Enos Testimony

So when I began this, I thought I was on a quest to find out about gifts and what the scriptures had to say about them. I then felt that before I went down that road, I had to gather the testimonies of the great prophets. The strongest, most powerful pinnacle words from the strongest, most powerful men to step foot on the earth. In an earlier blog post, I think I found and showed the testimony of Moroni and Joseph Smith, as well as others - my memory fails me like it often does.

Here is another - this one from Enos. We don't know much about this man, but he achieved the same promises that his fathers (presumably Lehi and Nephi, and Jacob) received, but the Lord added more for him. He achieved more and differe promises from the Lord than even his powerful predecessors had achieved. That's like being more awesome than iron man and captain America - and spider man.

But other than that, we don't know much about Enos. What we do have is this gem that I found - a heartfelt, powerful set of words that make up the capstone of another one of the greatest lives lived ever.

Enos 1:27 "And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer, for I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father. Amen."

I know something about that word "Redeemer". I know it carries a specific meaning to those of us who have fallen short, but been lifted back onto our feet by our God. I know the gratitude I have felt when I use the words "my Redeemer". I think Enos probably felt this when he used those words as well.

Enos knows that his day of judgment will not be about fire and fear. He knows his Redeemer and completely welcomes the day when he can embrace him again. His soul is filled with love, and he feels no fear. He uses words like rejoice and pleasure, and blessed, and prepared.

I am no Enos, but I hope to feel the same when I meet my Redeemer as well.

Finally, verse 26: "...I have declared it in all my days, and I have rejoiced in it above that of the world".

May we rejoice in the approval and love of the Lord, more than we seek the love of those we are tasked to teach. May we shine the light, so that the light within us is found burning bright when we meet the Light of the world.

To those of my children or grandchildren who may read this, or to the reader who just found this somewhere. This blog is intended to be a gift to you. Please treat it as anyone would hope a gift is taken - not to be discarded lightly, but to be appreciated, valued and used. Just like gifts from any parent or friend, a gift valued by the receiver is more likely to be followed on by further gifts.

Please make the most of all gifts you may receive, and may I hear about that report joyfully when we meet on the other side. Know the love of the Lord. Know His Peace.

nix on the eyes and ears

First, I'm happy to report that after the last blog post, I was able to give Julie a blessing about the peace of the Lord - and the rest of the Lord. She was challenged to receive a part of it in the short term, and learn of it to gain more of it. She did that. She went from a continuously stressed out woman to one who can place her goals and efforts where they belong. Goals are great, but when they replace God as the center of your soul, you go backwards on everything - including your goals. When God is involved, you can't force things. An attempt to do so is a lack of faith. She understands that and taught me. I'm very grateful for that.

Today's scripture is 2 Nephi 21. Isaiah has never been my favorite - it's hard reading. But I found a gem in verse 3 "...he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears".

What? I thought that's how judgment is done! In court there is no stronger witness than an eyewitness, yet court officials will tell you that different eyewitnesses to the scene can have very different interpretations of what happened. But the Lord takes out what's visible to the eye as something he judges by. And then we take out the auditory side too? What's left?

What is left is God's judgment. He knows the back story. As well as I can describe it, he knows the fears, the pains, the self illustrations we all paint for ourselves on why the world really is as we perceive it. He knows our own self doubts, our failures, and the brokenness of people around us with all of their similar issues. He knows how we weave all that together to get a fabric of what we perceive. Of course it's distorted and always false to one degree or another - he knows that. But he knows us, he knows the reality of truth, and he judges us fairly. Not based on what the eye can see, or what is said or heard. He goes deeper than that.

It occurs to me that we all justify actions and judgments based on claims that "I know I'm right - I was there - I saw it happen", and this claim makes us presumably unsurpassed experts on a situation. This also makes our conclusions supreme in an argument. Yet the Lord doesn't use this even as evidence. He goes deeper. What kind of deeper? I can only guess like I did above. But the bottom line to me is this: if the Lord doesn't use audio or video in his judgments, why should we feel that we have that license? We're certainly not greater than the Lord.

