Ether 12:33-41
12:33-34 - The word “charity” is discussed next, which is another word that is hindered in our understanding because of its usage in our modern society. I think that it’s mostly associated with giving to the less fortunate and it’s not that at all. The best piece that I’ve ever heard on charity is actually quite accusatory by saying something to the effect of, we as a society think that by giving money we are free from the sin of neglect and pride, when in fact by throwing money at issues we don’t want to address and then calling it “charity” is really blaspheme. Ok maybe I put that last part in there but it seems about right, really that’s how I feel. This concept of “charity” and Christ-like love has been an interesting journey for me, I remember when I first started writing this blog and coming to charity for the first time. I don’t like people, or I should say that I didn’t like people, and feeling towards others and being open and personable was really scary for me, but I knew that that wasn’t the way that it was supposed to be, that wasn’t the way Jesus wanted me to be. So one night I remember asking Him, “please help me love others.” It was almost an instantaneous difference, I looked at others the way that Jesus would look at them, I tried to feel towards them the same way that the Savior would, I tried really hard, and it went well, I honestly have been totally transformed. I’m happy, I’m personable, I’m open, it’s honestly been a miracle because anyone who knew me as a teenager or ever in my twenties would never expect me to be witty and engaging and that’s how I see myself now, even though others might not see me that way, but Jesus has transformed my heart. I’m still working on it, but it’s a total transformation for me. The IM has an excellent piece on charity when it teaches, “The Savior showed the most perfect charity or sacrificial love when He gave His life and atoned for each of us. We must pray that we ‘may be filled with this love’ so we can inherit eternal life. Elder Marvin J. Aston of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained what is means to have charity: ‘Charity is, perhaps, in many ways a misunderstood word. We often equate charity with visiting the sick, taking in casseroles to those in need, or sharing our excess with those who are less fortunate. But really, true charity is much, much more. Real charity is not something you give away; it’s something that you acquire and make a part of yourself. And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart, you are never the same again. It makes the thought of (putting others down) repulsive. Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handles something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other.’” There was a visiting teaching message about charity when I first came back to church and I remember hearing a woman comment on it saying, “I decided to have charity for my husband and so I didn’t fight with him over little things anymore.” I thought that that was interesting, and I think that she said, “sometimes charity is just keeping your mouth shut when you want to say something crazy.” I thought about that and yeah, even in that same visit, someone said something and I wanted to put my opposite two cents in, but I just decided to not, and let it go, and it was a good lesson.
12:35-41 - I had to reread verse 35 several times before I really understood it, but I think that what Moroni is trying to say is “if the gentiles are critical of the Book of Mormon because of our difficulty in writing, then they will have their knowledge taken away and given to others who believe.” And he prayed that the gentiles would have “grace, that they might have charity” when reading the Book of Mormon. The Lord’s answer to Moroni is quite interesting, in essence Jesus tells Moroni “don’t worry about the gentiles accepting the Book of Mormon, because you have been faithful. You are not accountable for their sins,” and “because thou has seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.” So many of us get so wrapped up in “if we had only tried harder, our child wouldn’t have gone astray,” or “what did I do wrong for my husband to fall away,” and really, I love that the Lord is reminding us that if we do our best, their sins do not rest upon us. Moroni seems to think that this is his last entry in the Book of Mormon because he bids “farewell unto the Gentiles” and exhorts us “the seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever.” This is an interesting sentiment, the IM quotes Elder Jeffrey R. Holland as teaching, “’Abide in me’ is an understandable and beautiful enough concept in the elegant English for the King James Bible, but abide is not a word we use much anymore. So I gained even more appreciation for this admonition from the Lord when I was introduced to the translation of his passage in another language. In Spanish that familiar phrase is rendered permameced en mi. Like the English verb abide, permanecer means ‘to remain, to stay,’ but ever (English-speakers) like me can hear the root cognate of ‘permanaence.’ The sense of this, then is ‘stay-but stay forever.’” What is Moroni trying to tell us here? Interestingly enough, in the Addiction Recovery Manual, Step 11, we learn, “You have begun to understand and appreciate your need for the Savior, Jesus Christ, and His role in your life and to treasure the Light of Christ. You have begun to realize you are not just talking to yourself when you feel your conscience guide you. Clumsy and unpracticed as you may have felt initially, you now pray to the Father in the name of Christ for a closer relationship with Him. You deliberately ‘seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written.’” Moroni is telling us to find Christ, and it’s interesting because our lesson on Sunday was about the wise men, and I heard a saying that I really like saying, “Wise men still seek him.” We talked about the journey that they took, the searching for the star, the preparation within themselves, and it all came back to what does “seek” mean, how do we “seek” for Jesus, and this is just all so wrapped together that I love that the Lord teaches me like this. When the question was posed, “how do we seek Jesus?” I thought that, seek sounds like such an active and illusive quest, like “we are seeking for treasure,” it might be there, it might not. I was also reminded of the picture of Jesus knocking on the door, but there is not outside door handle, the only way for the door to be opened is from the inside, and I thought about the Lord’s teaching that he’s standing at the door and knocking, he’s actively in our lives, trying to make that connection. So our “seeking” him isn’t some intense work on our part, like Herod, we don’t see the Lord in our lives if we aren’t looking for Him. But like the wise men, who were looking for him, they recognized his sign thousands of miles away from his birth place. He’s there and if we are looking for him, we can see him everywhere, the only difference between seeing him and seeking him is our hearts. If we turn our hearts to him even a little bit, he floods our lives with goodness, peace, comfort and joy, he isn’t the old wise man dispensing advice from the top of a mountain that no one can get to, he’s sitting in the chair next to you waiting for you to look at him so that he can smile in your face and give you a hug. And as we turn our hearts to him, the more amazing we see that he is and the more we turn, and like Moroni said, through God’s enabling power and added strength the Holy Ghost will fill our hearts with truth and Jesus will come to us and stay with forever, as long as we ask him to.
