Posts by JamesEKerns
Eyes Glued to the Horizon
It is a dismal morning. The valley is enshrouded in smoke from distant forest fires. The smoke is causing me to miss what would otherwise be a beautiful sunrise. I have an appointment each morning at this hour with the sun as it ushers in a new day, but today the sun has missed our appointment, and the light is diminished.
Read MoreUnseen Influences
I have turned my chair so that I can watch the sunrise unfold. I have observed that my sunrise is made dull, ordinary, or magnificent by the positioning of unseen clouds below the horizon which determine whether the rising sun can shine on the tops or the bottoms of the clouds visible from my position. The sun is currently well below the horizon and is able to shine on the bottoms of the high cirrus clouds, but is unable to penetrate the lower cumulonimbus clouds. Everything changes by the minute causing me to rush outside again and again to take a new series of pictures.
Read MoreSpectator or Participator
Conditions are building toward the greatest event the world has ever known. The greatest and most momentous event was not a particular battle or war; nor was it the eruption of Mount Tambora, which is thought to have produced the loudest sound ever heard on earth. The greatest event was not the striking of the earth by an asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs. It was not an earthquake or a tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands. It was not even the birth of Christ. All of these things happened as precursors for the greatest event.
Read MoreQuiet Places
President Russell M. Nelson said that “Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work.” (Ensign, May 2018, 95).
Read MoreMine Forever
Each morning sunrise is a treat and a blessing. Each is special. Each is different. God chooses different arrangements of the clouds and different colors. One morning may be red, another yellow or orange, and the next blue. The 34 peaks that are my eastern horizon are constant and always there, except when they’re hidden by stormy days, or days when the valley is encased in fog. Each morning is spectacular. Each is worthy of my participation.
Read MoreObservations on the Sun
When I rise at 4:00 A.M. the world is dark and very cool. Yesterday was a 90-degree day, yet this morning is only 46-degrees. I look to the east and study the familiar silhouette of the 30-40 peaks that constitute my view of the Wallowa Mountains. The sky is clear. Where and when will the sun make its appearance?
Read MoreBut She Is Pure!
With the whole world on lock down because of the COVID 19 pandemic we aren’t allowed to go to church. We have permission to hold sacrament meetings in our homes where we bless and pass the sacrament, and give talks in our families.
Read MoreWatchers of a Beacon
The fourth verse of one of our popular hymns says that “We are watchers of a beacon whose light must never die.” (“For the Strength of the Hills,” Hymns, pg. 95).
Read MoreMissing the Message of the Resurrection
As I was reading the account of the verbal exchange between Zeezrom and Amulek in Alma chapters 11 and 12, I became amazed as I realized that Zeezrom knew nothing about the resurrection. I thought that everyone knew that there would be a resurrection.
Read MorePlucky Women
James: “Our ancestor, David Johnson, and his wife Martha Patsey Cutler, moved to an uninhabited wooded area in Indiana Territory in 1816. They started out with four horses, and David hired a man to assist them. The first night out, they hobbled the horses, and the two best ones got away. The hired man was sent back to find them, and they never saw him again.
Read MoreConversation About Birds
James: “Before we start our walk, you need to take notice of all the swallows on Ellen’s power lines. How many are there, and how would you count them?”
Read MorePure Youth
The scriptures tell us that no unclean thing can be in God’s presence. That being the case, what does this say about the Father and the Son appearing to the boy, Joseph Smith? Kneeling there in that sacred grove, a place of solitude, was a pure 14-year-old boy. He went there with a burning desire to know, to be forgiven of his sins, to obtain direction, and to be good. He went there repenting. He was clean. He was pure, or God could not have come to him.
Read MoreJoseph Smith’s Vocabulary
How is it that a barely-schooled farm boy of the early 1800s could have acquired the vocabulary that Joseph Smith possessed? I have several observations about Joseph and his abilities.
Read MoreWe Are Living in the Future
We are a privileged people. We are living in the future that every prophet of the past looked forward to. Ancient prophets saw our day and longed to be here. We have comforts that no king of the past ever had. We have undreamed-of technology that is far more magical than anything that Pharaoh’s magicians were able to conjure up. Nebuchadnezzar’s wise men knew nothing in comparison to what you know.