Verse 4 - "But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth." It is possible for us to judge correctly, but it has to be done not through our own brains and judgment, but through guidance from God himself. If our judgment is not coming through him - if that pipeline to the heavens isn't open and we're getting it from Him, we'd better not be very insistent that we have it right.

Hey - I got something from Isaiah. That might be a first. I think I'll mark this day on the calendar

stress and trust

Julie has been stressing lately - it's been the subject of some discussion for the last couple of days. I gave her a blessing that she would gain a measure of the Peace of the Lord, but that to gain more, she had to learn of it herself. For whatever reason, I believe the term "the rest of the Lord" is similar enough to be considered synonymous for a person at my spiritual level.

She is pretty good at stressing. She stresses about her goals and how to reach them. She stresses about her weight - it kinda seems to be her go-to answer for things she's uncomfortable about. I think many of us are like that. We know that stress accomplishes nothing, but we choose it anyway.

This would likely have something to do with today's scripture. I felt guided to move into Isaiah. I didn't have the bible handy, so I went into 2 Nephi 27. Reading first in verse 2, "I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength..."

It seems to me that trust and fear are opposites. I talked to her about that. Stress and fear are probably about the same thing. We decided that stress is feeling like a person should must do something by himself or herself, without any help from God, and the spirit knowing that it doesn't work that way. It's like putting pressure on yourself to do something that you can't do without God's help, but you don't include God in the equation.

It's like fear and stress are about the self - and at times choosing fear or stress may be a bit selfish - when it is so much more rewarding to choose trust. To know that we're inadequate, but yet that's OK because everyone is inadequate and relying on God makes us "enough".

She has the word "effortless" on her board, something that she felt inspired to place there after she was inspired by someone months ago. It is meant to help her realize that her goals can and should be "effortless", which to her means stress free. She has an entire wall filled with a beautiful and artful "trust your journey" decor. This is a phrase about trusting in forces higher than us - that when we are doing the right things, the Lord sets our feet on the right paths and we walk in the right direction. Of course, we don't often recognize the path and it often doesn't look like what we expected, so we feel fear - and stress.

But. Verse 2 again: Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.

Verse 3 talks about drinking water out of the wells of salvation. This goes me back to the conversation Jesus had with the woman at the well. Drinking the kind of water that makes us live. Reading scripture, praying, being there in full mind and purpose at church meetings, listening to the prophets, searching for guidance and being open to it when it happens - and acting on it instead of dismissing it as something else. This is what drinking out of the wells of salvation means to me.

And when we do so? We grow in faith, in love, and in trust. The path is foreign, but we don't need it to be familiar - we are guided not by the path at our feet but by the light we see and feel.

Throwing the local rule book out as needed

Reading quickly in Alma 24 today, I read about the converts among the lamanites who eventually become the sons of Ammon. These are the group of converts who are the ripple effect of Ammon's faith, his preparation and his works that was illustrated by cutting off so many arms, then stacking them like cordwood. That's just twisted - I have to admit it makes me grin. Even hollywood would have some trouble making up a story like that.

But now we have all these new lamanite followers of God. They've abandoned their old ways, which they listed in verses 9 and 0 as various sins and murders. So - side story which is kinda huge by itself - it is possible to be forgiven for murder. God gets to decide what we're forgiven for - us mortals can only be left guessing. I'm suspecting that anyone who purports to know might be ill advised or perhaps thinking he knows more than he actually does. I know some people like that - know it alls - they annoy me greatly.

One more note on that subject, then I'll digress. If you don't know what you're talking about, don't pretend you do. It just makes you look horrible and it provides a huge disservice to those who swallow your lack of information. It's something that happens as a part of human nature and is no single group is without it.

So - back to our regularly scheduled program. These lamanites choose to call themselves anti Nephi Lehi. This is an interesting name. Anti Nephi? Who could be against Nephi? Especially those who are now followers of God?

But having learned another language (spanish) I know that sometimes there just isn't a word in the other language that correlates or translates properly. If you're the translater, you just do as well and the language allows you. As a kid, I assumed that the word translated to anti meant "not". As in not Nephi, Lehies. They were descendants of Lehi but not Nephi. That makes a certain amount of sense.

