“What is so good about Nephi’s name?”

We knocked off yet another of our must-do traditions on Saturday night.  Well, one of mine, anyway.  We took our niece and a friend of hers to Ruby’s Diner, on the Pacific Coast Highway just south of Newport Beach, on the cliff overlooking the sea.  There, sitting on the bench, we enjoyed burgers and, most important of all, I enjoyed a date milkshake.  I’ve been enjoying date milkshakes at that Ruby’s since I can remember.

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I’m impressed, in Acts 2:22-36, with the courage and forthrightness of the apostles in confronting the authorities over their wrongful execution of Jesus (less than two months earlier) and in powerfully bearing their testimonies.  Here’s the passage in the English Standard Version:

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus,[a] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.25 For David says concerning him,

29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

I wrote a column reflecting on this subject back in 2011:

“Apostles became fearless preachers”

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Book of Mormon Central and the Interpreter Foundation are sister organizations whose leaders are longtime friends, and, although the two groups don’t coordinate closely, they partner together and are working toward perhaps closer partnership.  You can see something of our relationship in this very helpful piece from Book of Mormon Central:

“What Is So Good about Nephi’s Name?”

Please notice the source from which the material is drawn.

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I missed this, of course:

“Mormon arts festival in NYC will feature ‘lost’ musical compositions from Utah composers”

I hope that something will come from it that the rest of us can read (or hear).

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Don’t miss the Interpreter Radio Show, Sunday nights at 7 PM, Utah time:

The Interpreter Radio Show

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“Praise for Jared W. Ludlow’s New Book, Exploring the Apocrypha from a Latter-day Saint Perspective”

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“History-making leaders bring ‘new experience’ to Mormon church”

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“‘Time to bury our weapons’: Black LDS leader harbors ‘magnificent hopes’ for church’s racial future”

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A nice new piece on the blog of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

“Avoiding Being in the Thick of Thin Things”

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Three quotations from the wonderful seventeenth-century English physician and writer Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682):

“The created world is but a small parenthesis in eternity.”

“For the world, I count it not an inn, but an hospital, and a place, not to live, but to die in.”

“There is surely a piece of Divinity within us, something that was before the Elements, and owes no homage unto the Sun.”

Posted from Newport Beach, California