Joyful Wells | Sharing Cups of Water

"A fanciful and flowery and heated imagination be aware of, because the things of God are of deep import, and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Your mind, O man , if you will lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost Heavens, and search into and contemplate the lowest considerations of the darkest abyss , and expand upon the broad considerations of eternal expanse. You must commune with God. How much more dignified and noble are the thoughts of God than the vain imagination of the human heart? None but fools will trifle with the souls of men."   ( Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839 ). It's my belief that the best place to begin contemplating "the lowest considerations of the darkest abyss" is within ourselves.  Specifically, the darkness we are capable of. 

If you Google search the Urim and Thummim, you will find many articles and videos about them. Much of what you will find is just a repeat of what others have already said. Other than providing the necessary introductory context, I intend not to rehash what's already been shared but to provide new insights. The first mention of a Urim and Thummim is in the Book of Mormon when the brother of Jared receives them from the Lord around the time of the Tower of Babel. In that story, they are called "stones" by the Lord and "interpreters" by Moroni. We are told that one of their functions was to translate the brother of Jared's record in some future time ( Ether 1:15 ). Much later in the Book of Mormon,  King Benjamin possessed them, and we're informed they are also used to uncover hidden mysteries ( Mosiah 5:13 ). He passed them down from generation to generation until they were sealed up by the last prophet, Moroni. In the Book of Abraham, we discover he also ...

To be saved, we must be like the Lord ( Lectures on Faith 7:9 ).  "Eyes like a flame of fire" are characteristic of a saved being. For those of us not yet like him, the fire of the Lord's eyes proves us until we are. If we allow it, his all-piercing eye can guide us further toward the salvation we seek ( Psalm 32:3 ).    The reason we need his light is because our eyes are closed. We journey through life lacking greater knowledge, intelligence, and the ability to see things as they are. Other words used in scripture to highlight our condition are blindness ( Isaiah 15:10 ), darkness ( Genesis 4:15 ), lack of vision ( Proverbs 4:115 ), stumbling ( Isaiah 21:2 ), and being asleep ( 2 Nephi 1:3 ). Or, to put it concisely:   Verily, verily I say unto you, darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face ( Teachings and Commandments 124:6 ).   Of the terms describing our condition ab...

This first post is dedicated to my friend and brother.  Here are two descriptions  of the Lord's eyes: His body also  was  like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and  his eyes as lamps of fire , and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. ( Daniel 10:2 ) And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire , and his feet  are  like fine brass. ( Revelation 1:13 ) How are his eyes like "fire"?  First, eyes are a representation of knowledge, intelligence, and the ability to see things as they really are ( Jacob 3:4 ,  Teachings and Commandments 74:4 ). Christ, the most intelligent of us all, sees all things clearly. There is no speck in his eye that he would misjudge or misvalue any situation  ( Matthew 3:41 ) . We can hide nothing good nor bad from his sight ( Psalm...