3 Nephi 20:1-9
20:1 - I’ve never noticed before how the chapters in the Book of Mormon were split, but there is a definite topic shift from the previous chapter that was heavy in the doctrine of prayer. The first verse makes the transition as Jesus “commanded the multitude that they should cease to pray, and also his disciples. And he commanded them that they should not cease to pray in their hearts. It seems like a paradox, “stop praying, but don’t stop praying,” but really it doesn’t have to be. Interestingly, in Step 11 of the Addiction Recovery Program manual of the Church, we learn, “Over the course of recovery, many of us learned to arise early and seek a period of quiet solitude for study and prayer. If you haven’t done so already, schedule time for prayer and meditation, perhaps in the morning. During this time you can put God first, before anyone or anything else in the day. Kneel is you are physically able. Pray, often aloud, to the Father, seeking the Spirit to guide you… When this precious time of private meditation has ended, do not cease to pray. Silent prayer, in the depths of your heart and mind, will become your way of thinking throughout your days. As you interact with others, as you make decisions, as you deal with emotions and temptations- counsel with the Lord. Invite and seek His Spirit to be with you continually, that you might be guided to do the right thing… As you plan your days, go about your activities, and retire to bed at night, let your heart be drawn out in prayer to God continually. One idea is to take a thought from what you have read in your morning studies and meditate upon it frequently during your daily activities. This practice will help you keep your mind in tune with truth… When you remember to be grateful for everything in your life, even the things you don’t understand, you will be able to maintain the continual contact with God that Paul called praying ‘without ceasing.’ Try to thank God throughout the day.” Very interesting insights there, the first being taking a thought with you from your morning studies and pondering upon it. This not only keeps your mind occupied on good things, or “anxiously engaged” but it also keeps a righteous state of mind so that we can be worthy of the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. I really liked the attitude of gratitude. As I read that, I thought, “well a grateful attitude keeps us positive, whereas the alternative of an ungrateful attitude really breeds bitterness and resentment, and that attitude is not conducive to the Holy Ghost.” It’s interesting because I’m a firm believer that complaining or having a bad attitude is one of the biggest ways that we are ungrateful to the Lord for our blessings. That’s why, when people ask how I am, I say that I’m “excellent,” and if I’m not, then I try to be happy anyway. By nature I’m not a happy person, my personality is such that I’m actually quite a negative person, my main default state is to complain, to be bitter, jealous, resentful, gossip, hate, anger, irritation, aggression, violence. These are all attributes I have spent years perfecting, and honestly, where it got me was a terrible terrible place, where I was exceptionally unhappy and I made everyone around me unhappy as well. Now I have a few years of trying to implement an attitude of gratitude, being happy, keeping my nose out of other people’s business, being kind, seeing others as actual people, and it’s gone much better. I’m not perfect at it by any means, in fact I have a LONG way to go, but I’m working on it and I’m happier. Looking back, I know that one main difference in my operating lifestyle that has helped contribute to this change is being grateful, having that be my default. And spending much of my open time listening to, reading, writing about the gospel, and also keeping my environment clear of “impure” things. If there is a song on the radio that has a bad message, even if the beat is awesome, then I turn it off because it makes my spirit feel uncomfortable, and I think that maybe that is like praying, in an off handed way. I listen to the Ensign or HN or other uplifting Church material while driving to work, I start my shift off in a better mood then I do when I listen to the radio on the way into work. When I have down time, I read, study, pray about and write about the scriptures in this blog, instead of playing a game or looking at Pinterest or something like that. Not that they aren’t ok to do, and I do do them, but I try to fill my time jar with big rocks first, spiritual things first, and as I do so, my environment gets cleaned up and I’m not able to commune with the Holy Ghost as I’m able to stay more focused on the Savior. The IM quotes Elder Russell M. Nelson as teaching, “Prophets have long told us to pray humbly and frequently… Prayers can be offered even in silence. One can think a prayer, especially when the words would interfere.” We are reminded of the people of Alma who prayed in their hearts after Amulon commanded them to stop praying or die, and their silent prayers were heard by the Lord. The IM continues by quoting President Boyd K. Packer as teaching, “Learn to pray. Pray often. Pray in your mind, in your heart. Pray on your knees… Prayer is your personal key to heaven. The lock is on your side of the veil.” I think that Satan would like us to believe that God, his mysteries and blessings are limited to how much God loves us and that we can’t impact their distribution in any way. President Packer’s statement demonstrates that this is just the opposite, we “knock” on the door to the veil, we indicate to God that we are interested in being let in as we come to him in prayer and make that simple effort.
