2 Nephi 25:21-30
25:21-22 - Interestingly enough, though there was not very much in the IM about last night's reading, there are like 3 pages about the 10 verses from tonight. To begin, Nephi says that "these things which I write shall be kept and preserved... and they shall go according to the will and pleasure of God." The IM expands on this saying "Nephi was commanded by the Lord to keep his record. He knew he had been commanded to write and he knew what to write; he may not have always known WHY he should write." It's kind of like "faith precedes the miracle." Nephi was commanded, and he obeyed, and it wasn't until later that the Lord revealed to him the purpose of the record. Just like Adam preformed animal sacrifices because he was commanded to, but he told the angel "I know not, save the Lord commanded me." It wasn't until he obeyed the commandment that he was given the reason. I think about it from a parental perspective. If I tell my kids to do something, they should go do it, then afterwards maybe I'll tell them why, but if I tell them to do something and they ask "why?" and I explain it to them and they see how it benefits them, there really is no obedience there, there is only acting in their best interest. And many times the Lord will give us the reason along with the commandment, such as avoiding pornography, but many times we are just expected to fulfill the commandment, then receive the knowledge. Because really if we are given the reason and the commandment every single time, like I said, there is no obedience, we are robbed of our agency, of our ability to choose, because we will have the knowledge and we won't be able to grow either with faith in the Lord.
25:22 - Nephi warns us that "the nations who shall possess (the records) shall be judged of them according to the words which are written." The IM quoted President Ezra Taft Benson as asking "Do eternal consequences rest upon our response to this book? Yes, either to our blessing or our condemnation. Every Letter-Day Saint should make the study of this book a lifetime pursuit. Otherwise (she) is placing (her) soul in jeopardy and neglecting that which could give spiritual and intellectual unity to (her) whole like." Yes, I changed it from him to her, because I'm a woman and I felt like it. This was an interesting statement for me because until I started this blog and really truly started to learn from the Book of Mormon, I honestly heard "you'll be judged by the scriptures" as some crazy, abstract idea. But how I see it now, and I might be wrong is that, yes there are absolutely teaching in the Book of Mormon that teach the commandments and doctrine of God, but as far as I have been able to see, it's like a cake. There's the frosting and pretty decorations, which is kind of like the stories and characters that are interesting, but there's so much more than that, but you have to put out effort to uncover the further teachings. President Benson says "a lifetime pursuit" because it's not a one time act of reading, then it's done. There are teachings and lessons and insights to be gained in the first reading and the 5,000th reading. In fact I full expect to have 27,000 posts in this blog by the time I die that have gone through every book of scripture that we have at least 4 times. I'm actually quite excited about it.
25:24 - I think I've discussed on here before my complete lack of understanding about the concept of "grace." Well, the Lord has been so kind as to teach me quite a bit more about it since I've discussed it last, in fact I want to make a separate blog post about it because it's a really amazing and life changing concept, at least for me it was anyway. I was fortunate enough to listen to 2 Ensign articles/talks that discussed grace specifically, Amazing Grace and The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality. They were unbelievable. But the IM defines grace as "divine help or strength given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ." I thought that to be the perfect definition. The concept of doing my absolute best and still not being able to accomplish something that I really want to do is very significant for me. But looking back there are so so so many times that I have succeeded in doing things that I should not have been able to do. And there are some issues staring me in the face right now that I don't have the strength or ability to overcome, but I know that I need to. I'm going to go back and listen to those articles again because I need a little bit more information but giving 100% and leaving the rest up to the Lord is really comforting to me because I have a lot of pressure, a lot of stress, and a lot of responsibility and sometimes I just feel like I can't do one more thing, but I'm comforted and strengthened and I'm grateful. I always had a difficult time reconciling the idea of how the Lord can save us if we are not perfect, and I've come to some settled ground of that it's possible even though it doesn't make sense to me, but I love what the IM says about this "this grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts."
25:24-30 - Nephi teaches that even though they know that saving comes from Christ, they keep the law of Moses because that's what they are commanded to do. When Nephi says that the law is dead, even though they still observe it, maybe it's referencing the fact that the law of Moses itself is incapable of saving anyone, so it's dead in the fact that it can't save anyone, but that "we are made aline in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments." There is also a whole section that goes into "rejoicing in Christ" but that's still a little foreign to me and so maybe I'll go into that another time after a little bit more research.
25:22 - Nephi warns us that "the nations who shall possess (the records) shall be judged of them according to the words which are written." The IM quoted President Ezra Taft Benson as asking "Do eternal consequences rest upon our response to this book? Yes, either to our blessing or our condemnation. Every Letter-Day Saint should make the study of this book a lifetime pursuit. Otherwise (she) is placing (her) soul in jeopardy and neglecting that which could give spiritual and intellectual unity to (her) whole like." Yes, I changed it from him to her, because I'm a woman and I felt like it. This was an interesting statement for me because until I started this blog and really truly started to learn from the Book of Mormon, I honestly heard "you'll be judged by the scriptures" as some crazy, abstract idea. But how I see it now, and I might be wrong is that, yes there are absolutely teaching in the Book of Mormon that teach the commandments and doctrine of God, but as far as I have been able to see, it's like a cake. There's the frosting and pretty decorations, which is kind of like the stories and characters that are interesting, but there's so much more than that, but you have to put out effort to uncover the further teachings. President Benson says "a lifetime pursuit" because it's not a one time act of reading, then it's done. There are teachings and lessons and insights to be gained in the first reading and the 5,000th reading. In fact I full expect to have 27,000 posts in this blog by the time I die that have gone through every book of scripture that we have at least 4 times. I'm actually quite excited about it.
25:24 - I think I've discussed on here before my complete lack of understanding about the concept of "grace." Well, the Lord has been so kind as to teach me quite a bit more about it since I've discussed it last, in fact I want to make a separate blog post about it because it's a really amazing and life changing concept, at least for me it was anyway. I was fortunate enough to listen to 2 Ensign articles/talks that discussed grace specifically, Amazing Grace and The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality. They were unbelievable. But the IM defines grace as "divine help or strength given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ." I thought that to be the perfect definition. The concept of doing my absolute best and still not being able to accomplish something that I really want to do is very significant for me. But looking back there are so so so many times that I have succeeded in doing things that I should not have been able to do. And there are some issues staring me in the face right now that I don't have the strength or ability to overcome, but I know that I need to. I'm going to go back and listen to those articles again because I need a little bit more information but giving 100% and leaving the rest up to the Lord is really comforting to me because I have a lot of pressure, a lot of stress, and a lot of responsibility and sometimes I just feel like I can't do one more thing, but I'm comforted and strengthened and I'm grateful. I always had a difficult time reconciling the idea of how the Lord can save us if we are not perfect, and I've come to some settled ground of that it's possible even though it doesn't make sense to me, but I love what the IM says about this "this grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts."
25:24-30 - Nephi teaches that even though they know that saving comes from Christ, they keep the law of Moses because that's what they are commanded to do. When Nephi says that the law is dead, even though they still observe it, maybe it's referencing the fact that the law of Moses itself is incapable of saving anyone, so it's dead in the fact that it can't save anyone, but that "we are made aline in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments." There is also a whole section that goes into "rejoicing in Christ" but that's still a little foreign to me and so maybe I'll go into that another time after a little bit more research.
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