Read MoreThe World is in Motion
The world is in motion. The morning is still, and yet there is movement. There are breezes, birds, and breathtaking beauty. The sun appears to be standing in the early-morning sky, and yet is rapidly moving toward its zenith. It sent its first flash of light over the mountains just minutes ago, and revealed how fast it’s moving by putting its complete, full self above the horizon in less than a minute. Thirty minutes later it is ten times its own diameter above the mountain over which it rose.
Read MoreDeath and the Spirit World
One of my earliest memories is of sitting on the floor in a nook of our kitchen with my back to the wall, the end of the cabinets to my right, and the freezer to my left. I was listening to my parents and their visiting friends as they sat at the kitchen table. I marveled as their voices began droning, and their words became indistinguishable. I fell asleep. My next conscious moment was of waking up in my own bed. How I got there, I didn’t know; but I assume that my father must have picked me up and put me there.
Read MoreA Long Shot
Elder Carl B. Cook, of the Presidency of the Seventy, came from a broken home. When he was six, his father left his mother with five young children. She had to go to work, get a second job, and obtain an education. There was little time for nurturing, but with the help of grandparents, uncles, aunts, bishops, home teachers, and Carl’s priesthood quorums, she managed to raise a future general authority.
Read MoreIf You Look for It, You’ll Find It
Across the freeway from the tiny community of Perry, Oregon is a high cliff. If you’re traveling north on the freeway and scan the cliff to your left, you’ll likely see mountain goats. They like those cliffs because there is plenty of greenery for them to eat; and predators, like cougars, don’t go there. It’s perfect goat habitat.
Read MoreDates in the Book of Mormon
WHERE DID THE NEPHITES LIVE?
Third Nephi, chapter eight, verse five tells us that the great storm which began at the death of Jesus, happened on the fourth day of the first month. This is according to the Nephite calendar. That pinpoints the date as being April 4th according to our calendar since we know from other sources that Jesus was both born and resurrected on April 6th. He was killed on the 4th, laid in the tomb, and rose on the third day.
Sunrise
June 20, 2020, the second-longest day of the year. I am up early so that I can watch the sunrise. Sunrise will happen at about 5:15 on the right hand flank of China Cap in the Wallowa Mountains. The sky is filled with a broken cloud cover. The sun is still well below the horizon. Therefore, because of the curvature of the earth, the light of the sun is able to hit the underside of the clouds in my valley. The result is spectacular. An orange, fan-shaped light source below and to the left of China Cap has turned the entire sky orange, yellow, pink, and red.
Read MoreThe Gift of Repentance
Of all the gifts that our Redeemer gave us through His Atonement, surely the gift of repentance is one of the greatest.
Before I learned of this freely-offered gift, I didn’t like myself very much. I was dirty. I was miserable. I was always going to feel that way because there was nothing that I could do about it. I was always going to feel dirty and miserable because of my sins, and I was powerless to stop sinning or to change anything.
Leave Five Things Behind
If you would be a light to the world, as the Savior enjoined His Saints to be, then you should strive to leave positive things in your wake, wherever you go.
Read MoreThree Exodus Events
It strikes me that the experiences of William Brewster were on a parallel with those of Lehi. Lehi’s life was in danger in Jerusalem, and he was commanded by the Lord, “even in a dream, that he should take his family and depart into the wilderness … And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness.” (1 Nephi 2:2, 4).
Read MoreSpring Morning
10 May 2020, 5:10 a.m. I get out of bed and look out my window. Hunt Mountain is encased in a white fog bank with trees and portions of the mountain showing through. It’s beautiful. It’s photo-worthy. I take my camera and go outside. It’s 40-degrees and very damp. It rained hard yesterday afternoon. I empty .71 inch of rain from the rain gauge. Perhaps 12 head of elk are grazing in the grass in the corner of the potato field where the pivot doesn’t reach. The potatoes haven’t come up yet. The dark, damp soil makes a nice contrast with the luxurious spring green of the grass, the light green of the newly-leafed-out aspens, the dark green of the evergreen trees, and the strikingly white fog.
