The Lord brings certain people into our lives.

As quoted in a previous post:
"But in Friendship... we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another, posting to different regiments, the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting – any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples 'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' can truly say 'You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.' The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others."
-C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

I'm being taught a lesson on how I needed to meet this family, in addition to how this family needed both the gospel and some American friends.

I was at the home of the elderly African couple who joined the church this past July. The purpose of the visit was to give them some bread-making supplies (flour, yeast, etc., bread pan, muffin pan), and to show them how to use their electric oven. They had been using the burners on the top, but were unsure of how the oven part worked.

The wife/grand-mother was a bread-maker back in Africa. She's been here a year and hasn't been able to make any bread. She's mostly disabled and walks with great difficulty and pain. So she can't get out and shop, and the other members of the household, though they know how to shop, don't really know how to pick out what would be the American equivalent of the baking supplies she used back in Africa.

In addition to that, they just didn't understand how to operate the electric oven.

It was interesting to learn how they viewed the oven. In their home village, they don't have electric or gas ovens. They used earthen, or perhaps brick, ovens heated by wood or charcoal.

It made me realize how much of our common knowledge is assimilated by us as we grow up. Things can seem so simple, yet we don't realize how they aren't simple to someone who did not grow up around something.

Since we didn't have time to sit around and wait for bread to rise, I decided to make muffins from a store-bought mix; add egg and water, stir, pour into muffin cups, bake for 20 to 22 minues, voila'.

We let the oven pre-heat while I made the batter, put paper muffin cups in the muffin tray.

The concept of an oven thermostat was new to them. (Therefore I think the stove-top burner settings were also a msytery, and that they only used them on the highest setting.) I explained that the oven indicator light (the one on the control panel) comes on when the oven's heating element is on, and it goes off when the temperature setting has been reached. And that when you open the door and let cold air in, the burner turns back on to reheat the oven, and turns off again when the temperature has been reached. This whole concept of a thermostat on a cooking device was new to them, at least to the grandparents.

The grandfather, who has never cooked anything in his life, was doing the translating, so at least it was new to him. I couldn't tell how much of the concepts were actually new or understood by grandma, because she doesn't speak English, and when grandpa translates, I suspect much gets modified or filtered out by his perceptions.

They haven't received visiting teachers yet, but have had a home-teacher for a few weeks. What the home-teacher wants to do is get some Relief Society sisters there, with just grandma, and the grand-daughter (who has taken the missionary lessons, come to church a few times, but hasn't been baptized) as translator. That way, it's "just the girls", without grandpa's translation filters in place. Another benefit is that the ladies won't be afraid to ask other ladies the simple questions.

The "filters" work both ways too. When the cooking lesson comes from a male such as myself, or the translation from English to their language comes from grandpa, I suspect there is also a Mars/Venus filter in place. Since grandpa doesn't cook (and has never cooked), he may not be putting things in terms the ladies need, but also the ladies may be discounting what comes from men in terms of cooking. I just can't tell.

Anyway, they loved the muffins. They weren't the best, just a cheap $1.00 mix from a dollar store. I forgot and put the muffin pan on the lower rack instead of the upper rack, and the bottom of the muffins were slightly over done. So I'll have to make that point about using the upper racks next time. And, also how to adjust the temperature and time. I think the ladies know about adjusting temperature, because that is controlled by how much wood you put in the cooking fire, but that concept would be new to the non-cooking grandpa.

Grandpa was all amazed. He wanted to buy an oven and have it shipped to his relatives back in Africa. He wanted to fly back and teach people this muffin recipe. (Of course such an expense is totally out of his budget, etc., etc.)

Anyway, the muffins came out okay. I explained that I used the paper muffin cups to keep the muffin pan clean, because I'm lazy and didn't want to have to clean a muffin pan. And that the muffin paper cups were optional. And that if you wait a few minutes before peeling off the paper it comes off easier.

But I did open one muffin early and it was cooked just right in the middle. They were a nice golden brown on top, and the apartment was filled with that nice "something good is baking in the oven" aroma, which it never had before during grandma's one year stay, or grandpa's five year stay.

This was an anthropology and sociology lesson for me.

Maybe someday we'll get to a lesson on the BROIL setting.

Wright's sermon: close to Book of Mormon curses.

(May 28, 2008: I've updated this post with a couple scripture references at the end.)

I watched a video of Bill Moyer's interview with Rev Wright. And in that video is a clip of the controversial part of Wright's sermon.

BUT, Moyer's clip of Wright's sermon shows enough of the sermon to put the controversial lines in context.

Looking at Wright's sermon in context, shows me that Wright's premise is in line with the Book of Mormon's (and the Bible's) promises of blessings and cursings upon this land.

I will disagree with Rev Wright about whether the US government is actually fomenting drug use and helping to spread AIDS. Those parts may be just conspiracy theory.

But he lists enough other valid collective sins by our country and by our government that, in my opinion, would qualify our land to merit the curses promised in the Book of Mormon.

Our own (LDS) prophets have told us that all the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are present in our country. I think some of the Brethren have said such sins are even more prevalent now.

Many Christians have jokingly said that if God doesn't punish us for what's going on in our country, he's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.

We need to turn and better follow God's ways, both individually and collectively as a nation.

I think the slams against Rev Wright are akin to what people said in the Book of Mormon against Abinadi and Alma (and in the Bible against Isaiah and Jeremiah) when those prophets testified about the sins of the people, and warned them that God would curse (damn) them if they didn't repent.

