Day 108 –Anti-Up-July 14, 2006
As fun as that was, our meeting with S this evening was troubling. We wanted to find out how her meeting with her church leader went. As I’d feared, she had been “anti-ed” hard. She said that the guy was nicer than he sounded on the phone {Day 106}. He was ‘nice’, but according to S, wouldn’t let her talk or ask questions. He just kept pounding away at her with “anti-.” It makes me so mad, I could scream. Yeeargh!!!
I love to answer S’s questions. They are sincere and she has a desire to learn the truth. But this, …this was just sad. It’s apparent that this guy S’s husband called was reading from a prepared script. He, I’m sure, was hoping to meet with S before we told her too much about what we believe.
He started off the bat with this inane comment, “Mormons don’t believe in the same Jesus Christ that you do, S.” This bald-faced lie was said un the assumption that S hadn’t been to the Visitor’s Center and seen the Chirstus. The hope in spreading that falsehood is so when LDS missionaries come to your door and say, “We have a message to share about Jesus Christ, …” you can say, “No thank you, you cultist. I know you people worship a different Jesus Christ than me.” *SLAM* (Yeah, our Jesus Christ still speaks with the people of His church through the apostles and prophets. Yours has apparently only given you the comforter. Well, we have the comforter as well, so please, let us take your faith and add to it.) ‘Sigh’ Trying to tell people that we believe in a different Christ. That’s a low blow. As my MTC teacher, Sister Coon {Day 13}, would say, “That’s weak sauce!” S has seen the Christus. She knows we believe in Jesus Christ. She told us that se wants to go back to the Visitor’s Center. We would be more than happy to oblige.
The other things he told her can’t be explained easily. That’s because they are truth. It’s just deep doctrine. She asked, “Do you really believe we can become like Gods?” “Uh,…yeah? Don’t you?” was my answer. No, I kid. I tried to be more sensitive than that. Another question she asked us that was given to her by her new preacher was, “You believe that Jesus Christ and Satan are brothers?” “Yes, S, remember we talked about that in our lesson about our pre-earth life?” We were all brothers and sisters with our Heavenly Father.”
Some other questions she had, “You believe that Jesus Christ paid for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane? Shat was the point of the cross then?”
But the biggest one she had which I addressed in my journal on {Day 50} was, “We can’t become like Gods because our God is a jealous God. De doesn’t like to share the spotlight.” I asked her, “Remember when the Jews were going to stone Jesus in John 10?” (John 10:33) “…we stone thee…for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” (John 10:34) “Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” (now the scripture Jesus was referring to was [Psalms 82:6] “I have said, Ye are gods; and al of you are children of the most High.)
S responded, “But that is different, because Jesus is God.” NO! Say it ain’t so, S. Not the Trinity!!! We have to teach S that the concept of the trinity is the worst thing that’s happened to Christianity when it comes to understanding the nature of God. It’s so confusing, but most Christians just accept as fact that Jesus Christ and God the Father are the same person. Jesus is God in human form. It’s wrong. (see {Day 5})
We gave her John chapter 17 to read. [John 17] is the intercessory prayer where Jesus prays to his Heavenly Father and says how he wishes that everyone knew the Father as he did. Read that and then tell me that they are the same person. It’s a little discouraging. We offered S a ride to church on Sunday. She said that she’d like to come, but her husband wouldn’t like it. She’ll talk about it with her husband, but it doesn’t seem like he wants her to. I think that’s sad.
I hope S will be at church. Either way, we’ll plan on taking her to the Visitor’s Center sometime in the coming weeks. We’ll also meet with her next week to discuss the Atonement. It’s really amazing how things play out. On {Day 97}, Mission President Wixom asked us to prepare a 10 minute talk on the Atonement for the next zone conference. I’ll use what we teach S as a basis for my talk. In our lesson with S we also plan to watch Bruce R. McConkie’s farewell talk. There is such a spirit in that talk. I love that talk. I hope S will get something out of it.
Today was a busy day. I choose to end today’s entry on a high note by saying that we stopped by and saw Sister B. I introduced my companion, Elder Pierce. We had a nice visit with her as always. She asked my companion if he had any jobs before ce come on his mission. He said, “Yeah, I worked at ‘Toys-R-Us’ for a year or so.” Elder Pierce says it’s funny; whenever he goes over to a members home he can name all of the toys their children have. He knows the names of all the toys that are out because he worked the night shift, shelving them.
