BLOG MOVED!!!

Seven Year Mountain has been moved!  Well, sort of.  The original bloggers have new blogs…

http://chas.willowrise.com

http://popcorn.willowrise.com

Come visit!

Filed under: Teachings

Book of Mormon Challenge

Pick one of the challenges, or make up your own.  These challenges certainly might not be easy, but the point of this is to stretch yourself and do more than what you’ve done before.

1. Figure out the highest number of times you’ve read or listened to the Book of Mormon in one year’s time, and double that amount.

2. Take one hour of each day (no skipping, and no cutting time back) and diligently study the Book of Mormon. You may veer off and study other things as well, but the Book of Mormon should be your launchpad. If you only get 1/2 hour one day, make it up the next day by doing 1 1/2 hours.

3. Give away at least 2 copies of the Book of Mormon a month for the entire year. You can be creative, and give them with a testimony, story, or challenge to members of the church as well if you like, but you must give away one a week for a year.

4. Memorize a chapter a month for a year.

Filed under: Teachings , Book of Mormon, challenge, give, new year, ponder, pray, read, resolution, scriptures, study

Oh Come, Oh Come Immanuel

Oh Come, Oh Come Immanuel

Filed under: Teachings

America and the Everlasting Decree of God Concerning this Land

Sheri Dew:
My dear friends, here is the sobering reality: our constitution was written for a moral people.  It will not survive a people who collectively lose their virtue.
Sheri Dew, No One Can Take Your Place

The Everlasting Decree of God Concerning this Land

Ether 2:7-12
And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people.
8 And he had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should him, the true and only God, or they should be off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them.
9 And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is

Filed under: Book of Mormon, Doctrine, Teachings, scriptures , america, commandments, continent, covenant, decree, earth, flag, land, moral, promise, promised land, united states, united states of america, usa, virtue

Thanksgiving

Alma 26

8 Blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his holy name, for he doth work righteousness forever.

Psalms 136

1 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

2 O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever.

3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Mosiah 2

20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

2 Nephi 9

52 Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice.

Alma 37

37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

Filed under: Teachings

Ambition

In her song called Reaching, Katherine Nelson says, “Our dreams are meant to guide us to the things we’re reaching for.” Our ambitions are an essential part of our being, because they remind us that there is something greater than what we now have. Our very ability to dream and experience ambition encourages us to turn to the most important things in our lives. If we stay close to the Lord, He will lead us to those things. That is when we experience the greatest feelings of fulfillment and contentment.

satan is fully aware of the ambitious nature of our hearts, and will do all in his power to misdirect those ambitions to things of little or no worth.

Filed under: Teachings , ambition, dream, effort, important, priorities, work, worth

The Weak and Simple

I was thinking a while back about my mission and about the time I first arrived in my first area. I was so overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy that it seemed I’d never be an effective missionary. I felt like I was at the bottom of an ocean, fighting to reach the surface, while I was expected to be walking on top of it. I’d prepared myself in every way I could have thought of, and read the Book of Mormon a few times already, but my feelings of inadequacy led me to think that I knew practically nothing about the gospel. As I look back, I wonder a bit how I could have been so overwhelmed. But I most surely was overwhelmed.
The MTC was not an easy experience for me, though it was wonderfully rewarding and I learned SO much. I have thought a lot about the terrible feelings of intimidation I had felt at that time for the work, and I have since wondered why I felt that way. The more I think about it, though, the more I have come to appreciate that the Lord gave me that experience, because of the amazing lessons it taught me.
When I started my mission, I felt incredibly weak. I felt like the lowest of all the missionaries, partly because I was the newest missionary, and partly because I seemed to struggle to speak up and really talk to people. I truly was weak, and I cannot deny that.
I learned a lot while on my mission, and I like to think about it this way: Imagine before the restoration, the situation that the Lord was in. He had brought his church to the earth. Jesus Christ himself had been the restorer of it. It had previously been in a state of apostasy, because of the wickedness of the children of Israel. Now, once again, after His

Filed under: Teachings, scriptures , calling, companion, courage, faith, fear, holland, inadequacy, intimidation, lds, missionary, mormon, motherhood, mothers, mtc, prayer, testimony, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, weak, weakness, work

Why I Do Not Support Gay Marriage

This life is not the beginning of our existence, and death is not the end of it. In fact, this life is a very short part of our eternal existence.

It is an eternal principle that family consists of a man and a woman with their children. It is also an eternal principle that every man has always been a man, and every woman has always been a woman. Likewise, every man will always be a man, and every woman will always be a woman.

The few occasions where there is a physical defect in which a baby is born with either no sexual organs or both male and female organs does not change the eternal identity of that child, which includes his or her gender.

Gender is part of our eternal identity, and according to eternal principles, marriage is to be between a man and a woman. No other combination is a marriage in the eternal sense, and therefore no other combination can last forever. No matter what the government decrees, that eternal principle will not change.

For those who live a life in accordance with eternal principles, a simple mortal marriage is the seed that grows into an eternal marriage in the next life. No other seed will grow into an eternal marriage. There is no way for it to happen. Just as a pebble planted and watered cannot grow, a marriage between two people of the same gender cannot grow into an eternal marriage, and will end with death.

The sad part about this is

Filed under: Teachings , attraction, Children, eternity, family, gay marriage, gender, homosexuality, identity, marriage, men, potential, religion, same gender relationships, same sex marriage, tendencies, trials, Women

The Second Coming: part 7

Three Comings

Jesus Christ’s second coming will be a world event, but there are at least two other appearances that He will make prior to making Himself known to the entire world. Though we do not know if there will be other appearances that He will make as part of His second coming, the prophets have declared clearly at least three:

1. Christ’s appearance to the Saints in Zion

2. His appearance to the Jews

3. His appearance to the whole world

Christ’s Appearance to the Saints in Zion

I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God; wherefore, gird up your loins and I will suddenly come to

Filed under: Doctrine, Second Coming, Teachings , adam-ondi-ahman, Christ, jerusalem, Jesus, jesus christ, jews, lds, millenium, mormon, mount of olives, priesthood meeting, saints, Second Coming, temple, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, zion