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Ongofu - an LDS (Mormon) Blog
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Consideration of things pertaining to righeteosness, inspiration, and hope.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'christianity'
The sufficiency paradox, understanding the atonement
The atonement is the single greatest event in history, nothing else even compares, and as the single most important and relevant event in each of our own individual lives, it deserves our attention. U...
Ongofu on Twitter!
For those of you who don’t know what twitter is - it’s a micro-blogging platform. Whereas with a blog you post fewer, but longer articles, on Twitter you post a lot more frequent (and va...
The sleeping sickness, a spiritual plague
Between 1915 and 1926, but especially in 1920, a plague swept the world. They called it “Encephalitis lethargica”, also called “sleepy sickness” or “sleeping sickness&#...
Ongofu in China - blogging in Chinese!
Several years ago I had the opportunity to serve two years as a full-time LDS (Mormon) missionary in Sydney Australia, speaking Mandarin Chinese. It was the most amazing experience of my life. Durin...
Michael Phelps – setting and achieving goals
Last week when we were on the Oregon coast, after freezing in the Pacific Ocean for a bit, I decided to warm up on the beach and make a sand sculptor. Since all of our family had been cheering on th...
Two lessons from Michael Phelps
Friday night, Michael Phelps fought to win his 7th straight gold medal in the 2008 Summer Beijing Olympics, allowing him to officially tie the prior record from former Olympian Mark Spitz. With all th...
Scriptures for the iPhone
For all of you iPhone fans (like myself), you’ll be happy to know that on August 6th, Michael Jensen (who brought us www.ReadScriptures.com - the free, web-based app) released a full-fledged (n...
Finding your own personal sweet spot
In the world of business there’s this little thing called the COP model. COP is an acronym where each letter stands for “Competency”, “Opportunity”, and “Passion&...
Family Time
The last 7 days we’ve been on vacation at the Oregon Coast (which, by the way, is why I haven’t posted much). Today we’re flying home, and all the parents are going through withdra...
Celebrating 50,000 page views
Speaking of setting goals, in January of this year, inspired by a call by Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, wherein he encouraged Mormons to take a more active role in buildin...
Michael Phelps – Making your dreams come true
Tonight I watched the incredible men’s 4×100 freestyle relay, as the United States Olympic team put to bed the taunting from the French team, destroying the prior world record, and taki...
A Christian call to action
Fighting has broken out between Georgia and Russia, and is taking place right in the Georgian capital. CNN is reporting that heavy casualties have been reported on both sides. Lyudmila Ostayeva, who...
Little Lin Hao - a survivor, hero, and example
Watching the Olympics is always inspirational to me. But tonight I found a bit of extra inspiration from little Lin Hao, who walked aside the giant Yao Ming as the Chinese athletes toured the great ...
The grand panorama of scripture
Once upon a time there was a man who was given a map, and was told that if he followed the instructions on this map, he would find treasure untold. Excited by the prospect of this treasure map, he s...
Inspiring words for those who need them
Today as I was looking through the search phrases people have used over the past few days that led them to my blog, I found that two separate people had typed the identical phrase: “Inspiring wo...
An eternal perspective - what role will you play?
We are encompassed about by things of no eternal consequence, but which ceaselessly fill our lives, occupy our thoughts, and consume our time… the vain aspirations of man and the constant ongoin...
The touch of the master’s hand
‘Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it was hardlyworth his while to waste much time with the old violin, but he held it up with a smile. “Give me a dollar, and who’ll ...
Putting life into perspective
I absolutely love a freshly cut lawn. There’s just such a harmonious, orderly, and clean appearance to it. It looks, to the passerby, consistent and smooth, well tended. But have you ever ...
Craig (from Craigslist) has faith in people
If you’re unfamiliar with the highly popular site “Craigslist” (www.craigslist.com), it’s a classified ads site where you can go and list and purchase things that are for sale....
Seeking for evidence
Recently the topic of evidence-seeking has come up frequently in comments on my posts, and I decided it warranted further exploration. Is it weakness or folly to believe without evidence as Larry sugg...
Suffering in silence
Last night I struggled through most of the night with a terrible recurring dream. In my dream, I had gone to the house of someone I knew to help them with something. I’m not sure who exactly...
Picking the lock of salvation
For those of you who weren’t aware, last week was the national HOPE conference in New York. No, this isn’t a self-help conference teaching us how to increase our capacity to hope (I wish...
What religion can learn from science
Appetite. That’s what seems so prevalent in the world of science and so often lacking in religion, the appetite to constantly learn more, to not be satisfied with what we have, to continuously...
Your spiritual ecosystem
An ecosystem includes you and all that surrounds you. It’s the whole of your environment and the affect that it has on you. Ecosystems are powerful things, and they have a big impact on their ...
Having a hard time feeling the spirit?
As I mentioned here (How often do you feel the spirit?), the frequency with which we feel the spirit can be an accurate measure of our spiritual “status” and regular measurement can help g...
How often do you feel the spirit?
I’m a big fan of measurement. I think that unless you frequently measure those things in your life that matter most to you, then you’re achieving less than you could. Simply the act of...
Gratitude, the key to righteous desire
Throughout my study of the scriptures, I often find recurring themes. One of those is the use of gratitude to instill righteous desire. One clear instance of this within the Book of Mormon is in the...
Buying the iPhone 3G
Buying the iPhone 3G In case you wondered why there was no post on Friday, it’s because I spent all day standing in line to buy the new iPhone 3G - 10 hours to be exact, and the whole process ta...
Faith - a poem
Faith Edgar A. Guest It is faith that bridges the land of breath To the realms of the souls departed, That comforts the living in days of death, And strengthens the heavy-hearted. It is faith in his d...
Principle based leadership
We all are given opportunities to lead. Some lead vast organizations, others small teams, and still others, a family. A leader is one who is so clearly focused on the destination, that they’re...