Video | Sacred Symbolic

You Need to Watch This Excellent Talk on Families & Roles

Posted on: 01-11-2011

Category : Becoming, Divine Potential, Family, Temple, Video

I previously posted audio of an excellent talk by my Grandfather, J Ballard Washburn. I don’t recommend this talk just because he’s my Grandfather. I do it because he teaches excellent principles that I’m trying to implement and use in my marriage. And, to the extent that I have been able to do so, I can say “it works!”

Thanks to YouTube allowing longer videos, it’s now far easier for me to post videos like this. So now you can watch and see my cousin Jolene, her husband Jace, and their cute boy Jefferson (Grandpa calls him “Jefferey” for some reason, maybe he wrote it wrong in his notes).

Our (You & Your Sweetheart’s) Mission in Life

J Ballard Washburn – BYU-Idaho Devotional 9 Feb. 2010

Becoming Like God: Will, Conversion, & A Heart at Peace

Posted on: 08-02-2011

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Category : Becoming, Divine Potential, Heart @ Peace, Jesus Christ, Leadership, Video

This is something I’ve wanted to write about for some time. I hope I can properly convey the power and importance of this, and somebody will find it helpful.

An Offering of Will

Previously, I wrote about how the “tithes and offerings” mentioned in Malachi have more to do with offering ourselves as an offering on the altars of the temple, than paying money to the Church. In Oct. Conference, 1995, Elder Neal A. Maxwell gave a watershed talk entitled Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father, wherein he thoroughly explained the concepts of personal sacrifice, consecration, and agency.

The basic teaching of the talk is that the only way we can truly become like Jesus and gain entry in the Celestial Kingdom, is to give our will to our Heavenly Father. When we pay tithing, there’s not much true sacrifice involved—at least not in the money itself—because we’re only giving the Lord something that is already His. However, His will (what he wants) is for us to give the 1/10th that he has asked. Thus, if we desire to pay tithing, because we know God wants us to, and we then pay it, we have exercised our agency to do His will. Because of agency our will is truly ours to give to the Lord, or to Satan. When we pay tithing—or do anything that the Lord want’s us to—because He wants us to, we are exercising our agency by choosing to do His will. Each of us individually must choose to follow Christ by submitting our will to the Father, by learning His will and acting according to it, or else we give our will to Satan by default.

Leading LDS Blog, Conversation with E. Bednar, & Updates

Posted on: 01-07-2010

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Category : Leadership, Media & Internet, Mormon Life, Video

Leading LDS

There’s a new blog called Leading LDS that you can find at LeadingLDS.com. It’s similar to this blog in that the purpose is to help inspire, motivate, and correct wrong attitudes. Where this blog takes the approach of teaching correct doctrine and looking beyond the sunday-school answers, Leading LDS focuses on teaching correct leadership and moving beyond the easy “coasting through this calling” level of leadership in the church.

Conversation with Elder Bednar

One of the most recent posts is a video from the church’s HR department entitled “A Conversation on Leadership With Elder David A. Bednar.” Kurt, the author of the blog states that this video “is exactly what [his] site is about.” I’ve got to say, everyone should watch this video. So click one of the links, check out this awesome blog, and make sure you watch/listen to this fireside with Elder Bednar. I just can’t tell you how powerful and helpful it is for anyone who is, or ever will be in a leadership position, in—or outside—the church.

Our Mission in Life – J Ballard Washburn (updated)

Posted on: 15-02-2010

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Category : Audio, Ceremony/Ordinances, Family, Jesus Christ, Temple, Video

My Grandfather, J Ballard Washburn, gave the devotional at BYU-Idaho this past Tues., the 9th of Feb. 2010. He entitled his talk “Our Mission In Life” with the “Our” referring to each of us, as a married couple, or individuals when we find our eternal companion, or “You and Your Sweetheart” as he parenthetically put it in the title.

Personally I really enjoyed the talk. He made some powerful points about putting one’s wife above himself, and the Lord above everything. He used two examples from his own life that he said he was ashamed to share, because they were bad examples, but that we can learn from them.

Elder Oaks says religious freedom is under fire & other news

Posted on: 15-10-2009

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Category : Media & Internet, Politics, Uncategorized, Video

Many of you may have heard about Elder Oak’s recent BYU-Idaho devotional address. I just wanted to collect some of the information here for you to read/listen to/watch. Its an important message at an important time.

First, read the full text of the talk at LDS.org, or download the MP3 at BYU-I’s devotionals archive.

