A Meditation on the Lord's Prayer

In this article I shall quote the Lord's Prayer and interpret it according to what I have learned about the Bible. If this interpretation differs from any other official interpretation, then it is to glorify God and bear witness to the return of the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

First let me introduce the first part of the prayer:

Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowéd be thine Name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy Will be done
On Earth, as it is in Heaven.

In the first five lines of the Lord's Prayer is the promise that the Kingdom of God will come upon us, though it be without warning. This is a distant reference to the Millennial Age when Christ will rule over the Earth before the End of the (Latter) Days is upon us.

These five lines have been written in my heart as the penultimate Millennial Promise of God sung by the angel of song.

In the second part of the Lord's Prayer we have:

Give us this day our daily Bread,
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us
and lead us not to temptation
and deliver us from evil.

Contained in the first line of this part of the Lord's Prayer is the transubstantiation of the body of Christ from the bread of sacrament. Although we as Christians have sacrament on the Sabbath — the day of rest — it represents the renewal of the covenant and reminds us to remain repentant — and thus refrain from sin.

In the third and final part of the Lord's Prayer is the acknowledgement that the Kingdom, the power and the glory is of God, which lasts for a long, long time.

For thine is thy kingdom,
the power and the glory,
Forever and ever.
Amen.

Commentary:

With respect to the history of Christianity — founded by Jesus and written by Luke, it is like the history of ancient Rome — founded by Romulus and written by the Roman historian Dionysus — and the history of the Hebrews — founded by Moses and written by the historian Josephus — with each founder being born from God.

For Romulus was born by the river Tiber, while Moses came floating down the Nile and Jesus was baptised in the River Jordan.

Over the past two thousand years his being born from God has become the literal truth in the Christ's story as an established Truth that frees all of humanity who accepts Jesus as their savior from their past sins in apostasy, now ritually cleansed away by baptism, provided that they "go and sin no more."

That provision — to go and sin no more — is the essence of repentance.

Afterwards, repentance becomes an ongoing process that is sanctified by weekly church meetings on Sunday, and by daily prayers based on scripture. Indeed, the weekly taking of sacrament of bread and water that symbolizes the body and the blood of the Christ renews their covenant with God. That covenant consists of following the commandments of their church and the observance of fasting and taboos of the respective religious denomination.

In the case of LDS theology, their taboo that addresses addiction consists of no coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs.

Additionally, the taboo regarding the law of chastity implies no coveting of another person for immoral purposes, such as fornication, be it heterosexual or homosexual. This also includes adultery, including that of the heart e.g. looking upon another person as a sexual object. Finally, there is a taboo against masturbation and pornography.

I can see wisdom in making these things taboo: having no money to buy energy drinks prevents temptation of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs.

With respect to chastity, my choice of the term "coveting" means the wanton desire to use another person for sexual purposes. Fornication implies a sexual act. As for masturbation, the avoidance of pornography is the result of the taboo against it.

Indeed, the study of the Scriptures — the Bible (Old Testament and New Testament) and the LDS scriptures (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price) — is purported to be an inspiration to keep the law of chastity.

Though I prefer a cold shower now and then.

Returning to the first part of the Lord's Prayer, I still hear it being sung as though by an angel of song who clearly sings the promise of Jesus Christ to return to rule over the Kingdom of God in the Afterlife when End of Days is upon us.

Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowéd be thine Name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy Will be done
On Earth, as it is in Heaven.

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Reference:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_the_Apostles#Genre.2C_sources_and_historicity_of_Acts
  
• Wikipedia article on the Lord's Prayer
  
• The Lord's prayer - The Singing Nun- this is the song I heard on the radio in the 70s.

Kyrie Eleison: To serve is the meaning of Priesthood (satire)

After two interviews with my bishop, I now have the choice of picking an elder to ordain me as Priest next Sunday. As of that date I am 23 days a baptized Mormon.

Is it not too early to serve the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint? No, for it is not I who hears God calling me but the bishop who knows that I shall be an usher because, despite lost sleep from the night before, I am trusted due to the mercy, not of him, but of God himself.

Yes, but it is because I answered the questions correctly, but not according to my libertarian views. For libertarian means "a person who shall live for the day, choosing to act conservative when it suits him with regard to private worship while actually holding onto liberal values like a life raft in his secular role in society."

I believe the pejorative term to describe me is "hypocrite" which means "a person who applies the least amount of critical thought to all things in his practice of his faith; he who acts pious on Sunday but is the least pious when it is not the Lord's day; a person who act religious in front of pious people."

Recently I have talked to an apostate who is First Nations, and argued with him about the chastity vow. He claims that most religious people break their vows regularly by claiming that overall, most Christians masturbate (99% men, 90% women). My counterargument is that 75% of Mormons masturbate, overall (80% men and 62% women). I decided not to add that by the time they get baptized (between their 10th to 12th year), the rate might be higher but becomes lower.

A lot of Mormons can save their grief if they have fallen due to masturbation. This is not an act that will lead to Spirit Prison. However, this sin is what the Melchizedek priesthood uses to psychologically blackmail members of the church, and sometimes the lower Aaronic priesthood. It is also what confessing to such a thing may lead to NOT being a Good Member In Standing - pun intended.

