Introduction: Through the Wardrobe

Hello and welcome to my blog! I originally began a blog about a year and a half ago, intended to teach others about what I believed about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I had a whole schedule ahead of me, knowing what I wanted to write and talk about, but life and laziness got the better of me. After a while, I realized that I was trying to teach others while I was still in the process of being taught by God. God spent a great deal of time teaching me humility, making me realize my position before God. It was as Jacob says in the Book of Mormon:

" And whoso knocketh, to him will he open. And the wise and the learned and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning and their wisdom and their riches, yea, they are they whom he despiseth. And save they shall cast these things away and consider themselves fools before God and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them. But the things of the wise and the prudent shall be hid from them forever, yea, that happiness which is prepared for the saints." (NC 2nd Nephi 6:11)

Over the past several years I have recognized just how little I actually knew about the Gospel and of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, I decided to scrap my old blog, and renew it in a completely new format and style. This blog will no longer be dedicated to teaching other about my views about the gospel. I am not adequate to teach as I have not been sufficiently taught in the ways of eternal life as of yet. So this blog will instead be a record of the things the Lord teaches me- so that this may act as a journal for my own thoughts, and hopefully as a springboard for each of your individual journeys toward Christ. So now, let's take care of a few housekeeping items. 

1. Why Aslan? - You might have noticed by now that this blog is very Narnian themed for being a blog about Jesus and spirituality. One of the first memories I have of reading (other than Harry Potter, of course) is a children's book given out with the kids meal at Chick-Fil-A adapted from "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe." This was my first real experiences of my parents reading to me, and even though I didn't know the whole story, I became entranced by it. I later found out that this little book was part of a larger book in a larger series, and was determined to read them. I read all of them in elementary school, and loved them all. However, all the religious meaning of this great series went right over my young head. I was not particularly interested in any facet of religion or spirituality at that point in my life, so Narnia was just another cool fantasy series I liked. I even mocked the other kids at my school where we watched the movie for their comparison of Aslan's sacrifice with Jesus'. There wasn't any deeper meaning behind this! It was just another cool fantasy series like Harry Potter! 

Fast forward several years later to my freshman year of high school. I was suffering through loneliness and depression, and was in a pretty bad place spiritually. But the Lord, ever mindful of me, placed in my path a talk given by Jeffery R Holland entitled "None Were With Him"- a sermon given about Christ's own loneliness and pain. For the first time in my life, Jesus was more than an idea or a stern faced God sitting high up in the clouds near Kolob. He was an actual person who felt pain, loneliness, frustration and heartbreak like me. And he was someone I wanted to know. So since then, I've been on the path back into his presence, and my eyes were opened. I suddenly realized that Narnia WAS about the Plan of Salvation- from the Creation to the Passion of Christ (Aslan) to the end of this mortal world and on into eternity. But for that moment, that is all it was- a symbolic retelling of the scriptures. 

Time moved on, and once again I found myself unable to relate to this Jesus I was seeking. I knew he was human, and he was good, but he seemed so far off. I was kneeling down with a group of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in a home after partaking of the sacrament and praying to God for forgiveness of my sins and to feel of his love and mercy. I tried to picture the Savior as I had grown up knowing him- a walking Del Parson painting, but as I tried something else began to burst into my mind like the rays of sunlight illuminating a dark room: Aslan, walking along the shores of his country. Throughout the entire prayer I was dumbfounded. Why was Christ portraying himself as Aslan in my mind?

Later that year, I was led by the Spirit to one of the greatest books on Christ ever written: Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldredge. This book (and video series) expertly shows the beauty of Jesus' personality- his cunning, his playfulness, his sense of humor, his fierce intention, his generosity, and so much more-  and how that makes us fall in love with him even more. Suddenly, Aslan from Narnia no longer just an image or type of Christ, but he was as Lewis said, Jesus himself. 

"If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality however, he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, "What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?" This is not allegory at all." - C.S. Lewis 

"And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." 

― C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

Jesus no longer was the stern, imposing figure I so frequently have seen in paintings hanging on the walls of LDS chapels, and neither was he the whispy, limp figure etched in the stained glass of cathedrals. He was like Aslan- bold, fierce, gentle, funny, wild and free. This was a figure that I could approach, a person I could know and love. And that is the Jesus I hope to proclaim. 

2. Ummmm.... Where Are You Getting Those Scriptures?- So, I use a different set of scriptures than most denominations that claim Joseph Smith as their founder. This set of scriptures was brought together by two groups of volunteers who desired to create the most accurate set of scriptures available to honor the restoration of the gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. They worked separately at first, unbeknownst to the other group, but were brought together by the hand of the Lord to work together. This scripture project is the only set of scriptures to date with the full, most accurate Joseph Smith Inspired Translation (including what Joseph transmitted orally), the Book of Mormon, and the Lectures on Faith as well as modern revelations given through the Lord's servant today. There are three volumes in these scriptures: The Old Covenants (the Old Testament), the New Covenants (the New Testament and the Book of Mormon), and the Teachings and Commandments (the Lectures on Faith, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, the Testimony of St. John, and continuing revelation) The Lord has accepted this set of scriptures for his work among his covenant people for now, with the promise that there will be more yet to come. 

"I, the Lord, say to you, with these additions, what you have gathered as scriptures are acceptable to me for this time and contain many plain and precious things. Nevertheless, whoso is enlightened by the Spirit shall obtain the greater benefit, because you need not think they contain all my words nor that more will not be given, for there are many things yet to be restored unto my people. It is ordained that some things are only to be given to people who are mine and cannot otherwise be given to mankind on Earth. You do not yet understand the glory to be revealed unto my covenant people." (T&C 157:44)

As of the writing of this post, this scripture project is near final completion, and the latest updates can be found at scriptures.info. Later this year the project will wrap up and you will be able to get nice, leather bound versions of all three volumes. I long for that day. 

3. The "Request Baptism" link- That button, my friends, deserves its own blog post for the explanation. So, be on the lookout for that! 

I believe that's all the housekeeping items I have for this introduction. So, let us go on this grand adventure through the wardrobe (or the bloggosphere) and seek the presence of our Savior!

"And then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he hath talked with me face to face, and that he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things. And only a few have I written because of my weakness in writing. And now I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father and also the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen." (NC Ether 5:8)

"Look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him, everything else." - C.S Lewis