Misc Metaphors

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Hot Cheetos
When you start eating them, you tongue hurts. So you eat a few more to eliminate the sting. But then the sting starts up again, and you have a bit more. You can keep going like this until finally you decide you must just live through the burn.

Body
○ Christian life is like human body
○ It's not that nothing wrong ever happens
○ Body is always repairing itself
○ Body is always fighting infection and disease
○ If body lost it's immunity (AIDS) it would die from first infection that came along
○ Living body has all kinds of internal forces which heal itself.
○ Same with a repentant man
○ It's not that he never does anything wrong, but when things go wrong, he has forces inside and around him which forces him to heal, to make it right.
§ Prayer
§ Faith
§ Family
§ Bishops
§ Testimony
§ Service
§ Sacrifice
§ Covenants
§ Scriptures

Flight
○ There is a level of flight known as the safe level. The closer you get to it, the less time you have to react when an emergency pops up. Don't fly close to the line.
○ There is a timeframe from 50 -350 hrs of flight time that is risky for a pilot. It is that period of time when pilots are still inexperienced, but are given freedom to fly. And at least one pilot has acknowledged that period of time as the killing zone.
§ It's like the challenges that first generation or new converts face. They know the church is true..but perhaps they have not become integrated into ward or branch where they live. Too often they don't have a friend, or a calling, or they haven't received the Priesthood.
○ Train for emergencies - Elder Hales tells of his simulator training he undertook to that he was prepared for emergency. His friend skipped training. When emergency arose - he didn't eject and was killed.
○ The spirit gives us the power of thrust. If for some reason we lose focus on the spirit, if we've flown in the safest of the safety zone, we will have time to recover before we're destroyed.
○ Whether your thrust comes from a rocket or a biwing propeller depends on the development of your spirit.
○ The 12 apostles represent the pilots of the blue angels.
○ Gliders don't have internal power, they completely use thermals to carry them aloft. They still must have LIFT to fly. As long as you use spirit, you can stay aloft.
○ But if you lose the thermal - you're coming down.
○ World is filling with sludge. We must lift off and stay aloft…only take in uplifting things.
○ Powered flight is like using the Holy Ghost. IT pushes us to where the thermals are.
○ What creates DRAG?
§ Evil music
§ Inactivity
§ Giving up on church
§ Involvement in dark activities
§ Giving up on a standard of church you have believed
§ Priesthood duties unfulfilled
○ What creates LIFT?
§ Forgiveness
§ Repentance
§ Gratitude
§ Music
§ Priesthood duties fulfilled
§ Temple attendance
§ Church magazines
§ Conferences
§ Sacrament promises
§ Being w/ Loved ones and feelings are expressed
§ Program of Church helps us remember constantly to bring LIFT into life.
□ How hungry would you be, if you hadn't eaten since the last time you read the scriptures?
□ Always - have prayer in heart
□ Scriptures - Daily
□ Sacrament - Weekly
□ Date night, FHE - Weekly
□ Home Teaching , Relief Society- Monthly
□ Fast Sunday - Monthly
□ Conferences - Regularly

Magic.
○ At reunion my nephew believed he was doing the magic
○ He would wiggle his fingers and magic would happen, even though it was Magic Kevin performing the tricks. He has a big disappointment in store.
○ It's like us…so many times we believe it is us who are doing such magical things, when in reality it is the goodness and guidance of God that makes daily miracles happen.
○ If you want to make an apple pie from Scratch…you first have to create the universe.

Freedom of Choice
○ Freedom of choice gives you lift
○ But choose wisely, for once the choice is made, you cannot choose it's outcome.
○ Story of monkey and crocodile, you knew what I was when you climbed on my back
○ When you pick up one end of the stick, you pick up the other end as well
○ Look to make choices which give you opportunity to make other choices. Don't make choices which kill opportunities
§ Education
§ Commitment to God
§ Commitment to Spouse
§ Commitment to family
§ Commtment to Country
○ Adlai Stevenson said - Patriotism isn't a burst of joy on a holiday, but a life of dedicated conviction…same is true with conversion. It's more than just a burst of joy at Baptism.
○ Adlai Stevenson - We've confused being free with being free and easy.
○ Elder Packer said - that too often we want to be comfortable emotionally, and so when things get uncomfortable, we seek help from someone to make the emotional pain go away. But we should prepare our minds to deal with hard things. And if we have a good old hard day every so often, we shouldn't think something is wrong…but look for what we can learn.
○ We live in a day wher ewe have literally millions of choices to make. I sometimes think that Satan, knowing that God's plan is to let us have freedom to choice good and evil, hasn't intentioally flooded the earth with options, so you have to choose between good, good, a little better, a little worse but still good in other ways, etc. to cloud and confuse us. Leave us with angst.

