“A man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” — (CSB – Read the chapter)
My bride and I have been watching a show lately about living in Alaska. It came out several years ago when shows featuring all things Alaskan were so popular. This one chronicles the lives and lifestyles of a collection of people who live near or north of the Arctic Circle. At least two of the ones who get the most attention are single. One is a woman who lives entirely on her own. The other is a guy who lives with only his dogsledding dogs. From the editing, they pretty much do everything for and by themselves. Watching it is a good reminder of another thing I’m thankful on this Thanksgiving day. Today I am thankful for not doing life alone.
“He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
Our weather yesterday was gross most of the day. Today’s not promising to be much better. It wasn’t particularly cold, which was nice, but it was rainy and windy and overcast all day. Then, yesterday afternoon it got foggy out of nowhere. It was the kind of thick pea soup fog you usually only see in the morning except it was at 3:00 in the afternoon. Driving toward on particular intersection, I couldn’t see the traffic signal until I was almost through the intersection itself. It reminded me of another thing in thankful for. Today I’m thankful for not being able to see tragic signals.
“Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts…” (CSB – Read the chapter)
It’s that time of year again. We are now fully into Thanksgiving week. My guess is that you are already planning your third or fourth trip to the grocery store. You’ve spent most of one paycheck on just the necessities and are working on a second. You’re busy, harried, and tried. And you’re doing all of that for the chance to sit and enjoy some time with family you might want to see…or maybe not. But you do it because tradition – not to mention nostalgia – demands it. Yet lost in the hustle and bustle of this week is often what the day is supposed to be about. Wise leaders of the past called on the country and even established this particular day as one to be set aside for giving our attention to matters of gratitude. That gratitude was specifically intended to be directed toward God, and it will perhaps come as no surprise that I think that’s the best direction for it, but gratitude of any kind is good for the soul. So, this week, instead of our regularly scheduled programming, we’re going to take a bit of time each day to do just that. And today, to get us started, I’m thankful for a noisy room.
As we continue in our series, Confident in the Face of Hard Questions, today we are tackling a doozy. Most people believe in Heaven. Most people also believe that most people are going to wind up there in one way or another. But is that really the case? To suggest otherwise isn’t very popular, but what did Jesus have to say on the matter, and is that really a good thing? Let’s explore these questions and more together.
Isn’t Heaven for Everybody?
Have you ever felt snubbed? There could have been a number of different things that left you feeling that way. Maybe you joined a club of some sort because it sounded really fun, but then you discovered that the really fun stuff you heard about was only available for the premium members, and you were just a regular member. Perhaps you flew on an airplane with a dedicated first class section and sat close enough that you could see what a great—not to mention comfortable—time they were all having up there. You know…when the curtain accidentally got left open. They don’t want all their secrets from up there getting out. Or it could be that you didn’t get invited to some big party that everyone was talking about afterwards. Right in front of you. Now, your defense mechanism might be to pretend that you didn’t really want to go in the first place and that you had plenty of fun sitting at home by yourself watching reruns and eating cold pizza in your underwear. But you know that’s not true. So does everyone else. Really, you’re hurt that you weren’t invited, and now you don’t want to hang out with those people anymore. You’re going to go find some friends to hang out with who aren’t so exclusive as those jerks are. Of course, once you feel like you’re part of the “in group,” you’re just fine with exclusivity—in fact, you prefer it so the riff raff doesn’t come in and mess up your group dynamic—but we’ll ignore that inconvenient little truth for the moment.
“This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
I finally watched it, and now it’s time to talk about it. The finale of Loki season 2 dropped last week. Marvel has been going through a bit of a rough spell lately. Their content isn’t getting as many viewers as it once did. Their newest film, The Marvels, a Captain Marvel sequel, came out last week and scored the worst box office opening of any Marvel movie to date. More and more people are talking about superhero fatigue after 15 years. Loki season 2 proved to me they’ve still got what it takes. Let’s talk about what made this story so good.
The Nexus 