Reading: Mosiah 18-24
Chapter 18 in Mosiah is one that is referred to often within the LDS church, as it is a clear definition of what we commit to do when we are baptized. For this reason I hesitate to hash it over again, but there are some new things I thought about today while in Sunday School.
A little background: Alma has just listened to Abinadi testify of Jesus Christ, his sacrifice and atonement, prophecies about him from before his birth and events after his birth. He also testified of commitments and commandments and covenants to make in order to follow Jesus Christ, including the 10 commandments given to Moses and the whole purpose of the law of Moses. Alma, a priest of the wicked King Noah, was the only one in the court to believe Abinadi and when Alma stood up for the prophets, he was chased out of the city. At this point, he wrote down everything that Abinadi said and started teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to people in secret. When Alma taught the people they wanted to be baptized to become part of the fold of God. Alma lays out the commitments that come with the decision to be baptized.
Nephi refers to baptism as the gate to enter the strait and narrow path. Thinking of baptism in terms as the gate, or the beginning of our journey to eternal life, the commitments we make at baptism become a little more serious. Our Sunday School teacher listed out the commitments Alma said we make at baptism:
1. Come into the fold of God
2. Be called His people
3. Willing to bear one another's burdens
4. Willing to mourn with those that mourn
5. Comfort those that stand in need of comfort
6. Witness of God at all times
7. Serve him
8. Keep his commandments
It is interesting to me that most of those commitments have to do with how you treat/interact with other people. It's like the Bible says (Matt 16:24-26)
24 ¶Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and dlose his own esoul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
And also Luke 22:32:
32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Essentially, at baptism, we commit to follow Jesus Christ's example in loving, helping, encouraging and supporting other people. This can be done in many ways according to the needs of people you are serving and especially according to the direction of the Holy Ghost). Will we be perfect at this? No. Double no. And that's just fine, even expected, seeing as we are human and no one understands that better than God.
And one other thing. It is my feeling that when you are baptized, you are committing to follow Christ, not only in deed, but in folly. Committing to follow Christ means that WHEN you make mistakes, commit sins, omit commitments or in anyway act less than what you've committed to act like, you will use the atonement of Jesus Christ to straighten out! When you are baptized you are committing that you will use the atonement. You've committed to a law, a moral code and committed to use a specific way to repairs any infringements to the law or code.
To me that is the best news ever! We are given direction on how to live AND we are given help with that - for assistance, correction, development, education, improvement and support.
If we can try to fulfill our commitments WITH Christ's help all along the way then we receive some promises from God at baptism:
1. Redeemed of God (not just a one time occurrence, but as you seek forgiveness at anytime, it is readily available to you - you just have to initiate the process)
2. Numbered with those of the first resurrection (attain celestial glory)
3. You will have eternal life (live with God again)
4. You will have his Spirit more abundantly upon you (receive and maintain the Gift of the Holy Ghost to continually help you stay on the straight and narrow path).
These blessings are lasting, important, powerful and more meaningful than I think I understand, but even the promise of them can guide my choices. It is the trial of humankind to avoid the shortsightedness of trading the happiness that comes with a short current moment, for the happiness of eternity. And even more of a trial to accept that even if you trade the happiness for now for the happiness of eternity, you are valuable enough to ask Christ for help in changing your perspective. But you are that valuable. Keep trying. And if you haven't asked Christ for help, you should.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Preparatory laws
Reading: Mosiah 12-17
These chapters cover the preaching of a prophet named Abinadi. In chapter 11, Abinadi came the first time to King Noah, his priests and people, and told them to repent, or they would be taken into bondage by the Lamanites. They ran Abinadi out of the city and he stayed out for two years. Abinadi returned and told the same group that since they didn’t repent, they would be put in bondage, but if they repent now, they will still be in bondage, but will not be destroyed. If they do not repent, they will just be destroyed from the face of the earth.
As I read through this lesson I realized that I had been thinking about how much better the people of this time are because we have been given the higher law. While there is a little merit to that, we really are operating under the same law of obedience to whatever law we are given. The fact that we live the law of Christ rather than the law of Moses, doesn't make us any better if we don't know the law/don't keep the law.