20:2-9 - Now Jesus again administers the sacrament, first to his chosen disciples and then to the people. I just had a thought, Jesus administered the sacrament to the apostles first before the rest of the congregation, I wonder if that’s why they give the presiding priesthood authority the sacrament first, because Jesus gave it to his apostles first. Interesting. Before we know that Jesus used bread and wine supplied by the disciples, but this time “there had been no bread, neither wine, brought by the disciples, neither by the multitude; But he truly gave unto them bread to eat, and also wine to drink.” Jesus miraculously provided the emblems for the sacrament, which is symbolic of his own atoning sacrifice for us. Jesus told the people “He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled. Now, when the multitude had all eaten and drunk, behold, they were filled with the Spirit; and they did cry out with one voice, and gave glory to Jesus, whom they both saw and heard.” Lots of symbolism here, I’m reminded of the teaching that Jesus is the living water and the bread of life, surely that symbolism applies here. Should we look at this literally and think, “the people were filled because they each got to eat a whole loaf of bread and drink a whole liter of wine?” No, of course not. In fact, when we have the sacrament at church on Sundays, the piece of bread that we are given is so small and the water so minimal, that physically, there is probably no nutrients in it. But spiritually, we are filled with the Holy Ghost as we renew our baptismal covenants and are obedient in making the sacrament a priority. The IM quotes Elder Dallin H. Oaks as teaching, “Attendance at church each week provides the opportunity to partake of the sacrament, as the Lord has commanded us. If we act with the right preparation and attitude, partaking of the sacrament renews the cleansing effect of our baptism and qualifies us for the promise that we will always have His Spirit to be with us. A mission of that Spirit, the Holy Ghost, is to testify of the Father and the Son and to lead us into truth. Testimony and truth, which are essential to our personal conversion, are the choice harvest of this weekly renewing of our covenants. In the day-to-day decisions of my life and in my personal spiritual growth, I have enjoyed the fulfillment of that promise.” Like baptism, taking the sacrament isn’t a major undertaking, especially in today’s world, all it requires, honestly, is to make it to church on time, or even just not super late, extend your hand and take from the little tray, and maybe, just maybe, pass it to the person sitting next to you. It’s curious to me, then why people would deem it as not important, maybe kind of like when Naaman was told to wash in the river 7 times to be cured of leprosy, he was at first hesitant, but finally took the advice of his wise servant who said something to the effect, “if the prophet would have told you to do something huge, you would have done it, but you resist this because of the easiness of the way?” If the act of renewing or baptismal covenants was some harrowing act to be done weekly, like crawl a mild over broken glass wearing cut off shorts, then people would resist because it’s too hard, but now people resist because it’s too easy. Because of the simple nature of the sacrament, if we can understand and reverence its importance by preparing ourselves and having a good attitude, we are spiritually strengthened and better prepared to face the week ahead. The IM continues quoting Elder Oaks as teaching, “To those brothers and sisters who may have allowed themselves to become lax in this vital renewal of the covenants of the sacrament, I plead in words of the First Presidency that you ‘come back and feast at the table of the lord, and taste again the sweet and satisfying fruits of fellowship with the saints.’ Let us qualify ourselves for our Savior’s promise that by partaking of the sacrament we will ‘be filled,’ which means that we will be ‘filled with the Spirit.’ That Spirit- the Holy Ghost- is our comforter, our direction finder, our communicator, our interpreter, our witness, and our purifier- our infallible guide and sanctifier for our mortal journey toward eternal life.” Filled with the Holy Ghost as we worthily partake of the sacrament, I’m going to try to better prepare myself for the sacrament this coming Sunday by being on time or early for church, by reverently singing the sacrament hymn, thinking about the Savior while the sacrament is being administered, and preparing myself the day before. I definitely have spent much time disregarding the importance of the sacrament, and then once I did learn that it is a commandment, I’ve made an effort to be there for it, but I’ve never looked at it as a solemn, serious, spiritually rejuvenating ordinance. I’m going to do that this week and I’ll report back about how it goes.
