Desire Exceeds Pain

Helaman 5 – Nephi and Lehi are put in prison and ministered to by angels.  Oh to live worthy of such a blessing!  How does one qualify for this kind of blessing?  Obedience to the covenants we make and faith that it will work.

The Lamanites are overshadowed with a cloud of darkness and ask Aminidab, a Nephite dissenter, how to get rid of it.  Aminidab tells them to repent if they want to remove this darkness – repent and cry (pray) until they have faith in Christ.  Hmmm.  Pray for faith in Christ.  That seems pretty simple.  This is good advice to anyone who is struggling with a testimony of the Savior.  

Darkness doesn’t necessarily mean the lights have been switched off.  When we walk away from the light of the gospel, the world becomes a dark place.  There is not the joy that comes from knowing you are ok with the Lord.  You estrange yourself from those who embrace the gospel because it is not a comfortable place to be.  This is not only your family, but your church family.  I did it and I’ve watched my own do it.  I get it.  It’s just not comfortable, and until you want that oppressive darkness lifted enough to go through the repentance process and exercise faith enough to reach out to the Savior, it just gets increasingly darker.  It’s a very sad thing to watch.  It’s also a very hard place to be.  

The change will be made when the desire for light exceeds the pain of sin.

Prosperity Preceeds Pride

Helaman 4 – The Nephites (church) are in trouble again.  They have begun to prosper because they were pulling together as a church family – today known as a ward family.  Then pride started to creep in and there was a falling apart.  Verses 11-12 give a checklist:

• Pride
• Riches
• Oppress poor (withholding food & clothing)
• Smiting
• Mocking sacred things
• Deny Spirit of prophecy & revelation
• Murder
• Plunder
• Lying
• Stealing
• Adultery
• Contentions
• Desertion
• Boasting

These are church members!  And what happened next?  A pattern throughout the Book of Mormon and what we can expect in our time if we follow their formula.  It is BONDAGE, weakness and withdrawal of the Spirit.

It should be the quest of each of us to avoid these behaviors like the plague. 

Oh, we're in trouble!

Helaman 2 – Given the fact that the prophets have told us Helaman parallels our day, this chapter is quite disconcerting.

Helaman is voted by the people to fill the judgment seat.  But there was Kishkuman waiting for his opportunity to kill him as well. 

A covenant had been made between Gadianton and his followers (of which Kishkuman was one) to overthrow the government and take over. 

It’s not hard for me to see the parallel between Gadianton and Obama.  I don’t believe it is a stretch.

• Expert in many words
• Flatters
• Promised positions of power if they would support him.

Obama quickly surrounded himself with his friends – called them Czars of this and that and some accountable only to him.  How was this nation so foolish?  Answer:  He promised to take care of them!  With those promises, he is creating a nation dependent on entitlements and him.  Oh, we’re in trouble!

Where have all the good guys gone?

Helaman 1 – I admit confusion in this chapter.  Who are the good guys?  The Nephites?  I have written in the margin of my book “This time in Nephite history parallels our day.  Pay attention!”  That said, perhaps there aren’t many good guys.  Sometimes you look at the leaders of our nation and its hard to tell who the good guys are as well.

In verse 18, the Nephites show their political arrogance.  They didn’t keep sufficient guards in the land of Zarahemla because they figured the Lamanites wouldn’t dare come against them. 

This concerns me because our country’s defense budget is being decreased.  Are we guilty of “not keeping sufficient guards”?

I’m also a little amused at the irony of Kishkumen’s friends in “swearing by their everlasting Maker” to protect a murderer – Kishkumen!   Really?  But you hear people swearing in the name of deity all the time.  Have they any idea what they’re really saying?

The Spirit must testify

Alma 63 – The records are passed to Helaman’s son, Helaman.  Many of the people board ships made by Hagoth and travel northward.  Some travel by land.

We know through revelation that these people populated the tropical islands.  When we went to the Polynesian Center in Hawaii, we spoke with a young man whose family tradition was to recite their lineage and his went back to Hagoth.  When he read the Book of Mormon, it was familiar to him.  He bore strong testimony to its truth.

At a youth camp I was privileged to attend nearly 18 years ago, a native American Indian group performed.  Part of their performance was the recitation of their lineage which went back to Book of Mormon names.  They too bore testimony to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon from fact as well as the Spirit.

One would certainly think this would be sufficient to prove the Book of Mormon’s truth and therefore the truthfulness of the gospel.  I guess the Spirit is the only one who can really do this task sufficiently.