I had to look this up

It’s late. 11:20. I should be in bed. But I heard this quote today and was thinking about it as I went up the stairs. I had to find the source and read the exact quote.

From President (then Bishop) Eyring’s talk “To Draw Closer to God” May 1991 Conference talk, quoting President Benson.

“Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us.”

He is our Father. We lived with him. He loves us and wants us to return to him. Us being here is his plan for us. This is His plan for providing a way for us to grow, and learn, and experience for ourselves. He knew we would make mistakes…in fact, it is crucial for us to make mistakes, so we could learn good from evil. These mistakes would keep us from returning to Him, but he prepared a way to overcome that too. He sent His perfect Son, a God, to suffer and to atone; to meet the demands of justice so mercy can be extended to us.

I look forward to that day, when I get to return home… to see my Father. And to thank my Savior, for making it possible for me to return.

Two men of opposite character

It’s interesting to compare the difference between Moroni and Amalickiah. Moroni, at 25 became the chief captain of the Nephite army. Amalickiah had become the leader of the Lamanites. Amalickiah spent his time stirring up hatred and contention among the Lamanites. He appointed men to stand on towers and speak against the Nephites, “hardening the hearts of the Lamanites and blinding their minds, and stirred them up to anger…” While Amalickiah created this hostility in the minds of the Lamanites, Moroni taught his people to be faithful unto the Lord their God. He did other things, he fortified the cities, prepared the armies, but that wasn’t the first thing, or even the most important, he started by teaching them to be faithful to God.

There is more we learn about Moroni and the sharp contrast of what we know of Amalickiah. Moroni was a man of “perfect understanding”, he was full of gratitude, he “did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people.” He was firm in the faith of Christ.

No description of Moroni’s character can compare with Alma 48:17, “…if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.”

Oh how I wish I could have that kind of character…

psst…the seed isn’t ‘faith’

After Alma and his brethren return from teaching the Lamanites, they set about re-teaching their own people. The Zoramites had become apostate, had built the Rameumptom, and the wealthy had kicked out the poor from the synagogues. When Alma met these poor, he saw they were sufficiently humble and he and Amulek began teaching them.

We’ve all read chapter 32 in Alma, most people probably recognize the teaching by recognizing the reference. Alma teaches a discourse on the topic of faith, “…not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” He then goes on to talk about the experiment. “…if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.”

“Now we will compare the word unto a seed.”

The word. Of course the word he was talking about just a minute ago was ‘faith’ so clearly he’s going to teach us about how to build our faith, right? He compares the word to a seed, teaches us to plant it, nourish it, no neglect it, not allow our ground to be barren…do these things and be diligent and patient, and we’ll pluck the fruit which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and we’ll feast on it until we are filled that we will never hunger or thirst.

He continues in chapter 33 telling us that prayer is crucial to growing this fruit. He quotes Zenos for 8 versus, relating to us Zenos’ experience with prayer. He then tells us to study the scriptures and asks a great question, “I would ask if ye have read the scriptures? If ye have, how can ye disbelieve on the Son of God?” He follows up a few verses later, “… begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead. which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works.”

“Plant THIS word in your hearts…and it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. AND THEN may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son.”

So the ‘word’ isn’t faith, the word is “The Word” as in, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (see JST to make more sense of that) and we know lots about the seed, and the tree, and the fruit that it bears…Lehi and Nephi both described it in detail in 1 Nephi, chapters 8 and 11. Go read them for a refresher.

And thus we see…

That this isn’t going to happen every day!

I’ve fully entered the war chapters in Alma. When the most wicked of the Lamanites saw the change happening in the those who were willing to listen to the message of the Gospel (these Lamanites changed their name to the Anti-Lehi-Nephi) they did not approve. They would rather kill their own people then watch them change. Mormon put all these war chapters in for a reason. It’s hard to read the details of these wars and not feel the dedication of these converts and see how much they would give to keep their covenants. It’s also remarkable to see how wicked the Lamanites were and what length they would go to to fight righteousness.

