Odds and Ends
There are a few things of a religious nature that I've found interesting but haven't had a place to fit it into the scripture study, so I'm just going to do a quick "Odds and Ends" post where I talk about random stuff that I want to mention but can't find a place for it.
1. First vision distractions - a couple of weeks ago in church the speaker said something about the important nature of the first vision and how powerful it is to new converts. He said that as a missionary, every time they began Joseph Smith's account of the first vision dogs would bark, door bells would ring, people would drop by, babies would cry, there was always some thing that made noise so that the story would be interrupted and go unheard. This was such a shocking story to me because that's what happened when my then husband was taking the missionary lessons. At the time we had two big dogs, and we put them in the back room while the missionaries were there. Everything was going fine until they started onto the account of the first vision and my dogs went nuts. We could hardly hear what they were saying at all, then when they were done talking the dogs stopped barking. It was the wildest thing and I knew that it happened on purpose, but I didn't know that it happened to other people, it makes me feel better that it was truly Satan trying to keep our family away from the gospel, and that this happens to others.
2. The Fullness of the Gospel within the Book of Mormon - I've heard it said before that the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the Gospel, but I've never really understood what that meant until I heard while listening to an Ensign article from the December 2013 called "The Articles of Faith and the Life of Joseph Smith." While speaking of the loss of the the 116 pages of manuscript the author says "after obtaining the Lord’s forgiveness, Joseph was again blessed to translate the Book of Mormon. He learned from its pages the plan of salvation and the true doctrine of the Atonement of Jesus Christ." This was the first time that I had put together how much Joseph Smith didn't know about the restored gospel, which would make sense because if we think about it, there was the first vision in which he was told that all the churches were wrong and that God was going to restore his true church through Joseph. Then Moroni came and took him to the plates maybe I'm just missing something, but I don't think that Moroni took this time to tutor Joseph in the complicated doctrines of God. So I guess when it came time to translate the Book of Mormon he didn't know a whole lot more about the true gospel of Jesus Christ than he did before, so just like us as children he had to be taught the details but there was no primary of Sunday school for him to go to to learn, so his learning came from translating the Book of Mormon. While he read and translated, he learned and as he learned he asked questions and that's how the doctrine came forth. I had never considered it to be this way, for some reason I had assumed that after the first vision, that he just had all the knowledge of the doctrine and how everything worked poured right into him and he knew everything all of a sudden. So this was an interesting insight to me how the Book of Mormon really does contain the fulness of the gospel.
3. Temple Insights - I went to the temple yesterday and it was great of course. As this year ends and the next year comes up, I'm taking stock of my life and what I need to do to take charge of it. I'm pretty anti New Years resolutions but this year I'm making some. My first resolution is to get healthy, and I have a pretty specific plan to make that happen and I talk about more in my other blog, but that's the first one. The second one is to be more organized. I think that I'm doing pretty good at a lot of things but I am honestly holding on for dear life, I'm so unorganized and it is completely overwhelming. So I have plans on what to do, but I'm pretty nervous about the execution of the plan, fear of failure, fear of not getting enough sleep, etc. I have this idea of who I want to be vs. who I am now but getting there is going to be a monumental task but when I went to the temple I got the distinct impression that I could do it, that I could make it happen and that God will help me do it. It was very encouraging and I felt very empowering.
4. Mercy vs. Justice - This isn't about the scriptures but it is about Les Miserables, the book/musical about the life of people and a huge underlying theme for me is justice vs. mercy. SPOILER ALERT! Javert is the police man who lives by the law of strict justice, allowing for no mercy with any of his subjects. Jean Valjean is the man who was a the recipient of both justice, being imprisoned for 19 years for stealing bread to feed his family, and mercy, after being caught stealing silver, the priest he was staying with gifts it to him instead of sending him back to prison. The priest says that he was buying Valjean's soul for God with the silver and that he was to use it to become an honest man, and he did, becoming a thriving business man, mayor of his town, and a generous philanthropist. Javert on the other hand continued to enforce justice even when it clearly was causing the suffering of all people. Even after Valjean granted Javert mercy twice, first forgiving him when he falsely accused him of something and Valjean could have had Javert imprisoned, but instead forgave him completely. Second when taken as an enemy combatant, Valjean released Javert to freedom, even after Javert promised that he would come back and hunt Valjean after the war. After the war and seeing the consequences of justice without mercy, Javert committed suicide, being unable to live in a world where he was the recipient of mercy from a criminal. To me the stark contrast between the humble, grateful, and generous Valjean and the indignant, unhappy, rage filled Javert was most glaring. Satan demands complete justice, even though he himself has been the recipient of mercy. This is like many of us who refuse to forgive others even though we have ourselves been the forgiven, we have been given chances to start new lives, but refuse to give that chance to others.
