Week 28 - Looking Back

The prophesied destruction came. Many were killed. There was darkness everywhere. And then a voice. The voice – declaring “I am Jesus Christ.” And later, another voice announcing, “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name – hear ye him.” And then, there He was, “descending out of heaven; and he was. . . clothed in a white robe; and . . . came down and stood in the midst of them;” And then He said, “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.” And this they did, “one by one.”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland wrote that the appearance of the resurrected Lord to the Nephites and His declaration of His messiahship “constituted the focal point, the supreme moment, in the entire history of the Book of Mormon. It was the manifestation and the decree that had informed and inspired every Nephite prophet for the previous six hundred years, to say nothing of their Israelite and Jareidte forefathers for thousands of years before that. “Everyone had talked of Him, sung of Him, dreamed of Him, and prayed for His appearance – but here he actually was. The day of days! The God who turns every dark night into the morning light had arrived” (Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon [1997], 250-51).

Elder Holland also declared, “However dim 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 hours. 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 principal 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’ (Isaiah 53:3, 5)” ( Ensign, January 2003, 42).

Happy Birthday, Lucy & Rachel!!!

Art Work - Events Surrounding the Birth of Christ

Week 27 - Looking Back

Saumel the Lamanite, high on the city wall,

Came to warn the people, and repentance was his call.

Arrows could not kill him, for a man of God was he,

And he taught in the land righteously.

A favorite Book of Mormon story for children is the one about Samuel, the Lamanite. Samuel came to the city of Zarahemla to call the people to repentance. He also came to add his witness to the prophets before him who had testified of Jesus Christ. What is unique about his prophecy was his specificity concerning the Savior’s birth: “…[he gave] unto [them] a sign; for five years more [would come], and behold, then [would come] the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name” (see Helaman 14: 2). He informed them of other signs that would indicate the time had come: great lights in heaven, there would be no darkness the night before His birth, the sun would rise and the sun would set, but it would not get dark, there would be a new star, and other signs and wonders. Samuel also taught the people about the Savior’s death (and why) and the signs surrounding that.

He explained to the Nephites that the Lord had sent him to chastise them because He loved them. Some accepted Samuel as a prophet sent from God and repented. Others were baptized. But the unbelievers gave their reasons why the things Samuel taught them were false. Sadly, the “more part” of the people did not believe. And the book of Helaman ended.

Third Nephi – referred to by some as the fifth gospel – is one of the most beloved books by members of the church. It begins with the signs and wonders prophesied by Samuel. The wicked had set a deadline that if the signs were not given, the believers would be killed. Try to imagine what it would have been like to have been there at that time. Surely there were feelings of excitement and anticipation, but Nephi records that “the people who believed began to be very sorrowful, lest by any means those things which had been spoken might not come to pass.” Under threat of murder, “they did watch steadfastly for that day and that night and that day as if there were no night that they might know that their faith had not been vain" (3 Nephi 1:8). And it wasn’t. And neither will our faith be in vain as we place our trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ , and His prophets today.

Moroni 10:4-5

And when ye shall receive these things,
I would exhort you
that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father,
in the name of Christ,
if these things are not true;
and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart,
with real intent,
having faith in Christ,
he will manifest the truth of it unto you,
by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And by the power of the Holy Ghost
ye may know the truth of all things.

Happy Birthday, Nikki!

Week 26 - Looking Back

Want an interesting study in interpersonal skills? Then you should read the drama that plays out between Mornoni and Pahoran. Lots of things to be learned from them, that’s for sure. After spending weeks and weeks and weeks in the book of Alma, we reached the finish line on a sad note. Moroni died at about the age of 43. He spent approximately the last five years of his life enjoying a peaceful retirement. He had led the Nephite army for about thirteen years before that. He taught us so much.

At the end of Alma, the Nephite nation was ravaged by war with the Lamanites and civil war between the king-men and freemen. The book of Helaman reveals a new threat, much more insidious, lurking within the fabric of Nephite society. It was the rise of a secret combination known as the Gadianton robbers. Mormon declared, “This Gadianton did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi” (Helaman 2:13).

Up to this point, there were times when the Nephites were righteous and times when they were wicked. Now, they go back and forth between the two so often that it can be confusing. And, for the first time, the Lamanites were often more righteous than the Nephites. One of the most memorable prophets, in fact, was a Lamanite named Samuel.

