Introductory Comments to Musings on Gospel Themes.

 Introductory Comments to Musings on Gospel Themes.

During my nearly 90 years of living, I have had many opportunities to be instructed, uplifted, and inspired by the scriptures. This began for me at about age 7, when the president of our Kiel branch sat my brother Klaus and me down, gave us a Book of Mormon, and the pamphlet wherein Joseph Smith tells his own story. He encouraged us to read those regularly, and then extracted a promise that we would do so, a promise which I gladly made and kept.

The occasion for that interview was a result of the war. Kiel was a major base of the German Navy with a large Submarine base. The banks of the harbor also housed many shipyards. Consequently, Kiel was a natural target for the RAF. With nightly bombing raids, the German government instituted a program to relocate children away from immediate danger. The “Kinderlandverschickung” sent Klaus and me to Ebermannstadt in northern Bavaria. Klaus was placed with the local director of the Bank, and I became a member of the Schruefer family, which lived on the cemetery, where they were hired by the city as caretakers and managers.

I had the Book of Mormon and the Joseph Smith story on my night stand next to my bed. An aunt came to visit. She was more Catholic than the Pope. She picked up the Joseph Smith story, rummaged through it and commented: “What a sweet story for Children”. I was furious, “That is not a story, that is the Truth”.

Later as a 15-year-old, I discovered 2 Ne 2 and marveled at the depth of the philosophical content in the context of the Gospel. Since then, a few years ago, I decided to read all standard works yearly. I counted the pages, divided that number by 365 and discovered that if I read 7 pages a day, I could easily read the entire canon of our scriptures by only reading each day for 15 minutes. Furthermore, that left some time for pondering. I followed that plan for three years, then the following years I decided to search for nuggets. Rather than reading carefully, word for word, I skimmed through the pages until a verse touched me, I wrote it down on a spread sheet along with some comments. In this manner I have gone through the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and I am now halfway through the Doctrine and Covenants. The result of this effort is added to the appendix.

The sole reason for writing these Blog Posts is to share the joy I have experienced as I have pondered the scriptures which have given purpose and direction to my life. 

The thoughts expressed in these posts are entirely my own. They have not been reviewed or edited by “Scriptorians”.  I alone am responsible for thoughts expressed. While I hope that principles discussed do not go counter to official Church position, no such inerrancy is claimed.

I hope that you will feel the warmth associated with attempts to draw near to our Savior as you study and ponder. It is my hope that these musings will stimulate you to do so.