More thoughts from Erik.

Every once in a while I have some thoughts about just stuff really. Last
Sunday I was thinking about people saying there is no way to prove there
is a God. This thought was provoked by my co-worker, I wont use his real
name, but i'll give you a hint, It starts with a S and ends with a cott.
He hates everything that has anything with God, Religion, and stuff he
says "controls his life", Yes he used to be Mormon. There really are many
ways that you can at least provide a lot of evidence that there is a God.
After all if you made a world wouldn't you stick your "signature" on it
somewhere?

The best place to start with any thought is at the beginning so i thought
about all the basic of basic things to do with God and good, and basic
human instincts.

I sent some of you a text that there is no such thing as Cold, Darkness,
and Evil, because they can not be tested, or measured, except by measuring
their opposites.

The way scientists measure how cold something is, is by measuring the
amount of heat it gives off. Example of this is what they do to try to
reach absolute zero. At absolute zero all molecular motion does not cease
but does not have enough energy to transfer its motion to another
molecule. The motion in an object is set by energy. The type of energy
that makes the molecules move is heat energy. The faster a molecule moves
the hotter it gets, once it starts moving to fast it begins to "shed" some
of its parts, or rather particles. When a molecule, or an Atom starts to
shed its parts, it is said to be radio active. The "free radicals" collide
with other atoms and start a chain reaction, hence radioactive poisoning.
But lets back up some....a lot.

When you touch something that is hot, you only know its hot because its
molecules are hitting yours so hard and fast that your own molecules begin
to become damaged, which hurts...or rather burns.

Back to my point. You can not measure cold without measuring heat.
Therefore cold does not exist in and of itself, it can only be quantified
by its opposite.

The same can be said of Darkness.

Darkness is only measured by "collecting" the photons flying around in the
darkness. The human eye can pick up these photons that bounce off objects,
and the brain creates an image based on the photons the eye collects.

The only way to measure darkness is by measuring the amount of light. You
can measure light intensity but not dark intensity. Darkness, like cold,
is not a thing. Its the absence of its opposite. Like coldness it is not a
substance, it is not physical, and therefore does not exist.

To make a short story long, Evil is what you get when you take good away.
We are taught in several places in the book of Mormon that mankind are by
nature carnal, selfish, and devilish. That without Jesus Christ we can be
no other thing, but evil. Wickedness never was happiness because happiness
is the product of righteousness. It is the measurable quality that
quantifies your righteousness. True happiness is only obtained by being
close to God, such closeness is only obtained by being righteous.

So how do we be both happy, and righteous? "the spirit of God is given to
all those who keep my commandments, (crap...NO one can keep all the
commandments all the time, old, young, smart, dumb, good, bad, EVERYONE
will sin as long as they are mortal.) So according to this scripture in DC
45 there is no way to be happy....Except there is more in that scripture.
"and to him that seeketh so to do"

Someone once asked mother teresa why she was doing everything she was
doing, when there was no way for her to possibly make even the smallest
dent in the amount of suffering in the world. What she said was prophetic,
and true.

"God does not require that I succeed. He only requires that I do the best
I can."

Both these scriptures say that to be happy all we have to do is seek to
keep the commandments. As we do this our ability to keep the commandments
will increase, making it seem easier to do. As a product of this increase
in our ability to keep the commandments, our happiness will also increase.

Everything is by default Cold, Dark, and Evil, and when everything is
cold, dark, and evil, everything will be completely dead, both temporal
and spiritual. Only by introducing heat, light, and Good, can life thrive.



There was a reason that Jesus said "I am the light, and life of the world."

So there are some long thoughts of mine. The fact that there is light,
heat, and happiness demonstrates the presence of God.

Eriks Thought

Every so often I make a full circle in a personal cycle I seem to go
through about twice a year. At then end of the cycle I always get back to
the same point. Alma 5, and Beware of Pride.

I can tell when I am getting to that point when I start getting answers to
my prayers about the material blessings I seek.

Here are some questions that I have to ask myself. Well mostly phrases,
and points that stand out when I read either that chapter, or Beware of
Pride.

I think we can all benefit from this. keep in mind that this is for me, I
had no one but myself in mind when I wrote these thoughts down. I wrote
these down for me to reflect on. So if what I am writing bothers you, its
because of your own guilt.

-Nephites fell because of pride.

-Lucifer fell because of Pride. (how he developed pride while in the
presence of God I would like to know, but the fact that he did is the
same.

-It was through pride that Christ was crucified.

-Saul became an enemy to David through pride.

-King Noah's pride sent Abinadi to the flames.