The book of Helaman ends just before the birth of Jesus Christ. Pres. Benson taught that “the record of the Nephite history just prior to the Savior’s visit reveals many parallels to our own day as we anticipate the Savior’s second coming.” Realizing the power that the Gadianton robbers had during that time is pretty scary when you stop to think about the influence that is wielded in high places not only in our country but throughout the world by organized crime, drug cartels, gangs, terrorist groups, etc. We only have to look to our southern border to see horrific violence in the country of Mexico because of powerful drug cartels and corruption in law enforcement and government. Wickedness that has found its way into high places threatens not only the citizenry, but those men and women who represent them who would dare oppose such flagrant evil. There can be no question that these “secret combinations” exist for the sole purpose of getting gain – no matter what the cost to others. Elder Russell M. Ballard stated, “If we are not careful, today’s secret combinations can obtain power and influence just as quickly and just as completely as they did in Book of Mormon times. Do you remember the pattern? The secret combinations began among the ‘more wicked part’ of society, but eventually ‘seduced the more part of the righteous’ until the whole society was polluted (see Helaman 6:38).”

Quotes from the week:

One day…I lost consciousness of my surroundings and thought I had passed to the Other Side. I found myself standing with my back to a large and beautiful lake, facing a great forest of trees. …I began to explore, and soon I found a trail through the woods which seemed to have been used very little, and which was almost obscured by grass. I followed this trail, and after I had walked for some time and had traveled a considerable distance through the forest, I saw a man coming towards me. I became aware that he was a very large man, and I hurried my steps to reach him, because I recognized him as my grandfather. In mortality he weighed over three hundred pounds, so you may know he was a large man. I remember how happy I was to see him coming. I had been given his name and had always been proud of it.

“When Grandfather came within a few feet of me, he stopped. His stopping was an invitation for me to stop. Then—and this I would like the boys and girls and young people never to forget—he looked at me very earnestly and said: ‘I would like to know what you have done with my name.’ Everything I had ever done passed before me as though it were a flying picture on a screen—everything I had done. Quickly this vivid retrospect came down to the very time I was standing there. My whole life had passed before me. I smiled and looked at my grandfather and said: ‘I have never done anything with your name of which you need be ashamed.’

“He stepped forward and took me in his arms, and as he did so, I became conscious again of my earthly surroundings. My pillow was as wet as though water had been poured on it—wet with tears of gratitude that I could answer unashamed. I have thought of this many times, and I want to tell you that I have been trying, more than ever since that time, to take care of that name. So I want to say to the boys and girls, to the young men and women, to the youth of the Church and all the world: Honor your fathers and your mothers. Honor the names that you bear, because some day you will have the privilege and the obligation of reporting to them (and to your Father in heaven) what you have done with their name” (Pres.George Albert Smith, Improvement Era, Mar. 1947, 139).

*****

“Someone once said you can’t visually tell the difference between a strand of cobweb and a strand of powerful cable—unless stress is put on the strand. Our testimonies are that way, and for most of us, the days of stress for our testimonies have already begun. It may not be the death of a loved one. We might not yet have been asked to give up something that is really precious to us, though the time for such a test may well come to us by and by. Our current stress is more likely to come in the form of overpowering temptations, which show us that a shallow acceptance of the gospel does not have the power to cope with the full fury of the powers of darkness. Perhaps there is a mission call to a place of illness and disappointment, when we had planned on a mission to a place of unbounded opportunity. Or perhaps there are too many questions to which our limited knowledge simply has no answer, and those who claim to know more than we do taunt us with what appears to persuasive certainty.

“When those times come, our testimonies must be more than the cobweb strands of a fair-weather faith. They need to be like strands of cable, powerful enough to resist the shafts of him who would destroy us. In our days of stress and trouble, we must be build ‘upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, …that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea his shafts in the whirlwind, …and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you, …because of the rock upon which ye are built’ (Helaman 5:12).” (Elder Bruce C. Hafen, The Believing Heart, 21-22).

*****

“Pride causes us to become overly concerned, as we compare ourselves with others, about how intelligent we think we are, the brand of our jeans or other clothing—the ‘costly apparel’ we wear, to what organizations we belong, on which side of town we live, how much money we have, what our race or nationality is, what kind of car we drive, even to what church we belong, how much education we have been privileged to acquire, and on and on and on.

In the scriptures there are many indications that pride has risen to destroy individuals, nations, and in some cases even the Church itself. …It has been calculated that no fewer than thirty times throughout the Book of Mormon the cycles of prosperity and peace were destroyed, principally by the effects of human pride.” -- Elder Joe J. Christensen

"The Universal Sin"

Beware of Pride

Cleansing the Inner Vessel

The Faces of Pride

Moroni 7:45

And charity suffereth long,

and is kind,

and envieth not,

and is not puffed up,

seeketh not her own,

is not easily provoked,

thinketh no evil,

and rejoiceth not in iniquity

but rejoiceth in the truth,

beareth all things,

believeth all things,

hopeth all things,

endureth all things.