Normally I just post a link to my blog, but being the Easter lesson, I’m including it here in entirety, including a link to the original post on my blog.

This lesson covers the entire Holy Week leading to the death and resurrection of Christ. It includes Matthew 21-28, and the manual includes a suggested daily reading of those events that occur on each day. What a wonderful way to worship through the entire week.

The Return of the King
Matthew 21

Come Follow Me – Matthew 16–17; Mark 8–9; Luke 9

Here’s my newest post on Come Follow Me. Share your thoughts on the lesson in the comments.

https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2019/04/come-follow-me-matthew-1617-mark-89.html

Last General Conference we didn’t live blog, because the Church now swiftly puts up video and text archives that make it unnecessary for us to attempt to summarize.

But if the past is any guide, General Conference this weekend will involve some exciting news. So we’ll see what happens…

Click more if you are interested in concise notes of Conference Proceedings. Names of speakers are linked to their archived Conference addresses or their biography.

Hat tip to Mike Parker for a reminder of these two scriptures:

³Behold, I, the Lord, command; and he that will not obey shall be cut off in mine own due time, after I have commanded and the commandment is broken. ⁴Wherefore I, the Lord, command and revoke, as it seemeth me good; and all this to be answered upon the heads of the rebellious, saith the Lord. (D&C 56:3–4)

³⁰Who am I that made man, saith the Lord, that will hold him guiltless that obeys not my commandments? ³¹Who am I, saith the Lord, that have promised and have not fulfilled? ³²I command and men obey not; I revoke and they receive not the blessing. ³³Then they say in their hearts: This is not the work of the Lord, for his promises are not fulfilled. But wo unto such, for their reward lurketh beneath, and not from above. (D&C 58:30–33)

Michael Davidson is a repentant attorney, father and husband. This post is cross posted to his personal blog “Exploring Redemption.”

It seems that the excitement of General Conference started a bit early this year.  The Deseret News and the Church Newsroomhad articles this morning talking about changes to policies related to discipline of people engaged in same sex marriages and the legal children of such individuals.  Despite a lack of specifics regarding what the new guidance in the Handbook entail, the usual suspects are declaring victory. Some are claiming that this vindicates the role of activism in the Church towards changing Church teachings; others are claiming that this is being forced by a drop in tithing revenue; while others are claiming that this is an effective repudiation of revelation as a guiding force in the Church.  All of this is nonsense.

Let’s put some of the discussion in context.  In the summer of 2015, there was a young lesbian couple who were attending a ward in the Seattle Washington North Stake.  They got engaged and announced their intention to be married publicly.  According to their blog entries about this matter, this resulted in a series of conversations with their bishop and their stake president in which they were told in no uncertain terms that they would face church discipline if they went ahead with their plans to marry.  These blog posts created a great stir in some quarters, and I suspect that the bishop and stake president involved received communications of varying degrees of politeness in response.