Second, here’s an article the Church posted about it, along with the following Q&A video with Elder Oaks, about the talk:

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Old Testament Video Resources

Posted on: 12-10-2009

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Category : Images, Media & Internet, Misc, Old Testament, Video

Some of you probably know because you know me, or have noticed by my video and other media posts: I am kinda an amateur dabbler in video production and film making.

So I was excited when I noticed that the church announced a new DVD set as a resource for teaching Old Testament in the upcoming year. There are 56 videos in the set, many of which are new, or have never been available for purchase previously. There are also many, many other visual resources. From the preview video, they look like great quality reenactments of Old Testament stories. The reenactments either include, or other resources have, life-like renderings of the Tabernacle, Temple at Jerusalem and other stuff that can seem very distant until you see video that looks very real, as if peaking into the past. I’m excited to see all this new stuff, and see if it aides teachers in real Sunday School teaching situations.

You can watch the preview video they made here:

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

If you’re interested in how technology like this can help advance the purposes of the church, Bryce Haymond at TempleStudy.com posted, and started a Google Wave, about about using Google Wave to advance the purposes of the church.

Updates, Fixes, More

Posted on: 14-09-2009

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Category : Misc, Video, Website Updates

I just wanted to give a quick update on some things.

First, this is still the right place. I changed the skin/theme to one that I felt was more professional and less busy. The old one had that cool “ancient scrolls and scripture” feel, but I just didn’t like it as much as I wanted to. This new theme is much better on the eyes and more functional. Hope you all like it as much as I do.

Second, I fixed the video in the Political Iconography post. Seems it wasn’t working, and that’s probably why nobody commented on that post. Still, an interesting video, and it should be working now. There’s a link below it to Youtube, in case its not.

Third, I have begun updating the J Ballard Washburn page, under resources (at the top). The first major update is a talk that he told me was “the best talk [he'd] ever given,” though he couldn’t remember giving it. I’ve posted the video on that page, and you can download an MP3 of it there as well. I’ll add more soon.

Iconography – Powerful Political Symbolism

Posted on: 05-09-2009

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Category : Iconography, Images, Media & Internet, Politics, Pop-culture, Video

Nancy, who comments here, pointed out to me a very interesting and well-made video about iconography in politics today. It explores powerful iconography in use in American politics today. It a great video about symbolism used in the propaganda of our time. “Iconography” in particular, is essentially the same type of symbolism I employ in the design of this blog: using pictorial symbols or icons to convey meaning.

In fact its the same kind that we use a lot in computers and the internet, but its just so common, we don’t think about it much. For example, the little orange icon under the “Sacred Symbolic” title–at the top of this blog–with the white circle and a couple curved lines that appear to radiate out from it, mean “you can click here to subscribe or follow our RSS or Atom Feed” to anyone who uses Feeds. These “Feeds” are ways that websites update other sites and anyone who wants to subscribe by feed reader such as Google Reader, of any news posts or other changes that have been made to them. If you use facebook or Twitter but are not familiar with feeds or feed readers, its kinda like following another person on those sites, but instead you’re following the blog or website through your feed reader.

Recommitment & the Washington Bible

Posted on: 06-08-2009

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Category : American, Ceremony/Ordinances, History, Old Testament, Video

Recommitment

This blog has seen far too few updates of recent. I’ve been extremely busy starting a couple small businesses, while working two other jobs, all while serving as an assistant stake clerk, a husband, and friend.

I recently stopped working on another blog, and expect to shuffle up the job situation in the near future (hopefully Heavenly Father agrees).

C S Lewis

On top of this, a friend I haven’t been in contact with for several years, asked me about a quote I used once in a lesson in church. I found it after a little searching and was surprised and intrigued to become reacquainted:

“Vice is a monster of so frightful face, as to be hated needs but to be seen; but seen too often, familiar with her face, we first endure, then tolerate, then embrace.” – Alexander Pope (An Essay on Man)

Then just the other day I ran across a related quote from C.S. Lewis:

New World DNA

Posted on: 10-06-2009

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Category : Book of Mormon, Images, Media & Internet, Misc, Scriptures, Video

Tevya at Monte Alban

This last weekend I was at my parents home. I ended up not feeling well for a day or so. I looked around for stuff to watch (they don’t have regular TV and I forgot my laptop’s power cord) and happened across the documentary Journey of Faith: The New World. Having spent five weeks traveling through Mesoamerica studying the peoples and history there, it was my first pick. I’d already watched the original Journey of Faith and was very impressed by it.