Thursday, January 7, 2010

The Explanatory Post

It's no secret that we're pretty intense about our religion. People who know us know that we're members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). We rarely hesitate to share our beliefs. We hope that our faith in Christ and our firm belief in the restoration of his gospel are ultimately defining of who we are and how we act.

It's all a big deal to us. It's what we constantly yearn to discuss and share with people we love. And it's what we love to discuss and share with each other.

And we hope that this blog, dedicated exclusively to our beliefs, will help us do both of those things: discuss and share faith with others and with each other.

We'll post every Sunday.

If you're curious about what Mormons believe, tune in. We don't expect our posts will be widely read. But, readers or not, we plan to write for the sake of our own study and learning. Because truth is worth our time. And because we believe it's worth sharing.

Indeed, "we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ,and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." (2 Nephi 25:26)

Now, by way of commencement, we want to say:

1. We certainly DO NOT claim to know everything. Or even very many things. But we DO believe that truth is knowable. We believe that God invites, and even requires, us to pursue truth passionately and prayerfully. We believe the repeated scriptural promise:

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (Jeremiah 29:13, Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9, 3 Nephi 14:7, D&C 88:63)
2. Our religious convictions have come by way of spiritual communications and confirmations that are hard to explain. Hard to put into words. A good man once compared receiving a witness of the Spirit to tasting salt. A great comparison. Tasting salt is an everyday experience, but think about it: how would you describe salt to someone who had never tasted it?? (Are you thinking? Are you trying?) It's tricky! Practically impossible!
Well, "spiritually speaking, [we] have tasted salt [and are] no more able to convey...in words how this knowledge has come than you are to [describe] what salt tastes like...The Apostle Paul said it this way: “We speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” (1 Cor. 2:13–14.)
So. Please read our posts with that proverbial grain of salt.

3. It's all been said before, and it's been said better, both in the scriptures and by inspired men and women. We don't mean for our words to replace those words. If you want Mormonism from its purest source, crack your Old or New Testament, pick up a copy of The Book of Mormon, or read what modern prophets and apostles are saying today. We'll simply be highlighting some of those things.

4. We do not plan to enable a comment section on this blog. If you DO have comments, feedback, questions, bones to pick, requests for post topics, thoughts you'd like to share (we may occasionally solicit those - be forewarned!), or any other such communication, we have made our e-mail (mailto:WesandLori@gmail.com) available on the sidebar.

5. Also listed on the side bar are The Articles of Faith, penned by Joseph Smith when he was asked to outline the basic tenets of our religion. They are remarkably inclusive of our beliefs. A great starting point for studying our faith. Some of our posts (1st Sunday of the month) will follow their organizational lead. Other posts (3rd Sunday of the month) will be dedicated to teachings from the Book of Mormon. The rest of our posts will be a smorgasbord of family/teaching ideas, guest bloggers, open-comment discussions, or whatever other random, religious topics we feel like including.

Can't wait! See you Sunday!