Sunday, December 29, 2013

229: "DESOLATING SICKNESS SHALL COVER THE LAND"

Two more bald eagles were found this week on the verge of death from a mysterious illness, bringing the total of sick eagles in Utah to nearly two dozen. At the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah, bald eagles are arriving faster than ever before. Since Dec. 1, the facility has received nine birds, though only four are still alive. Across Utah, 21 bald eagles have been found with the mysterious illness this month, according to the rehab center. And of those 21, 16 have died. One of the eagles was found in Farmington Creek, suffering from the same symptoms as 16 other eagles that died. Another one, less than a year old, was found in the West Point area on Christmas night.

Read more at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=28156434#mblEz8wwfDiGWV5y.99
Two more bald eagles were found this week on the verge of death from a mysterious illness, bringing the total of sick eagles in Utah to nearly two dozen. At the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah, bald eagles are arriving faster than ever before. Since Dec. 1, the facility has received nine birds, though only four are still alive. Across Utah, 21 bald eagles have been found with the mysterious illness this month, according to the rehab center. And of those 21, 16 have died. One of the eagles was found in Farmington Creek, suffering from the same symptoms as 16 other eagles that died. Another one, less than a year old, was found in the West Point area on Christmas night.

Read more at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=28156434#mblEz8wwfDiGWV5y.99
In a revelation given on March 7, 1831 about the signs and wonders to attend the Second coming, Joseph Smith stated in Doctrine and Covenants Section 45 that "desolating sickness shall cover the land" in the last days.

Sickness is defined as a state of the body in which the organs do not perfectly perform their natural functions. It is when we are in a defective or unsound condition. We tend to think that a sickness is only physical, but sickness can also describe a people who are not living in harmony with God and how He would have us treat others. I offer the following true story to illustrate this:

There was a native tribe that lived in peace and harmony for hundreds of years. Every day the routine was the same. Hunters would go out from the tribe to gather food and returned back from the hunt with the food to share equally among the members of the tribe.

No one went hungry when food was available. Not even the weak, the sick, or the elderly. One day the most skilled hunter said, "I am the best hunter, I kill more than my share of deer, why should I share the bounty of my hunt?"

  And from that day forward, he began storing his meat in a high mountain cave. Then other skilled hunters said, "We kill more than our share of deer too, shouldn't we have the right to keep the bounty of our hunt?"  And then they too began to store their meat in high mountain caves. And then, something began to happen to the tribe that never happened before. Some people, especially the old, weak, and the sick began to go hungry, while others were well feed.

In fact, it became so common place that no one thought it was unusual that others were starving while others had more than they needed. And what is even more strange, the tribal leaders began to teach their young to emulate the hoarding habits of these few.


 Now that story isn't true because it happened, it is true because it is happening.  We are that tribe.

There is one fundamental law that nature obeys that mankind breaks everyday. Now this is the law. Nothing in Nature takes more than it needs. For example, the Redwood Trees do not take all the soil nutrients, just what it needs to grow. A Lion doesn't kill every gazelle, just the one he needs to food.

When something in Nature takes more than it needs and breaks that fundamental law,  it will eventually die off.

We have a term we use for the body when it takes more than it's share. We call it Cancer.

From the book, Man's Rise to Civilization by Peter Farb is that "Traditional cultures considered the idea of accumulation of private property beyond your needs was considered a mental illness." Truly, a "sick" human being would find joy and happiness in having too much of what one needs.... while others go without. Greed, Selfish, and Pride is one of the desolating "sickness" that covers our land.

 A prophet of God who saw our day, said the following, "NONE save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, unto the wearing of very fine apparel,... and your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts. For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted."

Besides our greed and lack of helping those in need, there are very real desolating sicknesses that is covering our land. This  news story is extremely foreboding and symbolic.  Bald eagles are dying in Utah — 20 in the last few weeks alone — and nobody can figure out why.  The Bald Eagle is a powerful symbol of the United States, a symbol of our Freedom. Earlier this month, however, hunters and farmers across five counties in northern and central Utah began finding the majestic birds lying, listless, on the ground. Many of these birds suffered from seizures, head tremors and paralysis in the legs, feet and wings.

Two more bald eagles were found this week on the verge of death bringing the total of sick eagles in Utah to nearly two dozen.  At the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Utah, bald eagles are arriving faster than ever before. Since Dec. 1, the facility has received nine birds, though only four are still alive.  Across Utah, 21 bald eagles have been found with the mysterious illness this month, according to the rehab center. And of those 21, 16 have died.

This was also reported yesterday in the Los Angeles Times.

