Becoming

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I hope this helps someone who wants to know more about who they really are…

I have been wanting and meaning to put this into a post for a really long time. This means more to me than most topics. I think about it often; especially having children in the stages they are in. I write this to get people thinking who have asked me so many questions about my faith the last little bit. I have never given the response needed to make this point and bring to light what I believe to be truth.

Before I get started, this is the one foundational and core truths that makes more sense than any doctrine taught in my church, however and for whatever reason, isn’t understood or thought about by most people in the world.

I am going to answer this question…

“Can we as as humans become like God?”

And I am going to answer this question with only questions…

All of the scripture references will be from The Holy Bible, not the Book of Mormon (At least this time 🙂

Can we become like God? (Yes, in the literal sense of the meaning) Can you, yes you reading this right now, become like God in the next life? Male and Female both…

Here we go…

If there is a God, does it threaten Him if we could become like Him?

Does it make Him happy when we learn and grow? Is there going to come a time when we have learned enough, and after that, He stops our progress and expansion because we are gaining too much?

Is God a dictator? Or is He a universal leader? Meaning, does a dictator only want power for themselves and get threatened by the thought of someone else having any amount of power and authority? If the answer is yes, is that the universe you want to dwell in forever?

Is God a true universal leader? Does a true leader become happy when they see someone else succeed, learn, and grow? Does a true leader get jealous when another advances? Or does a true leader become an even greater leader when He or She creates other leaders?

How large is space? Is there not room for more God’s? Does not the scriptures say in Corinthians “gods many, and lords many” in the universe? Just like on earth a child has only ONE parent and answers to ONE parent, does that mean there are no other parents across the street raising their children? Could it be there are “Mom’s many and Dad’s many”, but there is only one Mom and Dad to us? Many many God’s in space?

Does a perfect parent want to limit their children? Or does a parent not only what they have, but even more? What type of parent doesn’t want to give their child everything they have, and more?

What does the Bible scripture mean when Jesus commands us to be ye therefore perfect? (Matt 5:48) And what was the measuring sick? Wasn’t it be ye therefore perfect, like your Father in heaven is perfect? What does that mean? Do we believe Jesus when He says we can be perfect one day like the Father is Perfect? Or do we not? Doesn’t the word perfect in Greek not mean, fully developed and completed? Will we never be completed in Him?

Why did Christ come to earth to be a perfect example? For what? When he said “Come follow me..” Did he mean only half way? Or did he mean ALL the way?

What did Jesus mean when he said in Romans 8:17 “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Did christ say and if “plants”? If “animals”? Or did He say “Children”?

Speaking of Children… Who are you? Are you a plant? A tree? An animal? Or are you a child of God? Does not a plant grow into the same mature larger plant once the seed has sprouted and it’s properly nourished? What about a tree? What about an animal? What do they turn into once they grow? What will you turn into if properly nourished?

In the book of Revelation, when God says, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Rev 3:21) What throne is he talking about? Is this not the Bible we are reading from?

What’s the point of the next life, if all we are going to be is angels? To do what? Sing for eternity?

If God gave us the ability to create a child on this earth, to protect, care for, teach, help, and grow, is God going to take away that ability in the next life to have children? Why? Is earth not patterned after heaven? If having children is one of the greatest blessings God can give to us on earth, wouldn’t that gift only be multiplied X infinity?

When the Jews tried to trick Jesus, asking him if He was like the Father, did not Jesus teach them the principle of us, becoming like Him, like God? Why did the Jews want to kill Him? Wasn’t it blasphemy? What was the blasphemy? That Jesus that not only He is God, but we are God’s in embryo?

Was it not that Jesus told them about their divine potential?

And Jesus said….

“30 I and my Father are one.

31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?

33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself a God.

34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? (In the Old Testament it says “Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High” Ps. 82:6.

35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.

38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the bFather is in me, and I in him.” John 10

Are you getting angry with the words I have just typed, or does this bring you peace thinking it could possibly be true? If it makes you angry, where is that coming from? If it makes you peaceful, where is that coming from?