Read MoreThe Fulness of Mine Intent
Nephi wrote that “the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto (God).” (1 Nephi 6:4).
What is the fulness of mine intent? What is yours?
Home Based Church
Marjorie and I are thoroughly enjoying our home church meetings. In my phone conversation with Eli yesterday, I mentioned that if things were normal, it should be fast Sunday, so I had started a fast. He pointed out that our meeting should be a testimony meeting then. That hadn’t occurred to me. Accordingly, after the opening hymn, prayer, sacrament hymn, and blessing of the sacrament, I bore my testimony.
Read MoreDiscipline
The leaders of our ward are struggling with what must seem to them a huge problem. It is a family of four children ages 11 to 4, their unemployed father, and their cancer-stricken mother. The mother has just been sent off to Utah to be cared for by her sisters-in-law. Her leg broke because of the cancer, and her outlook is bleak. The father quit his job to take care of the children.
Read MoreNarrow Viewpoints
When I got out of bed at 5:45, I looked out the back window and noticed a long, narrow strip of sunlight across the lawn. It was perhaps 6-inches wide, and two dozen feet long. It was made by the light of the rising sun coming in the north side of our east window and exiting through the south side of our west window. The sun now rises (3 May) toward the north. As the sun gets higher in the sky it moves south and makes an arc across the sky.
Read MoreTeach Me
It has occurred to me that I have learned few things at church. Nearly everything that I’ve learned has been taught to me by the Spirit. The value of church meetings is not in what I learn there, but in being put in touch with the Holy Ghost. That is the major purpose of church meetings: to put a person in a setting and in a frame of mind where the Spirit can reach him.
Read MoreThey Don’t Make ’em Like They Used To
When I was very little, probably about three or four, I have a dim memory of going with my mother to the Haines Food Center which occupied the space to the south of the post office. She did all of her grocery shopping there. The Helmers ran the store. My dim memory is of going there to access the food locker that Mom and Dad rented. Back in those days no one owned a freezer. In order to freeze the meat that you butchered on the farm, you rented a food locker. Marjorie similarly remembers her uncle, Tom, having a food locker at Jackson’s Food Market, where he put the deer that he got every year.
Read MoreIn An Instant
Mary Magdalene went to the tomb weeping, and in the deepest distress. She found the tomb empty, which compounded her sorrow. She turned to the gardener(as she supposed) who was standing there, and asked where Jesus’ body was. Jesus said, “Mary.” Suddenly recognizing Him, her utmost sorrow was replaced by unspeakable joy in an instant.
Read MoreAnd Then What?
This evening I received a beautiful e-card from my cousin with the Easter message, “He is risen.” I wished that I had something appropriate that I could send in return.
Read MoreConference Notes, Quotes, and Thoughts
1. The audio was eight seconds ahead of the visual transmission for our Saturday afternoon session. That caused a most unfortunate result. President Oaks was conducting the sustaining of officers. Because of the delay, as he asked for any negative votes, the First Presidency all raised their hands each time. At the top of my page of notes I wrote: “When we are slow to react, we may lose the opportunity, and may even bring about the opposite result of what we had hoped.”
Read MoreMy Feelings After Conference
I have just listened to the two Saturday general sessions of April 2020 conference. They were tremendous. Conference was filled with the Spirit. I made notes. There are many things that I want to think about and to write about. As I do so, I know that the Spirit will teach me additional things.
Read MoreBirds I have Known
I have always loved birds. I’m not a serious ornithologist, but I’ve always been interested. I’ve studied the local birds, and know their habits and songs. Most of them I can recognize by sight, flight pattern, or sound. They each have their interesting points.
Read MoreTrip to Town
We ventured to make a trip to town to pay the bills and get some pills. We haven’t been to town for 18 days, and don’t intend to go again for a month. The car’s battery was dead. There are lots of little things that require a small amount of electricity on these new cars; so if they sit unused for a week, the battery gets depleted.
Read MoreUnique Experience?
It is nearly 5:00 A.M. I stood for some minutes in my dark living room contemplating the valley. The valley was in darkness but pockmarked with the lights of people’s yard lights and the lights of Haines. Nothing moved. No one was even out checking their calving cows. Everything is peaceful and still.
