“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God…And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” (Revelation 21:2-3, 22-23)

I actually had a dream about red jasper last night. I had several gemstones of it, small, about 1/4″ size, as if someone had cut up and polished pieces of it, and prepared it for a golden mount for a small necklace, but it had fallen out. (Some were flat on the back, like they needed to just be glued into the mount.) And I was picking up these pieces of precious red jasper from off the floor, collecting them in my hands. Some West Indian people were giving me and a few friends a tour, and they had ignored me as I was picking up the gems. I didn’t care, and they didn’t either, as if I were just an addition to the other folks they were more concerned about. Anyways…

I noticed in this verse, it says “And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper…”

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Interesting that you dreamed of Jasper, since it’s first on this list of Zion foundation stones and the traditional first sign of the zodiac is Aries.

We do have a book that has a bunch of crystals in it. We’ll have to compare notes.

I wonder if there is some significance to the Jasper belonging to a necklace…a missing necklace.

Also you atypical behavior was noticed, but not too far out of the norm to warrant any intervention. Some safety in that. Plus people too busy about what they feel is important business, than actually really developing Zion qualities. Your Jasper is foundational, but unimportant to them.

Western Indians, also seems like a symbol of Zion, as Joseph was trying to reach them.

Who’s going to dream of sapphire next? 🙂

Missing, discarded, neglected necklace, perhaps–that you were interested in recovering.
This person lists a few places where the Lord talks about making up his jewels.

https://afterthemannerofchemish.blogspot.com/2016/04/make-up-my-jewels.html?m=1

Maybe it’s a necklace because bedecking a person in jewels is kind of a way of saying they are worthy of them / being them.

Mormons believe that lds is the only way to return to God. 

Remnant broke away and now believe that the above truth rests solely on them now, and their vehicle to God.

The portal, in those 2 religions, to get people to heaven, if I’m understanding correctly, is a temple.

These are external buildings, using high cost materials, that take a lot of efforting and hoops set by external judges, not God, to get to. (I guess we have to wait and see about a remnant temple, but I’m certain you will have to be baptized through them and be a “covenant holder”).

Temples were a common, and central, element to basically all ancient civilizations. The only odd thing about Israel 🇮🇱, as a nation and civilization, is that it didn’t originally have a temple. No temple with Abraham, Issac, or Jacob. Not until Moses is there a semblance of a temple- a tabernacle, which was given them after they declined Gods offer to come up the mount. King David had a nation, but no temple. It was under his son Solomon that Israel finally got a temple. Sadly, within I think 70 years, the temple was destroyed. Even their 2nd temple was destroyed. What is the symbolism here?

Our western culture pretty much has no temple as part of their religion anymore. We have turned to the synagogue (church) for the most part, albeit some churches are gorgeous cathedrals.

Could the abandoned temple structure in western civilizations be seen as a symbol of (the central idea of lds’s term) apostasy? That not only have real, genuine attempts at seeking the face of God been lost, so has the ritualized attempt?

Or could it possibly be a symbol temple edifices are a mockery before God because, as he stated, we are the temple of God, and the earth his footstool? Is the loss of the temple an open invitation to personally seek the face of God?

If Joseph Smith ended the apostasy, if there was, indeed an entire apostasy, what exactly was ended? Was it temple worship? Was it personal relationship with God? Was it returning an ancient bloodline, through Hyrum then Joseph, back on the earth? Two temples were built during their time alive, both lost, one totally destroyed. Is there a symbol there? Should we be attempting to build a new one?

Just some thoughts and questions. I would to open up a discussion. I’m sure I’m missing a lot of other perspectives.

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Great points. I haven’t heard any compelling arguments that convince me that a temple is needed. Just a lot of “because I said so”. I’m still open to that possibility, kind of. Denver said once God’s “chosen” people are almost always an example of failure. Maybe the temple is a symbol of that. As Fred Volcano always quoted revelation where John said of Zion that he saw no temple there. Seems like something important, that he noticed the absence of something. Then there is the first martyr’s statement about temples being condemnatory.

The church was declared to be under condemnation, then three months later the Kirtland Temple was announced.
Found this that I put together in 2017. Has what I basically still think about temples.

http://www.abidein.me/Content/Detail/333

A couple thoughts. On temples.

