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Posted on 07/29/2007 3:23:40 AM PDT by restornu
Our primary family worship service is called sacrament meeting. This meeting is held in our meetinghouses on Sunday and lasts approximately 70 minutes. Visitors are welcome to attend. It is common for families to attend, and we are accustomed to having children as part of the congregation.
A typical meeting would consist of the following:
Hymns: Religious songs sung by the congregation (hymn books are provided).
Prayers: Offered by local Church members.
Partaking of the Sacrament (Communion): The sacrament is passed to members of the congregation.
Speakers: Typically a meeting will have two or three assigned speakers.
We do not pass a plate to request donations as part of our worship services.
Additional Meetings
Visitors are also welcome to attend other Sunday meetings that precede or follow sacrament meeting: Sunday School classes are offered for each age-group, beginning with twelve year olds. Primary meetings consist of a group service and age-oriented classes for children three through eleven years of age. A nursery is available for young children, ages eighteen months to three years. Young Women meetings provide classes for those twelve through seventeen years of age. Relief Society meeting is for women, ages eighteen years and older. Priesthood meetings provide age-oriented classes for males twelve years and older. Sacrament meetings and other meetings may be conducted in differing sequences, depending on the preference of local leaders. This site displays the beginning time of the three-hour block of meetings and the starting time of sacrament meeting.
Appropriate Dress
Those who attend will most likely be wearing their "Sunday best," which may include suits, sport coats, and ties for the men and dresses or skirts for the women. Children also typically dress up for Sunday.
Helpful Information
Our local congregations are called wards (or branches). The spiritual leader of each ward is called the bishop (or the branch president for branches). He is a member of the congregation who has been asked to serve as a volunteer in this position. Because we have a lay ministry rather than paid clergy, all Church service is voluntary.
"Anti-Evangelical Christian bigotry is tolerated by many widely practiced by the MSM, the Hollywood culture, the Gay advocacy groups, Feminists, the Abortion industry, Communists AND many Catholic's"
I don't mean to polarize....but those that you've pointed out, don't save their bullets for just Catholic's.
FWIW-
Your response is not a surprise......
Just another confirmation........IMO.
I would be interested in your testimony...about leaving Mormonism.
It was find thank you for sharing your story and I do believe the Lord does watches over us no matter what church we attend.
You know my testimony so there is no need to repeat it. There have been many years I been able to attend regularly and because of health issues I have not been able to attend as I wish I could, but things are changing and looking better for me and I anxiously look ward to be there.
I love reading the scriptures and my eyes have been causing me frustration because as I read the print the eyes fight with one another so I have to stop for now and it has cause me some set backs.
Thanks again for sharing and my best to you IJM.
Fair enough....
Thank you. Great post!
We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children.
All human beings--male and female--are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.
In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as an heir of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.
The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.
We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God's eternal plan.
Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. "Children are an heritage of the Lord." (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives--mothers and fathers--will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.
The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.
By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should support when needed.
We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.
We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.
Revelation and the Temple of God Erci B Shumway VIDEO
http://www.byu.tv/index.html?start=28800&stop=32400&show=&ep=http://qmplive.xlontech.net/byutv/stream/070725.qvt
Excellent Post! Thank you for sharing the truth
on this thread.
The point of that passage is that God disciplines his sons, as human fathers discipline their children. Notice that not all human beings are considered God's sons in this passage which is specifically addressed to believers in Jesus Christ. Notice also that Satan is nowhere mentioned and is certainly not considered to be one of the "sons of God" included in this passage.
God Disciplines His Sons
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
The point of the passage concerns suffering that we go through even as children of God, even as believers in Jesus Christ, and how even that suffering God can use for our benefit if we accept such suffering with that concept of our Father disciplining us as his Sons.
However, we are not God's sons before creation - all of the New Testament says we are "adopted" into God's family through the death on the cross of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ. IN HIM, we belong to God, through His redemption of our sinful selves. We have been purchased out of slavery to sin and to Satan through the inestimable sacrifice of Jesus on that awful cross.
Yet not all receive this great gift and calling, and not all are sons and daughters of God. And NOWHERE is Satan mentioned as our brother, as Jesus' brother, or as God's "son".
“Yes. In fact, we discussed the atonement and crucifixion in Sunday School today.” I hope you are back on this thread and can tell me - (as asked before) what exactly was said in your Sunday school discussion of this topic. Thanks.
That has been my experience also. And the hymns that were sung were, "Praise to the Man", "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel" "We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet" and always, "Come, Come Ye Saints", meaning the Latter Day Saints.
The real sticking point for me, and one that kept me away from family funerals, is the practice of NOT speaking from the pulpit of the deceased and his life, but of using the occasion to proselytize. 45 minutes of non-stop sales talk.
After hearing such things as "Sam would have been a better man if he had just joined the LDS church so that he could be reunited with his family for eternity", and one in particluar about my uncle who was a fine man, respected by all in his community: "He finally realized his error and joined the church late in life," more than one of my family members walked out fuming.
What a message for the family in their time of grief!
This is the sound of a pin dropping...........
....................................
I toured the one in San Diego before it opened and we had a wonderful guide who attempted to answer our questions but the only thing I really learned was that Mormans in good standing were the only ones allowed in the cathedral and to be a Morman in good standing one needed to tithe.
What I want to know is why there are two wings to the Cathedral, one for the women and one for the men. We were only allowed in the female side. We were also curious about the changing room for women. No one asked if this was where the women put on the funny underwear or if the funny underwear is a part of worship or just an internet legend.
Snicker. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is trendy? Interesting.
Oh yes, the good ole days. I remember a thread that was pulled, the title was “What don’t you like about Mormons?” The history was that those who were banned were on both sides. Several Mormons were also banned for heated rhetoric. I was on those threads too, and I thought the posters who were banned should have been. In fact on several of those threads, several posters thought the Religion Moderators were Mormon.
Way trendier then they used to be back when I was a Utahn! Heck, the line of hip-looking LDS cookbooks, novels, DVDs, CDs, and other products takes up nearly a whole aisle at my local Wal-Mart!
You forgot all Californians, Babe! They should all be bashed.
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