1. Feeling very refreshed in God.
2. A dump truck unloaded a big pile of S.E. Idaho Snake River lava rock in my backyard. This week, I placed a 9 foot rugged cross (two thick cross beams) in the middle of the lava rock. Backyard barbecues will never be the same again.
3. In the future months ahead: to God be the Glory!
4. For only God can get the glory for such conversions as BYU professor Lynn Wilder (HT: Tim). John 6:44 is real.
Jesus in Idaho Falls 
Good to have you back, Todd. I am glad you enjoyed your time with the Lord. Love the new landscaping decor in your yard. 🙂 The neighbors are sure to notice.
God bless,
gloria
Welcome back, Todd. Cross looks good. (Now all you need is an outdoor altar to go with it).
John 6:44 is indeed real, although the Augustinian/Calvinist spin that you give it: well, not so much. “WHOSOEVER will may come.”
Beyond that, John 6:53 is also real.
This really isn’t my taste, even if I were a creedal Christian. Sorry, but it looks gaudy.
John 6:44 is real, so is John 6:53, and Todd, you need to know that Matthew 5, 6, and 7 are real too.
In my personal communion with God, I have been reading Exodus. Indeed God is life-giving food and drink.
And I preached Matthew 7 to teens a couple weeks ago, the climax of Christ’s sermon.
Uh, John, I can understand that this may not be to your taste, but “gaudy” is not the word I would use: quite the opposite actually.
Also, are you endorsing a traditional reading of John 6:53, a reading which understands it in terms of the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper?
Greg, as a Latter-day Saint, I do believe that accepting Christ includes partaking of what we call the Sacrament with bread and wine (nowadays water) representing Christ’s flesh and blood because in doing so we are covenanting with God to be disciples of Christ.
Well, John, the water thing is in and of itself problemmatic, and “representing” is not the same thing as “being”.
Greg, I’m neither Catholic nor Greek Orthodox so it follows that I don’t believe that the bread and water of which I partake on Sunday actually literally are flesh and blood.
As Latter-day Saints we partake of the bread and water in rememberance of Him and as a covenantal act in which we promise to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, always remember Him and keep His commandments and as a prayer that we can have His Spirit to be with us.
I like the cross, especially because it is empty and the work there is done. That He has fulfilled all righteousness, becoming sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God, an alien and imputed righteousness apart from any work on our behalf.