Practices

Run to Remember’s Prayer Circle

4 Comments

Running group Run to Remember joins in a prayer circle before a run.

Running group Run to Remember joins in a prayer circle before a run. Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army. (Photo Credit: Ingrid Barrentine)

As I go throughout my daily living, I’m interested whenever I come upon something that reminds me of the temple.  It could be as simple as something that recalls a temple ordinance, a principle that is taught in the temple, or even the temple architecture.  As I read today in Runner’s World magazine, the story “Moving Comfort,” from the February 2011 issue, had an impression on me.

A little background.  I’m a runner.  I started running back in June of 2009, and have only stopped occasionally for sickness or injury (got the flu once, probably H1N1, and Achilles tendinitis).  Since that time I’ve logged 723 miles in 193 runs, and just recently surpassed 100,000 calories burned.  Last year I ran the Utah Valley Half Marathon in 2:06, and am planning on the Shamrock Half Marathon next month, and hopefully the Utah Valley Marathon in June.

[Read more…]

Temple Video Series: Part 1 – Sacred Space

3 Comments

David Tayman from the blog Visions of the Kingdom, and David Larsen from Heavenly Ascents, have teamed up to produce a series of short YouTube videos on the ancient temple.  The focus of the presentations will be to explore the nature, function, doctrine and ritual of the ancient temple.  This is done with the purpose of providing a richer experience and understanding to our modern temple worship.  They are very well done, with great sound, video, and narration.  I will feature them here as they are produced.

Thanks to the Davids for providing these fantastic videos! Did you gain any new insights from the video above? Feel free to share with us your thoughts in the comments below.

The Universal Creation Song

18 Comments

Music is a fundamental part of worship, and was even more so anciently than it is today.  Before the printed word made the sacred word so accessible to the masses, it was passed on from generation to generation orally.  But this was not just the spoken word.  In order for the word to be remembered and said the same way over and over again, over decades and centuries, a mnemonic device was employed to facilitate the reciter.  This device was music.  The sacred word, every word, was put to music.

This can be seen in the way the Bible is written in Hebrew, one of the oldest languages in the world.  In Hebrew, particularly the Hebrew Bible, there are cantillation marks that specify how the text should be sung:  [Read more…]

Running Champion Bernard Lagat and Nandi Initiation

5 Comments

U.S. professional running champion, Bernard Lagat

It is fascinating to me all the places that I hear or see or read glimpses of temple theology, the “scattered fragments” of ritual tradition ((Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment, xxvii)).  As Nibley found out, and taught extensively, these remnants are found all around us, everywhere.  My wife was listening to the radio on the way to the grocery store last week, and heard part of a program on Classical 89 that related to the Creation song.  She came home and told me about it, and I was immediately interested, and tracked down the transcription.  I’m still studying that, and will write about it soon.  But today, again, I was reading the February 2010 edition of Runner’s World, of all places, and came across references to ritual initiation and rites of passage.  [Read more…]

Store Owner Commands Robber to Leave in the Name of Jesus

4 Comments

I received an email today of this interesting video clip.  It is a news story from earlier this month of store owner Marian Chadwick from Frisco, Texas, who encountered a hooded robber that entered her store with a gun.  The gunman walked up to the store counter and demanded money.  The store owner pointed at him and commanded him, in the name of Jesus, to leave the store immediately.  The gunman took a step back and told a customer to drop to the floor.  The store owner repeated the commands.  The robber slowly backed up and fled the store.

In an interview the store owner said that when the robber was leaving he started cussing at them, “as if Satan was walking out the door.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2YEO-_-Yhw