At this time, a great plague is moving across the land and the governments of every nation, kindred, tongue and people are in turmoil and confusion. At this time, we must remember what we have learned from the Gospel.
My perspective here is the newly released “Sealed Book of Mormon” gives us more insight as it reveals a way and hope for the Saints of the Restoration to answer the call to “bring forth Zion.” When I understood the message of Kabbalah and began to read these scriptures with this new lens, from a different way of reading scripture than I had previously, I felt a different spirit engage with me as the story became alive and leapt off the page.
“And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.” -Exodus 34:8 Speaking to a friend recently, I was told that while she saw much value in the Church of Jesus Christ in Christian Fellowship as a place for those seeking a spiritual home, rejected by the world and the worldly, she didn’t understand many of the things we allow for or do. She called our observance of the Holy Days as found in the Torah to…
As we meet together as Saints, some have asked the proper way to organize services. The correct answer of course is, by the Spirit. That said, the Lord has given us instructions on this topic through Raphael, as he spoke to Adam and Eve. These instructions should be used in our home temples, in our Synagogues, Tabernacles, and Temples for personal and group worship.
“I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go…” -Songs of Solomon 3:4 Many people avoid the topic of soul mates because it can be problematic. What happens if one’s “soulmate” isn’t the individual we marry? What if our “soulmate” rejects us? Looking at soulmates like this debases the true definition of the term.
As human beings we tend to separate then regroup things. Yet God asks us to bring things together (see John 17). And so many ask themselves, how can we rely fully on grace if we do good works? How can we do good works if we rely on grace? And most importantly, if the path is that narrow, how can we know if we are truly saved? The answers are simple: we receive what we receive, do what we do and know what we believe is true because we are on the path of teshuvah. We know because we know.
The Sages teach us in this parasha story which refers to events that transpired with Jacob: in Ecclesiastes there is a verse that talks about the sun rising and setting. The sun set early so that Jacob would have to sleep in Beth-El on his way to Haran, and it rose early on him in order to heal him on his journey to Haran. Upon reading this report by the Sage I could see that Jacob’s story is about our own soul’s life journey.