast betinga ett självkostnadspris (i dagsläget är det oklart vad detta blir, men den som är intresserad får helt enkelt höra av sig).

Om du finner något i boken användbart och uppbyggande - prisa Gud och dela med dig till någon vän. Om du inte tyckte den var något att ha så tar jag gärna emot din (konstruktiva)
feedback.

Trevlig läsning!


And now, in English.

I've written a short book about my awakening to some of the lost truths of the restoration and some of the all too cherished untruths and false traditions of the Church. But I've also come to appreciate the importance of the Church, albeit for whole different reasons than before. It's a book about my journey thus far.

There are no plans at this point to have the book translated. So, if you're really interested, I'd point you to Google translate. Please note, though, that some of the nuances might get lost in translation.

I had no plans to translate. A friend did a Google translation. You find it here. The Swedish version is found here.

THE DANGER OF A MODERN APPROACH TO THE THINGS OF GOD

"O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken notunto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God." (2 Ne. 9:28-29)

This verse took on a slightly different meaning this morning as I saw it in the context given by Denver Snuffer in a blogpost from March of 2010. 

"We have a whole different mindset than did the ancients.  We view things through the prism of Aristotle. We think that “reality” is what we can observe and touch and measure. However, there was once a mindset where what is “reality” was what God said.  The Word of God alone was enough to make the reality."

Jacob wasn't talking about solely the dangers of scholarly learning, but also that of cultural conditioning and the mindset given us from the modernistic society we live in. It's so easy for us to discard of ideas and concepts in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ because they don't fit the modern frame of mind and learning. 

Since some of these concepts hasn't been taught in the Church, we oftentimes find us unequipped to handle them constructively and put them in the larger context as a preparation for more understanding down the line. Instead, we toss them out as preposterous and not coming from God. This we do, despite the fact that his ways are said to be so much higher than ours. But this may be one of those ideas that we, as enlightened and modern human beings, reject because it challenges our assertions of our own understanding and power to grasp the will and ways of God.

We should judge righteous judgments. This is true of people, behaviors as well as ideas and concepts.