The law of Moses has been described as a preparatory law, and it certainly was, as it's who purpose was to prepare the people for the coming of Christ. But the law of Christ is also a preparatory law of sorts in that it prepares us for the second coming of Christ. Understanding and living this law is key to understanding our purpose and understanding the purpose of the Savior, so that we will actually know who he is when He comes. Like that reference to Psalms says: "A good understanding have all they that do his commandments." We have commandments and the same rule applies, as we keep the commandments, covenants, ordinances and laws and we will have a better understanding. However, I should not that the law of Christ, is not preparatory in nature with respect to the priesthood and keys that are available. We do have the fulness of the gospel now.
Abinadi then reads from Isaiah chapter 53, in Mosiah chapter 14, which I highly recommend reading as it has a feeling of 'why would you not want to have the Savior in your life?' type of feeling.
Abinadi explains this chapter in the next few chapters and gets to answering their original question of whose feet are beautiful for spreading good tidings and peace:
First, the Savior is, then the holy prophets, then those who believe the holy prophets. Abinadi gives warning to King Noah and his priests because they are not numbered in any of these groups.
My overall question for this lesson is: if the law of Moses was meant to point people to Christ, how much more is the law of Christ to point people to Christ? And how much of what we do really points to Christ? So, much so that we would recognize Him when He comes again?
These chapters cover the preaching of a prophet named Abinadi. In chapter 11, Abinadi came the first time to King Noah, his priests and people, and told them to repent, or they would be taken into bondage by the Lamanites. They ran Abinadi out of the city and he stayed out for two years. Abinadi returned and told the same group that since they didn’t repent, they would be put in bondage, but if they repent now, they will still be in bondage, but will not be destroyed. If they do not repent, they will just be destroyed from the face of the earth.
During this second visit, after Abinadi accused the King and
priests of many sins, they put Abinadi in prison while they tried to figure out
what to do with him. When they
brought Abinadi out to question him, the priests thought they would outsmart
him by asking him what a passage of scripture from Isaiah meant.
Mosiah 12:21-24
They perhaps thought that they would call Abinadi out on the
bringing good tidings and publishing peace and salvation, since to the message
he gave to them sounded nothing like peace or good tidings – they were being
called to repentance and the wicked take the truth to be hard!
Abinadi informs them that they have misinterpreted the
scripture and applied their own definition of peace and salvation.
“YE HAVE NOT APPLIED YOUR HEARTS TO UNDERSTNADING;
THEREFORE, YE HAVE NOT BEEN WISE”
Abinadi then engages the group with questions to discover exactly what they believe and why and what they are doing/not doing about it
Essentially he comes up with a set of steps they should follow if they really do want to receive salvation:
· Know the law, keep the law, know
why you keep the law, teach the law.
Abinadi has discovered that the law of Moses has become a
tradition, not a symbolic direction.
So, he reviews the ten commandments for them and after the mention of
the first commandment and an attempt to put him in prison again, the power of
the Lord came upon him, they were commanded not to touch him and with power and
authority from God he delivered the rest of the ten commandments and many more
points of doctrine. (see 13:12-24)
Then Abinadi begins to explain the real purpose of the Law
of Moses, helping them to follow the steps he has given them.
·
Yes, keep the law of Moses now, but do it only
by letting it remind you that there is more and better things to come.
·
The law of Moses was given to help them to
“observe strictly from day to day to keep them in remembrance of God and their
duty towards him.” Essentially,
avoiding an idle mind – to keep them busy.
·
But even with that strict guidance, their hearts
were hard and they didn’t want to understand.
·
Keeping the law you’ve been given now will give
you a better understanding of what is to come. Footnote in v32a Psalms
111:10 The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments:
his praise endureth for ever.
As I read through this lesson I realized that I had been thinking about how much better the people of this time are because we have been given the higher law. While there is a little merit to that, we really are operating under the same law of obedience to whatever law we are given. The fact that we live the law of Christ rather than the law of Moses, doesn't make us any better if we don't know the law/don't keep the law.
The law of Moses has been described as a preparatory law, and it certainly was, as it's who purpose was to prepare the people for the coming of Christ. But the law of Christ is also a preparatory law of sorts in that it prepares us for the second coming of Christ. Understanding and living this law is key to understanding our purpose and understanding the purpose of the Savior, so that we will actually know who he is when He comes. Like that reference to Psalms says: "A good understanding have all they that do his commandments." We have commandments and the same rule applies, as we keep the commandments, covenants, ordinances and laws and we will have a better understanding. However, I should not that the law of Christ, is not preparatory in nature with respect to the priesthood and keys that are available. We do have the fulness of the gospel now.