Another potential answer is that they still didn't like Nephi for whatever reason - maybe stories they had been told about Nephi stealing the birthright - it doesn't matter what the story might have been. But while they were perhaps (that's an important word - I'm guessing about this) not happy about what they thought about Nephi, they were all in with Lehi, their super-great grandfather.

And if that were the case? That's fine. They did know that Laman and Lemuel were not the saints that they had originally thought: verse 7 "...our great God has in goodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us to preach unto us, and to convince us of the traditions of our wicked fathers."

So where does this put these brothers? They believe in God, they know the true and correct God, and they have dedicated their lives to losing their old vices and serving Him and each other. I think God is thrilled with that. And if it so be that they're still not Nephi fans? That's OK - they're on the path that they need to be on. There is no requirement among God that they accept Nephi as awesome - no excommunication, no punishment for not being a Nephi fan. It's about following God. Their beliefs about Nephi are not that important to getting them to their potential.

Maybe there's a reason why I was prompted to do my "if you don't know what you're talking about..." rant above. Clearly this is a subject where I don't know. I'm guessing. But I'm not proclaiming this as absolute truth. What I am doing is seeing what I can learn from a scenario that I can consider likely.

In many cases, we assume that our traditions and beliefs - the ones we make up - are God's gospel. We interject our own assumptions and intermix it with God's commandments and instructions, then we condemn others who don't buy into the stuff we make up. Clearly if it's God's commandments, it's true and should not be discarded, or we will pay a penalty of some sort for the lack of compliance with God's commands. But - if it's stuff we make up, and often it's hard to identify which is which - then it's perfectly fine to do things differently. Commandments are there to be obeyed for greater happiness. Traditions can be discarded as needed.

When bad stuff is awesome

So I'm reading in Alma 17 today - the story of Ammon cutting off a bunch of guys arms, then stacking them up like cord wood and bringing them in. I'm pretty sure it would appeal to some hollywooder who would want to make a movie of the book of Mormon. Yeah - that'll happen.

But I'm seeing stuff that makes me grin - plot twists and seeing opportunity in disaster. Seeing the hand of God when things are swirling dark. Choosing faith when others only see despair. This story reminds me that our situation is what it is, and whether it's something to be excited about or despair about can be our choice.

To backtrack a bit, it's like the Greeks back in the day. They believed that what happened to you is neither good nor bad - it just is. What is good or bad is how you react to it.

So the story in a nutshell: Ammon leaves his home to travel to the land of the enemy because he loves them. This alone puts his life at great risk, but the Lord tells his dad, the prophet, that he will protect them. Ammon shows up at the door of a king, gets offered his daughter, and rejects that. Maybe she was ugly. Who knows. Instead, he offers to be the servant.

So out with the sheep he goes. Other lamanites scatter the flocks so they can collect them. The act is completed successfully and now the shepherds are crying because this is a death sentence. So much for Ammon's mission - now he's a dead guy too- or that's what everybody thinks except Ammon.

Verse 29 "Now they wept because of the fear of being slain. Now when Ammon saw this his heart was swollen within him with joy; for said he, I will show forth my power..."

He must not have been much of a powerful looking person because in verse 35 "...for they supposed that one of their men could slay him according to their pleasure, for they knew not that the Lord had promised Mosiah that he would deliver his sons out of their hands"

Ammon's power was not in his arm strength. It was in the Lord. Now I very much suspect that Ammon didn't just wake up that morning and say "I think I'll take insane chances and expect the Lord to protect me". Instead, he grew his capacity to bond with the Lord. He enlarged the diameter of the pipeline between himself and the Lord, and he knew when the Lord had prepared the right opportunity for him to show his stuff. I suspect also that he had meticulously perfected his sword skills, most notably the arm-off skill with his sword. With the sword skills, the faith, the pipeline to know when the prepared opportunity was provided, and the protection of the Lord, he knew that this moment of despair to everyone else was his gift from the Lord.

It was the culmination of everything he had asked and prepared for. It was the pinnacle for his life up to that moment. This might be compared to to David and Goliath - only there were a few dozen Goliaths on the other side. And it was just what Ammon had been asking the Lord to provide.

So he kills a few with a sling. Apparently he didn't just train with a sword. Then he de-arms "not a few" and kills their leader. Training meets opportunity, guided by faith and the hand of the Lord.

