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.