Mormon had some specific reasons to put these chapters in and to make sure we got the message, he outlined some of these reasons at the end of Chapter 28 and 30.

“And thus we see how great the inequality of man is because of sin and transgression, and the power of the devil.”

“And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord”

“And thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing – sorrow because of death and destruction among me,, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life.”

“And thus we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell.”

Never did fall away

This really is a remarkable change to witness. Ammon has a chance to teach Lamoni and his whole household is converted. Through this event, Aaron teaches Lamoni’s father, the uber-king of the Lamanites. Not only is Lamoni’s father and his household converted, but he decrees that Ammon and his brethren may preach in any part of the land occupied by the Lamanites and that no one may persecute them in any way. He also grants them access to the Lamanites houses, churches and temples.

Through the preaching they do throughout the Lamanites, there is a great conversion. In fact, it states “…that as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away.” Alma 23:6

To really grasp how amazing this is, I think it’s important to realize just how wicked the Lamanites were and how complete their conversion was. In general, they delighted in murder and plundering and tormenting, even their own people. Remember the story of Ammon tending the flocks of the Lamoni. It was Lamanites, their own people, who were scattering and stealing the flocks of the king. And Lamoni’s reaction was simply to kill those who were tending the flocks at the time of the scattering. As a sign of their conversion and as a covenant to God, those who were converted buried their weapons of war and promised to never take them up again. Of course, not all the Lamanites were interested in the teaching of Ammon and his brethren and when rebellion happened and the war began, those who were converted decided it was  better to lose their lives than take up arms and defend themselves. That is exactly what happened. When the armies of the wicked Lamanites came, those who were converted laid on the ground and were killed by the approaching army without any resistance.

I wonder, what is the modern day equivalent of burying our weapons of war? What are we willing to give up as a covenant to God of our conversion? And what price are we willing to pay to keep that covenant? And what are we hanging on to that might prevent us from making that covenant (or keeping a covenant we’ve already made)?

Hey…Wait A Second…

So after all that, I suppose I should share something about what I read today. I should probably set some expectations first… It’s unlikely that I’ll get to a post every day. Lets face it, life sometimes gets in the way of the best of intentions. I haven’t even got a dedicated time that I’ve been able to set aside for reading, but I’m working on that. And I’m starting this blog 25 pages behind schedule. :)

But here’s where I am…

Alma Chapter 20

(I should probably throw some background in here to get us all on the same page) Ammon is a Nephite. He and his brethren decide to go among the Lamanites to try and teach them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ammon goes to a Lamanite king by the name of Lamoni and asks if he can be the kings servant. After a series of really cool events (that you may have to wait until next year to read about) Lamoni and his family are converted. In chapter 20, king Lamoni wants to take Ammon to meet his father, who happens to be the uber-king of the Lamanites (20:1). Ammon is instructed by the Lord not to go up to the Lamoni’s father, but instead tells Ammon that his brethren are in prison and the Lord sends Ammon to go free them (20:2). Turns out that king Lamoni knows the king of the land where Ammons’s brethren are in prison and insists that he’s going with to help persuade this king to release the prisoners (20:3). So Lamoni and Ammon head out and who is the first person that they happen to run into? Of course, they run into Lamoni’s father, that uber-king that Lamoni had wanted to take Ammon to meet in the first place.

