King Lamoni's Father: What A Testimony is Worth

This story truly is one of my absolute favorite in all of the Book of Mormon. I love so much seeing the progression made by King Lamoni's father. He goes from hating all Nephites and almost killing his own son for traveling with a Nephite, to being willing to give up half of his kingdom to protect his own life. Then, as he sees the mercy that Ammon shows and the love that Ammon has for his son, Lamoni, he seeks to understand with greater detail the gospel that has changed the heart of his son and built such faith. When Aaron comes to teach him, he expresses that he will give even up to his entire kingdom to know of this truth. As we can see, he goes from valuing his life at half the kingdom to valuing his entire kingdom for the truth of the Gospel. The most beautiful part, though, comes as he begins to pray to God. In Alma, we hear his beautiful prayer and desire:

  “O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee.”

Wow. Do we ever show that kind of faith? We express it, maybe, but when it comes down to giving up that one guilty pleasure or that one habit that is wrong but so enticing, are we really willing to give up all of our sins to know God? I know that I want to come to develop that more. I want to see no sin and no wrong choice above knowing God. Because when we hold on to sin, we can never know God. Only when we have cast off those desires can we truly endure and enjoy the light of Christ and come closer to our father. We need to choose to do that. Love God above the lucre of this temporal world. In doing so, we will find the greatest joy and we will come to know God as our Father in Heaven.

Alma 5: Of What Fold Are Ye?

This week set me on a really interesting self-study, something I have needed. Recently, I found myself wondering who I am as an individual and how I want to choose to direct my life. Sometimes we get so caught up in our daily lives that we sometimes lose track of our own identity and our own state of being. I was realizing recently that I needed to rediscover that so that I could redirect myself down a path that will lead to where I want to end up. This week in Book of Mormon gave me a really great starting point for that quest. Our professor first challenged us to find our own pulse in five seconds. Naturally, most of us were able to do so pretty quickly. He then asked us to find our spiritual pulse. As one might expect, we all sat there unsure of what to do or how to find that.

He went on to say that our physical pulse is relatively easy to find, but we oftentimes feel lost when it comes to being able to measure our health and progression spiritually. He then told us that if we ever need a starting point for spiritual self-reflection, then we should read Alma 5. He counseled us to use that list of questions as an interview of sorts to be able to check ourselves. Following that class, I chose to go through Alma 5 and list out the questions that would apply to this self-interview. These are some of the questions I found:

           

·      Have you been spiritually born of God?

·      Have you received his image in your countenances?

·      Have you experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

·      Do you exercise faith in Christ’s creation and redemption? (with faith in the three pillars and in the Plan of Salvation)

·      Can you stand before God with a pure heart and clean hands?

·      Have you been sufficiently humble?

·      Are you stripped of pride?

·      Are you stripped of envy?

·      If you’ve felt to sing the song of redeeming love, can you feel so now?

Possibly my favorite question is offered in verse 39: “Of what fold are ye?” This makes me stop and ask who I have really enlisted to follow. Not just in word, but who do I follow in deed? Do I seek to use repentance and the Atonement to follow Christ? Or do I use pride and selfishness to fuel a path that will eventually lead to the devil? I think this is a question that we should all ask ourselves everyday. At the end of the day, can we look back and see works that demonstrated that we are of the Lord’s fold? Or are we acting in a way that leads us away from Him?

The beauty is that when we slip up and don’t do these things right, the Atonement is there to redirect us back down the correct path to and with Jesus Christ. We are so blessed with this beautiful truth.

Words of Mormon: Understanding God's Will

This week was a really interesting study for me. I recently made a new goal to have a group study where we have a topic weekly that we take and search for related teachings in our current scripture study. So, this week I focused on understanding God’s will, both in general aspects and in our personal lives. Well, it turns out that reading in the Words of Mormon was perfect for shedding light on that teaching. Specifically, I read the following scripture concerning Mormon’s choice to include the Small Plates of Nephi with his record:

“6 But behold, I shall take these plates, which contain these prophesyings and revelations, and put them with the remainder of my record, for they are choice unto me; and I know they will be choice unto my brethren.

