There has been a great deal going on. Instead of detailing everything, I would like to share with you what Charlie and I learned through all that we have experienced. We needed to learn these things through powerful demonstrations of God’s grace and Satan’s darkness.
I live for talking about God. It is my favorite thing in the world and that’s what is on my heart. If you want to know me at all, you will undoubtedly get to know God in some way, because he is important to me and I recognize that the whole narrative of my life is God’s revelation to me. Knowing God is what my life’s story is about and loving God and loving others is what my life is about (though sin is also a large part of my life). This is something I expected to share with the Mormons I encounter, but that was a mistake.

Because God’s law is written on my heart (under the New Covenant, Jeremiah 33 etc), doctrine is central to who I am and how I have experienced it is central to my story. However, LDS doctrine is more of a wall that Mormons hide behind. When they talk about what they have learned they repeat phrases they have been taught and not what they have experienced (aside from the burning in the bosom). To get to the heart of a Mormon person, we must avoid talk of doctrine which usually leads to more and more arguments.
A conversation between me and a Mormon that does not get specifically into doctrine will eventually end up in us opening our hearts. When our hearts are cracked open to one another, I will find darkness and longing and he or she will find Christ. I cannot say this will always be the case and there probably are lots of Mormons that really live for what they have been taught, but I can’t have that expectation if I am really going to touch them with the love of Christ.
Mormonism, especially in Utah, is a culture. I don’t understand how to navigate it yet, but it is a distinct people group. Mormons are event considered an ethnic group because they have their own world, their own practices and their own communities. I was told most of the born and bred Mormons in Utah are the descendants of the original LDS pioneers that settled in Salt Lake.
It isn’t going to be easy to understand the deeply held values that these people hold, but I am starting to get it more. Yesterday I met with a girl who left LDS for Christ last February. She wants to start a group for people leaving LDS to get their questions answered. She will be able to help them with the tough transition and give them the courage to make the decision. I will be able to help answer their questions and explain what the Bible means without the LDS bends. I am so excited about this and am so excited that I get to know her better.

While Charlie was out here, God put on his heart to start a prayer team. We want to transcend divisions and unite together as the body of Christ and Temple of the Holy Spirit and priesthood of believers to pray that Christ will be made known to Mormons. This needs to be done in a love for Christ and for Mormons. Our goal is to get a prayer team the size of the LDS Church, which is about 14 million. That is insane, we know, but reading 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2 has showed us that God uses the foolish things to confound the wise, and the small and weak to destroy the great and powerful. Please consider joining us in this endeavor. We ask that you read those two chapters with special attention to 2:1-5 and then commit to praying once a week that Mormons will know Christ. Go to
www.foolsforchristjesus.org for more information and to make this commitment.

We ask that whether or not God puts this specific ministry on your heart, you pass this on to your Christian friends, church family and pastors. If this prayer team isn’t your ministry, that is great. Glory to God who has a specific call on each of our lives. Find what that is and live for it. If God gets together a vast prayer army, to him be the glory! If he instead uses it to get together the 15 people signed on thus far to pray, let’s pray fervently and worship God for using his church to ask that his light pierce this darkness.
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