This makes him appear god-like to the king, and things go well for him after that. He is offered half the kingdom, and declines. He just wants his brothers freed from prison and to teach the king about the Lord.

So - how often do I and we get opportunities from the Lord that we don't see? Are they lost because we're unprepared, or because we haven't developed that pipeline with the Lord? How often do we see dark clouds and just believe God is punishing us? How many opportunities have we passed by because we don't listen, or are not ready? How often are we drowning, yet won't accept the rescuer in the boat because we're looking for a different way to be saved?

It happens to me. To all of us. May we try to improve our compliance with the Lord's commands, so we can increase that pipeline of communication with Him. May we increase our faith and recognize that that swirling whirlpool we sometimes find ourselves in may be an opportunity to lift ourselves.

stir them up unto remembrance

So it was only a couple of days ago that I did my lesson to the high priests group. It was about  a talk from many people's favorite speaker at general conference: Elder Uchtdorf. I might have gotten bogged down in the concept, but it was a subject that resonated with the high priests - probably because the concept I was putting to them was new at best and off-putting to some of them.

The idea that I proposed was that God is not a punisher. He blesses us, and he puts commandments forward that he knows will improve us and improve our happiness if we follow. But the idea is that he doesn't punish us for not following the commandments - we do that to ourselves by choosing against getting the blessing.

Today's reading in Mosiah 1 adds light to that concept: Verse 17 "...and therefore they were smitten with famine and sore afflictions, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty".

First, I always appreciate the way the Lord is intentionally vague. "They were smitten with..." is like the "be damned" phrase. We all want to immediately jump to the assumption that the Lord does the smiting and the damning, but it doesn't say that in the phrase. It just says it gets done. Who does that then? Satan? The person? The Lord? That wisdom is not addressed in this scripture and most others, but it does indicate the Lord's motives. They are "...to stir them up in remembrance of their duty".

So sometimes the Lord causes or allows famine and afflictions out of an act of love. He hopes at least that when things start to go badly, that we'll take that as an opportunity to re-evaluate our lives.

And I ran out of time to finish this thought. On to my day.

The Hand

So today was a bit of a new experience. I remember not too long ago when Makay told me to do scripture research as part of my studying. It's taken me until today to begin doing that - at least in one way. I am passionate about finding the meaning that the Lord puts there in the scripture - the easter eggs of treasure that are put right there out in the open, but hidden at the same time. I do love finding those.

But today I believe I was guided to a place in the topical guide. Of course, at first it felt like it was incorrect guidance, but of course and just like life, what we assume is incorrect or wrong or messed up or a failure can often just be the Lord taking us to a place that we weren't planning to go. So I landed in a spot, then paged over to the hand of the Lord. This is a cool topic and right down my alley. It's the Lord and his hand that make gifts and guidance happen.

This week has been what should have been a difficult one. My web site for training realtors, which I've spent so much time on - kinda blew up. I trusted a guy who came highly recommended, and when my site got to a certain point - we'll call it the equivalent of second base - I relied on that guy's recommendation to use his programmer to take us home. He blew it up - now nothing works - and it looks like it's going to take a very long time to repair. It's almost as if we're going to need to start all over again. The content is there, but the programming is so fried that the time to begin marketing went from right now to probably months from now. This screws up the time availability window for someone who I had lined up, who could use that money. I could use the money as well. It's much more fun to finally start making money, rather than shelling out more and more to get more preparation done.

But - the hand of the Lord is in place I believe. He knew that my content isn't awesome enough. It's good, but it can be easily surpassed. I had planned to get started with what was adequate, but the Lord and my guides apparently don't see it that way. We must start awesome, and I choose to follow that guidance with faith. No wailing and spitting nails because things didn't go as planned, no burned bridges, no damaged relationships. No poison emails. Peace is a better way to live.

So In 2 Nephi 1:5 I am reminded that the Lord covenants with "...all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord" and in 1:6 Lehi prophecies "according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord".

I see a couple of small things here. First is that the Lord does take us places. As a home inspector, I see where people often pray about which home they are supposed to live in. Many home buyers want to feel guided about where they should be. I've seen people buy homes they really don't like at all, but feel it's where they are supposed to be. My thought often has been "does the Lord really care about your floor plan or your address?" and I think this scripture addresses that question. The Lord brings people out of other places, or countries, to be where he needs them to be. And he consecrates certain places for those that he covenants with.

