Compassion

[skmo]

Everyone is free to act how they will. Christ asked that Father forgive those that killed His Only Begotten. His disciple Stephen asked forgiveness for those that stoned him to death. That's how I want to be. I don't want to hold anything against anyone.

Honestly, it gives me hope that there are people out there who can still hold out belief in and compassion for the rest of humanity. After the way I've been kicked by people who meant the world to me and I couldn't get support from hardly any who knew me and professed love and support, I'm perfectly comfortable with saying "You made your bed, you lay in it."

The Savior personally searched after me and took me upon His shoulders and brought me to greener pastures.

He did similar with me, after one of His most devout and pious followers left a dagger in my back. Him, I will do my best to follow. The rest, well, if half of the world was driving over a cliff in a bus and I alone had the brake control, I hope they've all made their peace.

[freedomforall]

I sumise that they look dog gone happy, and I am happy for them, because its a very temporary happy.

So many people doing things to discredit the church are in a contemporary situation. They go contrary to Christ's teachings, while momentarily rejoicing. Perhaps their minds are obstipated in their aggravated state. And we are left to cogitate the matter. Do we really want to osculate and have profound discourse with them? Wouldn't we risk perpetuating further problems? And what can be extrapolated from all the negative responses, that wrong decisions are for the good of all? Lets retool out thoughts, cogitate and cerebrate for the better.

As a man on TV says...is that okay, Butch?

I have no idea what I've said, but I had fun assembling the words.

[dewajack]

Let's just say for the heck of it that all those that resigned were thrilled and ecstatic about their choice. That may just make it all the more difficult to love and extend compassion.

26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

27 ¶But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.

30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.

31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

This is the challenge, striving to walk in our Savior's footsteps. There is no room for choosing who to show compassion and love to. The Lord has made that clear and since He does what His Father does, you know where The Father stands on the issue. That doesn't mean you have to agree with the choices and actions of others, but the whole point of compassion isn't to judge where somebody's motives and heart are, but to just show compassion like the examples below and correct when inspired to do so.

Gary Leon Ridgway is better known as the infamous Green River Killer. In 2003, he confessed to the murders of 48 women. In 2011, Ridgway was convicted of the murder of Rebecca Marrero, bringing the victim count up to 49. By his own confession, he may have murdered as many as 60 women. Ridgway especially despised prostitutes and targeted them for his killings.At Ridgway’s 2003 sentencing, the families of the victims had the opportunity to speak out and address Ridgway directly. Understandably, many were angry and lashed out at Ridgway for the unimaginable grief he had put them through. As Ridgway stonily listened to the family members express their grief and anger, one person came up and said something unexpected. When the time came for Robert Rule, the father of teenage victim Linda Jane Rule, to speak, Ridgway finally showed a glimpse of remorse.Rule’s words to Ridgway were: “Mr. Ridgway . . . there are people here that hate you. I’m not one of them. You’ve made it difficult to live up to what I believe, and that is what God says to do, and that’s to forgive. You are forgiven, sir.” These words brought Ridgway to tears.

On July 20, 2012, James Eagan Holmes walked into the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, and opened fire. The senseless tragedy took the lives of 12 people and injured 58 more. Pierce O’Farrill was among the injured, suffering three gunshot wounds. Fortunately, his injuries were not life-threatening, and he was released from hospital a few days later.While any hate or bitterness he could have felt would have been understandable, O’Farrill chose compassion instead. In reference to Holmes, he said, “Of course, I forgive him with all my heart. When I saw him in his hearing, I felt nothing but sorrow for him.” Six months later, when the theater reopened, O’Farrill went back to the seat he was sitting in on that tragic night, as a form of closure.

It's these examples that change lives, simply because they choose to walk in the steps of their Master, even Christ, especially since they by all accounts would have a reason to be angry and hold a grudge. Actions like this create a chain of love, compassion and forgiveness for generations that could affect thousands for the better.

The author of the OP made a comment about how the faces looked on the people that were resigning. Your attached pictures show a different side to things. Maybe your pictures are a more accurate telling, but that's not the point. The point is to try and be compassionate, forgiving and loving at all times, toward all people. I want to be like that because I've been the recipient of such love, forgiveness and compassion.