Sidenote:

 A few days ago, I drove early in the morning into downtown Salt Lake. I couldn't help notice the unhealthy and polluted air that we breath. I quickly took a photo of the rising sun as I passed the refineries just west of downtown Salt Lake.



Photo taken December 27, 2013 on the I-15 southbound freeway driving into downtown Salt Lake City.
The State Capital and the LDS Church Office Building can be seen in distance the smoggy air. 

11 comments:

Daren said...

For myself, I have real difficulty determining what my needs are. The line between needs and wants seems very fuzzy in this day and age.

Is owning a house a need? How about a car? Two cars? Are we all supposed to live to the same standard? There are LDS children in Guatemala, Cambodia, and other countries that are starving to death. (See http://www.liahonachildren.org/#/about/our_story). Do we have to abase ourselves to their level before we can be accepted of God?

Rob said...

I, too, struggle with finding the line. It takes a lot of prayer to answer the question: "What IS sufficient for my needs?"

BARE RECORD OF TRUTH said...

Great questions.. I wish I had the answers. All I know is that our family has been blessed and we could do a lot better in helping those in need.
David

Anonymous said...

Daren and Rob, thanks for bringing this up.

Compared to our ward members, we are living below the poverty line. When I think of those hungry LDS children, I feel extremely rich. We are doing all we can to help, here in our community and elsewhere, including the LDS children who are hungry, and we have done some things even closer to home than that.
But--
though ward members find our ancient cars, our clothes we wear for years (though sturdy and clean and not unpleasing) and our tiny home laughable--

when we think of how no rain or snow comes through the roof and we have food to eat every day, though it's plain, simple food and never 'fast' or processed--

I feel very uncomfortable. How do we "fit" with others in our community of faith and still remember the poor?

Also, we have stored food for years; is food storing the same as hoarding? I have always considered that we would feed those around us if/when times get harder, because I can't depend upon farmers to store food for everyone.

Yes, prayer. Simply cannot relate to our ward members, though. One year when we were doing exceptionally well financially (for us), our bishop called and asked what he could do for us, since there was extra Christmas money in the coffers. We felt astounded. He then said, "well, you are some of our poorer members"--

We found a gift that suited everyone; it was a necessity, but not food or clothing. But it was not, in any way, a 'toy' or a 'gadget'. The bishop suggested that surely there was some 'toy' or 'gadget' we needed.

We asked for some help with tuition (not for college) for a special needs child in our family; the bishop thought it was great and gave us the amount of money he would have let us have for a 'toy'.

We've been dazed since. We spend all our time worrying about hungry people in our community and in the world, but the ward saw us as needy.

Anonymous said...

that is heartbreaking about the eagles.

James said...

Sadly, there are probably many more eagles that died who were not found. The news today said it was West Nile that took them…a desolating scourge indeed. Last month several hawks were shot dead throughout Cache County: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/57163914-200/hawks-schulze-slater-cache.html.csp. Seems we have more ravens, magpies, and starlings every year where we live, and fewer eagles, hawks, and owls. We built some owl houses and put them around our property hoping to attract them back, but so far only the starlings have taken roost.

Anonymous said...

I have been pondering how the Savior taught that it is impossible for rich people to get into heaven and how astonished his Apostles were at that teaching. They even answered him by asking, 'who then can be saved?' For the Apostles apparently even included themselves in the 'rich' catagory.

So I think it's important for us to determine what the Lord meant by 'rich', would it be having more than the next person? Doesn't the Book of Mormon teach that we should all be equal and those who have more should give to those with less, to equal things out? I think if people really did this few would be working overtime, but they would be home with their families more and just produce according to their needs instead of out trying to make a million or enough for a large spacious house.

I learned on my mission just how very little we really need to be happy.

But since we live in complete bondage to the Gadiantons today, it is harder to live Christ's law of giving all we have 'extra' to the poor, since we never can really own anything like even a car, house or even land, we basically rent it all from the Gadiantons.

So we can't really give all our excess to the poor around us for we may need it next month or next year to just keep a roof over our own family's head.

But many do have plenty to take care of their needs and the needs of many others, or they can work less and be home with their family more and thus benefit society and others by their 'time' if not 'money'.

Anonymous said...

Give everything away even your job and your house...and then you will find a freedom you never thought possible. He will provide ALL your needs. This is our witness.

Anonymous said...

The eagles are dying from the Fuckashima radiation that has come to our nation.

Anonymous said...

This is a powerful testimony. Are some of those needs met through the generosity of those with jobs and a house? I'm not asking to be cynical. If you were guided to do so by The Lord, I commend you for your absolute faith and obedience.

Michael said...

I believe it's spelled "Fukushima." I have no idea where "Fuckashima" is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's close to Washington, DC.