The DO Principle
○ Ye know the truth, and Happy are Ye if he do them
○ John 7:17 - if we want to Know Christ, we have to live his life. We have to take his name.
○ Live in a world of simulation.
§ Can take any name

Know Doctrine - will help you do the doctrine
○ First Keep commandments leads us to know Christ.
○ When we know christ leads us to love Christ.
○ When we love Christ leads to WANT to keep commandments
○ WANTING purity and be with Christ leads us to BEING like Christ.
○ Boyd Packer teaches us truth that knowing the doctrine will help us change behavior more than a study of behavior will help us change behavior.
§ Obedience
§ Sacrifice
§ Reverence
§ Humility vs pride
§ Who we are and Who is God


Bloom where you are planted
○ We must have sufficient for our needs - or we will be miserable.
○ But once we have sufficient for our needs, we can become miserable in the search for more, more than we need.
○ The gap between how much you owe, and how much you have is either freedom, or slavery.
§ Freedom to bless others
§ Freedom to serve the lord
§ Freedom to go places and be with others you love
§ Freedom to pursue life
§ Slavery to earn to pay off debts - you may live fancy, but fancy with slavery is still slavery.
○ There are people who can seemingly float between that line, making choices which causes them to be a slave for a little while, but then at some point they cash in their hard work, and magic has caused their investments to pay off- and they're rich.
○ But if your search is to be richer than…then you will never be free. For there will always be those who are richer than you are. You will constantly search for more wealth and more things, so you can show others how rich you are…because you were miserable when you saw others wealthier than you, you hope to make others miserable because of your wealth. But the problem is that in your new wealth, there are those who are wealthier, and they will ressurect that feeling of misery you had when you where here.
○ The key - is to find joy here and now.
○ Bloom Where you are Planted. If you can't be happy with what you have, you won't be happy with stuff you get. Why? Because you have so much right now. Any additional blessings you receive are merely icing on a cake of tremendous proportions. Find joy in having sufficient for your needs. Find joy in freedom from not overextending yourself.
○ In particular, ask yourself - why you landed here in West Valley. Why do you have the calling you currently have? Has the Lord placed you here to accomplish something? To build the gospel?
○ May I suggest that BEFORE you put your house up for sale that you ask the Lord - have I done everything HERE you called me here to do.


Happy People need People
○ Happiest people are tied down. They have given up much potential choice, for some good choices…which continue to give.
○ They commit to God.
○ They commit to spouse
○ They commit to family.
○ They commit to friends
○ The more we love - the happier we will be.
§ Of course there are moments of saddness
§ But it is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all.
§ What about those who never try. Those who are happy not being anybody…wendy's quote from article that says- I have never experienced these tragedies, because I have never tried those successes.
○ What about scripture that says - you must hate your parents to love me?
§ We can't love any person too much only in relation to our love of God
§ When we love God (1) more than spouse (2) then we will love (2) more than we would have. When we love (2) more than (1), then our love for (2) will never reach it's potential.

2nd Coming
○ Now is the time for preparing for the second coming.
○ Of course it's important.
○ Signs point to it's coming
○ Miracles more obvious.
○ Evil more obvious
○ Angels more present.
○ But the best way to prepare for his coming, is for us to come unto him. For we will ultimately all come unto him…voluntarily, or as part of our death.

Body
○ When we get hurt we get better
○ We have a war going on inside us all day long. Right now, there are tons of white blood cells that are fighting infections, etc in our body.
○ But because of the way the Lord built us - we are strong enough to overcome.
○ However, sometimes these infections/problems can overwhelm our defenses and kill us.
○ Same is true in the gospel
○ There is a war going on spiritually around us all day every day.
○ We make choices which support standards of worthiness or not, we pay attention to the spirit or we ignore it.
○ Most the time, we have famiy, priesthood leaders, church lessons, scriptures, etc. which bouy us up and bring us back. We get healthy again as the power of these forces bring us back.
○ But sometimes - especially if we let these forces die within us, then spiritually we can become overwhelmed by the world, and it can kill us.
○ Take care of your body.
○ Do that which will keep your immune system strong.
○ Wear the armour of god.

Plants and Growth
○ I take a tomato and a cucumber and a squash out of our garden, and I marvel.
○ I didn't buy this in a store. I didn't pay for this.
○ Like so much of the rest of my life, it just grew…right out of the ground.
○ I live next to a field of Brocks, where I see the magic happen every year.
○ Of course someone works. Brocks sons. Neighborhood kids pick. But the growth comes because of God and the miracle of growth from the sun.
○ Growth from the SON is also possible for us.
○ We may need to weed the fields of our spirit.
○ We may need to nurture it with fertilizer
○ We may need to ensure each year that the fields are furrowed, that water can get there, and that we'll see the sun.
○ But when we do these things…we will grow

Ensign - January 2007 - Pres Faust talks about importance of understanding plan of Satan as well
○ I have a list of things I would do if I were Satan. And of Christ

All things bear record of him (ensign Jan 2007)