12:35-41 - I had to reread verse 35 several times before I really understood it, but I think that what Moroni is trying to say is “if the gentiles are critical of the Book of Mormon because of our difficulty in writing, then they will have their knowledge taken away and given to others who believe.” And he prayed that the gentiles would have “grace, that they might have charity” when reading the Book of Mormon. The Lord’s answer to Moroni is quite interesting, in essence Jesus tells Moroni “don’t worry about the gentiles accepting the Book of Mormon, because you have been faithful. You are not accountable for their sins,” and “because thou has seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.” So many of us get so wrapped up in “if we had only tried harder, our child wouldn’t have gone astray,” or “what did I do wrong for my husband to fall away,” and really, I love that the Lord is reminding us that if we do our best, their sins do not rest upon us. Moroni seems to think that this is his last entry in the Book of Mormon because he bids “farewell unto the Gentiles” and exhorts us “the seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever.” This is an interesting sentiment, the IM quotes Elder Jeffrey R. Holland as teaching, “’Abide in me’ is an understandable and beautiful enough concept in the elegant English for the King James Bible, but abide is not a word we use much anymore. So I gained even more appreciation for this admonition from the Lord when I was introduced to the translation of his passage in another language. In Spanish that familiar phrase is rendered permameced en mi. Like the English verb abide, permanecer means ‘to remain, to stay,’ but ever (English-speakers) like me can hear the root cognate of ‘permanaence.’ The sense of this, then is ‘stay-but stay forever.’” What is Moroni trying to tell us here? Interestingly enough, in the Addiction Recovery Manual, Step 11, we learn, “You have begun to understand and appreciate your need for the Savior, Jesus Christ, and His role in your life and to treasure the Light of Christ. You have begun to realize you are not just talking to yourself when you feel your conscience guide you. Clumsy and unpracticed as you may have felt initially, you now pray to the Father in the name of Christ for a closer relationship with Him. You deliberately ‘seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written.’” Moroni is telling us to find Christ, and it’s interesting because our lesson on Sunday was about the wise men, and I heard a saying that I really like saying, “Wise men still seek him.” We talked about the journey that they took, the searching for the star, the preparation within themselves, and it all came back to what does “seek” mean, how do we “seek” for Jesus, and this is just all so wrapped together that I love that the Lord teaches me like this. When the question was posed, “how do we seek Jesus?” I thought that, seek sounds like such an active and illusive quest, like “we are seeking for treasure,” it might be there, it might not. I was also reminded of the picture of Jesus knocking on the door, but there is not outside door handle, the only way for the door to be opened is from the inside, and I thought about the Lord’s teaching that he’s standing at the door and knocking, he’s actively in our lives, trying to make that connection. So our “seeking” him isn’t some intense work on our part, like Herod, we don’t see the Lord in our lives if we aren’t looking for Him. But like the wise men, who were looking for him, they recognized his sign thousands of miles away from his birth place. He’s there and if we are looking for him, we can see him everywhere, the only difference between seeing him and seeking him is our hearts. If we turn our hearts to him even a little bit, he floods our lives with goodness, peace, comfort and joy, he isn’t the old wise man dispensing advice from the top of a mountain that no one can get to, he’s sitting in the chair next to you waiting for you to look at him so that he can smile in your face and give you a hug. And as we turn our hearts to him, the more amazing we see that he is and the more we turn, and like Moroni said, through God’s enabling power and added strength the Holy Ghost will fill our hearts with truth and Jesus will come to us and stay with forever, as long as we ask him to.
Comments
Post a Comment