Mormon 9:9-20
9:9-10 - I don’t feel like we got to do very much on personal revelation yesterday because I was so short on time, but today’s kind of continues with that theme so I hope that we can touch on it again. This most recent general conference, I felt, was heavy on the topic of personal revelation, so hopefully we can get into some of that later. Moroni’s teaching that miracles and revelations and other gifts are always present, the past and today, “For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing? And now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is a shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles.” We again head from Elder Tad R. Callister from an October 2011 general conference address entitled, “The Book of Mormon- a Book from God,” in which he says, “Many believe that revelation ended with the Bible even though the Bible itself is a testimony of god’s revelatory pattern over 4,000 years of man’s existence. But one incorrect doctrine such as this is like a domino set in motion that causes the fall of other dominoes or, in this case, the fall of correct doctrines. A belief in the cessation of revelation causes the doctrine that ‘God is the same yesterday, today, and forever’ to fall; it causes the doctrine taught by Amos that ‘surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets’ to fall; and it causes the doctrine that ‘God is no respecter of persons’ and this speaks to all men of all ages to fall.” That’s a really good point that the Bible is a 4,000 year record, and here we are only 2,000 years out from its oldest books, so if anything the people from the Bible times should have been saying, “God is dead,” which I’m sure they did. Another thing that we have to consider is that the Bible as we have it today wasn’t compiled until centuries after Jesus lived on the earth. There was the Torah of course, but even that was from Moses thousands of years before Christ. The concept of a complied book, which we use to prove to ourselves that God isn’t involved in our lives anymore is very specific to this dispensation, so it’s interesting that Moroni had the insight to include that aspect of teaching in this final chapter. I guess that begs the question, why are we so eager to prove that God doesn’t talk to us today? And I think that the answer is pretty obvious, if God reveals his commandments today, then we are obligated to obey them, and people don’t want to obey them. People want to feel like they are fulfilling their obligation to God by keeping ambiguous rules that no one has authority to approve or condemn because they are all personal interpretations of a thousands of years old book. It’s much more “difficult” to live a life in which God is personally in your head “scolding” your choices and making you do things that you don’t want to do, and I can see how people might think that, but that’s because they are only focused on what they’ll have to give up, it’s basically a fear of change. I see personal revelation as a beautiful gift from a loving God, it indicates to me that I’m loved and taught and guided and comforted, but for people who don’t realize that that’s the on the flip side of the “in your head” coin, then it can be pretty daunting to give up everything that they know for a lifestyle that they don’t. Those who don’t understand don’t see keeping the commandments as a privilege; they see it as a chore, they don’t see it as becoming perfected, they see it as losing themselves; and lastly, they certainly don’t see it as the pathway to happiness and protection, they only see it as the highway to unhappiness and oppression. This is consistent with what Moroni says in verse 8, “he that denieth these things knoweth not the gospel of Christ; yea, he has not read the scriptures; if so, he does not understand them.” This plan, the gospel plan, has been from the beginning, from before the world was created, and thus feeding back into the concept that God is unchangeable. The IM teaches, “Moroni declared that God is an unchangeable being who will remain ‘the same yesterday, today, and forever.’ Modern revelation confirms that the coming forth of the Book of Mormon proves God continues to ‘inspire men and call them to his holy work’ in our day as He has in the past, ‘showing that he is the same God yesterday, today, and forever.’ The Lectures on Faith state that in order to have perfect faith in God one must have a correct idea of God’s ‘character, perfections, and attributes.’ One of God’s characteristics is that He will not change: ‘(God) changes not, neight is there variableness with him; but that he is the same from everlasting to everlasting, being the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that his course is one eternal round, without variation.’ Consider the blessing of knowing that God continues His holy work in our day and will always remain the same yesterday, today, and forever. Moroni wanted us that there are those who ‘have imagined… a god who doth vary.’ Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that we could not believe or trust in a God who changes or is still learning new truths: ‘The omniscience of God in the minds of some well-meaning Latter-day Saints has been qualified by the concept of ‘eternal progression.’ Some have wrongly assumed God’s progress is related to His acquisition of additional knowledge… God derives His great and continuing joy and glory by increasing and advancing His creations, and not from new intellectual experiences. There is a vast different, therefore, between an omniscient God and the false notion that God is on some sort of post-doctoral fellowship, still searching for additional key truths and vital data. Were the latter so, God might, at any moment, discover some new truth not previously known to Him that would restructure, diminish, or undercut certain truths previously known by Him. Prophecy would be mere predication. Planning assumptions pertaining to our redemption would need to be revised. Fortunately for us, however, His plan of salvation is constantly underway- not constantly under revision.’” I was asking myself, why would people think that God doesn’t have all knowledge? And it seems to me that because we have to walk by faith, maybe we think that that applies to God as well. God tells us that we need to take the steps commanded, be obedient even though we don’t know the reason. Sometimes we are prompted to do or say things and we don’t know the reason for it, sometimes not in this life time, but we obey the commandments and the promptings on the assumption that it will eventually be for our good, because God, who knows everything that ever was and ever will be, told us to do it. But if we didn’t have the confidence that all things would be for our good, then we’d have to operate under the assumption that God is just well intended, like good, fallible earthly parents, they mean well but they would not have the ability to know almost 3,000 years previously that during the translation of the Book of Mormon, Martin Harris would lose the first 118 translated pages, and thus would have known to command Mormon to include the small plates of Nephi into the beginning of the record. The well-meaning but unknowing God wouldn’t have known to do that and the work would have been frustrated, that must be the only way that Satan thinks he stands a chance at ruining God’s work, otherwise he is just a fatalist.
9:11-20 - Because God is all knowing, he can also be “a God of miracles.” The IM teaches, “Note the evidence Moroni gave that bears witness to the miracles of God- the creation of heaven and earth, the creation of man, and the scriptural testimonies of the miracles of Jesus and the Apostles. The ‘God of miracles’ described by Moroni can still be found. Elder Dallin H. Oaks bore witness that many miracles happen in our day and are present in the true Church of Jesus Christ: ‘Many miracles happen every day in the work of our Church and the lives of our members. Many of you have witnessed miracles, perhaps more than your realize. A miracle has been defined as ‘a beneficial event brought about through divine power that mortals do not understand and of themselves cannot duplicate.’ The idea that events are brought about through divine power is rejected by most irreligious people and even by some who are religious… Miracles worked by the power of the priesthood are always present in the true Church of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon teaches that ‘God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles.’ The ‘means’ provided is priesthood power, and that power works miracles through faith.’” Miracles are an interesting concept, they accomplish many things, but my favorite thing about miracles is that they are made just for me. I think that people who only look for big ‘mountain moving’ miracles are bound to have a life of disappointment, because the miracles and ‘tender mercies’ that surround us every day compliment all our other blessings to help us understand that we are loved and treasured and that our lives and feelings are precious to the Lord. I experience miracles of all scale pretty regularly, and as long as I’m open to them, I can see them for what they truly are. I had an amazing miracle happen on Tuesday. My ex-husband is taking another job and moving far away, and the job was supposed to start today actually, the 20th, so he was going to stay with us and the kids and then leave on Tuesday to go to his new job. Monday was a rough day and he only really got to spend time with our daughter, and