![\"399px-Schwappender_Wein\"](\"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/399px-Schwappender_Wein.jpg\" "\\"399px-Schwappender_Wein\\"")
This post is brought to you by the letter \u201cV\u201d. (Don’t worry, that’s grape juice in the picture. Really. I’m sure it is.)<\/p>\nThis post is brought to you by the letter \u201cV\u201d. (Don’t worry, that’s grape juice in the picture. Really. I’m sure it is.)<\/p>\n
Vigor.<\/p>\n
Verdant.<\/p>\n
Vibrant.<\/p>\n
Vivacious.<\/p>\n
AliVe.<\/p>\n
These are the qualities I expect true religion to inculcate.<\/p>\n
Does it make me think more?<\/p>\n
Does it make me love more?<\/p>\n
Does it make me see more?<\/p>\n
Does it make me do more?<\/p>\n
Does it make me be more?<\/p>\n
\u201cThese things are fun and fun is good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Does it make life awesomer, and does it make me awesomer? Or, as Parley P. Pratt so effectively stated:<\/p>\n
The gift of the Holy Spirit\u2026quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation and social feeling. It develops and invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, invigorates and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In the presence of such persons one feels to enjoy the light of their countenances, as the genial rays of a sunbeam. Their very atmosphere diffuse and thrill, a warm glow of pure gladness and sympathy, to the heart and nerves of others who have kindred feelings, or sympathy of spirit\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So why is religion so much associated with the \u201cD\u201d words?<\/p>\n
Dumb.<\/p>\n
Dangerous.<\/p>\n
Debilitating.<\/p>\n
Depressing.<\/p>\n
Dead.<\/p>\n
Our religion doesn\u2019t exist in a vacuum. The church is as true as we make it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This post is brought to you by the letter \u201cV\u201d. (Don’t worry, that’s grape juice in the picture. Really. I’m sure it is.) Vigor. Verdant. Vibrant. Vivacious. AliVe. These are the qualities I expect true religion to inculcate. Does it make me think more? Does it make me love more? Does it make me see more? Does it make me do more? Does it make me be more? \u201cThese things are fun and fun is good.\u201d Does it make life awesomer, and does it make me awesomer? Or, as Parley P. Pratt so effectively stated: The gift of the Holy Spirit\u2026quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections, and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation and social feeling. It develops and invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, invigorates and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":12977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/399px-Schwappender_Wein.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12976"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13030,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12976\/revisions\/13030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}