8.26.2009

D&C 124-132

I know it looks like I haven't read my scriptures in weeks, but I actually have been reading. Just not updating my blog. But I have taken notes of things I discovered, or had questions about.

124: 124 -- Hyrum Smith is made patriarch of the church, and then it says he will hold the sealing blessings, the Holy Spirit of Promise. I know that patriarchs now don't hold the sealing powers, but it sure sounded like Hyrum was given them. Do you think at one time they were tied to the patriarchal powers, or was this just a different circumstance?

128:20 -- I think I've talked about this before, but I never found an answer to my question. This verse talkes about the voice of Michael detecting the devil as he appeared as an angel of light on the banks of the Susquehanna River. Have any of you ever heard that story? All I know of church history I've learned from The Work and the Glory, and this account wasn't in there. But I've never heard about it anywhere else. Have you? I don't doubt this account or anything, I'm just curious about it.

Section 130 is simply incredible. There are 3 scriptures mastery scriptures in 23 verses!!
v. 18-19 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain in this life will rise with us in the next, and give us an advantage in the world to come
v. 20-21 When we obtain a blessing, it is by obedience to the law upon which it was predicated
v. 22-23 God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ have bodies of flesh and bone. The Holy ghost has a body of Spirit, which allows Him to dwell in us.

Sections 131 and 132 talk about celestial marriage. Very appropriate sections for me to be reading on my anniversary!

I want to quickly record for my own journaling purposes some recent blessings we've received. As our family will be growing soon, we looked a few weeks ago at purchasing another car. We were going to have to trade in our current car to buy a newer one, when we had originally hoped to keep the car we currently have as a second car. In the end, the bank wouldn't finance the negative equity that we needed to roll into the payments on the next car. So we decided to wait. Well, I guess the decision was made for us.

We had discussed possibly buying a friend's Ford Explorer from him before for about $300. But we knew it also needed about $500 of work to get it running and able to pass safety and emissions. Plus the cost of registering it...........it was going to cost about $1000. Which we just don't have on hand. We decided to start saving, in hopes that we'd be able to pay it in full by the time the baby comes in Feb/March.

Then after talking to him again, he offered to give us his Explorer if we would try to sell his Mustang. Um, SURE! He was going to be flying in from out of state and able to give us the title. That was taken care of for about half the cost of what we expected, and we assumed we've have the next several months to save a bit and get it repaired. But after receiving the title, we discovered we only had two weeks. Well. Great.

We took the Explorer (which we now foundly call Dora) to a friend's car shop. They said that there were a few things they could fix, but all it actually needed to pass safety and emissions was to have the brakes repaired. Which would cost about $120. NOT $500. They repaired it that day.

So this car that we thought would cost us about $1000 actually ended up costing $200.

On the same day we found out the car would be so inexpensive to repair, my husband had a review at work. This marks the end of his second year with the company. About a month ago, he found out that not everyone at the company gets a raise every year, like he thought. For a lot of people, it was every other year. And he got a raise last year. Combine that with the fact that he rarely feels like he's doing a good job, and thought the chances of him getting a raise very pretty slim. He might a a 2-3% raise. A 5% raise was the absolute best-case scenario, and there was only about a 5% chance of that in his book.

Well, his review went wonderfully. He found out he wasn't doing as horrible of a job as he thought he was. And he got a raise. A SIX percent raise. Which he did NOT think was possible.

The reason I'm sharing all this is simply because I want to remember these blessings. I attribute them both directly to the fact that we are faithful tithe-payers. The Lord has truly opened the windows of heaven upon us.
Thoughts? Patriarchal and sealing powers? Devil appearing as angel of light? A blessing of paying your tithing you'd like to share?

2 comments:

Fiauna said...

I know from experience that the law of tithing hold significant blessings. This is a lesson my husband and I learned as poor, struggling college students.

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