JOE LEMMON'S PERSONAL STORY

Favorite Color: Sky Blue - Favorite Song "Click to Listen" -: E-Mail Joe - 208-906-6510

My Story

By Joe Lemon

My story begins with having good parents that read the bible as a family as well as going to church of many different kinds throughtout my early years. I enjoyed the stories and lessons about the bible but found that I didn't like going to church because of the way people of that chruch worshiped. I personaly felt uncomfortable being in an environment where the belief practices of ordinances or simply the styles of the different christian chruches did not resonate well with me.

I believed in the message of Christ and him as someone to show me how to live,and that I might live again because of him. As for the bible I believed it because it spoke of Christ, but asside from that, Its message lacked a unity in order to show how a church should teach the people. Because as a child It made no sence that all the so called christians of many different faiths couldn't aggree on the meanings of the bible in order that there be unity and end confusion and guesswork.

Then a truning point happened in my life as I opened up to the answer to a question of a rare but heart felt prayer..."God which church should I go to?" As a response to that prayer I became open to what answers might be out there as to which chruch I should join. This openess allowed me to let go of any preconceived notions about organized religion and so an investigation began.

It seamed that religious choices were crossing my path for something great and I knew my prayer would be answered once the journey began. Through much investigation and solom prayer with an overwhelming answer to it, I joined a chruch in 1995. The response to my prayer has remained a ferm testimony since having joined the church however the testimony I gained does not support the truthfullness of the chruch itself, but of a work and the one that brought it forth.

My prayer went something like this: I was witnessing that I believed Joseph Smith was a true messenger and that the book of mormon is a true record. The conferming witness of a spiritual peace and rushing intensity like fire that burned within my chest was an unmistakable sign to me from the creator. At the time I was under the reasoning that if the book and Joseph were true than the church he established must be true as well. However, now knowing that Josephs mandate allowed for him to act according to the free will of the people without disclosing his true idenity allows me to reason differently. This makes it easy for me to see how Joseph and the book can be true and the chruch be seperate from that because of the free will of the people which caused the church to come into existance in the first place.

I remember Josephs first vision that the Lord responded to him that all churches are an abomination... and yet he,(Joseph) forms a church. Yes he formed it, but only because the free will of the people wanted a church. I believed this kind of thing happens when a messenger comes and the people want him to be the mouth for the Lord. But the problem comes when the messenger is gone and another takes his place. Even if this other has good intensions, they are not a messenger. Just like the days of Moses where the free will of the people wanted commandments and they got 10 of them. Then somewhere down the road bapitism came into the mix... and the list keeps on comming because that is what the people want. They want rules and regulations to follow instead of keeping it simple like a child and do unto others as you want people to do unto you. Then when Christ teaches that the law of Moses is done away in him, the Jews are confused that there chruch should be done away...so are the mormons confused when the sealed portion teaches there chruch should be done away.

It seems clear to me that after reading the Sealed Portion that the Mormons like the Jews have looked past the mark and that is sad because it keeps them from seeing human reality. Instead they are have looked to the temple in hopes that the sacred will not be secret from them. After reading the Sacred not Secret book it is clear to me that my first reactions to having my endowment were correct, that the chruch knows little to nothing about it and at a certin point in the presentation it revealed to me the mark was being overlooked. Meaning that me the viewer was doing the very thing that the endowment warns against doing. Which is being apart of organized religion. I don't know how else to say it, the endowment is awesome when understood! My eyes were opening now!

I then started to read the Human Reality book and the mysteries began to be unfolded before my eyes! In these last five months of reading these three books of I feel like I've experienced something like what Plato was describing in his work The alagory of the cave. Meaning the truth has set me free and my eyes have seen the light of the sun and it warms my sole and I wish to help those of whom may be searching for the truth but need help recognizing the images that appear only as shadows because of the dimness of the cave that I too was once bound within.

As to comment on the man behind these works I have see Christopher respond to critics and have judged him to be who he claims to be. My testimony of Christopher is that he is a true messenger like Joseph Smith was but with a different mandate and the books or works that have come forth from him are truly marvelous to me. My name is Joseph Lemmon and this is my story and my song is by Pete Townsend "let my love open the door" is the chorus and it ment so much to me when I listened to it after reading the Sacred not Secret book. I like the part that explains how we are to love each other like God loves us and so when I amagine God singing those words in the song it makes me happy and the color I feel represents me is a sky blue.

Thank you.