Dark and Dreary Waste

I just had an interesting little insight from 1 Nephi 8. Nephi is reciting the words of his father, Lehi:

 5 And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before me.
 6 And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him.
 7 And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.

Lehi essentially beheld Christ in this dream (or someone representing Him), who bade Lehi to "follow him". This same invitation is extended to all of us. Christ says to all of us, "Come follow me."

It's interesting to note that when he began to follow Christ he found himself in a dark and dreary waste. When we choose to follow Jesus Christ we aren't choosing an easy life or a life free from sorry and trial. Quite the contrary-- if we are truly following Him then we must pass through trials and tribulations, for that is the way His life was. You can't follow somebody by taking a different road they took.

So why do we follow Christ at all? Why not take the easy road? It's because we know where He is taking us.

 8 And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.
 9 And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field.
 10 And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy.

 Christ has told us of the great happiness and peace and joy that awaits us if we remain faithful. The tree of life symbolizes the love of God, with fruit that represents eternal life. This path that Christ leads us on, through the dark and dreary waste, is the only way to get there.

It's a difficult journey, but we aren't traveling it alone. Christ has walked our paths and borne our sorrows and sufferings. He knows how to guide us through our personal "dark and dreary waste". He knows how to get to the tree of life. He is offering to be our escorts! There may be times when the darkness is so thick that we can't see Him in front of us, there may be times when we are forsaken for a season, but all of these things are for the best. Christ knows what we need. He knows what trials we need to pass through. His promise is that He will help us bear these burdens and cross these roads.

God's entire work is to bring us to that tree of life and to share that fruit with us. That means a lot to me, personally. It helps me have hope when life gets difficult.

God Doesn't Give You Solo Jobs

In 1 Nephi chapter 2, Lehi wished that Lemuel would be steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of God, and that Laman would be continually running to the fountain of all righteousness. This infers, to me, that they did keep the commandments at times, they were just inconsistent and wavering. This is emphasized by the fact that right after they saw the angel who told them the Lord would deliver Laban into their hands, they began to doubt and fear, and thought their task was impossible.

Lehi didn't ask them to start keeping the commandments or to begin running to the fountain of all righteousness, but to be steadfast and to continue.

Nephi, on the other hand, knew that if the Lord gave a commandment, then it wasn’t an impossible task. The Lord would be there to help you accomplish it, if you had faith. (1 Ne. 3:7)

I try really hard to remember that, and to keep faith in the Lord when He commands. But I could certainly do better, especially when things get hard, at remembering this, and that the “tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.” (1 Ne. 1:20) He delivered the sons of Lehi from Laban, and delivered Laban into their hands so they might fulfill His (the Lord's) commandments. He will do the same for us, if we have faith. All my life I have seen, again and again, examples of this-- the Lord will help you keep the commandments He gives you.

Hidden from View?

I love this passage from President Eyring's recent conference address:

Prayerful study of the Book of Mormon will build faith in God the Father, in His Beloved Son, and in His gospel. It will build your faith in God’s prophets, ancient and modern.

It can draw you closer to God than any other book. It can change a life for the better. I urge you to do what a missionary companion of mine did. He had run away from home as a teenager, and someone had placed a Book of Mormon in a box he carried with him in his search for more happiness.

Years passed. He moved from place to place across the world. He was alone and unhappy one day when he saw the box. The box was filled with things he had carried with him. At the bottom of the box, he found the Book of Mormon. He read the promise in it and tested it. He knew it was true. That witness changed his life. He found happiness beyond his fondest dreams.

Your copy of the Book of Mormon may be hidden from your view by cares and attention to all you have accumulated in your journey. I plead with you to drink deeply and often from its pages. It has in it the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the only way home to God.

Thank Heaven!

2 Nephi 9: 6-12:

For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord.

Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.

O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more.

And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness.

O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit.

And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave.

And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.

How awesome is this? This is the central message of the Gospel-- that through Christ we can overcome sin and death and be brought back into the presence of the Father.

It's overwhelming to think of how it would be otherwise! We would live these lives of ours without any hope, without any joy, for we would know that only death and misery loom ahead.

But because of Jesus Christ, our lives can be joyful and full of hope! I am so grateful for that!

From the Book of Omni (Really!)

I was reading in the Book of Mormon, and came across this wonderful pearl in the Book of Omni, verse 26:

And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.

Isn't that an amazing passage of scripture? We need to consecrate everything we are to our Lord Jesus Christ. We really do need to give Him our souls, and see what He is able to make of us.

