Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

10:20-21 - If gifts of the Spirit are not among the people then is it “only according to the unbelief of the children of men. Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity.” I’ve never really understood the concept of faith, hope, and charity, or why they go together, why choose those 3 attributes to go together. I know that we talked pretty in depth about faith, hope, and charity before, and if we consider charity as the pure love of Christ, meaning the perfect way in which Jesus loves us, then that facilitates the other two. Because Christ loves us so unconditionally, we are able to believe in Him and trust Him, and because we can believe in and trust Him, then we can hope that His way is the path to happiness, we can hope that all things work together for our good, and we can trust that the plan of salvation was created for the sole purpose of our eternal welfare and happiness. The IM quotes E...

10:5-8 - As I was trying to learn more about gifts of the Spirit, which is what Moroni talks about next, I listened to chapter 22 of the Gospel Principles manual entitled " The Gifts of the Spirit ." While discussing how Satan "imitates the gifts of the Spirit" the manual teaches, "Satan can imitate the gifts of tongues, prophecy, visions, healings, and other miracles. Moses had to compete with Satan's imitations in Pharaoh's court. Satan wants us to believe in his false prophets, false healers, and false miracle workers. They may appear to be so real to us that the only way to know is to ask God for the gift of discernment." This was hit home to me when I read Moroni 10:5 "and by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." There are 174 citations for this verse and most are very powerful, though I have not had time to read them all but I'd like to quote from a great one by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf in the Oct...

10:1-3 - Here we are in the home stretch. I’m super short on time so let’s just see how far we get. Moroni finishes up the records that were entrusted to him by addressing “my brethren, the Lamanites,” and I would assume all the rest of us who will read this saying, “Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.” This is a really interesting concept because essentially, what I’m hearing here is “you should be grateful to have the Book of Mormon,” and honestly, before I started this blog, I would have thought, “yeah right, the Book of Mormon doesn’t even have that much stuff in it that’s important.” I literally thought that once, shameful, I know. But being on this side of the learning experience, I know now what an amazing b...

9:21-26 - I wonder if this is the way that Mormon tells his son Moroni that he's proud of him, speaking of his people the Nephites, "Behold, my son, I cannot recommend them unto God lest he should smite me. But behold, my son, I recommend thee unto God, and I trust in Christ that thou wilt be saved." I don't know why but it's cute to me that that's how he tells Moroni that he's proud of the man that he became. It's interesting to me that Mormon hopes that Moroni will live "to witness the return of his people unto him, or their utter destruction; for I know that they must perish except they repent and return unto him." I don't know if that's what I would wish for my children, especially knowing how it worked out for Moroni, how he wandered alone for what was it 35 years or something like that? Would I wish that on my kids? I don't know. I also think it's interesting that Mormon referenced the destruction of the Jaredites and ...

9:6-9 - Even though it appears like the Nephites are a lost cause, Mormon encourages Moroni "notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God." I thought it was interesting that Mormon referenced rest in the kingdom of God, but prefaced it with what they would rest, their souls. This goes back to the teaching we learned a couple of weeks ago that "the rest of the Lord" isn't a physical rest, but a spiritual rest, in which we have inner peace based on the gospel and the Savior no matter what's going on around us. I had some insight into this concept earlier this week when I had some drama, and even though I was sitting down or lying in bed, my spirit was going 100 miles an hour and it was terrible, I would have much rather bee...

9:1-5 - I got caught up in reading something else, so I don't have a lot of time tonight, which is my own fault and I should have known better, but let's get to it anyway. This is the second letter from Mormon to his son Moroni, and unlike the last one, this isn't to squash a doctrinal issue, but more to give him an update on what's going on in the war with the Lamanites, and it is "grievous." Interestingly, Mormon, the military protege says that his people, the Nephites are most likely going to be destroyed, meaning he's going to lose the war, but he doesn't cite one military reason as to why. It's not "they have greater numbers," or "they have better weapons or training or supply lines," the only reason that he gives is the wickedness of the people, "for they do not repent, and Satan stirreth them up continually to anger one with another." The Nephite's reason for losing the war, according to probably the greates...

8:1-13 - Chapter 8 is a letter from Mormon to his son Moroni, and I guess I’ve never really read it like a letter, and it takes on an interesting tone when it is read as such. I read this chapter from the point of view of a parent speaking to a beloved child during a time of massacre and destruction. Mormon begins “my beloved son, Moroni, I rejoice exceedingly that your Lord Jesus Christ hath been mindful of you, and hath called you to his ministry, and to his holy work.” It must have been exceptionally gratifying for Mormon, who probably felt, and did, stand alone for righteousness in a time when everything was going downhill fast, to have his son remain righteous and be called to the same work of God that he himself served for his entire life. Verse 3 is heartfelt sentiment from father to son, “I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through ...

7:44 - God is so good, I’ve spent the last 24 hours in meltdown mode, the Lord comforted me and taught me many things and he protected me and I’m so grateful. He’s faithful in all things, and I’ve had an interesting insight into the concept of doubt. I don’t doubt that the Lord can do anything, I know that he is all powerful, it’s not that I doubt his abilities, it’s that I doubt my worthiness. But that doesn’t get me anywhere, I need to learn to trust that if I’m doing my best, then that’s acceptable to God, if I really feel like I’m giving 100%. I’ve done some listening about the concept of meekness and there were a couple of incredible talks that I’ll link to, but they were very eye opening, both in counsel and in comfort. There were several times when the general authorities said that obtaining the gift of meekness is a process, that it doesn’t happen overnight, that it takes time and concentrated diligence to obtain, very humbling and comforting when I felt like such an epic failu...