Temples are earthly gates to heaven. They typically come in two forms; the form of the individual, or the form of a dedicated building.

The Testimony of Jesus is the desired end result of temple activity. The testimony of Jesus is where He, Jesus, Himself, reveals himself to the person and personally gives the individual this testimony.

When Jacob wrestled the angel, when Abraham encountered the cloud between his burnt offering, when Jesus was baptized, when Moses approached the burning bush – these were all temple experiences. This is where the gate of heaven opens and mysteries revealed. Because God appeared to Moses the place became holy , thus he removed his shoes.

The opposite is offered when one goes to a building called temple. The place is holy, not the person, and the place can hopefully pass holiness onto the person instead of the person passing holiness onto the place (as seen in the above personal experiences). Once in the temple the individual is asked to perform the inner workings on himself to receive the testimony of Jesus. As far as my knowledge extends this is a less likely way of going about opening the gate to heaven. A few Melchizedek priests from the first temple likely had the experience, and Zachariah (John the Baptist’s dad) did as well.

The only BoM temple, gate of heaven, testimony of Jesus, experiences I’m aware of happened outside temples, never in them. It wasn’t until after the Bountiful temple was destroyed that Christ appears to an entire people.

Christ was the ultimate temple experience. Because of Him the veil in the second temple, often thought of as the harlot by contemporary Judeans of the day, was rent from top to bottom. There is no separation and we can all, and are all, invited to the gate of heaven ourselves.

I hear an LDS temple has been announced for my hometown Tampa, FL as well as a temple in my current hometown Knoxville. Regardless of which type of temple/gate of heaven/testimony of Jesus experience one seeks; the religion of the fathers, or some modern version, I hope we all acquire the desires of our hearts.

🕊 Jesus Christ came as embodied flesh to this earth to set people free. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother. His law is LOVE and his gospel is PEACE!!!!

❄️ As a result of Christ’s teachings the hypocrisy of Judaism was exposed, and those who claim to stand between you and Christ/God (those who sit in Moses’s seat) were called vipers and condemned by Christ.

🦋 New friends were chosen to spread the good news, the testimony of Jesus, or literally the individual person’s knowledge and face to face experiences and interactions with Jesus.

🕊 Though different: Peter (Petrine Church), Paul (Pauline Church), John (Johannain Church), ect, Christ consciousness, or literally the one unified mind of God, referred to as the Pentecost, was poured out on the heads of the different believers.

🩸 Stephen died for Christ, Paul died for Christ, and the original Christians hid and gathered in secret. Different churches. Different practices. Different people. The One mind/love of Christ.

These people were truly free. Or they were experimenting with freedom and trying to figure it out. They were getting wrong, getting it right, and getting it wrong a little bit more and more and more. Less people were getting the testimony of Jesus, and more false prophets were pretending authority without power. This was/is an inversion. Christ had power yet exercised no authority.

Men had truth – they had Jesus. This happened less and less until they had none. The only thing left to do by then was the Nicean creed and the government religion. This represent all current denominations of Christianity.

I reject this. I’m looking for the testimony of Jesus. I have tasted of his excruciating love. It is incomprehensible and can’t be shared or explained. I now seek to see him face to face; to hear him call me by name, to touch the nail prints in his hands and feet, and eat with him as his guest.

I just got back my HTMA (hair tissue mineral analysis) and I’m shocked. I am not shocked by the results. Some of them I already knew due to years long research and my own attempts to try and help myself. I knew that I was in an exhaustion stage of stress, I knew that I was so mineral deficient that I would be categorized as the 4 lows pattern. I knew that I was no longer metabolizing and had gone into catabolism at some point. I knew I had exhausted my fight or flight and was stuck in my parasympathetic system. I knew I had undergone severe traumas as my life experience.

What shocked me, what shook me to my core, what had me triggered and crying last night as I worked it all out while tapping with Brad, was the fact that an unknown doctor, someone who has never seen my face, heard my voice, or had any knowledge of me outside of the fact that my name is Leslie Burnett, I am 42 years old, and he was holding a small piece of a brown hair sample!!!!! knew me. By only looking at my hair, he knew me.