The engineer in me says that dirt is dirt. It might be more sandy or clayey. It might have rock that is igneous in nature, or sedimentary. The dirt you live on is and will always be that - dirt. Dirt in Draper isn't cooler than dirt in Saratoga. That being the case, the Lord has certain places and conditions that He needs us to be in, and he'll guide us toward those places. And when we go there, and keep our covenants with him, the dirt we're on and our lives get consecrated to us.

Then I saw a reference to Mosiah 1:16. It's interesting that the compass is referred to as being built by the hand of the Lord. This may mean that the Lord built it somewhere in his heavenly workshop, then brought it down to earth for Lehi's family, or it may mean that he guided someone on earth to make the thing. I guess either way it was done by the hand of the Lord. It doesn't say that the ship Nephi built was done by the hand of the Lord - I don't think - but there are other places where prophets were made prophets by the hand of the Lord. That is done through the priesthood. In this verse, it says the plates, the sword of Laban and the compass were passed along by the hand of the Lord. This was also physically done by another human and servant of God. That doesn't mean it was also done by the hand of the Lord.

Because I'm beginning to be aware of the fact that there's almost always a deeper meaning to everything, I'm just wondering about the deeper meaning of those four artifacts that were passed from Benjamin to Mosiah. They were the plates of brass (taken from Jerusalem), the plates of Nephi, the sword of Laban and the ball or director, "that they might be led, ever one according to the heed and diligence which they gave unto him".

That ball was still giving direction to the prophets of that time. Benjamin didn't need a compass, but he needed direction, and he may have received it from that ball. I don't know the answer to that question. It's a news flash to me that the compass wasn't a one and done thing that got Lehi's family just to the shores of the sea where they could build a boat.

Also in the searching for a deeper meaning, what do those four objects really signify? Once again, I don't know. But here's an uneducated guess: what if the brass plates represent the truths of the old world, also known as the bible? And Nephi's plates? The book of Mormon in our time. The ball/director? Guidance from the Lord. Following and using his gifts. And the sword? A reminder of what we do to ourselves when our gifts and guides are not followed.

I'm learning about gifts. I'm learning that gifts are everywhere and everything is a gift. The bible is a gift - so is the Book of Mormon. I'm learning that our guides are gifts, provided by our Heavenly Father. Even the sword can be a gift - it's God's message that we're off course and need to change direction. That sword is an act of Love, and it's absolutely a gift. May we treasure our gifts, and thank those who guide us - both on this side and the other.

Oh - one more thing: Doctrine and Covenants 112:10. "Be humble, and the Lord shall lead thee by the hand".

It's not really hard

In a time when I see some of my children having an easier time with life, and some harder, I see that God's commandments and living the life that God prescribes for us to the best of our abilities provides a life of tranquility and happiness. There is great upheaval this week with two of my kids. They will eventually get it right and become the greatness that they are intended to be, but for whatever reasons - and I have been part of those reasons - they have chosen to live a more difficult life. Right now, both are paying the price for what they thought was a more liberated, live for today, I choose for me lifestyle.

It's hard to see your kids struggling so much. In one case, the words have been said. In the other case, the words can't be said because isolation was chosen between the child and those who most want to love and assist.

It's like you know your life is in the toilet, so rather than reach out for the hand that will pull you out, you flush the tank again.

Clearly, none of us have it all correct - we're all in the toilet to some degree, but I think the key factor is a willingness to choose love, to choose the Lord, and a yearning for his guidance and the lifestyle he would have for us.

I didn't feel like I had anywhere else to go in the scriptures today, so I kept reading Nephi. 1 Nephi 15. It's cool that he requested to see what his dad was given in Lehi's dream, and then got it - and more. I think the Lord does things that way. It seems he is just yearning and waiting to fill our cups, if we'd just slide it over to him. Oh - and take off the lid.