Such warnings about consequences of obedience to God versus rebellion against God are clear in the Old Testament. Keep God's commandments and prosper. Disobey God's commandments and face his curses.

I don't agree with everything in that sermon. But Rev Wright's pleas for God to damn America seem to me to be pleas for God to fulfill scriptural promises concerning the obedience/disobedience or righteousness/unrighteousness of a people or nation. Which promises are laid out plainly in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants.

In my opinion, those who are condemning Rev Wright over this matter are very close to making the same mistakes of King Noah's priests who called for Abinadi's death, and also those Ammonihahites who threw Alma and Amulek into prison.

Rather than saying Rev Wright is crazy or un-American, we ought to be saying that our country, collectively and as individuals, needs to repent of our wickedness. The guy's got a point, and the scriptures back him up.

In the Bible, Leviticus chapter 26 contains the promises of blessings for obedience, and cursings for disobedience. Those were specifically given to ancient Israel, but I think they can also apply to any people who profess to be God's people.

Such promises of blessings and cursings are repeated in the Book of Mormon, in 2 Nephi 1:20, and Alma 45:15-16. These promises are specific to "this land" where the Nephites lived, which we believe to be the Western hemisphere, putting aside for the moment just how much of the Western hemisphere was actually occupied by Nephites.

There are no coincidences. C.S. Lewis' thoughts.

"But in Friendship... we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another, posting to different regiments, the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting – any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples 'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' can truly say 'You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.' The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others."
-C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

The Book of Mormon is revelation from God.

To me the Book of Mormon is about revelation, powerful miracles, and miraculous power. The central figure of the Book of Mormon is Jesus Christ. The story is developed around a people, the Nephites, who believed in Jesus Christ as the son of God.

The actors (that is those who took action) in the Book of Mormon, did so by revelation, by the command of God, from Lehi leaving Jerusalem, to Nephi building a ship, to Mormon making an abridgement, to Moroni burying the plates. They provided the hands and feet, but it was the power of God that effected so much.

The authors and compilers wrote by revelation. They wrote as they were inspired, by revelation. And they wrote the doctrines that were given to them via revelation.

It was brought forth to light by revelation, and the power of God, revealed by an angel, under the direction of God.

It was translated by revelation, and the power of God.

It was, and continues to be, promulgated by revelation; preached and distributed under direction by God, via revelation, and by his power.

The truth of it is given by revelation to the sincere investigator.

The meanings of the doctrines therein are communicated via revelation to the sincere student of it.

There is information hidden in it, “written between the lines,” which is revealed to the sincere seeker.

The book is a lightening rod for revelation, bringing further light and knowledge concerning all areas to those who strive to live its teachings.

God’s hand and miraculous power are evident throughout the book, its contents, the events it describes, and the mere continuation and preservation of the book and its source documents, throughout the 1000 year Nephite dynasty. Very few other dynasties in the history of the Earth have maintained a 1000 year compilation of records in an unbroken chain. What other object of such detail and such divine information then lay hidden for another 1400 years, untouched by human hands?

Please excuse the use of a profane word, but the word “magic” is the closest word I can muster to describe the powerful awe and amazement that the Book of Mormon both merits and generates. “Divine” and “miraculous” are more appropriate, but those words are not unique or powerful enough due to being overused and diluted in a religious context.

Of course it's not magic, but somehow it attracts, focuses and outputs revelation for those who read it, study it, and try to live accoridng to its teachings. It's both an instruction book, and a doorway. It's an access point to the divine.

As others have pointed out, the fact that the Book of Mormon exists can at times be more powerful and influential than the teachings it contains. Its existance means the heavens are opened, that God communicates with man, that prophets walk the earth, that the canon is not complete, that miracles have not ceased, that God is not silent, and he has not changed.

My life has been changed, redirected, uplifted through my discovery of the Book of Mormon 25 years ago. I already had the Bible, and believed in it. But the Book of Mormon is along the likes of what the Bible was originally meant to be.

The Book of Mormon seems to have its own Law of Attraction. People are attracted to it, and come unto it, in miraculous ways. The book also seeks out people. Put a few extra copies in your car, office, home, school locker, and see what happens. Seek out a few opportunities to place copies of the Book of Mormon, and see if the windows of heaven don’t open and the Lord blesses you with more opportunities. Do a little, and the Lord will teach and empower you to do more. Exercise faith with the Book of Mormon, and the Lord will confirm it with testimony, and point you to a higher level of faith.

If you do so, I believe the deceased ancestors of the people within your sphere of influence will petition the Lord to inspire you to use the Book of Mormon to initiate contact with their descendants. Such is the excitement and efforts that the Book of Mormon creates on both sides of the veil.

The Lord has sent missionaries all over the world with the Book of Mormon. And because there aren’t enough missionaries, and because some countries won’t accept missionaries, he is bringing his sheep from all over the world to the United States to get the Book of Mormon. I recently witnessed a professor from mainland China get baptized before going back to China.

Possession of copies of the Book of Mormon, and a willingness to distribute it, and testify of it, will bring further revelation to you on how to carry that out, and empower you to do so.

It’s a book about ancient revelation from the Lord, his miracles and his power. The book itself is revelation, miraculous, and powerful. The study of and the effort to live the book brings you the Lord's revelation, miracles and power. One’s willingness and efforts to promulgate and distribute the book also brings about the Lord's revelation, miracles, and power.

Knowing that a book, just printed words on paper, can bring revelation, miracles and power, it should be no surprise that the Savior, Jesus Christ, the source of all light and energy in our universe, has as one of his titles “the Word”.