And yet he knew me. He saw all of these things in a few strands of my hair. Yet he saw more. He knew my oxidation rate as a mixed oxidizer. He knew I had severe inversion that was trauma related. He knew that my thyroid is actually a little overactive while my adrenals had resulted in complete burnout.

But this is what got me, and I was totally shook. He KNEW that I have a spiritual defensive pattern. How could he know the depths of my spiritual trauma when no one who knows me can even comprehend how devastating the effects have been???

Then Micah teased me about comments my niece has made about my weight, that I need to just “eat less and exercise more”. And that was what shook the fuck out of me. I’m certain that I needed that trigger so I could do such a great tapping session with Brad so I could see the Glory of God in all things. My mind, soul, and spirit reels that my parents do not know me even on a surface level. That my sisters invalidate my experiences and are not my friends. That my siblings, nieces, nephews – that I am almost completely not even a member of that family, though somehow flesh and blood. In an email from my Dad after Mother’s Day, sent to shame me for my not contacting my Mom this year, my Dad told me that all of my negativity was not “good for my health”. In all actuality I’m beyond grateful for the intense hatred that I experienced towards my parents so that I could be shocked enough to see things how they truly are. Emotions are neither good nor bad, they are an integral part of our humanity and can be life saving if acted on appropriately. Actually, my weight gain is a desperate attempt by my body to hang on to life and keep on going, to keep me at least walking in the tunnel of death (what this doctor calls the 4 lows pattern of mineral deficiency and toxicity) and not fully just die, likely of cancer. I had no idea but living in the parasympathetic means you just constantly pee your magnesium out. So …. supplements have been good, but there are deeper roots to address.

I’m so thankful to Elizabeth Murphy who posted a quote from Dr. Paul Eck on my crunchy and pharma free group. I’m on a nutritional balancing program now. I’ve been healing these last several years, now I can speed up the process.

But the whole hair sample knowing of me has me back in a place where I was at several years ago. I was spiritual discerning some trauma inducing things when I had a vision (in the middle of the day, wide awake, walking in my yard after a workout session) of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross and I was there. Time had lost its meaning and I was a personal part of my saviors experience as he hung on the cross 2,000 years ago. He knew me. I looked, a deep penetrating looked, into the eyes of Christ and I saw myself reflected back at me.

I am known. I am known. And once again in 2020 I am known. I must continue deep on my journey and know myself.

The first night I was in the hospital with Joshua we laid down together in the hospital bed and Josh pressed his small body up tight and close to mine. My heart was so full and pure love flowed from my body. My mind was filled with the praise to God for every last moment I had been given as a mother to this child up until that very moment. Life is so beautiful and precious, I was/am thankful for every little bit of it that God grants me.

Coming home I was hit with an intense heaviness that was over taking me. I was attempting to listen to my friend chatter about different things and suddenly I just told her, “I can’t”. I thought that was it but she instantly knew that my despondency wasn’t me and she asked for permission to pray for me. I told her yes and mentally and physically checked out and went to try and take care of myself after sleeping over 14 hours and constant weeping the few hours I was awake. As I went to the kitchen for a drink I saw some garbage, used napkins and bread twists ties the kids didn’t throw away, and thought, “I can clean this”. I got my drink and then saw some scattered dishes on the table and counter. I thought,”I’ll clear these up”. Slowly, one thing lead to another and I had washed the dishes and cleaned the entire kitchen. I was cheerful and thinking about the kids. I remembered then Jen had prayed for me and I saw she had sent messages to my phone. She had prayed intercession on my behalf (LDS may use the terminology cast out), and I had truly felt my burden lifted without knowing it.

That day I grew into true joy, and that joy and excitement for life has stayed. I feel so grateful for my life’s journey, good or bad, and thankful for the attempts to try to be my best self in the moment whatever the circumstances. ❤️🦋🦄🌈

My perfection is learning that my life is perfectly framed for my own unique needs, and my experiencing that moment and allowing whatever part of myself the experience produces IS perfect and perfectly teaching me. I am medicine.