God of Truth

Reading Elder Walter F. González's talk from this past General Conference, I came across an interesting point.... see for yourself:

...the brother of Jared recognized that the Lord was a God of truth; therefore, He could not lie. What great hope this attribute brings to my soul! All the promises in the Book of Mormon and the promises given by the living prophets today will be fulfilled because He is God and cannot lie. Even in these turbulent times, we know that things will be OK if we follow the teachings learned from the Book of Mormon and the living prophets. Once we learn about an attribute of Christ, such as the one recognized by the brother of Jared, we should work to implement it in our own life.

Amazing insight, eh? I never thought of it that way.

Scripture of the Week: Glad Tidings

(We'll try bringing this Scripture of the Week thing back...)
I was reading in Mosiah 3 this morning, and I realized that the message that the angel brought to King Benjamin is really quite Christmas-y! We read of all the angels who brought glad tidings of great joy to many saints in the decades leading up to Christ's birth, and this is certainly one of them! Here is part of that message:

3) And he said unto me: Awake, and hear the words which I shall tell thee; for behold, I am come to declare unto you the glad tidings of great joy.
4) For the Lord hath heard thy prayers, and hath judged of thy righteousness, and hath sent me to declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice; and that thou mayest declare unto thy people, that they may also be filled with joy.
5) For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.
6) And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.
7) And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.
8) And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.
9) And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him.
10) And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men.

Also, I think this is what I need to focus on more at Christmas time.... the actual mission of our Savior, not just His miraculous birth. The true joy of celebrating His birth is in remembering His Atonement and Resurrection, and the marvelous gifts He has made available to us.

Abinadi

I'm always trying to read the Book of Mormon-- once I finish, I start right up again. It's funny-- if you ask me who my hero is in that marvelous book, which of the prophets or missionaries or warriors is my favorite, my answer changes depending on what part I'm currently reading. If I'm in Nephi, it's Nephi. If I'm in Alma, it's Alma. If I'm in Omni, it's Omni (just kidding on that one).

Whenever I read the middle chapters of Mosiah, I am always in awe of Abinadi. This guy was amazing! He gave his life as a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel-- when he was threatened because of the words he taught, he did not back down, and did not shy away. How many times do we in our own lives shy away from our covenants because of what other people say? Abinadi stood up for the truth, when nobody else would. What a wonderful example of faith and courage!

Abinadi boldly testified of Christ to a group that didn't believe in Him. The wicked king and his priests lived how they wanted, and professed to believe that salvation came through the law of Moses (which they certainly did not keep). But Abinadi had this to say:

Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God. For these are they whose sins he has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions. And now, are they not his seed?

Therefore, if ye teach the law of Moses, also teach that it is a shadow of those things which are to come— teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father. (Mosiah 15:11-12, 16:14-15)

Nephi's Thoughts on the Book of Mormon

I finished reading 2 Nephi today. I'm always amazed by the strength of Nephi's testimony and how powerfully he writes (even though he humbly claims to have written "in weakness"- 2 Ne. 33:4). He's definitely one of my heroes-- someone I'm truly looking forward to meeting (or reuniting with?) someday.

Anyway, I was just impressed by his thoughts on what he was writing. Check this out:

And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good. (2 Ne. 33:10)

It's amazing what Nephi recommends for the Book of Mormon skeptic: believe in Christ. If you do, then there's no way you can deny what the Book of Mormon teaches, because it is the word of Christ.

What does the Book of Mormon teach? It teaches all men that they should do good. That's what Christ taught (and did). What a wonderful message.

Scripture of the Week

This might be an ongoing feature, and it might not.

This morning I was reading in 1 Nephi (in the Book of Mormon) and I came across this little gem in chapter 17, verse 13:

And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.

Awesome stuff. For those of you who don't know, this is Nephi writing, a prophet-historian from about 600 B.C., as he and his family are journeying from Jerusalem to the promised land (or the Americas, as they most certainly were not known as then). It's always very inspiring to me to read of Nephi's courage and faith when it comes to certain commandments from the Lord that must have seemed daunting. Just like in 1 Ne. 3:7, he always shows a willingness to do whatever the Lord asks, because he knows that God won't leave us hanging; He will prepare a way for us to fulfill His commands.

Basically this verse is kinda helping bring the thought home that God is always there for us, ready to direct us to the happiness He has in store. Though the road may seem dark, or the sea may seem to stretch out forever, we need not fear; we're in good hands... the best hands.