○ Christ is The way
§ A few years ago a boy in the uintahs got lost. I was surprised to hear that his father sent him along a trail, not far from camp, and yet because of how rough the terrain and brumbbly, that if you stepped off the trail, even a step or two, you could get lost, and never be found again.
§ We live in a day when the evil that surrounds us is crowding our daily lives. IF we take even a step or two off the 'way' we could easily get lost.
§ I talked to a sister whose husband was preparing for a disciplinary council. In tears she said, 'My husband is so lost - please help him find his way back.'
§ It is only by seeing how the Lord lived, and follow in his path will we be safe.
§ Live in time where people try to define who they are and what they want to be
§ Instead we should accept who we are and GROW from there

○ Christ stands at the door and knocks
§ Do we have people at our door knocking?
§ Perhaps, it's a new form of coming unto people - phone, cell, texting, emailing,
§ If we will open, answer, reply, he will come into us. But we have to invite him in
§ All things testify of him. If we will look out to them all, the lord will come in unto us.

○ Christ is the Rock
§ I love rocks - don't know why
§ I once paid $10 on a hike to the kid who could find the roundest rock. I have bowls of rocks.
§ But what the Savior had in mind, is that he is a much, much bigger rock.
§ He is a rock on the ground, or rising out of the turbulent sea, which will not move.
§ It will stand against every storm. It will not move even when eveyrthing else around us is shifting.
§ We can build our lives on him, and we will endure.
§ I think of the good churches, the good people who have built their lives upon doctrines of man which are interesting and even inspiring. But when the storms rise, they will fall. Even in the church only 1/2 of the virgins were prepared for the Bridgegroom's coming.

○ Christ is the Light of the World
§ Watching a series called "The Planet Earth" - Everything on earth is driven by sunlight. Plants give off oxygen because of sunlight. Energy in the forests, animals navigation, etc is driven by sunlight. Without it, all life would end.
§ Story of boy who couldn't see the path to the barn, father gave him a light, can you see to the tree. Then go to the tree. Can you see to the truck? Then go to the truck. He may not light your path all the time, and all the way, but he will give you enough light to help you on your path.
§ Often we take for granted how much we need and use light.
□ 6am meetings are so much happier when it's light, than when it's dark
§ Went to visit Jim Gansky - blind. As I left he said, 'Turn out the light as you go'. I shut the door behind me and it was pitch black. He was blind, and it hit me, how much I take light even a little light for granted.
§ In a spiritual world, light shows us truth.
□ Light helps us see danger.
□ It helps us understand truth when deception is clouding things

○ Christ is the living water, he is the Bread of Life
§ We are dependent on water
§ 98% of our bodies are made up of water.
§ Because so many of the bodies processes require water, to happen, if you lose water, your body will shut down. Dehydration is one of the great killers.
§ You can live a long time without food, but can hardly live at all without water.
§ We have to replenish our water constantly.
§ W/o bread and water we will do anything to get it. Pioneer story of group who were so thirsty that they drank from a bitter spring, and 1/2 the group died. This became known as the death creek.
§ When you know the truth about the plan of god, the protection of the spirit, the role we play, and the path cut out for us by the Savior. The role the priesthood plays. Etc. Then we don’t' feel thirsty anymore. When we lose a loved one, or we hear of injustices like the loss of life at the mines, and perhaps we begin to question, we are filled with joy that sustains us. We don't thirst to know why, because we know what is coming and the blessings that will come.
§ Jasmin Zanardo: I am grateful for the gift of the gospel. I have many friends outside of the church. They say: "I don't know all the things about God. But Isee the way you live, and I admire you. It makes me feel so grateful that I have something to hold to…because they don't. They're still thirsty.

○ Christ is the chief cornerstone
§ In construction, the chief cornerstone is the first stone placed. It must be true. Perfectly aligned. bEcause all other stones follow it's placement. If the cornerstone is incorrect, then the rest of the stones will be laid incorrectly changing the position of the entire building.
§ In ancient buildings, the foundation stone was placed at the north-east corner of the structure. This was thought to be an auspicious position.
§ Often, the ceremony involved the placing of offerings of grain, wine and oil on or under the stone. These were symbolic of the produce and the people of the land and the means of their subsistence. This in turn derived from the practice in still more ancient times of making an animal or human sacrifice that was laid in the foundations.
§ When the builders rejected Christ, he then became the chief cornerstone. As though to say, that whereever he is tossed, his building will be built.

○ Personal / Financial Preparedess
§ Provident Living
§ Change of welfare focus
§ Getting emotional support in the lord's way

○ Staying steadfast - even when we get old

○ Change is our friend
§ We can worry about life's events, but it's the phone call on a Tuesday aftenroon that we never planned on which will change our lives
§ Bloom where you're planted…but you may be planted over and over throughout your life
§ Repentance is about change
§ We may divide wards - but we only multiply if we're willing to divide

○ Father's blessings
○ Tithes and offerings
○ Lengthen your stride