So the question is, if Ammon and Lamoni are going to be traveling in the wilderness and run into Lamoni’s father anyway, why didn’t the Lord have Ammon and Lamoni go there. Surely Lamoni’s desire to have Ammon and his father meet was not only a righteous desire, but ultimately, it was the will of the Lord as well. As we continue reading, we might be surprised at the response that Ammon and Lamoni receive from Lamoni’s father. To their astonishment, Lamoni’s father wasn’t happy to see his son. In fact, he was quite angry with Lamoni for missing a feast that he had thrown for his sons (v.12) and instructs Lamoni to kill Ammon because he’s a Nephite (v.13) (Nephites and Lamanites were all family about 500 years prior to this exchange, but infighting between the wicked and the righteous broke out and essentially separated them in to these two groups.) Lamoni refuses to kill Ammon so his father decides to do it himself (v.16). After Ammon renders Lamoni’s father helpless with the sword (v.20) Ammon secures his own life as well as Lamoni’s kingship, his kingdom and gets his brethren out of prison (v.24) and eventually Lamoni’s father has the opportunity to hear the Gospel and accepts it (Alma 22).

Imagine how this might have played out if the Lord had allowed Lamoni and Ammon to go directly to the Lamoni’s father in his kingdom. Perhaps it would have played out similar to how things worked out for Abinadi. Abinadi was commanded to preach repentance to king Noah and his wicked priests. Abinadi’s teaching, testimony and warnings, were enough to make king Noah question if he was doing the right thing. He probably would have spared Abinadi’s life, until the wicked priests approached the king and convinced him otherwise.

How often do we have an idea to do something that seems perfectly reasonable, perhaps even something that is clearly a righteous desire, and yet the answer we receive from the Lord is “no” or “not now”? How do we respond in that situation? We have many options. We could question the “no” or “not now” inspiration that we were given and act anyway, or we can put our trust in the Lord and do things his way.

Ammon and Lamoni followed the direction of the Spirit, headed directly to retrieve Ammon’s brethren, and the other righteous desire, for Ammon to meet Lamoni’s father, was granted as well.

The first post

I guess there must be a first post sometime. Might as well be now. To give you a little more background, for the last 3 years we have lived in the Sultan Ward, the bishop has challenged members of the ward to turn off the TV for the full month of March. Last year was the first year we made an effort to really not watch TV. By our own admission, although at times it was difficult, Aimee and I both agreed that we were closer as a family and had a good experience as we tried to follow the guidance of our leaders.

As March 2009 approached, I was thinking of what I might want to do to during the month of March since some time in the evenings would be freed up. As I was pondering what to do, I was drawn to the scriptures. It occurred to me that while I’ve read the Book of Mormon several times, and had probably read the bulk of the New Testament and the Doctrine and Covenants “at some point”, I had never made the the effort to read the full standard works from beginning to end.

So that’s what I’ve decided to do. I’ve done the math and even made the requisite spreadsheet to track my progress. 6.8 pages per day for 356 days will allow me to complete the full standard works.

I actually started this project on the first day of March, 2009. I figured that if I ended up a bit behind perhaps I could use March, 2010 to do any last catch up; my 30 day grace period, although I have no intention of needing it.

At the time I started this project, I considered starting a blog or a journal as a way to keep track of my progress, but more importantly, a way to keep track of teachings and principles that I learn as I study the scriptures. While I thought it was a good idea at the time, I don’t think of myself a fantastic writer and I consider any inspiration that I may receive as personal, for my own education and edification, not to be interpreted as guidance and counsel for anyone else. With those ideas in mind, I decided at the time that I wouldn’t spend the time to track this in a blog. As you can see, I’ve clearly had second thoughts about keeping track of my thoughts. I have no particular audience in mind and I still consider any thoughts, ideas, inspirations and musings simply for my own instruction.

As you can see, I’ve been in to this for almost two months by the time I’ve written this first post. I initially started reading the Doctrine and Covenants, as it is the course of study in Gospel Doctrine class. Roughly a third of the way into the D&C, I decided to begin in the Book of Mormon.

I’m currently at the half way point and I regret that I haven’t kept better track of the things that I’ve learned as I’ve read. If I can get ahead in my reading, perhaps I’ll have a chance to re-read the first part of the Book of Mormon and make up for the time I’ve missed. Maybe that is where my extra 30 day grace period will come in handy.