If you were to be holding a lit candle and I were to be holding an unlit candle, and you were to reach over and light my candle, does it diminish your light on your candle? Or does it only add to it? Is that not the same principle of God?

Is God capable of anything and everything? Have you ever said, “With God ALL things are possible!” Do you believe God can do ALL things like the Bible tells us? Or just some things? Because if you believe He can do ALL things, and He is ALL powerful, all omnipotent, omniscient, etc, then are you going to say He is not powerful enough to make us into God’s, like Himself? Are you now limiting God? Can he do ALL things, except glorify His children?

And last, What did Jesus mean when he said:

21 That they (meaning us) all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” John 17

Could this possibly be true? Do you not feel a spark of divinity in you?

Love,

Eric Moutsos
Your Brother in Christ

More Bible scriptures for reference…….

“man is become as one of us, Gen. 3:22

be holy: for I … am holy, Lev. 19:2

madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands, Ps. 8:6.

Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High, Ps. 82:6.

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, Matt. 5:48

Jesus: Is it not written in your law … Ye are gods, John 10:34

we are the offspring of God, Acts 17:29.

heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, Rom. 8:17.

changed into the same image from glory to glory, 2 Cor. 3:18.

if a son, then an heir of God through Christ, Gal. 4:7.

Till we all come … unto a perfect man, Eph. 4:13.

be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live, Heb. 12:9.

when he shall appear, we shall be like him, 1 Jn. 3:2.

him that overcometh will … sit with me in my throne, Rev. 3:21.

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Can God “Push” us into circumstances? Without violating “Free Agency?

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Quick thought…

I believe if God calls us to do something, and we don’t do it, He then will bring a certain set of circumstances that will push us into the direction of His will. We can usually choose conscience to make that jump early, or we can wait to be pushed. I’ve found jumping quicker is easier. And being pushed into circumstances is usually a lot more painful process. But either way we will arrive where He wants us. Then we can choose again. He does this because He loves us. Not the other way around. (Jonah 1:15)

Some of my Facebook Friends commented..

Michael Mansfield “Push” may be too strong of a word. “Encourage?”

Eric Moutsos (IMO) Michael Mansfield Push is a great word for it. Just like an Eagle pushes her baby out of the comfortable nest to finally fly. Yes, eagles are pushed.


Daniel Krommenhoek That goes against the law of agency though.

Eric Moutsos– Daniel Krommenhoek Sure doesn’t. We can still choose how we respond to those circumstances God gave us. I’ll bet Jonah was giving statements like yours for 3 days straight.

Harper Weston It’s called “Come Follow Me”, not “I’m going to push you”.

Eric Moutsos–Harper Weston Come follow me after I get you where you need to be 😉

Richard Genck “God never ever ever ever ever ever uses force “

Guess God just asked the 1/3 of the host of heaven to leave.

Eric Moutsos-Richard Genck The 1/3 were CAST down. What does that mean?


Andrew Curtis I believe he only does this for those with a broken heart and a contrite spirit that actually want to better themselves. Not for the sloth and not for the wicked.

Emily James It sounds a bit like Alma 32 to me. 🙂
“13 And now, because ye are compelled to be humble blessed are ye; for a man sometimes, if he is compelled to be humble, seeketh repentance; and now surely, whosoever repenteth shall find mercy; and he that findeth mercy and endureth to the end the same shall be saved.
14 And now, as I said unto you, that because ye were compelled to be humble ye were blessed, do ye not suppose that they are more blessed who truly humble themselves because of the word?
15 Yea, he that truly humbleth himself, and repenteth of his sins, and endureth to the end, the same shall be blessed—yea, much more blessed than they who are compelled to be humble because of their exceeding poverty.
16 Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble; or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe.”

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Effort- Even a little

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My wife and I pulled up from the gym the other day, and before we got out of the car, she said, “Cute Rachel, she’s not big enough to get the trash in the can.” I looked over and we started laughing. It was Rachel’s day for trash.

I thought how proud I was of our short little 7 year old for even trying.  Stacey has an awesome system going right now to get the kids chores going. Whatever she’s doing I’m not messing with. Even if it costs me money!!