[carbon dioxide]

How thin their faith in God must be.
How devoted to the homosexual agenda their aspirations must be.
dc

For some people, the cause of gay movement is more important than trillions of years of exaltation. God will grant them their wish.

[Rose Garden]

In the story of the woman taken in adultery, the only person qualified to judge the woman refuses to do so.

I pondered recently on this story and on the condition of our world today. I thought about how there is an awful lot of stone throwing going on and I asked God and myself, "Where is Jesus?" In a few words, he stopped a whole mob of men from doing something terrible. Where is he to stop all the stone throwing?

I realized something profound. These men may have had the wrong reason for doing so, but still, they went to Jesus. They went to him and asked him a question and because of that he was able to influence them to make a better decision.

That is what Jesus always does when we turn to him. He will ask us to look within ourselves, to focus on our own selves rather than others.

It doesn't really matter whether the people were happy or sad. They are the woman who was taken in adultery. We can choose to throw stones or we can turn to Christ. If we turn to the Savior, we will inevitably be directed to look within our own hearts. Regardless of what those who resigned have to work on, it's their problem. You can only work on yourself. And so Jesus will direct your attention to yourself.

43 And behold it is written also, that thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy;

44 But behold I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you;

45 That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good.

If these people have offended or bothered you in any way, you ought to pray for them. Saying "good riddance" may be warranted, but it is also course, base, and telestial. The question is, do you want more? Do you want to be a celestial person? Then do what Jesus asked you to do and pray for those who are blatantly giving you or your church the finger. When you do, when you pour out your heart to the Father for these people, you will find that the Lord is gleefully welcoming you into his arms and ready to teach you all sorts of new insights. He wants you to be like him. And that can only happen after you have turned the pointing finger around the other direction.

The men in the story all went away. They came to Christ, not to understand truth and learn and grow, but in an attempt to condemn. The end result was that his words drove them away from him.

Go to Jesus willingly, with an open heart and a desire to learn of him, and you will not go away. He will draw you in. His words will heal you rather than cause you to shrink away in shame. Do what Jesus asked. Stop talking to one another about the woman taken in adultery, however she manifests herself in your life, and start talking to the Lord about her. Soon enough, you will probably hear him say, "Sin no more."

[skmo]

And then there are those that call evil good, and good evil. Pretty soon how are we going to know the difference?

Oh, we'll know. The world may change its idea of good and evil, but God never has. Follow Him and listen to the counsel of his prophets. You'll get through okay.

[freedomforall]

And then there are those that call evil good, and good evil. Pretty soon how are we going to know the difference?

Oh, we'll know. The world may change its idea of good and evil, but God never has. Follow Him and listen to the counsel of his prophets. You'll get through okay.

My question was in general, meant as food for thought. The more people allowing their moral compass to head south instead north, east instead of west, west instead of east, etc. the more messed up things will get. Only those clinging to the iron rod have any hope for getting to the tree of life. People becoming offended and judgmental by and with the church thinking the church is wrong, should go back to the scriptures, if they had been there at all. Just how much clearer can God be when he says he does not allow sin in the least degree to enter into his kingdom? What does "least degree" mean? This should tell us something. And to be commanded to be perfect as the Father and the Son are, coupled with the previous statement, doesn't leave any room for sin. Until we humans understand this, we are only fooling ourselves.

2 Nephi 10:13
13 And he that fighteth against Zion shall perish, saith God.
Does Zion include homosexuality and all that accompanies it?

2 Ne. 27:26
26 Therefore, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, yea, a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise and learned shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid.
Sometimes the wisdom of the wise and learned means nothing.

2 Ne. 30:1
1 And now behold, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you; for I, Nephi, would not suffer that ye should suppose that ye are more righteous than the Gentiles shall be. For behold, except ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall all likewise perish; and because of the words which have been spoken ye need not suppose that the Gentiles are utterly destroyed.

Mosiah 4:22–23
22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.
Hey! RS?