my son was devastated. I could see the meltdowns coming as their dad packed up his stuff to leave on Tuesday, but after they left for school, he called me and it turned out that he didn’t start work on Thursday, but Friday instead, and with that he decided to stay that extra day and it just so happened that it was my daughter’s day full of activities so my son got to spend the whole day with his dad, they went go karting, did homework together, read books together, all types of stuff. It wasn’t until later when I realized that this was a tender mercy, this was the Lord’s way of telling me that he loves my son too. If my ex would have left on Tuesday like he was originally supposed to, my son would have had meltdown central for the next several weeks, but because they got to spend that one extra day together, his transition has been much easier. I truly felt in my heart that God worked that miracle for us. I got a really good picture of my son and his dad reading together and I’m going to print it out and frame it with the inscription “Jesus Loves You” so that every time he looks at it, he’ll remember that Jesus did that miracle just for him. It’s things like that, that really help draw me closer to God in a more personal way than I can get from just reading about him in the scriptures. The scriptures help me recognize him in every aspect of my life. Moroni talks about the plan of salvation as being “marvelous in our eyes.” The resurrection, the creation, and I can talk all day long about making it to clock in at work on time as being a miracle, and it is, and all the other amazing things that the Lord does for me because he loves me, but the greatest miracle of all, the one that makes me even believe in miracles in the first place, is the miracle that the atonement has and is changing my heart. From where I was and how I acted, felt, thought, to who I am now is almost unrecognizable. I have people that I knew from childhood who don’t think it’s possible that I am the way that I am now based on who they knew me to be back then, and it’s not because I’m awesome, definitely not, it’s because Jesus saves. I’m not perfect, there’s a lot that I want to change about myself, but the healing and transformation that I’ve already undergone is proof positive that God loves us, that we can be happy no matter what, that this life is worth it, and that there are great rewards, rest, and salvation coming. The IM continues by quoting Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “Why do signs and miracles cease in certain ages? Why are they not found at all times and among all peoples? Were those of old entitled to greater blessings than those of us who now dwell on the same earth that once was theirs? Moroni answers: ‘the reason why’ a God of gifts and miracles ‘ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men,’ and to pour out his gifts upon them, ‘is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right war, and know now that God in whom they should trust,’ They worship false gods whom they define in their creeds, and they no longer walk in the same paths pursued by the saints of former days. It is men who have changed, not God; he is the same everlastingly. All men who have the same faith and live the same law will reap the same blessings.” It’s like the saying, “If you don’t feel as close to God as you did yesterday, then who moved?” I always thought that when I was not close to God it was because he was being moody, or because we were so close already that this was our relationship settling out over the day to day things, like my marriage did, where I wasn’t head over heels in love and we were just kind of living our lives. But I don’t think that our relationship with God or even each other need to be like that, that we can feel and be close to God all the time. I’ve seen that in my own life, after I realized that when I don’t feel close to God it’s because I moved and not him, when I felt like that, I would reflect, “what did I do when I felt close to God? How is that different than what I’m doing now?” And usually it’s that I’m not taking my scripture study very seriously, or that my prayers are lacking, or that I’m watching bad tv or listening to bad music or reading bad stories. I mean it’s not like porn or anything, but it’s negative enough to keep my mind focused on other things and not on the things of God. It’s really a good measuring tool to keep me on track. “Am I closer to God today than I was yesterday? If not, what am I doing different?” And now that I realize that it’s me and not God, I can evaluate, make changes, and repent, and I immediately feel closer to God then I did just moments before, and as I implement and sustain those changes, I grow back to him, and I love it, and I feel that he does too.