Now, some parents would say this picture is a total failure. I mean look, the bag isn’t all the way in the big trash can, and an empty gallon of milk is on the driveway; the chore isn’t technically done, right?

Then a thought hit me harder. And it’s that so many of us, you and I, somehow think we need to be perfect in order to please our Heavenly Parents. So many truly believe that. That blessings only come when and if we’ve fulfilled 100% perfection in our “chores”. That God will only love us if we are perfectly obedient, all of the time.

There was a point in my life when I actually believed this. And when I would inevitably screw up in the day, I would beat myself up so bad. It was mentally and spiritually exhausting and unhealthy.

But I came to learn something through parenting my own kids.

When God looks down and sees His children just thinking about trying to follow Him, He is smiling. Now can we be better? Always. Does He want us to become better? Absolutely. But why beat ourselves up in the process of becoming? It’s all line upon line. The truth is, God smiles with ANY effort we put in for the Housework here on Earth and in Heaven, even if it’s messy. Just like Stacey and I smiled to see that mess of Rachel’s yesterday. I testify it’s true.

We don’t earn His love, it’s already there.

Effort – Even a little
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Staying afloat- with Him.

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HavenLight Yongsung Kim – The Hand of God Painting – Jesus Reaching Into Water 

My wife recently got this picture for me to put on my nightstand. I love waking up to it as a daily reminder of where to turn. She knows when I’m drowning, and knows Who to turn to for help.

The older I get the more I realize how much help I need each day from heaven. And I mean true help. The more I realize how weak I am. And the more I realize how perfect I’m not. That I’ve been trying to do so much on my own. It’s a trap I fall into to do it all on my own.

Some would say it’s a weakness to realize we are weak. And if you focus on your weakness, it will only make you more weak. Maybe that’s true in a sense if you just put yourself down. But maybe realizing we are weak, and where our weaknesses are, is the key and prerequisite to be ready to actually learn and grow from and in Him. Not grow in the world. “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;” 1 Cor 1:27

I feel because we have it so easy (especially in America) that we inevitably don’t rely on Him for help. It’s too easy to get food, clothes, and shelter. Because all around us is better food, nicer clothes, and bigger homes, etc. The things of the world become our goals. And because of the easiness, we don’t realize how far we can go off track spiritually, until we smack up against a rock of reality. At least this seems to be the pattern that happens with me. I’ll go, then smack. And it hurts.

I believe if we humble ourselves each day and ask for help, true help, God will show us what we can do -whether it’s repentance, or service, or both- and through that process we will find the strength and power beyond our own to keep going with actual peace. Not a fake peace we are so used to. But actual peace and joy and rest, even in harsh realities.

God gives us weaknesses so that we can be humble. And I’ve learned that just when you think you’ve overcome one weakness, He will give you another; or if not give you one, simply SHOW us the next one we had no idea we had in the first place. And it can be gut wrenching.

Sometimes when we find out how weak we really are, we want to just surrender and give up. That’s what the devil wants. He wants to have us isolated so we can surrender our choices to him and his minions to take over our spirts, to sink in the troubled waters. This is his pattern. Get us to sin a little here and a little there, and feel the fake rush, then, leave us alone and start pounding our minds and hearts with the guilt from the very thing he wanted us to partake in. Think of that irony. We hand him the tools he beats us with. And the stronger the sin, the harder he hits.

Now with God, He wants us to give it all to Him; so He can help us, not bash us. Even the ugliest and most repulsive sides of us. He wants to fix those ugly things in us. Because the truth is, He’s already bled and died for the ugliest and most repulsive in each one of us. That’s part of why He came. To pay that price for what we have done, and sadly, what we will do in the future.

So if we are going to surrender and give up in life, why not surrender and give up our lives to God? Besides is there any other way to true peace and rest? Instead of turning to addiction to addiction, gossip to gossip, news to news, game to game, phone app to phone app…. why not turn to Him? This has always been my daily struggle. Surrendering to Him each day to do His will. Not just on Sunday.

Neal A. Maxwell once said, “Being such a premier virtue, submissiveness is not to be mastered in a moment, once and for all. Hence the need for patience on the part of those of us who, while falling short of keeping all the Lords Commandments, truly “seeketh so to do”.