So here's Nephi teaching Laman and his brother. He's unloading all this awesome stuff on them - guidance directly from one of the greatest men to walk the earth - and a man who is also their brother. It's awesome. It's a path to happiness, success, long and short term awesomeness. Do they take it as the gift it is? Do they understand that the Lord just dumped an entire pirate ship full of treasure coins on them? Of course not.

Verse 16. "...Thou hast declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear".  I guess I get that it's more than they are able to bear, because Nephi just dumped a 55 gallon barrel of stuff into their sippy cup. That would be more than they are able to bear. But hard things? It's the word of life! From their point of view, it might be hard. He's asking them to give up a lifestyle full of vice and darkness and come swim in the pool of fresh water. That must be hard when you're used to a lifestyle that isn't so fresh.

Of course the same applies to me - because none of us are perfect. We like the vices that we surround ourselves with. Swimming with feces in the water is more acceptable when they are feces we've chosen.

For you the reader, please don't consider this writing to indicate that I am above or greater than in any way. I use these words to teach myself, to motivate myself, to help myself understand that like Laman and Lemuel, my vices don't make me happy. They drag me down. They smell like sewage. It's hard letting them go - it's "hard things", but the end result is much greater happiness and centeredness of our souls.

May we be more like Nephi - asking and receiving gifts. Less like Laman - and thinking the bright path to happiness is too hard. I hope I and my children figure this out sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I'll love them.

Choosing love over fear: lesson outline

An outline of Deiter F Uchtdorf's general conference talk, April 2017. I'm using this for a high priests lesson I'm giving. Julie loves this man and suggested I do one of his talks. This one is powerful. So awesome when a person can choose a life of love over one of fear, control, abuse, constriction, or another of Satan's choice. A life filled with love is so much happier and more rewarding.  Here's the outline from his talk.

"There must have been four or five people asleep during your talk" - Church sleep the most wonderful of all sleeps

Using fear to motivate

-          Joseph smith’s time (the awakening)

o   Frighten people into church

o  Politicans and voters

o   Employees

o   Marketing

How do we use fear to motivate ?

-          We all do it (eating, working etc)

-          Fear will never change our hearts

-          It doesn’t involve love

-          Causes resentment, mistrust, defiance, rebellion

-          Unrighteous dominion (homes, work, with others)

-          Must not exercise control, dominion etc

o   We can’t allow ourselves to believe that the ends justify the means

o   It is not for “the good” of others

Is there a better way?

-          The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, meekness, gentleness and guidance

-          No vengeance or retaliation

-          Mentor

-          Exaltation

-          Merciful, gracious, long suffering, abundance in truth

Does God overlook poor choices

-          No, but he offers a better way

-          Iron rod, straight and narrow path

-          Because he loves us and knows this is the way to happiness

How does God show us the right way?

-          He sent his Son

-          Gospel, wants us to rise up

-          Trust

-          Stimulate us with faith

      

Satan

-          Wants us to toil upon the suffering in the world

-          Wants us to despair, to fear, and to dwell on the evils

God

-          Has given us an abundance of reasons to rejoice

-          Wants us to fear not

-          To look forward to the Savior’s return

-          To serve God and fellow men

-          Confidence and humility

-          Don’t burden yourself with constant fear

-          Focus on the power of God

The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace

Let us find our courage, muster our faith, and have confidence in the promise that no weapon formed against us shall prosper.

Be of good cheer: I have overcome the world

What can we do

-          Exercise faith to believe and act

-          Live our commitments and covenants

-          Keep the commandments even in challenging circumstances

-          Walk uprightly

-          Live with joy, humility, hope and bold confidence

-          Self check: are we causing fear in others?

o   Antidote is the pure love of Christ

o   Christ’s perfect love gives us the confidence to press through our fears and place our complete trust in the pwer and goodness of our heavenly father and in his son Jesus Christ.

o   Let us replace fear with Christ’s perfect love

o   With faith

o   His love will enable us to have faith in his gospel

o   His love will help us turn his commandments into a blessing

I testify with the apostle John that there is no fear in Christ’s love. God knows you perfectly. He loves us perfectly. He knows what your future holds. He wants you to be not afraid, only believe, and abide in his perfect love. 

Inquiring minds want to know

Can I just say that the book of Mormon is starting to feel like going back to an old friend. I know that the reading won't be difficult and there will be simple gems laid out right there. It's fun to find the easter eggs buried deep in the words, but sometimes it's fun to have it right there in front of you on a silver platter.