9:11-20 - Because God is all knowing, he can also be “a God of miracles.” The IM teaches, “Note the evidence Moroni gave that bears witness to the miracles of God- the creation of heaven and earth, the creation of man, and the scriptural testimonies of the miracles of Jesus and the Apostles. The ‘God of miracles’ described by Moroni can still be found. Elder Dallin H. Oaks bore witness that many miracles happen in our day and are present in the true Church of Jesus Christ: ‘Many miracles happen every day in the work of our Church and the lives of our members. Many of you have witnessed miracles, perhaps more than your realize. A miracle has been defined as ‘a beneficial event brought about through divine power that mortals do not understand and of themselves cannot duplicate.’ The idea that events are brought about through divine power is rejected by most irreligious people and even by some who are religious… Miracles worked by the power of the priesthood are always present in the true Church of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon teaches that ‘God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles.’ The ‘means’ provided is priesthood power, and that power works miracles through faith.’” Miracles are an interesting concept, they accomplish many things, but my favorite thing about miracles is that they are made just for me. I think that people who only look for big ‘mountain moving’ miracles are bound to have a life of disappointment, because the miracles and ‘tender mercies’ that surround us every day compliment all our other blessings to help us understand that we are loved and treasured and that our lives and feelings are precious to the Lord. I experience miracles of all scale pretty regularly, and as long as I’m open to them, I can see them for what they truly are. I had an amazing miracle happen on Tuesday. My ex-husband is taking another job and moving far away, and the job was supposed to start today actually, the 20th, so he was going to stay with us and the kids and then leave on Tuesday to go to his new job. Monday was a rough day and he only really got to spend time with our daughter, and my son was devastated. I could see the meltdowns coming as their dad packed up his stuff to leave on Tuesday, but after they left for school, he called me and it turned out that he didn’t start work on Thursday, but Friday instead, and with that he decided to stay that extra day and it just so happened that it was my daughter’s day full of activities so my son got to spend the whole day with his dad, they went go karting, did homework together, read books together, all types of stuff. It wasn’t until later when I realized that this was a tender mercy, this was the Lord’s way of telling me that he loves my son too. If my ex would have left on Tuesday like he was originally supposed to, my son would have had meltdown central for the next several weeks, but because they got to spend that one extra day together, his transition has been much easier. I truly felt in my heart that God worked that miracle for us. I got a really good picture of my son and his dad reading together and I’m going to print it out and frame it with the inscription “Jesus Loves You” so that every time he looks at it, he’ll remember that Jesus did that miracle just for him. It’s things like that, that really help draw me closer to God in a more personal way than I can get from just reading about him in the scriptures. The scriptures help me recognize him in every aspect of my life. Moroni talks about the plan of salvation as being “marvelous in our eyes.” The resurrection, the creation, and I can talk all day long about making it to clock in at work on time as being a miracle, and it is, and all the other amazing things that the Lord does for me because he loves me, but the greatest miracle of all, the one that makes me even believe in miracles in the first place, is the miracle that the atonement has and is changing my heart. From where I was and how I acted, felt, thought, to who I am now is almost unrecognizable. I have people that I knew from childhood who don’t think it’s possible that I am the way that I am now based on who they knew me to be back then, and it’s not because I’m awesome, definitely not, it’s because Jesus saves. I’m not perfect, there’s a lot that I want to change about myself, but the healing and transformation that I’ve already undergone is proof positive that God loves us, that we can be happy no matter what, that this life is worth it, and that there are great rewards, rest, and salvation coming. The IM continues by quoting Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “Why do signs and miracles cease in certain ages? Why are they not found at all times and among all peoples? Were those of old entitled to greater blessings than those of us who now dwell on the same earth that once was theirs? Moroni answers: ‘the reason why’ a God of gifts and miracles ‘ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men,’ and to pour out his gifts upon them, ‘is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right war, and know now that God in whom they should trust,’ They worship false gods whom they define in their creeds, and they no longer walk in the same paths pursued by the saints of former days. It is men who have changed, not God; he is the same everlastingly. All men who have the same faith and live the same law will reap the same blessings.” It’s like the saying, “If you don’t feel as close to God as you did yesterday, then who moved?” I always thought that when I was not close to God it was because he was being moody, or because we were so close already that this was our relationship settling out over the day to day things, like my marriage did, where I wasn’t head over heels in love and we were just kind of living our lives. But I don’t think that our relationship with God or even each other need to be like that, that we can feel and be close to God all the time. I’ve seen that in my own life, after I realized that when I don’t feel close to God it’s because I moved and not him, when I felt like that, I would reflect, “what did I do when I felt close to God? How is that different than what I’m doing now?” And usually it’s that I’m not taking my scripture study very seriously, or that my prayers are lacking, or that I’m watching bad tv or listening to bad music or reading bad stories. I mean it’s not like porn or anything, but it’s negative enough to keep my mind focused on other things and not on the things of God. It’s really a good measuring tool to keep me on track. “Am I closer to God today than I was yesterday? If not, what am I doing different?” And now that I realize that it’s me and not God, I can evaluate, make changes, and repent, and I immediately feel closer to God then I did just moments before, and as I implement and sustain those changes, I grow back to him, and I love it, and I feel that he does too.
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