Today's Spiritual Message: Reclaimed -- Letting Go of Our Old Garbage

How often do you want to dig up your own or others' spiritual garbage?  What a discouraging prospect, when the Savior of us all gave His life and "[bled] from every pore" to blot out our transgressions and make us clean (see Doctrine & Covenants 19:18 and Mosiah 3:7).



Let's give up our old garbage and accept the Savior's atoning sacrifice, so we can be "purified even as he is pure" (see Moroni 7:48).

A Majorily Minor Chrome Discovery: Use "Tab" to Navigate Chrome's Omnibox Results

For a long time, I whined and moped about how in Firefox, I could tab down from the address bar to various search results, while in Chrome I had to use the arrow keys to navigate between them.  I imagine most of you will now grasp the meaning behind this post's title.

Well, fellow keyboard shortcut geeks, rejoice because we can now use "Tab" to navigate omnibox results!

As Salieri would say, "Finally! Such an immense joy. Diletto straordinario!"

Yep, go ahead and give it a whirl.  You might think it would conflict with tab-to-search, yet they exist in perfect keyboard shortcut harmony.  Ah, the world is saved.  The galaxy is at peace.  Samus may now relax until the next Metroid installment.

By the way, if you seldom visit my Google+ lair, you might enjoy an earlier post about an extension for searching only your bookmarks.

War in the Book of Mormon

Recently, I've been reading from the "war chapters," found in the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon.

Read about Moroni and the "title of liberty" he raised:
"In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children"

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we witness that "[the Book of Mormon] does not merely claim to be a moral treatise or theological commentary or collection of insightful writings. It claims to be the word of God—every sentence, every verse, every page."

If every part of this book claims to be the word of God, why is there so much discussion of war, in general and, occasionally, certain wars, in particular?  I did some research, this morning, and found an article from Richard Dilworth Rust, addressing the topic.  Here is an excerpt:

Who will fight the battles for the "true worshipers of Christ"? Ultimately, God: "I will show unto them that fight against my word and against my people, who are of the house of Israel, that I am God, and that I covenanted with Abraham that I would remember his seed forever" (2 Nephi 29:14).
What, then, does the Book of Mormon do concerning this latter-day warfare? It shows the fundamental nature of the battle and gives hope to the Lord's people. With accounts of the victories of small minorities against overwhelming odds (often with no lives of the righteous being lost) or of escapes from their enemies (as with the people of Lehi, Nephi, Mosiah, Alma the elder, and Limhi), it confirms the truth . . ., "God will provide strength for the righteous and the means of escape."

I strongly suggest you read the full article (pretty quick read, maybe 5-10 minutes). I think you'll really enjoy it.

Let me add some likely duplicative insights of my own:  Rarely does the Book of Mormon give a blow-by-blow description of things such as army formations or granular tactics in battles or wars.  Instead, they are almost always spoken of in generalities and illustrate the power of God in delivering His people.  As the book's first prophet-writer explained of his own purpose in writing, "I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."  1 Nephi 1:20.  I believe the prophet-historian-abridger Mormon and other writers often illustrate this concept and promise in the Book of Mormon through examples of war.

Let me conclude by adding my witness that the Book of Mormon is what it claims to be.  It is the word of God, "every sentence, every verse, every page."  I know this is true because I have received confirmation of it from the quiet assurances of the Holy Spirit, and so can all who sincerely ask.

Taking Offense

"Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!"  Matthew 18:7.

This message is for me, as much as it is for anyone who reads this.

This morning, I read the following from the Book of Mormon student manual, pg. 259, Alma 60:19–36. Moroni’s Letter to Pahoran:

Pahoran could have chosen to be offended by the letters sent by Moroni, but he did not. Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles described the fact that we, like Pahoran, can choose to not be offended:

Elder David A. Bednar

“When we believe or say that we have been offended, we usually mean we feel insulted, mistreated, snubbed, or disrespected. And certainly clumsy, embarrassing, unprincipled, and mean-spirited things do occur in our interactions with other people that would allow us to take offense. However, it ultimately is impossible for another person to offend you or to offend me. Indeed, believing that another person offended us is fundamentally false. To be offended is a choice we make; it is not a condition inflicted or imposed upon us by someone or something else. . . . 

“Through the strengthening power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, you and I can be blessed to avoid and triumph over offense. ‘Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them’ (Psalm 119:165). . . . 

“. . . As described by Elder Neal A. Maxwell, the Church is not ‘a well-provisioned rest home for the already perfected’ (in Conference Report, Apr. 1982, 57; or Ensign, May 1982, 38). Rather, the Church is a learning laboratory and a workshop in which we gain experience as we practice on each other in the ongoing process of ‘perfecting the Saints.’ 

“Elder Maxwell also insightfully explained that in this latter-day learning laboratory known as the restored Church, the members constitute the ‘clinical material’ (see ‘Jesus, the Perfect Mentor,’ Ensign, Feb. 2001, 13) that is essential for growth and development. . . . 

“You and I cannot control the intentions or behavior of other people. However, we do determine how we will act. Please remember that you and I are agents endowed with moral agency, and we can choose not to be offended” (in Conference Report, Oct. 2006, 95–97; or Ensign, Nov. 2006, 90–91).

I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.  I think you will also love this talk by Elder Neil L. Andersen, given in October 2010.

Yesterday's Spiritual Message: Staying in Bounds

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me."  John 15:4.

In a world striving to convince itself there is no moral right or wrong, the Savior Jesus Christ invites us all to live a virtuous life, like His, and requires those who represent Him as missionaries to be clean.

 

The Chrome Wrench Icon Morphs Into Hot Dogs

For those of you (fellow) Chrome fanatics, I think you'll appreciate a brief dip back into Chromeland from me.

You may already be aware the Chrome team is considering (or planning?) to change the menu/wrench icon into a hot-dogs-looking graphic.  Observe the difference, from my Canary and stable builds:

Maybe hot dogs simply taste better than monkey wrenches.

Maybe the wrench would taste better with some Franch fries, dressing, bread, or perhaps, a bottle of Peru.

What do you think?  Would you rather look for/click on hot dogs or a wrench?  I can see the concern of how the lines would help people think of a menu, while the wrench would invite inappropriate thoughts of tinkering and settings.

ChromeStory reader Gil points out that in giving tech support to family members, referencing the wrench is real a time saver.  On the other hand, what about those poor type-writer users who think clicking on the wrench will, at a minimum, blow up the computer, if not all of humanity and they're too afraid to ask for help?

What say ye?  "Long Live the Wrench!" or "Vive La Différence!"?  Please sound off.

Eat Mor Chikin

Cross-posted from my Google+ account.

We ran into some crazy lines at Chick-fil-A, today, and we loved it.  (Loved the food, too.)