Since most masturbation is done in the privacy of the home, it is between you and God, not anyone in the Priesthoods to use to control your behavior and to use in an excommunication due to fapping instead of praying to the Lord. Prayer is the recommended method of substitution, i.e. praying rather than fapping.

It is unimportant to the higher priests to even mention masturbation to them, because it tempts them to commit the higher sin of Lording it over you. Remember the Bible story about the rich man praying to God and the poor may praying also. That is the sin that anyone who controls other people, regardless of whether it is religion or politics, commits and it is less pardonable than breaking the vow of chastity.

For when a rich man is humble, he is no different from a poor man who humbles himself by praying, "Lord, have mercy on me a sinner."

Indeed, a priest ought to make the Sinner's prayer his motto.

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Reference:

Melchizedek - Latter-Day Saint beliefs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melchizedek#Latter-day_Saint_beliefs
The Melchizedek priesthood is the higher priesthood; and the Aaronic is the lower.

Meditation on Being Single and In a Relationship (satire)

This article is about responsibility, both in my personal life and within a relationship. It is a reflection on how I perceive responsibility, both as a single person and in a relationship. It is a description of how I view my life and the potential of a relationship.

I am solely in charge of my own life. It would be totally irresponsible of me to be totally responsible for another person's life. So when I share my life with other people, the boundaries will rise up when necessary.

Each of us is only responsible for his own life, outside of a loving relationship. It would help to clearly define those boundaries in a relationship so that the other person always is able to handle theirs.

However, true love means that each person in a relationship be emotionally supportive of each other. It does not mean we take responsibility for another person's life. Rather it means that we are responsible for providing emotional support for each other.

Deciding to be responsible for our mutual lives together implies that we be responsible to each other. The whole goal of a relationship is to acting interdependent on each other.

Self-reliance is balanced by reliance on each other for emotional support. It does not imply that we absolve ourselves of being responsible to each other.

I cannot live another person's life. It is enough to live my own. Any potential lover ought to realize that love does not excuse them of behaving in a responsible manner that promotes stability both emotionally and mentally.

Neither side ought to take each other for granted. For that is what love is about: seeing each other as worthy and vital to the relationship.

Returning to my own life, I show responsibility by paying my own bills and taking care of my material needs, from paying rent to paying for food. However, my sense of individuality requires adjustments (less independence) within the context of a relationship.

If I am blessed with a relationship, then so be it.

As for now, I am content with being single. Although the single life is overrated, and the loneliness is sometimes more than I can bear, I plan to take each day as it comes and focus on what the day brings me.

Is being alone so bad? Not really. It only becomes stressful when a tinge of loneliness comes over me. Meditation helps me here, as well as being thankful to all the blessings in my life.

Such blessings include being alive, the ability to feel emotions and maintain emotional control, having a job, paying bills, discussing matters of importance with my friends, visiting my mother weekly, and maintaining control over my life.

Most certainly, falling in love with a lover is also a blessing. In fact, it is a double blessing since we would be blessed with each other's presence. Hopefully our mutual respect for each other will moderate our love for each other.

In a relationship, each party wants to care for the other person's feelings and discuss their expectations in the relationship to make it work and last a long time. Then they can work towards the goal of balancing their sense of self with sense of selflessness that a relationship demands.

By selflessness is meant emotional support for the other person's emotional well being, and the willingness to sacrifice selfish desires for the willingness to share resources to help exist as a couple.

Both partners in a relationship develop a sense of us to complement the sense of self as individual. Thus there is a sharing of resources and of their time together.

I find a relationship to be moderately stressful because my own independence is compromised by the interdependence on which a relationship is based. There is less alone time and more times together, and sometimes this leads me to go with the flow and see what happens.

This is because the unknown qualities of the relationship exist. Unless she sincerely shares her thoughts with me about us and the relationship, I do not know what she wants from the relationship. Likewise, unless I share my thoughts with her about us and the relationship, she would not know what she wants from the relationship.

However, I do see that the anxiety I have about a relationship is based on the shortness of previous relationships that I have had. Perhaps I am intimidated by being with a woman, and this affects both my thoughts and feelings about myself and about her.

Overall, I realize that the stress of being in a relationship is a given. As well, my coping skills have improved over the years so I am prepared for a relationship, should it arise.

Yet I would much rather remain single because of the freedom. Yet I also realize there is freedom in a relationship i.e. by relying on a partner, a person does not have to be totally self reliant, though it is useful to maintain self reliance when apart for extended periods of time.

Why do I like being single as opposed to being in a relationship? I am free of responsibilities that come with being in a relationship i.e. shared life, mutual interdependence, and sense of us.

I doubt that I am that selfish that I cannot handle being in a relationship. At the moment, I am not that selfless yet so as to be able to fully exist as a partner for another person.

As I said, if it happens, then it happens. Being single is not that selfish of a relationship when my thoughts are on my friends, my family and even strangers. It depends on the situation, but I have a handle on my life.

In any case, I am blessed with being single and am comfortable with being alone. My loneliness is handled through a strong reliance on meditation and prayer, along with sublimation of desire by reading books and inspirational material. I also keep a journal and post often to this blog.