20:2-9 - Now Jesus again administers the sacrament, first to his chosen disciples and then to the people. I just had a thought, Jesus administered the sacrament to the apostles first before the rest of the congregation, I wonder if that’s why they give the presiding priesthood authority the sacrament first, because Jesus gave it to his apostles first. Interesting. Before we know that Jesus used bread and wine supplied by the disciples, but this time “there had been no bread, neither wine, brought by the disciples, neither by the multitude; But he truly gave unto them bread to eat, and also wine to drink.” Jesus miraculously provided the emblems for the sacrament, which is symbolic of his own atoning sacrifice for us. Jesus told the people “He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled. Now, when the multitude had all eaten and drunk, behold, they were filled with the Spirit; and they did cry out with one voice, and gave glory to Jesus, whom they both saw and heard.” Lots of symbolism here, I’m reminded of the teaching that Jesus is the living water and the bread of life, surely that symbolism applies here. Should we look at this literally and think, “the people were filled because they each got to eat a whole loaf of bread and drink a whole liter of wine?” No, of course not. In fact, when we have the sacrament at church on Sundays, the piece of bread that we are given is so small and the water so minimal, that physically, there is probably no nutrients in it. But spiritually, we are filled with the Holy Ghost as we renew our baptismal covenants and are obedient in making the sacrament a priority. The IM quotes Elder Dallin H. Oaks as teaching, “Attendance at church each week provides the opportunity to partake of the sacrament, as the Lord has commanded us. If we act with the right preparation and attitude, partaking of the sacrament renews the cleansing effect of our baptism and qualifies us for the promise that we will always have His Spirit to be with us. A mission of that Spirit, the Holy Ghost, is to testify of the Father and the Son and to lead us into truth. Testimony and truth, which are essential to our personal conversion, are the choice harvest of this weekly renewing of our covenants. In the day-to-day decisions of my life and in my personal spiritual growth, I have enjoyed the fulfillment of that promise.” Like baptism, taking the sacrament isn’t a major undertaking, especially in today’s world, all it requires, honestly, is to make it to church on time, or even just not super late, extend your hand and take from the little tray, and maybe, just maybe, pass it to the person sitting next to you. It’s curious to me, then why people would deem it as not important, maybe kind of like when Naaman was told to wash in the river 7 times to be cured of leprosy, he was at first hesitant, but finally took the advice of his wise servant who said something to the effect, “if the prophet would have told you to do something huge, you would have done it, but you resist this because of the easiness of the way?” If the act of renewing or baptismal covenants was some harrowing act to be done weekly, like crawl a mild over broken glass wearing cut off shorts, then people would resist because it’s too hard, but now people resist because it’s too easy. Because of the simple nature of the sacrament, if we can understand and reverence its importance by preparing ourselves and having a good attitude, we are spiritually strengthened and better prepared to face the week ahead. The IM continues quoting Elder Oaks as teaching, “To those brothers and sisters who may have allowed themselves to become lax in this vital renewal of the covenants of the sacrament, I plead in words of the First Presidency that you ‘come back and feast at the table of the lord, and taste again the sweet and satisfying fruits of fellowship with the saints.’ Let us qualify ourselves for our Savior’s promise that by partaking of the sacrament we will ‘be filled,’ which means that we will be ‘filled with the Spirit.’ That Spirit- the Holy Ghost- is our comforter, our direction finder, our communicator, our interpreter, our witness, and our purifier- our infallible guide and sanctifier for our mortal journey toward eternal life.” Filled with the Holy Ghost as we worthily partake of the sacrament, I’m going to try to better prepare myself for the sacrament this coming Sunday by being on time or early for church, by reverently singing the sacrament hymn, thinking about the Savior while the sacrament is being administered, and preparing myself the day before. I definitely have spent much time disregarding the importance of the sacrament, and then once I did learn that it is a commandment, I’ve made an effort to be there for it, but I’ve never looked at it as a solemn, serious, spiritually rejuvenating ordinance. I’m going to do that this week and I’ll report back about how it goes.
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