What do I know?

I finished reading The Book of Mormon today – Moroni Chapter 10.  As soon as I began to read the first verse, a feeling of gratitude, sadness and awe filled my soul.  It is hard to pray for a witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon when you already have been given that witness numerous times.  But I do so out of obedience.  I know the Book of Mormon is filled with truth and living in accordance with the principles of the gospel therein, we will find joy in our lives.  That doesn’t mean there won’t be sorrows, trials and heartache, but they are swallowed up in the knowledge we have of our Savior.  As we read the Book of Mormon, we can know of His love for us.  We will understand more fully the tremendous price He paid so we might know of our Heavenly Father and be able to return to them when we leave this earthly existence.

Chapter 10 teaches us some valuable things.  I think I want to make a bullet list:

• We must ponder and pray. (v3)
• We must ask Heavenly Father for this confirmation of truth. (v3)
• By the power of the Holy Ghost we can know the truth of all things. (v4)
• If it’s good, it comes from Christ. (v6 & v18)
• We have been given gifts. (v8)
• Our gifts are for the profit of all and come from Christ. (v8)
• God is the same yesterday, today and forever. (v19)
• There must be faith, hope and charity. (v20)
• Charity is the greatest gift of all. (v21)
• Despair comes because of iniquity. (v22)
• If we have faith we can do all things the Lord asks of us. (v23)
• If we lose our gifts, it is because we lost our faith. (v24)
• We will see Moroni at the judgment day. (v27)
• I can be perfected in Christ. (v32)
• We can believe in the uniting of our spirit and body. (v34)

I know these are truths.  I know God lives and loves each of us.  I know he is involved in the details of our lives.  I know I will see Him again.  I know for some reason I have been abundantly blessed with this knowledge and that I need to find ways to share it with others.  That is the hard part.  If I have anyone who reads my blog, I pray you will have the courage to read the Book of Mormon and watch it change your life for good as you apply its teachings in your life.  You too will know of its truth and be on a path that will leave you in awe at how carefully it has been crafted just for you.

The Rest of my Forever

Alma 12

After Amulek finishes speaking, Alma takes the stand and tells them about the Plan of Salvation. He tells of the Fall of man (Adam and Eve), that this life is a probationary period, and that those who harden their hearts to the word of God will be judged as if the Savior did not make a redemption for mankind.

These are some pretty serious things Alma told the people – so much so that Zeezrom becomes shaken because of his own guilt. Alma told Zeezrom that we cannot lie to God – not in this life, and definitely not in the next. In V14 he says our words will condemn us and our works will condemn us. Not only this, he goes on to say our thoughts will condemn us also. We can pretend to be something we are not in this earth life, but the pretense is over at judgment day. It will be so awful that we would want to have the mountains fall on us that we might not be. This too cannot happen. This is called a spiritual death – he will die pertaining to things of righteousness (v16). Words Alma uses that are visual: torments shall be as a lake of fire and brimstone, flame, chains. And the person in this state will be as though the Savior did not come. And this is forever! We're done. We can't die at this point (v18).

V35 gives me some thought. And whosoever will harden his heart and will do iniquity, behold, I swear in my wrath that he shall not enter into my rest. 

What does it mean to harden ones heart? A person with a hard heart will not hear the words of truth. They have cast out all things as pertaining to righteousness and seek to do iniquity. What exactly is iniquity? A reference to this word takes us to Moses 5:15 where it says “believe in God”. Anything that does not lead us closer to the Lord would be my guess. And this is the word that grabbed my attention: “rest”. What does it mean to rest? Ask an insomniac. - someone who for months and years on end is not able to get the restorative sleep they need. This is a miserable state, as I think we can all relate to short periods in our lives when we've felt we were insomniacs. It passes for most of us. How would it be to live with this throughout eternity? Well, D&C 84:24 puts a little different light on the word “rest”. It means more not being able to enter into his (God's) rest and having a fulness of his glory, aka inheriting the kingdom of God. Some might say they are okay with not living with the Lord forever. Some might say that family is over rated. To those of us who have experienced receiving a smaller portion when we could have had it all, it is not a restful state. There is angst. I can't imagine how troubling it would be to know this was the rest of my forever.