The Lord's Timing

A son was sharing his interest in the solar system and how amazing the Lords creations are, involving that power, that is His alone.

That set my mind to thinking of the Lord's timing on everything...be it my life or the earth's life.

I remember reading in the Book of Mormon of what had happened to the earth when Christ visited them and what would happen to the earth at his 2nd coming.  I also remember my CES Supervisor telling me that the calamities in the Book of Mormon would parallel the last days. I remember reading and not even being able to imagine that happening with cities and inhabitants because of weather!  Now I've seen those things happening...near and far.

The personal dawning of the fact and my own way of looking at it is...The earth evidently has a built in timing system, by it's Creator, and nowadays after so many years of occasional, rather singular, climate calamities, the last days will bring weather patterns, above and below the earth, into simultaneous horrific events to mankind.  The last days.  Our days.  Now.  Ultimately...the Lord's weather forecast!  He knows what is coming as He planned it and programmed it.  No amount of dismay or hand -wringing, on our part, will change what is transpiring...right now and the future.  It's set!

At the same time while we witness from afar via technology, or up close and personal and firsthand, we see these projected horrors, if you will, seemingly everywhere. 

Right along with it, is the depravity of mankind and cruelty to each other, with hearts filled with hate and lust and killing for power and Godless behavior.  People persecuting Believers and yet others constantly abrasively persuading & succeeding, on many counts, for all to join them in that spacious building.

So...a rather stark devastating forecast...weather-wise and people-wise and pretty much...otherwise!
But...there is hope!  Hope...IF I have a firm belief in a living Prophet.  Actually I do have that belief and it is firm.

I learn through observation of life unfolding and the reading of Scriptures, which include all things General Conference. I observe as President Nelson scurries about- setting everything in order and boldly attesting he is trying to gather us ...to prepare us for the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ.  There fore we see a myriad of events...such as- Meetings cut back...responsibility on ourselves for Gospel learning...changes in so many details in Church programs and activities... Asking women to prepare themselves in understanding what the Lord wants them to do in these last days...asking all of us to pick it up a notch on learning to receive revelation and how essential that is. The list is endless.  Pray/study/serve/go to Temple, pretty much as basics- and on and on.  and on!

The Prophet is doing his very best to help us to prepare but also to alleviate fear.

My own armor that causes fear to depart is pretty much 3-fold -

1-following the Come, Follow Me program.  It's a no-brainer to do, as anyone with the least amount of technology, can sit before their screen and be spoonfed a bit of feasting that is soul-satisfying.  There are people all over the YouTube teaching and sharing.  You can find someone, if that is your method of learning, that is an Institute or Seminary teacher and they are pretty much right in line with the Church and usually only add their own analogies.

2-having 3 months of commodities on hand is about all I can think of.  The weather is beyond my control and as I said...it's a ticking timer with weather forecasts happening and coming.  If I have firewood and water and some food in reserve...I feel okay about that.

3-Also the awareness that there is safety in sheltering in place for at least 3 weeks should some earth-sweeping virus or modern day plague hit our area. Paint masks aren't the way to go if a person needs to be out and about and wants as much protection as possible. an N95 mask is the one I read about.  So having a few of those on hand is about the best I can do.

Those are my fear alleviators and my faith enhancers.  I'm sure you have your own list.  whatever rolls your socks up!  We are not Preppers and we do not stockpile weapons and have plans to ban with others.  While our preparation seems very minimal...it is to our liking and we are ready for whatever happens to us should it prove inadequate.

One very positive note in all of these negative forecasts is...the best of us gets even better...tender soft hearts become even more compassionate...desire to help others becomes more of a mindset than a to-do list.  Locally this happens and worldwide, the exemplar Church, helps everyone with the basics.  What a beautiful event to witness our band of Christian soldiers marching on to war! (feel the humming in the background??)

We are endeavoring to stay on that Covenant Path and hope is shining brightly before us!!  It gladdens my heart to know you are there also!!!



Oct. 1987 CR - Elder Neal A. Maxwell "Yet Thou Art There"  here

What we mortals encounter as the unforeseen, God has already seen, such as how the oil deposits of this earth would shape the latter-day conflicts among nations. God’s “is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations” (Isa. 14:26). He likewise foresaw all the awful famines, some resulting from the unwise, unnecessary erosions of precious topsoil. He surely foresaw the terrible persecutions of the Jews. Having created the earth, He has anticipated the impact of continental drifts on the frequency and intensity of latter-day earthquakes. He who analogized that “the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest” (Isa. 57:20) also knows where and when, in latter days, the seas’ tidal waves will heave themselves savagely “beyond their bounds” (D&C 88:90).

Section 88:87:91  

(I can't resist sharing these quotes again)

Largely because of television, instead of looking over into that spacious building, we are, in effect, living inside of it. That is your fate in this generation. You are living in that great and spacious building.   
Lehi's Dream and You by Boyd K. Packer -2007   here  

****

In our world today, the adversary’s construction crews are working overtime, hastily inflating the large and spacious building. The expansion has spread across the river, hoping to envelop our homes, while the pointers and the scoffers wail day and night on their internet megaphones.¹¹

President Nelson explained, “The adversary is quadrupling his efforts to disrupt testimonies and impede the work of the Lord.”¹² Let us remember Lehi’s words: “We heeded them not.”¹³

Fruit by Neil L. Anderson  -- October 2019 here