I'm in 1 Nephi 15 today. This is a great, and greatly simple explanation of how to get the gift of guidance from the Father. I see that He's simply waiting to give us what we want, but we have to prepare ourselves for it. Most of the time we don't, or won't, do that.

So in the previous chapters Nephi has had a vision of the olive tree shown to him and explained to him by no less than the Lord and His messengers. Then the Lord goes further and shows Nephi the future. This of course is a biblical level gift, but it weighs Nephi down heavily because he sees that he progeny will be wiped out by that of his brothers. In this chapter, he states that "I considered that mine afflections were great above all" (verse 5). Funny again how we have a biblical level gift that weighs him down to the point where he believes he's got the shortest straw in the history and future of humanity.

That could be a discussion by itself. Christ of course had the worst of it, and Joseph Smith certainly didn't have anything easy, but to be shown that your children would be wiped out, and that it would be by your brother's children? It would certainly make it tempting for me to want to take out the brothers now. The Lord knew that Nephi wouldn't do that. This is part of the reason why Nephi was granted this knowledge.

So here's Nephi, he gets that it's pretty easy really: want to know what the Lord wants you to know? You ask. And if you have strengthened your core, or your soul, to the point that the Lord can give it to you without damaging you by giving you a gift you can't handle, it happens. verse 3 "...and they being hard in their hearts, therefore they did not look unto the Lord as they ought".

It goes me back to humanity thinking they just need to order things up at McDonalds. Drive up, get what you want. We want to make the Lord our drive up window servant. And if it doesn't happen that way? We blame the Lord.

Even at McDonalds, there are things we must do. First, we have to have a car. This means that we have to go buy one somewhere, and it means that we have to have job enough to be able to make the car payment. We have to regularly put gas in it, not to mention other maintenance. This is perhaps the equivalent of regular spiritual maintenance - prayer, study, keeping the commandments. We have to obtain and maintain a driver license, a car license, and we have to drive well enough to not get pulled over by the cops. This one might be more like keeping the commandments.

With all that behind us, yes it is easy. We drive up, or kneel, decide what we want and make a request. We have the financial or spiritual capacity to pay the price.

Verse 8. Nephi asks them "Have ye inquired of the Lord?" It's a clear point, driven home like a wrecking ball on an old barn. It reminds me of a training I did where we were all working on ourselves. I noticed that one student in particular was not only making a point of not participating, but was completely closed to any part of it. Toward the end she said something like "I'm not getting much out of this". I couldn't help myself because she reminded me of people I was having trouble with at the moment. I asked her "What have you put into it?".

That didn't make me her friend.

The same applies to Nephi's brothers, and to many, if not all, of us. They responded "..We have not, for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us."

Of course he doesn't. Why would a loving Father give them a gift like that that he knew they'd reject? It would just condemn them.

So Nephi had to explain how things work. "Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said? - If he will not hearden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you." Verse 9

It's not like Nephi was explaining anything they hadn't heard (do ye not remember...), but that was advice that they had also rejected - it wasn't convenient to their chosen lifestyle. Easier, or so they think, to do what they want and blame others for the problems in their life that they perceive. None of us do that of course.

So no less a man of God than Nephi gives us the recipe. You want a gift from God? Here's your plan

 - don't harden your heart
 - ask in faith
 - diligence in keeping the commandments

It's a short list. I like short lists. They're more doable.

I also notice that it doesn't say "keep the commandments", as if it must be done perfectly and completely. It says diligence. Diligence in doing so allows some forgiveness against the high bar named perfection, but it's well above the shrug and "well, I tried" level.

I see the meth head wanting a gift from God. Say a heavenly messenger and regular guidance from the other side. Sounds great right? So he draws deep on the meth, then reads a passage or two from the scriptures. He puts the scriptures down and takes another hit. Then he tells his meth head buddy "I guess God doesn't care about me -  I don't see any angels".

That's as good an excuse as any to stay on meth. No god for that guy.

May we all do better at not hardening our hearts, improving our faith, and cleansing our souls so we can have an ever increasing quantity and quality of gifts from our Father.