Mosiah 28:3
3 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.
Perhaps we need to feel this way about those rejecting the LDS church.

Hel. 14:30
30 And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.
However, those choosing evil perish unto themselves.

Who reads posted scriptures anyway?

[bornfree]

And then there are those that call evil good, and good evil. Pretty soon how are we going to know the difference?

Oh, we'll know. The world may change its idea of good and evil, but God never has. Follow Him and listen to the counsel of his prophets. You'll get through okay.

My question was in general, meant as food for thought. The more people allowing their moral compass to head south instead north, east instead of west, west instead of east, etc. the more messed up things will get. Only those clinging to the iron rod have any hope for getting to the tree of life. People becoming offended and judgmental by and with the church thinking the church is wrong, should go back to the scriptures, if they had been there at all. Just how much clearer can God be when he says he does not allow sin in the least degree to enter into his kingdom? What does "least degree" mean? This should tell us something. And to be commanded to be perfect as the Father and the Son are, coupled with the previous statement, doesn't leave any room for sin. Until we humans understand this, we are only fooling ourselves.

2 Nephi 10:13
13 And he that fighteth against Zion shall perish, saith God.
Does Zion include homosexuality and all that accompanies it?

2 Ne. 27:26
26 Therefore, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, yea, a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise and learned shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid.
Sometimes the wisdom of the wise and learned means nothing.

2 Ne. 30:1
1 And now behold, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you; for I, Nephi, would not suffer that ye should suppose that ye are more righteous than the Gentiles shall be. For behold, except ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall all likewise perish; and because of the words which have been spoken ye need not suppose that the Gentiles are utterly destroyed.

Mosiah 4:22–23
22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.
Hey! RS?

Mosiah 28:3
3 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.
Perhaps we need to feel this way about those rejecting the LDS church.

Hel. 14:30
30 And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.
However, those choosing evil perish unto themselves.

Who reads posted scriptures anyway?

I do! They keep me on the correct path, I don't want to choose evil and perish. Thank-you for always schooling us in the scriptures.

[captainfearnot]

If you want to think this, you can, but I think you are lying to yourself. They ARE happy about what they are doing, they ARE celebrating. Why should I believe they are 'crying inside' when if they were actually feeling sad or torn, I doubt they'd have done it at such a VERY public event.

To me it was obvious this was done for maximum public effect. They WANTED public attention and they've gotten it.

How am I lying to myself? All I've said is that I don't know what's going on inside these people, and I refuse to draw conclusions about their minds and hearts and experiences from smiles in photos. Are you saying I really do know?

I didn't say you should believe they are crying inside or anything of the sort. I didn't say you should believe anything about them. I said no one should pretend to know anything about anyone's past experiences based on how happy they appear in a photo.

[Finrock]

2 Nephi 10:13
13 And he that fighteth against Zion shall perish, saith God.
Does Zion include homosexuality and all that accompanies it?

Hi freedomforall. Hope you are well!

First, I think there is a distinction to be made between sexual desires and participating in homosexual sex.

Sincere question to you specifically: Does Zion include your particular sin(s) and all that accompanies it(them)?

Also, I don't know about your particular beliefs in this case but many people equate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Zion. When you make this connection your question can be read as: Does the Church include homosexuality and all that accompanies it?

What are the implications of such a question? What are some possible unintentional outcomes?

If you take the stance that the Church is Zion and that Zion is the Church, then we can ask other questions with this understanding:

Does the Church include pornography addiction and all that accompanies it? Yes.

Does the Church include pedophilia and all that accompanies it? Yes.

Does the Church include heterosexual perversions and all that accompanies it? Yes.

I do not believe that Zion is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church is a vehicle and it is an imperfect place because we are an imperfect people. However, we have the power to love perfectly. We love those who we perceive as our friends and we love those who we perceive as our enemy. This is perfect love. We are all enemies and we are all friends. There is no distinction between us. God loved all despite their sins, their character, their flaws, their pride, their arrogance, their blasphemy, their hatred, and was willing to suffer and die in the most distressful way possible so that He could bring men and women on to Him. His Church will include homosexuality and all that accompanies it. The Church is a vehicle that will help bring people to Christ. If there are those who reject the Church joyfully, that is on them. Let us pray that they will find Jesus Christ or that they will not lose faith in Him or that they will be lead back to join the Church where they can be assisted in their desires to live as disciples of Jesus Christ.

