Random Thought

I just started reading the Book of Mormon again, but this time I am highlighting all of the "If...then" statements that are made in the Book of Mormon. I like to have something that I am looking for each time I read the Book of Mormon because it helps me get more out of my reading.

Today was the first day of my reading and I am already surprised at the generocity of God. In an "If...Then" statement, the "If" is our responsibilit and when we do that, Heavenly Father provides the "Then". I am amazed at how little is asked of us, but in return, how generous Heavenly Father is in return. For example, in the testimony of the Three Witnesses they wrote, "If we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgment-seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens." The first 6 words are our responsibility: we must be faithful in Christ. If we do that, then the next 30 words is what Heavenly Father is going to do! That is 5 times more than what we do. It gives more validity to the statement that He will pour out blessings that there will not be room enough to receive it. I love that thought. Heavenly Father is SO generous.

On a different and significantly less imporant tangent, does anyone know if Angels wear garments? I was reading the Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and was shocked to think that angels don't wear garments. I guess garments are an earthly commandment to teach us modesty, but I thought we would wear garments throughout eternity.

2 Nephi 33

I am sorry for the long delay. The past couple months have flown by and I am sorry for the tardiness of this post. Today I was reading in 2 Nephi 33 and a couple of things stuck out to me.

1) Nephi is concluding his remarks to the Nephites and he is telling us about the things he has written. He first said that the things he wrote were “written in weakness,” but he prays that they will be “made strong” unto those that read them. He further goes on to tell us, the readers, what his purpose was in writing. The purpose, according to Nephi, was to “[speak] of Jesus.” He then tells us that he hopes his writings about Christ will “persuade [men] to do good,” “persuade [men] to believe in [Christ],” and “to endure to the end, which is life eternal.” Those are the dying wishes of a man that has given himself in the service of others. Those are the dying wishes of a man who has given his will over to Heavenly Father. Those are the dying wishes of a loving father to his children. He is looking back on his life and saying, “Yeah, I am weak. I made some mistakes in my life,” but he hopes that through Christ his feeble attempts will be made strong to persuade people to come unto Christ. Although Nephi was talking about his record, I believe that we can, and should, apply this to our lives. We need to live in a way that we “speak of Christ.” In doing so we will make mistakes because of our weakness, but through Christ our actions can persuade men to do good, to believe in Christ, and to endure to the end. That is the purpose of this life. We, though our efforts, are supposed to “stand as a witness of God at all times, in all places, and in all things.” We do that through our actions. If our actions contradict our words, people will always believe our actions. Our actions are powerful. That is why Nephi uses the verb “persuade” instead of “invite.” An invitation is strictly oral, but to persuade suggests that there is some assent and change on the part of the other person. Let us be like Nephi and live, albeit in weakness, as to persuade those that we come in contact with to come unto Christ. That is what we covenant to at the waters of baptism and in the walls of the temple. Let us live up to those covenants!

2) Secondly, I am always struck by the last 4 words Nephi engraves upon the plates. He ends his teachings and his writings with “I must obey, amen.” I think that sums up the life of Nephi in such a profound way. He must obey. Throughout his life he was given tasks from God that might have seemed hard, tedious, or insignificant, but Nephi obeyed. Do we have that firm of conviction to say “I must obey” when God speaks? I definitely can’t say that I have always been that strong. I just hope to strengthen my commitment so that when I am called upon I can, like Isaiah, say “here am I, send me.”

Again, I am sorry for the delay in posting. This morning I was struck during my scripture study of those things I mentioned above and I knew that I needed to post today. Let us live as to persuade people to come unto Christ and also let us strengthen our resolve to obey so that we can become like Nephi.

To Christy:

You know the saying, "Behind every great man is a great woman"? I have been thinking about that quote today, and, if you would humor me, I would like to write a little on how I interpret that quote.

I think that quotation summarizes a couple at the pinnacle of their lives and their relationship. The amazing couples that we admire and look up to have had many years to grow together and work on becoming better. I believe, if we were able to see the amazing couples at the beginning of their life together, the quote would read a little different. I believe the quote would read, "Behind every potentially great man is an already great woman." In my relationship, that sums it up. We are all blessed with great talents, abilities, and a wonderful purpose here on this life. Each person can become great with Heavenly Father's help. That is why I believe the first half of the quote should read "behind every potentially great man." The difference, as evidence in my relationship with Christy, is that I am "potentially great" and she has already achieved the "great" status. When we first got married, Christy was already perfect. I, on the other hand, needed (and still need) a lot of work. Throughout the past couple years together, I believe that I have gotten better with Christy's help. I have taken a couple steps closer to her level and a couple steps closer to the level of "greatness" in the eyes of my Heavenly Father. Since Christy is already on the level of greatness, she now has the ability to reach down and help me up.

I believe that our relationship is a microcosm of society in general. Behind every potentially great man is a great woman. Us, as men, strive to reach the level of our wives. I have spent the past two years of my life striving to catch up to Christy. I believe that is why marriage is such an amazing thing. Heavenly Father gave us a built-in motivator in the form of our wives. He knew they could be perfect without us, but we couldn't reach that level without them. We need that help. I need that help.

In summary, I believe Neil L. Andersen put it the best when he said, "My wife, Kathy, is my light and example, a precious daughter of God, full of purity and innocence. I would be nothing without her. For much of my life, I have been trying to become what she thought I already was." (Elder Neil L. Andersen, "Come Unto Him," Ensign, May 2009)

Let us all remember the gift Heavenly Father has given us in our spouse. For all those husbands out there, look to your wife as a motivation of what you can become with their help. For all the wives, don't get frustrated with your husbands, love them, encourage them, and help them become the person you already see in them.