Read MoreThe Plan
We must be grateful to Corianton. We are blessed with a great deal of valuable knowledge because of his mistakes. Corianton was the young son of the prophet Alma. He succumbed to temptation, and was thereafter subjected to a 4-chapter lecture from his father. Alma recorded what he taught Corianton, and thus we have some of the best teachings in all of scripture concerning the spirit world, the resurrection of the dead, the seriousness of sexual sin, what happens at death, the Judgment, the necessity of repentance, and a knowledge of the plans that are in place to return us to the presence of God.
Read MoreWake-up Call
Doctrine and Covenants 45:30-31 puts forth a troubling prophecy:
“And in that generation (during the Restoration of the gospel and just preceding the coming of Christ) shall the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
COVID-19
The world is upside down. The COVID-19 virus made its appearance in Wuhan, China in December, and has now spread around the world. It hits the elderly particularly hard. 80% of deaths from the disease are elderly people. 75% of deaths are males. The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared it a pandemic a few days ago. It is particularly bad in Italy, Iran, and South Korea, as well as in China.
Read MoreMy Favorite Color
What’s my favorite color?
It might be turquoise blue,
like the morning sky over the mountain.
When I was 5 I had a cowboy hat that color.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Why do they call wanting to have everything orderly a disorder? “Obsessive compulsive disorder” is a misnomer for sure. I understand OCD people. I like to have everything orderly, but I’m not obsessive about it. I feel compelled to put things right if I have the time and the inclination to do so, but I’m otherwise able to ignore the problem. I don’t have to jump right up to straighten the picture, but I’ll be sure to do it before I leave the room. I believe in leaving the room, or the world, in better shape than when I came in. I live by the maxim, “If not me, who? If not now, when?” It’s what I call “having a sense of responsibility.”
Read MoreGifts
As I knelt to have my evening prayer I was interested to note the words that I used. I thanked my heavenly Father for “the gift of my marvelous wife,” and “the gift of the scriptures” that I was about to read. I then got into bed, opened the Book of Mormon, and the second verse that I read was Mormon telling the people that he was permitted to speak unto them “because of the gift of (God’s) calling unto (him).” (Moroni 7:2).
Read MoreSo Much that We Don’t Know
The scriptures can be maddening. There is so much that we don’t know. Hints are given, but we don’t know the stories behind the hints, and we’re not yet privileged to have the full accounts.
Read MoreAm I Essential to the Plan?
President Nelson has asked us as individuals to do several things this year. He has asked us to each read the Book of Mormon, and to ask ourselves questions as we do so; questions such as, what would my life be like without the Book of Mormon, or could Joseph Smith have written this book? We’re to come up with our own questions.
Read MoreTrain Wreck
I must record two politically-motivated dreams that I’ve had this week.
The first was early Tuesday morning (4 February 2020). Iowa had held its first-in-the-nation caucus the evening before. In the dream I saw a line of ceramic tiles gaily cartwheeling on their corners down a railroad track. They represented the Trump train.
Breakfast Oatmeal
Communication and properly understanding one another is so very important. As I prepared our oatmeal and fruit breakfast this morning, I was reminded of an incident when I was a young teenager. Our parents had gone to Montana to see Dad’s mother, and left Ellen and I home. I fixed oatmeal for our breakfast. I felt very complimented when my little sister said, “This is tasty.”
Read MoreMarji’s Baptism
Marji, in a few minutes your dad and other holders of the Priesthood will sit you down in a chair and give you the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost teaches, protects, warns, comforts, brings peace, testifies of truth, and gives answers to your prayers, problems, and predicaments.
Get Thee into the Mountain
Nephi said, “The voice of the Lord came unto me, saying, Arise, and get thee into the mountain. And…I arose and went up into the mountain, and cried unto the Lord.” (1 Nephi 17:7).
“And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord, wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things.” (1 Nephi 18:3).
World’s Most Valuable Documents
Each member of the Church who is 12 or over is potentially in possession of what are arguably the two most valuable documents in the world. An infinitesimally small number of people have ever even been eligible to possess these two documents, and he or she who does not possess them is in a lamentable and dangerous position.
Read More