-Finrock

[freedomforall]

2 Nephi 10:13
13 And he that fighteth against Zion shall perish, saith God.
Does Zion include homosexuality and all that accompanies it?

Hi freedomforall. Hope you are well!

First, I think there is a distinction to be made between sexual desires and participating in homosexual sex.

Sincere question to you specifically: Does Zion include your particular sin(s) and all that accompanies it(them)? No. We are expected to be perfect in Christ (Moroni 10:32,33 We are also expected to be perfect,
3 Nephi 12:48
48 Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.

This means that people are also expected to repent often so their sins are constantly remitted all the rest of their lives. This is the only way we can be perfect in Christ from day to day. We give our sins to Jesus, and in return, he lends us his perfection; it is a partnership. Those who break that partnership are no longer protected by Christ's perfection. Do you know anyone that has reached absolute perfection on their own? How long did it take. By what power did they accomplish it other than the Savior?
The church tolerates those sins you bring up, but Christ expects perfection. Only those that take Christ's words and internalizes them and follows them have any hope of entering into Zion. Zion is the PURE IN HEART. How can unrepentant sinners ever become pure in heart? They cannot, because Satan has his chains wrapped around them, and only Christ can clean us up and make us presentable before the Father, clean and pure.
this is why Christ says there are only two churches, the church of the devil and the church of Christ, one being the great and abominable church, the whore of all the earth, the other the church of the Lamb.
The LDS church is his church because it provides everything necessary for us to do so we can be cleaned up and ready for exaltation. Of course there are people among us that do not want any part of that process. Some members of the church only attend because to them it is a social gathering. While others take it very seriously and strive to follow the Savior having strong faith and hope that Christ will find them presentable for higher glory. Christ knows all this anyway, He just wants us to discover for ourselves what we want called agency.


Also, I don't know about your particular beliefs in this case but many people equate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Zion. When you make this connection your question can be read as: Does the Church include homosexuality and all that accompanies it? No!

What are the implications of such a question? What are some possible unintentional outcomes? How about that people want what they want and don't concern themselves with what Christ wants? A Zion people want what Christ wants. Very simple, really.

If you take the stance that the Church is Zion and that Zion is the Church, then we can ask other questions with this understanding: The church as a whole is not Zion. Some of its members are. These are the Lord's sheep because they hear the Lord's voice and know him, what he wants, what he expects, what he teaches and love him with all their might, mind and strength. It's in the book, right?

Does the Church include pornography addiction and all that accompanies it? Yes. Depends on whose voice one lists to obey.

Does the Church include pedophilia and all that accompanies it? Yes. According to who? Christ?

Does the Church include heterosexual perversions and all that accompanies it? Yes. The church does teach this, but people in it are involved with these sinful activities; not part of the church at all.

I do not believe that Zion is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church is a vehicle and it is an imperfect place because we are an imperfect people. There are some people that are perfect...in Christ, Moroni 10:32,33 They are Zion However, we have the power to love perfectly. We love those who we perceive as our friends and we love those who we perceive as our enemy. This is perfect love. We are all enemies and we are all friends. There is no distinction between us. God loved all despite their sins, their character, their flaws, their pride, their arrogance, their blasphemy, their hatred, and was willing to suffer and die in the most distressful way possible so that He could bring men and women on to Him. His Church will include homosexuality and all that accompanies it. The Church is a vehicle that will help bring people to Christ. If they want to. If there are those who reject the Church joyfully, that is on them. Let us pray that they will find Jesus Christ or that they will not lose faith in Him or that they will be lead back to join the Church where they can be assisted in their desires to live as disciples of Jesus Christ. If they knew him in the first place they might not have redirected themselves elsewhere.

-Finrock