-Herod sorrowed at the request of his wife to behead John the Baptist. But
his prideful desire to look good to “them which sat with him at meat”
caused him to kill John.

-In the scriptures there is no such thing as righteous pride, All pride is
sin. (I think when a parent says "I am proud of you, they really mean I am
pleased with you. That is what the Father said when introducing is son
Jesus Christ "this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased."

-No matter how the world uses the word we must understand how God uses the
word so that we can understand the scriptures. (one of, if not THE biggest
way satan hides the meaning of the scriptures is by changing the way we
understand words. An example of this is the word grace.)

-Our will in competition against Gods will allows desires, appetites, and
passions to go unchecked, and unbridled.

-The proud can not accept the authority of God giving direction in their
lives. (I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord -as long as I want to go
there, they may even think themselves completely sincere, and even mean it
sincerely, yet that reservation still stands firm deep inside their
hearts.)

-The proud wish God would agree with them, they are not interested in
changing their opinions to agree with Gods.

-Another major portion of this very prevalent sin of pride is enmity
toward our fellowmen. We are tempted daily to elevate ourselves above
others and diminish them. (Enmity is something that God placed between us
and satan. I would like to know how that all works, from Gods point of
view.)

-The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects,
opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device
against others. In the words of C. S. Lewis: “Pride gets no pleasure out
of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man
(No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.
Is this why I want to be rich? or do I want to be rich to help others?
Jacob 2:18-19.)

-The proud stand more in fear of men’s judgment than of God’s judgment.
“What will men think of me?” weighs heavier than “What will God think of
me?”.

-Would we not do well to have the pleasing of God as our motive rather
than to try to elevate ourselves above our brother and outdo another?

-Some prideful people are not so concerned as to whether their wages meet
their needs as they are that their wages are more than someone else’s.
Their reward is being a cut above the rest. This is the enmity of pride.

This is key:

-When pride has a hold on our hearts, we lose our independence of the
world and deliver our freedoms to the bondage of men’s judgment. The world
shouts louder than the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. The reasoning of men
overrides the revelations of God, and the proud let go of the iron rod

-Pride is a sin that can readily be seen in others but is rarely admitted
in ourselves.

-Most of us consider pride to be a sin of those on the top, such as the
rich and the learned, looking down at the rest of us. There is, however, a
far more common ailment among us—and that is pride from the bottom looking
up

-Another face of pride is contention. Arguments, fights, unrighteous
dominion, --generation gaps--, divorces, spouse abuse, riots, and
disturbances all fall into this category of pride.

(Generation Gaps? Parents to proud to have more kids? kids to selfish to
have children? I know that God expects us to use our heads, but where is
the line between faith, and pride? or is delaying having children ever a
mater more than just faith? Nephi teaches that there is a path between
where we stand, and the place that we need to be to fulfill Gods
commandments. I guess God expects us to use our heads to find that path.)

-The scriptures testify that the proud are easily offended and hold
grudges.  They withhold forgiveness to keep another in their debt and to
justify their injured feelings. (Is that why some refuse to let others pay
them back? "You don't need to pay me, I would rather feel like you owe me
something.")

-The proud do not receive counsel or correction easily. (On the other hand
the proud also seek to find ways to correct others using it as a way to
put themselves above another.)

-The proud depend upon the world to tell them whether they have value or
not. Their self-esteem is determined by where they are judged to be on the
ladders of worldly success. They feel worthwhile as individuals if the
numbers beneath them in achievement, talent, beauty, or intellect are
large enough. Pride is ugly. It says, “If you succeed, I am a failure.”

-If we love God, do His will, and fear His judgment more than men’s, we
will have self-esteem. (Self-esteem is nothing more than knowing ones
worth in Gods eyes. If you understand how God feels about you, nothing
anyone can say or do will effect how you feel about yourself. Suicide is
purely a self centered action. It is never a reaction to the hand that
they have been dealt.)

-The proud won’t change their minds to accept truths, because to do so
implies they have been wrong.


I know that was long. But it is important. Dad and mom are getting old.
(sorry =D) They will not always be able to hold us together as a family,
especially if we let our pride get in the way.

There isn't much I can say, any lecture you give yourselves would be
better than anything I can say. So start talking to yourselves. Read these
things over and over if you have to. If you haven't been translated there
is something in there you are guilty of. So get a move on =D
(Alicia approved it so you know its from God. :+D)

P.S. I love my wife with all my heart.

p.s.s. (or is that P.p.s?) my wife says I'm weird.

(I'm pretty sure its p.p.s since it stands for Post Script, and Post
Script Script wouldn't make as much sense as post post script.)