MEN OF GOD - Virtuous and Righteous

Photo taken by my friend on a hikewith him this fall on top of Sunset Peak
of the sunrise over looking Lake Katherine.

But thou, O man of God....

follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, 

love, patience, meekness.

I Timothy 6:11

Below are a few beautiful quotes on how to be Men of God should treat women. Not only Men of God be righteous but virtuous as well.

"True strength is not in how much force you can exert, but in how much love you can show. Abusing women is a betrayal of both strength and the divine."

"Real men of God lift others up with their words and actions, they do not use their power to oppress or harm. Abuse is a corruption of the sacred trust placed in spiritual leaders."

"A man who claims to walk in the light of God should never cast a shadow of abuse on those around him, especially the women who deserve love and respect."

"To harm and demean those who are vulnerable is not the path of righteousness. Men of God should be champions of compassion, not perpetrators of cruelty."

"Abuse is a contradiction to the teachings of love and kindness. Those who claim to be messengers of God must first embody the message of empathy and understanding."

"Real men of God protect the vulnerable, they don't prey on them."

"The true measure of a man is not in his calling, but in how he treats those he calls his family and friends."

"Real men of God confront their demons, they don't inflict them on others."

"A man who abuses a woman tarnishes not only her spirit but also the very essence of his claim to godliness. True spirituality is a beacon of light, not a weapon of harm."

"In the eyes of the divine, there is no justification for the abuse of women. Those who claim godliness while perpetrating harm are hypocrites, not men of God."

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Sidenote:

Last Sunday I  gave a talk in church. Below is the following parable that I shared..

“Once upon a time, there was a small turkey village. Every Sunday morning , all the turkeys would walk together to church. One Sunday, after the turkeys settled into their pews, the preacher delivered a sermon about a lost truth that the turkeys had forgotten. This restored truth was that turkeys can fly. The preacher showed the turkeys how this was to be done. He taught them to spread their wings and then soar like eagles. While they were singing the closing hymn, an extraordinary sight unfolded – all the turkeys rose from their seats, extended their wings, and gracefully soared above the pews. After an amazing flight accompanied by beautiful singing, the turkeys concluded with a closing prayer. After the prayer, the turkeys stood up and walked back home.


Unfortunately, there are too many turkeys still walking around that know how to fly. We need to step it up and fly like the eagles.

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CONTINUATION OF SEED

 This blogpost is dedicated to my brother and his wife. 

Man and woman together, as the image of God, are potentially infinite through their descendants. In a very real sense, through their posterity, Adam and Eve are still here. Although all will die, all will also endure throughout ages of mortality, like God, by multiplying to replenish the earth. Adam and Eve became in the image of God. This is at the core of redemption, the core of the work of God. This is what it means for God to complete His work and to have the continuation of the seeds.

Therefore the marriage covenant is needed for all those who would likewise seek to obtain from me the right to continue their seed into eternity, for only through marriage can Thrones and Kingdoms be established. 

Continuation of Seed from the Glossary of Gospel Terms.

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Photos taken at sunset last night on Antelope Island on November 9, 2023.

MAKING A SACRED LIFE

The below "vision" is part of a talk given in a recent Sacrament Meeting in Holladay, Utah that my family attended. The speaker is a good friend of mine and gave me permission to post it. His name appears at the end of the excerpt from his talk. 

The hill and the tree

I’d like us to have a vision together. 

Please picture this in your mind as vividly as you can while I describe it. Imagine a tall and barren hill rising out of a desolate plain. Maybe it was once green and alive, but it has been wasted. Scorched by the sun, blasted by the wind, every living thing now avoids it. Walking to the top of the hill, you can see the lifeless sun-baked land stretching in every direction. Standing at the top you find the stump of a tree, already ancient when it was cut down many years ago. On the flat top of the weathered stump you see thousands of tightly packed rings.

Something draws your eye down to the roots: you see a tiny sprout beginning to shoot out, growing upward, unfolding its first deep green leaves in the sun. The stem continues climbing, knee high, waist high, now overhead. It doesn’t pause as it begins to set branches, which stretch out in broad tracery, budding, blossoming, and finally bursting with leaves. As the branches rise overhead it casts a pleasant dappled shade, cooler and more comfortable than in the full sun.

You feel the ground tremble under your feet and look down. You see that as the shoot has grown into a new tree, its roots have bored deeply down into the ground; and where they cracked the stone under the hill you see water rise and overflow, pouring out from under the thick roots. You touch the water. It is cool, and crystal clear, alive in the play of sunlight. You bring a cupped hand to your mouth and drink. It is sweet, and your thirst is gone. As you watch, the water continues to bubble up, flowing away from the tree in four streams to the north, east, south, and west. At first each stream disappears quickly into the empty soil, but as more water flows the stream extends further and further down the hill.

Now looking at the edge of the stream, you see tiny delicate blades of grass spring up. A carpet of green spreads across the hill as the water fills the soil, and amidst the growing grass you see bursts of color as penstemon, paintbrush, poppy, monkshood, goldenrod, and yarrow explode with an array of other wildflowers. As the water pools here and there on its winding course you hear the first croak of frogs, the splash of jumping fish, and the songs of birds.

When the water reaches the plain below you see that it carries with it this explosion of life, the grass and flowers dancing in the breeze. Here and there in the new grasslands the seeds of ancient trees awaken and take root, bringing stands of forest out of the prairie. Between the trunks you catch a glimpse of a doe with her fawn jumping lightly on mossy soil. All around you is a symphony of life.

You turn back to the tree in wonder at its power of resurrection and see that while the blossoms fall in snowy spirals there are radiant fruits growing. Each one seems to catch the white sunlight and glows as the branches grow heavy and bow. You reach up as a branch seems to reach down to you; you pick the fruit and eat, and you are filled, and you are alive.


Holiness, wholeness, and healing

That is a vision of healing, and of things becoming whole again. And there is an interesting secret buried in those words. The words “heal” and “whole” come from the same ancient root heilig. That same root gives us our word “holy.” That which is healed and made whole is also made holy. To make something holy is to set it in its proper order, devoted to its highest purpose, to make it most enduringly and intensely real and alive.

…[This vision] is many things, but one of those things is a vision of what you are called to become through the grace of Christ. If you receive God’s baptism of fire you will then have a well of living water flowing out from your belly, making your life holy, a living sacrifice, a sacred garden in a world of stone. What could you possibly spend your life doing that is more meaningful than that?

10.15.2023 The Sacrifice of all Things: Making a Sacred Life | Bob Sonntag

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