Christy, I love you. Thank you for your love and encouragement.

The Beginning of Miracles

I am sorry for the simplicity of my posts, but I really don't understand the New Testament (hence why I started to read the NT). In John 2, we read that Christ performs his first miracle during his ministry: turning water to wine. Following the miracle, John wrote, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galili, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him." (v. 11) What is the significance of turning water to wine? Why do you think Christ chose that to be his first miracle? Am I missing something?

John 1

I decided to start reading the Epistle of John in the Bible. I just finished reading the Book of Mormon, focusing on the prophesies/life/mission/teachings of Christ and so I thought it would be good to follow that up with reading about his life in the Bible. I picked John because it is one of my favorite books in the New Testament.

Today, I was impressed with the thought that Christ came down to take away the "sin" of the world. It struck me that sin was singular. Does anyone know why sin is singular?

Sorry for the brevity of this post, I am late for school.

IT IS TRUE!

Today I finished the Book of Mormon. Even though this isn't the first time I have finished the book, the spirit still bore witness to me that it is true! I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that prepared a way, thousands of years ago, for us to find out if the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is true! I have taken Moroni's challenge at the end of the Book of Mormon and have read, pondered, and prayed and received a witness that it is true! The cool thing about the promise is that you can receive that witness every day, not just every 4-6 months when you finish the Book of Mormon again. I love it! If you haven't prayed about the Book of Mormon recently, I encourage you to do so.

On top of that, this time through the Book of Mormon, I wanted to underline every reference to Christ, his life, his Atonement, his mission, etc. Basically, I wanted to underline every time Christ was referred to in the Book of Mormon. I did it because one of the goals of the Book of Mormon is to convince the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ. I wanted to see how the Book of Mormon convinced the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ. This was such an amazing experience to read the whole Book of Mormon, focusing on the Savior. If you haven't done so, I encourage you all to do it. My testimony of our Savior has been strengthened though this experience. I have found new insights that I didn't have prior to this experience.

The Book of Mormon is true. If you haven't had that confirmation recently, read the Book of Mormon, ponder its teachings, and then pray about it. In doing so, you will receive a witness that it is true through the Holy Ghost. This book has changed my life as well. I hope it is changing yours every day when you read it.

Moroni 1-6

I love reading Moroni 1-6. It is the only day in which you can read 6 chapters and not spend an hour doing it! I actually like it for other reasons than the brevity, but the shortness is nice.

Today I was struck by Moroni 1. It is a short chapter, but I found it to be very powerful this morning. Here we have Moroni, the son of Mormon, both of whom were great worriers, but spiritually and physically. They were skilled in the art of war and were courageous on the battle field. This is evidenced by those chapters in Mormon when all but 24 Nephites are killed, Mormon and Moroni were two of the twenty-four. All that is a tangent, but it helped me realize the significance of Moroni 1. In this chapter we learn that Moroni is alone and is fleeing for his life from the Lamanites. I honestly think that would be a sentence worse than death, but that is just me. Moroni also tells us that the Lamanites are killing all of those that would not deny Christ. First, I ask myself the question, would I have the courage to not deny Christ, knowing that death would be the result? I hope I would, but there is no way one can say for sure unless put in that situation.

I have no doubt that Moroni wouldn't have denied Christ and would have been put to death as a result. This leads me to the second thing that hit me this morning. Moroni, the worrier that he is, could have sought out the lamanites and "defended" his belief in Christ, but knowing full well that death would be the result. Often times we put ourselves in situations where spiritual death is all around us, just to show Heavenly Father that we are strong and valiant in his cause. Does Heavenly Father really want us to put ourselves in those positions? Did He really want Moroni to "show" his courage and testimony by seeking out the Lamanites and "defending" his testimony? No! Some people think that the best way to show Heavenly Father your testimony is to be surrounded by sin and not to surrender to the temptations. Yes, that could be a way to show Heavenly Father your testimony, but I submit that he would much rather have you "avoid the appearance of evil" instead of seeking out sin in order to show your strength.

Yes, Moroni could have sought out the Lamanites in order to defend his testimony and show his courage, but he would have died in the end. If that happened, what would we have missed out on? We would have missed out on the whole book of Moroni! We wouldn't have the wonderful chapter on faith, hope, and charity. We wouldn't have the great chapter on baptizing infants. We would miss out on Moroni's promise! Yes, Moroni could have sought out and "honorable" death defending his testimony or he could have chosen to LIVE for Christ. By so doing, we have some of the greatest and oft-quoted scriptures in all of the Book of Mormon because Moroni showed his courage by living for Christ.

We, as members of this church, have to be willing to stand up for what we believe in, but we have to know how and when to fight our battles. There will be times in all of our lives, not by our own doing, we will be in a "spiritual" struggle with the surrounding Lamanites in which we will have to defend out testimonies of Christ, but we shouldn't seek those situations out. Instead, let us live for Christ. Let our testimonies shine in how we live our lives.

My prayer today is that we will live by the following quote:

President Ezra Taft Benson said: “Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world. Men changed for Christ will be captained by Christ. … Men captained by Christ will be consumed in Christ. … Their will is swallowed up in His will. (See John 5:30.) They do always those things that please the Lord. (See John 8:29.) Not only would they die for the Lord, but more important they want to live for Him” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1985, 5–6; or Ensign, Nov. 1985, 6).