1. First vision distractions - a couple of weeks ago in church the speaker said something about the important nature of the first vision and how powerful it is to new converts. He said that as a missionary, every time they began Joseph Smith's account of the first vision dogs would bark, door bells would ring, people would drop by, babies would cry, there was always some thing that made noise so that the story would be interrupted and go unheard. This was such a shocking story to me because that's what happened when my then husband was taking the missionary lessons. At the time we had two big dogs, and we put them in the back room while the missionaries were there. Everything was going fine until they started onto the account of the first vision and my dogs went nuts. We could hardly hear what they were saying at all, then when they were done talking the dogs stopped barking. It was the wildest thing and I knew that it happened on purpose, but I didn't know that it happened to other people, it makes me feel better that it was truly Satan trying to keep our family away from the gospel, and that this happens to others.
2. The Fullness of the Gospel within the Book of Mormon - I've heard it said before that the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the Gospel, but I've never really understood what that meant until I heard while listening to an Ensign article from the December 2013 called "The Articles of Faith and the Life of Joseph Smith." While speaking of the loss of the the 116 pages of manuscript the author says "after obtaining the Lord’s forgiveness, Joseph was again blessed to translate the Book of Mormon. He learned from its pages the plan of salvation and the true doctrine of the Atonement of Jesus Christ." This was the first time that I had put together how much Joseph Smith didn't know about the restored gospel, which would make sense because if we think about it, there was the first vision in which he was told that all the churches were wrong and that God was going to restore his true church through Joseph. Then Moroni came and took him to the plates maybe I'm just missing something, but I don't think that Moroni took this time to tutor Joseph in the complicated doctrines of God. So I guess when it came time to translate the Book of Mormon he didn't know a whole lot more about the true gospel of Jesus Christ than he did before, so just like us as children he had to be taught the details but there was no primary of Sunday school for him to go to to learn, so his learning came from translating the Book of Mormon. While he read and translated, he learned and as he learned he asked questions and that's how the doctrine came forth. I had never considered it to be this way, for some reason I had assumed that after the first vision, that he just had all the knowledge of the doctrine and how everything worked poured right into him and he knew everything all of a sudden. So this was an interesting insight to me how the Book of Mormon really does contain the fulness of the gospel.
3. Temple Insights - I went to the temple yesterday and it was great of course. As this year ends and the next year comes up, I'm taking stock of my life and what I need to do to take charge of it. I'm pretty anti New Years resolutions but this year I'm making some. My first resolution is to get healthy, and I have a pretty specific plan to make that happen and I talk about more in my other blog, but that's the first one. The second one is to be more organized. I think that I'm doing pretty good at a lot of things but I am honestly holding on for dear life, I'm so unorganized and it is completely overwhelming. So I have plans on what to do, but I'm pretty nervous about the execution of the plan, fear of failure, fear of not getting enough sleep, etc. I have this idea of who I want to be vs. who I am now but getting there is going to be a monumental task but when I went to the temple I got the distinct impression that I could do it, that I could make it happen and that God will help me do it. It was very encouraging and I felt very empowering.
4. Mercy vs. Justice - This isn't about the scriptures but it is about Les Miserables, the book/musical about the life of people and a huge underlying theme for me is justice vs. mercy. SPOILER ALERT! Javert is the police man who lives by the law of strict justice, allowing for no mercy with any of his subjects. Jean Valjean is the man who was a the recipient of both justice, being imprisoned for 19 years for stealing bread to feed his family, and mercy, after being caught stealing silver, the priest he was staying with gifts it to him instead of sending him back to prison. The priest says that he was buying Valjean's soul for God with the silver and that he was to use it to become an honest man, and he did, becoming a thriving business man, mayor of his town, and a generous philanthropist. Javert on the other hand continued to enforce justice even when it clearly was causing the suffering of all people. Even after Valjean granted Javert mercy twice, first forgiving him when he falsely accused him of something and Valjean could have had Javert imprisoned, but instead forgave him completely. Second when taken as an enemy combatant, Valjean released Javert to freedom, even after Javert promised that he would come back and hunt Valjean after the war. After the war and seeing the consequences of justice without mercy, Javert committed suicide, being unable to live in a world where he was the recipient of mercy from a criminal. To me the stark contrast between the humble, grateful, and generous Valjean and the indignant, unhappy, rage filled Javert was most glaring. Satan demands complete justice, even though he himself has been the recipient of mercy. This is like many of us who refuse to forgive others even though we have ourselves been the forgiven, we have been given chances to start new lives, but refuse to give that chance to others.
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