Underneath our rationalizations, usually, is a deep destitution enclosed in profound pride. Pride, at its core, involves a measure of self-worship, however mild. After all, we are to “have no other God” before the real God, including self pleasing and self-worship. If we are really keeping the first commandment, we will worship him sufficiently to want to be more and more like Him.”

And last, and the answer, Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matt 11: 28-30

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Power in the People

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Power in the people-

“America did not create our God given rights. Our God given rights created America. And the power is in people God created.”

I don’t think we realize the value and power we could have as a united people. The power we should have as people. I also don’t think we realize the power we don’t have as a people because of the lack of engagement and commitment to liberty. It’s our fault in so many ways that we’ve come to this.

So many think our rights are given to us by the government; and we should be grateful to the government for all they give. What Caesar gives, Caesar can take away. Wrong. Our rights are and were given to us by God. We should never forget where that power came from.

The Bill of Rights were not government gifts to the people they could pull away at any moment. No, they were restrictions and rules we the people put on the government to not mess with us. It seems to be the exact opposite today.

America did not create our God given rights. Our God given rights created America. And the power is in people God created.

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Religious Freedom isn’t Free

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Something happened in the Salt Lake Police Department that meant a lot to me this year. 3 of my friends sent me screenshots of the change. I had to read it twice to believe it. Has kinda made me emotional the last few hours. I wanted to write my thoughts.

The department changed a policy and will have new procedure and training on how to handle and treat people of faith who request a position change for a religious accommodation.

To this day many people still ask me why I didn’t bring a law suit on the city. I can’t always explain it, even to myself, other than I just didn’t feel right about it. Every time I prayed for guidance, litigation felt like a dark hole. However, every time I felt to tell my story publicly, instead instead of suing, I felt hope and light. I felt that by telling my story I could one day help someone who believes how I believe. Also for someone who believes something entirely different than I do. It goes all ways. That’s the First Amendment. The free exercise of religion.

When you litigate, the courts can silence you for years. And most of the time when you settle a case, silence is part of the deal. I know several of my officers friends from the SLCPD who are still in litigation with the city from over seven years ago and counting. And the harder each party fights, the more resistant each party gets on the issue. Nothing changes. And ultimately who really loses if you “win”? The tax payers and officers pay will suffer. Not the city. They will just take it from someone else. That’s the truth.

I usually don’t like to give any amount of credit to upper city administrators, because I overall don’t trust how they operate, and usually lack integrity once the going gets tough to do the right thing, but in this case yesterday, I give them credit. Thank you, Chief Brown and Chief Doubt, and whoever else made this change possible. They aren’t the ones who took my badge years ago, but they’ve done the right thing here. Some say “It’s too late” but to me, especially with this issue, it’s never too late.

M. J. Sobran once said that, “A religious conviction is now a second-class conviction, expected to step deferentially to the back of the secular bus, and not to get uppity about it.”

Well, my message is that we sometimes we need to get uppity about it. Sometimes annoyingly uppity if we have to. And yes, looking back we can always see how we could have gone about things differently. At least for me. Go about it more diplomatic; go about it without offending, or going about it without ruffling feathers, etc. But my point is that we need to go about it. We need to go about it to keep the freedom we still have. And with conviction. If we don’t go about it, we will lose it. I believe times are only going to get tougher with this particulate issue regarding religious liberty. We have to stand up when we are being forced down with fear and silence. Even if we lose our career.

Because at the end of the day if we can’t have religious liberty or some type of personal conviction, as Maxwell said, what matter of men and women are we to be anyway? There’s no more “Plymouth Rocks” for future pilgrims to flee to. This is it. And if we lose it in America, there’s nowhere else to go.

In this country we are all different and believe differently. That’s the beauty of how America was to be built. And sometimes that difference means disagreeing with each other. I believe you can still disagree with each other and love all at the same time. It’s possible.

Thanks again to everyone who has supported me and my family.

Love you all.

(Here’s the video news interview when I finally told my side of the story) I can’t believe it’s been over 4 years

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=33605041             <—- Story Here 

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