3 Nephi 11:4-15

11:4-7 - I might have a little bit more time tonight, let's cross our fingers. The Nephites have just heard the voice for the first time, and didn't understand it, and then "they heard the voice, and they understood it not." I wonder why they couldn't understand it? But the third time the voice spoke the "did open their ears to hear it; and their eyes were towards the sound thereof; and they did look steadfastly towards heaven, from whence the sound came." I would think that there would be some kind of explanation as to why they had to "open their ears" in order to understand the voice but I haven't seen on so far, so maybe that means that we are supposed to use our own brains, Heavenly Father was trying to talk to them but they couldn't understand Him because they weren't listening? Well, they were listening, but maybe they weren't listening with open ears, like open hearts and open minds. In order to hear the message we have to be willing to receive whatever it is He has to say, that includes something that we might not like. Interesting. The Father's message is amazing "Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name- hear ye him." The IM quotes President Ezra Taft Benson as teaching "How few people in all the history of the world have heard the actual voice of God the Father speaking to them. As the people looked heavenward, 'they saw a Man descending our of heaven; and he was clothes in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them.' A glorious, resurrected being, a member of the Godhead, the Creator of innumerable worlds, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, stood before their very eyes!" There is a song in the Primary Songbook called "This is My Beloved Son" and we sung it for the primary program several years back when I was the primary chorister, and it was a great song, I linked the music to the youtube video of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing that song.

11:8-11 - Here is the pinnacle of the whole book, this is what it all comes down to, "And it came to pass, as they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they saw a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for the thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them. And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying: Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world." How is that for incredible, even here and now I can feel in my heart that this is the truth, that this really happened, that Jesus really did come to the Americas in His resurrected body. All this is real, this is the only thing that absolutely matters, nothing else is as important as this right here, Jesus lives! As Jesus continues, HN says that this is about the Atonement saying "This is the center of the Book of Mormon right here, isn't it? I can never read this without choking up. He bore the whole load." Jesus says "And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk our of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning." HN says "See, we're all in this together, We must obey all these things. We must do all these things and go through all this. My father worked our his kingdom is fear and trembling, and I must do the same. But we're privileged to share all the way, and this is what we get from now on." The IM quotes President James E. Faust as teaching a very interesting point in this statement saying, "Many members, in drinking of the bitter cup that has come to them, wrongfully think that this cup passes by others. In His first words to the people of the Western continent, Jesus of Nazareth poignantly spoke of the bitter cup the Father had given Him. Every soul has some bitterness to swallow. Parents having a child who loses his way come to know a sorrow that defies description. A woman whose husband is cruel or insensitive can have her heart broken every day. Members who do not marry may suffer sorrow and disappointment. Having drunk the bitter cup, however, there comes a time when one must accept the situation as it is and reach upward and outward. President Harold B. Lee said, 'Do not let self-pity or despair beckon you from the course you know it right.' The Savior set the compass: we must be born again in spirit and heart." This was a very powerful statement to me because I feel that all three of those examples have applied to me during my life time, the wayward child would be my wayward husband at the time, the cruel husband would be my ex husband and my father, and I'm single and staring in the face the prospect of never getting married in this lifetime. It's easy to get weighed down my how bitter I think my cup is, but when I compare my cup with the Savior's I realize that mine is not even close to being that bad. HN says something while teaching about a later verse that I thought was particularly fitting here, and it has to do with the idea that we all have a bitter cup to take, but there's also comfort in the knowledge that the dregs aren't poured out randomly or in unmeasured increments. HN says "You're fully qualified for the test you're taking now. Otherwise, you'd be sent to... some other test to be taken... But the fact that you're here shows that you're responsible. The fact that you've been trusted to come here and you've asked to come here shows that you're quite qualified to understand and receive it. And if you don't (receive it), it's because you reject it." This is all highly orchestrated, organized, and personalized, there is no game of chance here, there is no "whatever happens, happens." No, God has invested too much into each and every one of us to let us not have the opportunity to thrive down here.

11:12-15 - Now the people realize who He is and what he's doing there, and they fell to the earth in that submissive position we've seen before, and Jesus said to them, "Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world." I was talking to someone last week and he said something to the effect that this earth is Satan's kingdom and I really wish that I would have had seen this before and been able to read this to him, that in fact Jesus is "the God of the whole earth," and Satan is just permitted to live here. Another point that I've thought about before was the fact that if our bodies are supposed to be perfect after the resurrection, why does Jesus still have nail prints in his hands and feet and a spear wound in his side? The IM answers my question by quoting Elder Jeffrey R. Holland as teaching "However din our days may seem, they have been a lot darker for the Savior of the world. As a reminder of those days, Jesus has chosen, even in a resurrected, otherwise perfected body, to retain for the benefit of His disciples the wounds in His hands and in His feet and in His side- signs, if you will, that painful things happen even to the pure and the perfect; signs, if you will, that pain in this world is not evidence that God doesn't love you; signs, if you will, that problems pass and happiness can be ours. Remind others that it is the wounded Christ who is the Captain of our souls, He who yet bears the scars of our forgiveness, the lesions of His love and humility, the torn flesh of obedience and sacrifice. These wounds are the principle way we are to recognize Him when He comes. He may invite us forward, as He has invited others, to see and to feel those marks. If not before, then surely at that time, we will remember with Isaiah that it was for us that a God was 'despised and rejected...; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,' that 'he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.'" With his stripes we are healed, that is a very interesting statement. It's logically counterintuitive, but symbolically, we can see that as he was whipped, while he took our sins, pains, hurts, betrayals upon himself, he is now able to heal us. We can be strong, we can be happy, and we can be comforted knowing that God himself is on our side, personally cheering for us and he's made it his "work and his glory" to bring to pass our eternal life.