 7 And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.”

This commentary on Mormon’s choice was a perfect response to my study. Mormon did not fully understand why he was including the record, but he did know that the Spirit seemed to whisper to him that they were good and should be included. Rather than focusing on his own lack of knowledge, Mormon focuses on the Lord’s complete knowledge and obeys as much as he can. It goes on to say that his prayer is concerning his brethren the Lamanites, meaning that he focuses on loving and serving others. As I read this, it taught me to listen to when the Spirit whispers to me that something is good (whether that is the whole answer or not to his will for my future) and do as much as I can with as much knowledge as he has given me. Beyond that, my heart should then be committed to focusing on others, and his will will be revealed as I serve and love others.

It is so easy for us to become so caught up in wanting the Lord to tell us what he wants us to do that we show little faith, demonstrate little action, and serve few people. The Lord directs us down a path as it comes. We are not meant to stand at the starting line and ask what turn we should take 5 miles in.  Trust him. Move forward where you can and learn to put others first. God will always lead us forward as we seek to feel his Spirit and be a disciple of Christ.

Satan's Pacifying Tactics

We had a really interesting lesson in Book of Mormon this week. I guess a lot of times I feel like I won’t hear things that I haven’t heard about the Book of Mormon, but always I learn new things that I’ve never considered before. This week we were reading through the end of 2 Nephi and into Jacob. Specifically we covered a verse that I really have never spent much time thinking about. In 2 Nephi 28:21 it reads:

“And others will [Satan] pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.”

I always felt like this verse was pretty straight forward, so I never spent much time thinking about it. However, my teacher put this into a completely new perspective. He had us break it down into words.

First we considered the word pacify. He discussed what a pacifier is: an item that pacifies the baby because it is a cheap imitation of the real thing. However, no matter how hard that baby tries, he will never obtain milk.

What is our application? Satan tries to offer us the cheaper imitations, whether that be inappropriate sexual intimacy, drinking to find pleasure, lying to avoid punishment, etc. However, no matter how much we use those to find happiness, happiness cannot be attained through those channels. Wickedness never was happiness.

He then had us consider the word lull and security. The teacher compared this to a security blanket in which a baby is wrapped, followed by a lullaby that gives them security and puts them to sleep. The baby does not realize that it has been lulled into security until it wakes up in its crib, no longer with its mother.

Our application? Satan will wrap us up in false security in our sins, telling us that what we desire is acceptable and our choice. His coaxing and deceptive words act as the lullaby that put us in spiritual sleep. We only recognize how far we have fallen when we have hit rock bottom and realize our need to repent and for the Savior.

Satan does not always whack us over the head. He whispers and coaxes until we have sunk into the quicksand. We have to be ever vigilant and hold tight to the Atonement and to Jesus Christ. I know that Christ is the only way that I can find happiness. Even when the worldly ways could be easy, I want to always remember that Christ’s way will be the only true way to return to happiness and our Father in Heaven.

Grace After All We Can Do: It's All Grace

Another week of spiritual enlightenment graced our class this week. And as it happens, it is about grace that I want to speak. Specifically, we are studying in 2 Nephi still, and we reached 2 Nephi 25:23 which states that we are saved by grace “after all that we can do”. This is one of those scriptures that can sometimes confuse our doctrine and boggle the Mormon mind. We get tripped up in the “grace” or “works” issue concerning Jesus Christ’s Atonement. So, as my teacher often does, he tested this theory of us “earning” the Atonement by telling us to look up “Earn” in Topical Guide. Trick question, it’s not there. Second, he had us look for “Deserve”—Also not there! Finally, he had us look up how we can “merit” the Atonement. Under merit were scriptures that describe merit as follows. 2 Nephi 2:8 states that no flesh can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits… of the Holy Messiah. Alma 22:14 states that man… could not merit anything for himself. And so on.

What does this say about us meriting the Atonement? We do not! We do not EARN the Atonement! In Professor Griffin’s words, grace to us is Jesus Christ standing between us and justice. Our role does not put him there. Our role is to accept him. What I especially liked about what Griffin said is that Christ brings us to the Father, and our job is to come unto Christ. Anything and everything we do is just an  extension of his grace. The Atonement has already been set in place for all of us. It is now our chance to welcome the Atonement into our hearts. What does that mean for us? It means developing a bond with our Savior through prayer, the Sacrament, and participating in Heavenly Father’s ordinances. For me, it means further appreciating the word of God that we have, showing greater reverence to the temple, and taking every chance I get to repent, come to Christ, and glory in Him. This Atonement is a beautiful thing, and we will never earn its power. It is given by a loving Heavenly Father to us. We need to accept it in word and deed.