Abinadi then reads from Isaiah chapter 53, in Mosiah chapter 14, which I highly recommend reading as it has a feeling of 'why would you not want to have the Savior in your life?' type of feeling.
Abinadi explains this chapter in the next few chapters and gets to answering their original question of whose feet are beautiful for spreading good tidings and peace:
First, the Savior is, then the holy prophets, then those who believe the holy prophets. Abinadi gives warning to King Noah and his priests because they are not numbered in any of these groups.
My overall question for this lesson is: if the law of Moses was meant to point people to Christ, how much more is the law of Christ to point people to Christ? And how much of what we do really points to Christ? So, much so that we would recognize Him when He comes again?
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Wroth, wronged, robbery and ruling
Reading: Mosiah 7-11
The strangest thing stood out to me while reading through this section. I'm just going to paste the verses because it's not too long. But it's a passage about the Lamanites and why they are such mean people to the Nephites.
Maybe I should give a little background first:
When Lehi left Jerusalem (600 BC-ish) to travel to the "promised land," his family came with him, which included Laman, Lemuel, Nephi and Sam and some sisters who are not named, and another family. Through most of the journey, Laman and Lemuel complained about the whole situation, though they were ultimately obedient to the wishes of their father, though their motivations were never very pure. But after Lehi died, they pretty much wanted to kill Nephi and any who would follow him and were acting to make good on their threats when Nephi was warned by the Lord to move his people to a different part of the land. Nephi took the records of his people, the brass plates (which contained the writings of ancient prophets of Jerusalem, Moses, Isaiah and such) and life-sustaining necessities. From this point on, the Lamanites sought war against the Nephites. Not only the Nephites that the actual Nephi led away, but Nephite groups that broke off and settled in other lands. This account comes from one of those groups who broke off from the original Nephite group and is a history of their dealings during the 80 years since they left. Zeniff is the leader of this group and decides to leave the original group in order to recover their land of inheritance, or take back their land from the Lamanites. The wicked king of the Lamanites, feigning peace, allows them to take over the land, but plots to let them become industrious then tax them heavily on the fruit of their labors. In this section, Zeniff offers an explanation as to why the Lamanites are so mean (I will italicize references to the point I will make):
Let's just list out those things, the Lamanites:
1. knew nothing concerning the Lord
2. didn't know the strength of the Lord
3. depended upon their own strength (strength of men)
4. wild, ferocious and blood-thirsty
5. believe the traditions of their fathers (not in revelation or truth)
6. chose to be offended by people who served the Lord
7. understood not the dealings of the Lord
8. said Nephi claimed the power to rule, taking it out of their hands
9. accused Nephi of robbery for taking the brass plates
10. taught their children the same wicked beliefs and traditions
Laman and Lemuel were the oldest, so by right in inheritance, they should have been the ones to rule and should have been the ones to inherit property such as the promised land and the records. However, the law of inheritance at that time was that the inheritance goes to the oldest son, IF he is worthy. Laman and Lemuel were clearly not worthy. Instead, they chose NOT to believe in the Lord, depend upon their OWN wisdom and strength, NOT seek for any other way with truth guiding them, CHOSE to be offended and acted on that feeling of offense by attacking people who served the Lord.
I believe you can learn from a good example and you can learn from a bad example. We can learn from Lamanites. Relying upon your own wisdom and strength grows a sense of insecurity, which develops a sense of wanting to one-up someone, or destroy that someone, just to prove yourself valuable, needed or important. From there, mean deeds are done.
Even reading the feelings that were mentioned in this section, gives me a yucky feeling: wild, ferocious, blood-thirsty, wronged, wroth, kill, hate, rob, plunder, destroy. YUCK!
However, relying upon the Lord, who has all wisdom, all power, and all love, does not take power and wisdom away from you - it taps you into the mainspring! He gives feelings or peace, hope, good desire, love, willingness to serve, patience and much more. If I can have access to these feelings, of course I'm going to apply to their author!
The strangest thing stood out to me while reading through this section. I'm just going to paste the verses because it's not too long. But it's a passage about the Lamanites and why they are such mean people to the Nephites.