“Maybe they’ll make and Elder Kris Pierce toy,” said Sister B. “Yeah,” I said, “they could call it ‘Tickle Me Elder Pierce!” Sister B thought that was pretty funny. “Hey, Elder Pierce,” she said, referring to me, “that’s pretty good. You should write that in your journal.” So I did.
I love to answer S’s questions. They are sincere and she has a desire to learn the truth. But this, …this was just sad. It’s apparent that this guy S’s husband called was reading from a prepared script. He, I’m sure, was hoping to meet with S before we told her too much about what we believe.
He started off the bat with this inane comment, “Mormons don’t believe in the same Jesus Christ that you do, S.” This bald-faced lie was said un the assumption that S hadn’t been to the Visitor’s Center and seen the Chirstus. The hope in spreading that falsehood is so when LDS missionaries come to your door and say, “We have a message to share about Jesus Christ, …” you can say, “No thank you, you cultist. I know you people worship a different Jesus Christ than me.” *SLAM* (Yeah, our Jesus Christ still speaks with the people of His church through the apostles and prophets. Yours has apparently only given you the comforter. Well, we have the comforter as well, so please, let us take your faith and add to it.) ‘Sigh’ Trying to tell people that we believe in a different Christ. That’s a low blow. As my MTC teacher, Sister Coon {Day 13}, would say, “That’s weak sauce!” S has seen the Christus. She knows we believe in Jesus Christ. She told us that se wants to go back to the Visitor’s Center. We would be more than happy to oblige.
The other things he told her can’t be explained easily. That’s because they are truth. It’s just deep doctrine. She asked, “Do you really believe we can become like Gods?” “Uh,…yeah? Don’t you?” was my answer. No, I kid. I tried to be more sensitive than that. Another question she asked us that was given to her by her new preacher was, “You believe that Jesus Christ and Satan are brothers?” “Yes, S, remember we talked about that in our lesson about our pre-earth life?” We were all brothers and sisters with our Heavenly Father.”
Some other questions she had, “You believe that Jesus Christ paid for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane? Shat was the point of the cross then?”
But the biggest one she had which I addressed in my journal on {Day 50} was, “We can’t become like Gods because our God is a jealous God. De doesn’t like to share the spotlight.” I asked her, “Remember when the Jews were going to stone Jesus in John 10?” (John 10:33) “…we stone thee…for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” (John 10:34) “Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” (now the scripture Jesus was referring to was [Psalms 82:6] “I have said, Ye are gods; and al of you are children of the most High.)
S responded, “But that is different, because Jesus is God.” NO! Say it ain’t so, S. Not the Trinity!!! We have to teach S that the concept of the trinity is the worst thing that’s happened to Christianity when it comes to understanding the nature of God. It’s so confusing, but most Christians just accept as fact that Jesus Christ and God the Father are the same person. Jesus is God in human form. It’s wrong. (see {Day 5})
We gave her John chapter 17 to read. [John 17] is the intercessory prayer where Jesus prays to his Heavenly Father and says how he wishes that everyone knew the Father as he did. Read that and then tell me that they are the same person. It’s a little discouraging. We offered S a ride to church on Sunday. She said that she’d like to come, but her husband wouldn’t like it. She’ll talk about it with her husband, but it doesn’t seem like he wants her to. I think that’s sad.
I hope S will be at church. Either way, we’ll plan on taking her to the Visitor’s Center sometime in the coming weeks. We’ll also meet with her next week to discuss the Atonement. It’s really amazing how things play out. On {Day 97}, Mission President Wixom asked us to prepare a 10 minute talk on the Atonement for the next zone conference. I’ll use what we teach S as a basis for my talk. In our lesson with S we also plan to watch Bruce R. McConkie’s farewell talk. There is such a spirit in that talk. I love that talk. I hope S will get something out of it.
Today was a busy day. I choose to end today’s entry on a high note by saying that we stopped by and saw Sister B. I introduced my companion, Elder Pierce. We had a nice visit with her as always. She asked my companion if he had any jobs before ce come on his mission. He said, “Yeah, I worked at ‘Toys-R-Us’ for a year or so.” Elder Pierce says it’s funny; whenever he goes over to a members home he can name all of the toys their children have. He knows the names of all the toys that are out because he worked the night shift, shelving them.
“Maybe they’ll make and Elder Kris Pierce toy,” said Sister B. “Yeah,” I said, “they could call it ‘Tickle Me Elder Pierce!” Sister B thought that was pretty funny. “Hey, Elder Pierce,” she said, referring to me, “that’s pretty good. You should write that in your journal.” So I did.
posted by Garden Anywhere Box | 5:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home