Come Unto Me

http://broadcast.lds.org/churchmusic/Seminary/CES_NT_01_ComeuntoHim.mp3

Today I read Ether chapters 4 and 5. I was really struck by Ether chapter 4 today. There were a couple reasons why that chapter hit me so hard today.

Chapter 4 hit me today because it seemed like Christ was teaching a first lesson to all who read the Book of Mormon. I believe that if Christ were to come down and teach a lesson to an investigator, he would teach this very chapter. The reason I say that is because this chapter is focused on the first four principles of the gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, and gift of the Holy Ghost. Christ is urging people to have faith in Him so that they can be sanctified in Him. The next step of sanctification is repentance, because we know that we need to be clean in order to be sanctified in Christ. We are then baptized to become children of Christ. I love this chapter. Maybe it is because I love my mission and I am amazed at how simple, yet powerful, Christ is able to teach the first principles of the gospel. Furthermore, I love that Christ's main message throughout the chapter is "come unto me." I think that is Christ's main message period. "Come unto me." The reason we want to have faith in Christ, repent, be baptized, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost is in order to come unto Him. That is the whole purpose of life. That is why this chapter is so powerful, because He teaches us that the purpose of the gospel, the purpose of the church, the purpose of His life, and the purpose of the Book of Mormon is to show and exemplify how to Come unto Christ. If we all could follow the teachings in this chapter, we would all be able to "come unto him" and be perfected in him.

Secondly, but intertwined with the first insight into this chapter, is the fact that the veil is placed on us individually, not on the group as a whole. For the longest time, I believed the veil was placed on the whole world, but now I know that each of us has our own veil placed on us. The purpose of this life and the purpose of this chapter, is to invite each of us to "rend the veil of unbelief" that rests upon each of us individually. There are some people in the world who have completely removed the veil from their eyes and there are some who, by their actions, have thickened the veil. I also believe that at different points in each of our lives the veil gets thinner and thicker depending upon our actions. My hope is that today, I will be able, and I hope you will as well, to do things that makes the veil thinner in your life. We do that by coming unto Christ. Let us today come unto Christ and take a step towards removing the veil from our lives.