Maybe I should give a little background first:
When Lehi left Jerusalem (600 BC-ish) to travel to the "promised land," his family came with him, which included Laman, Lemuel, Nephi and Sam and some sisters who are not named, and another family. Through most of the journey, Laman and Lemuel complained about the whole situation, though they were ultimately obedient to the wishes of their father, though their motivations were never very pure. But after Lehi died, they pretty much wanted to kill Nephi and any who would follow him and were acting to make good on their threats when Nephi was warned by the Lord to move his people to a different part of the land. Nephi took the records of his people, the brass plates (which contained the writings of ancient prophets of Jerusalem, Moses, Isaiah and such) and life-sustaining necessities. From this point on, the Lamanites sought war against the Nephites. Not only the Nephites that the actual Nephi led away, but Nephite groups that broke off and settled in other lands. This account comes from one of those groups who broke off from the original Nephite group and is a history of their dealings during the 80 years since they left. Zeniff is the leader of this group and decides to leave the original group in order to recover their land of inheritance, or take back their land from the Lamanites. The wicked king of the Lamanites, feigning peace, allows them to take over the land, but plots to let them become industrious then tax them heavily on the fruit of their labors. In this section, Zeniff offers an explanation as to why the Lamanites are so mean (I will italicize references to the point I will make):
11 Now, the Lamanites knew nothing concerning the Lord, nor the strength of the Lord, therefore they depended upon their own strength. Yet they were a strong people, as to the astrength of men.
12 They were a awild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, believing in the btradition of their fathers, which is this—Believing that they were driven out of the land of Jerusalem because of the iniquities of their fathers, and that they werecwronged in the wilderness by their brethren, and they were also wronged while crossing the sea;
13 And again, that they were wronged while in the land of theirafirst inheritance, after they had crossed the sea, and all this because that Nephi was more faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord—therefore bhe was favored of the Lord, for the Lord heard his prayers and answered them, and he took the lead of their journey in the wilderness.
14 And his brethren were awroth with him because theybunderstood not the dealings of the Lord; they were also wroth with him upon the waters because they hardened their hearts against the Lord.
15 And again, they were awroth with him when they had arrived in the promised land, because they said that he had taken thebruling of the people out of their hands; and they sought to kill him.
16 And again, they were wroth with him because he departed into the wilderness as the Lord had commanded him, and took the arecords which were engraven on the plates of brass, for they said that he brobbed them.
17 And thus they have taught their children that they should hate them, and that they should murder them, and that they should rob and plunder them, and do all they could to destroy them; therefore they have an eternal hatred towards the children of Nephi.
Let's just list out those things, the Lamanites:
1. knew nothing concerning the Lord
2. didn't know the strength of the Lord
3. depended upon their own strength (strength of men)
4. wild, ferocious and blood-thirsty
5. believe the traditions of their fathers (not in revelation or truth)
6. chose to be offended by people who served the Lord
7. understood not the dealings of the Lord
8. said Nephi claimed the power to rule, taking it out of their hands
9. accused Nephi of robbery for taking the brass plates
10. taught their children the same wicked beliefs and traditions
Laman and Lemuel were the oldest, so by right in inheritance, they should have been the ones to rule and should have been the ones to inherit property such as the promised land and the records. However, the law of inheritance at that time was that the inheritance goes to the oldest son, IF he is worthy. Laman and Lemuel were clearly not worthy. Instead, they chose NOT to believe in the Lord, depend upon their OWN wisdom and strength, NOT seek for any other way with truth guiding them, CHOSE to be offended and acted on that feeling of offense by attacking people who served the Lord.
I believe you can learn from a good example and you can learn from a bad example. We can learn from Lamanites. Relying upon your own wisdom and strength grows a sense of insecurity, which develops a sense of wanting to one-up someone, or destroy that someone, just to prove yourself valuable, needed or important. From there, mean deeds are done.
Even reading the feelings that were mentioned in this section, gives me a yucky feeling: wild, ferocious, blood-thirsty, wronged, wroth, kill, hate, rob, plunder, destroy. YUCK!
However, relying upon the Lord, who has all wisdom, all power, and all love, does not take power and wisdom away from you - it taps you into the mainspring! He gives feelings or peace, hope, good desire, love, willingness to serve, patience and much more. If I can have access to these feelings, of course I'm going to apply to their author!
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