In my search for books by Carolyn Myss, Brene Brown, Dr Bessel van der Kolk, and Kelly Brogan, I stumbled upon this little book yesterday afternoon. I brought it home to glance through and see if it was worth reading. Well, it certainly was. You see, I misplaced my LDS fantasies of how I was going to turn out, and how my sons would serve missions, and my children would be safely encircled in the arms of other Mormons who knew us and loved us. I’ve learned the hard way that love hurts and though one may love a child, friend, spouse or parent, as a member of my Mormon story, one [all the other people, family, I thought loved me] loves the organization much much more.

It’s okay. All of it is okay. We are all each seeking for our Truth, and we are all doing the best we can, sometimes that best carries us and others through, sometimes that best lets us down. I resigned from the LDS church June 2015, but I do not walk away from who I am, the belief that shaped me and framed my world, or the God I learned to love and feel loved me in return. I finally accept the rejection of myself from the household of my faith, and I let go of trying to prove my worth and my longing nostalgia to be heard, seen, loved, understood.

For a long time I’ve mourned my loss; of self, of hope, of purpose. For even longer I’ve been keenly aware of my differences from other people, groups, ideas, ect. Yet today I’ve finally felt the beginning awakenings of the truth “that big messy spiral of people, moving, trying to find God. That right there is Zion. Get there however you can.” (Parentheses above taken from the book). The truth that I long believed of not belonging, it turns out that I actually do. I belong to this messy mass of beautiful humanity searching for truth. I never understood before just how much I truly belong!

Vi veri universum vivus vici – “By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe”.

In a number of both Eastern and Western meditative traditions, the principle of dying before you die is taught and practiced.

Christ, in his physical presence, could only traverse the geographic locations of his home, walking in sandals in the desert. As he went about he shared of his life presence “and Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him”.

In the garden of gethsemane, as Christ sweat great drops of blood, I believe he went through the greatest most triumphant die before you die, or better, while living he conquered the universe of all humankind experience, one that expanded beyond the personal, and reached out into the cosmos. I wonder if at this time he freely released within himself that power, or virtue, that he felt leave him as he healed, saved, forgave, and loved the world. Finally, in the last hours of his crucifixion, he forgave us all “for we know not what we do” and then he returned with his father in Heaven.

Now on Easter morning, as we approach the tomb and find it empty, we too, like the apostles of old who knew and loved him during his life, we get to ponder the words and opportunity before us “Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

The kingdom of God is in the midst of you.

And like a wave with the epicenter being The Empty Tomb, Christ’s power has come to all the world. That Cosmic Covenant, more ancient and deeply abiding than the covenant of Moses, the one that all of the ancient fathers and mothers walked into, having died before they died, having been given a new name, walking in the inner kingdom of heaven where Christ sits as God of this world on his eternal throne in the holy of holies, the kpr or covering or atonement with him, we too are invited to find that inner kingdom, to walk the Christ path, to meet our Savior face to face, and to hear him know our name.

Christ is not dead, for he is risen. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

“Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees takes off his shoes”. – Elizabeth Barret Browning Aurora Leigh

Have you found your own burning bush? Have you taken off your shoes and approached? Have you died to your old self and old way of life? Have you, while living, conquered your own personal universe?

The Empty Tomb invites you …..

All “knowledge” is finite because, by its very nature, it is a conclusion. Any conclusion regarding the infinite and eternal is also an exclusion, thus must be only a part, i.e., this is so but that is not so. Our natural minds, even with great revelations, cannot comprehend the whole. That is why the infinite light shines in the finite darkness and the darkness comprehends it not. – Max Skousen, Finding the Mark

Leslie’s Sonnet

When sorrow feels itself my truest friend

The world, upon my breast, is weighted down

I cast my eyes about, “Is there an end?”

My troubles hang about me, I am bound!

Confusion calls my name, and I am lost

Such fiends, as of old, strike deadly blows

The world exacts from all tremendous cost

The price of which the Lord most surely knows!

The baby in my arms will gently rest

My children standing with me at my side

I find shelter on my husbands’ loving chest

With these loves my spirit doth confide.

When nations fall and worlds are torn apart

My family holds me safely in their heart.

I wrote this sometime in 2010.