3 Nephi 27

 Verse 8 has always been an important revelation from the Savior about His church and what it should be called.

This time as I read in portuguese I was surprised by the simplicity of a statement that comes before in verse 6. And whoso taketh upon him my name and endureth to the end, the same shall be saved at the last day. 

I felt a spiritual prompting, a question, do you not already do this? Are you not already on the path to salvation? Should you not rejoice in this truth? Now, just make sure you keep going, endure, persevere.

Conclusion of The Book of Mormon - Moroni 10

How do we actively seek the gifts of God?  Do we seek them all at once?  Is it something where we should be recognizing the seed of particular gifts within us or maybe from our patriarchal blessing and then more directly pray for them?  Or maybe they just come upon us as we Love God and our fellow men and repent and exercise faith, hope and charity.

I love the discussion about being perfected in Christ.  I trust that, and it makes me want to be more actively repenting.  Repent more quickly.  Pray for help to see the things that need to change.  As these things change I know faith will grow and I will see more clearly how the gifts come.

I have also been thinking about what it would mean to pray and ask for a confirmation of my testimony of the Book of Mormon.  Got to be done.

Depravity of the Nephites and Lamanites - Moroni 9

This must be the saddest chapter of the entire Book of Mormon.  I do think the final chapters of the Jaredite's story in the Book of Ether are pretty sad, but this seems worse.  Maybe it's because this was the people chosen to take the place of the Jaredites.  They were a branch of the olive tree that was from natural roots, not wild, and they brought forth bitter fruit and will be cast into the fire.  Mormon tells us of the type of wickedness of the Lamanites and Nephites.  You can tell that his soul was in anguish at their sins and especially for the sins related to chastity and virtue.

vs 21 Mormon says he cannot recommend them to God.  I wonder if this is a role that he as a prophet of God knows he will have to do at the judgement bar of God.  vs 22 he takes comfort that he can recommend his son.

vs 23 As I was reading the first verses of the chapter and hearing Mormon mention the deaths of Archeantus, Luram, and Emron and I thought, what if those were brothers of Moroni's.  There is nothing in the scriptures to support this, but I thought, even if they are not.  What if they were in the other list of men mentioned in the book of Mormon that fell with each of their 10,000.  In the end it doesn't really matter, but maybe Mormon did have other children and a wife and what was their experience through all of this?  I just feel sad for Mormon and Moroni and the loneliness of their leadership.

The big question that circles in my mind is what does all of this teach us as a church, a community, a country, and most importantly as a family and as an individual?  We must see clearly the pride cycle it is a theme that I hear in other discussions outside of reading the Book of Mormon.  I learned of the Sigmoid curve yesterday, I think this could be related to the price cycle.  It is what it looks like when the pride cycle is broken.  It very literally is the antithesis of the pride cycle which forms a circle.  If you break that circle what would it look like?  It would either be a spiral down or a spiral up.  The spiral up looks like the Sigmoid curve.  On an individual level Brandon W. calls it "drift".  In other scriptural terms I think the Lord calls it the straight and narrow way that leads to eternal life.  Because the way is so straight and so narrow, Lehi saw in his vision of it the need to have a rod of iron to cling to so as to make it to the final destination.

I plead in prayer to find and stay precisely in the center of that straight and narrow path and for some ability to help my family to do the same.  

Children Are Alive in Christ - Moroni 8

I've been struggling to feel this Spirit this morning, but I sure felt it while reading and listening to Moroni 8.  I think it is because Mormon is speaking to Moroni with such passion and concern around a point of the doctrine that is so cut and dry and important to him.  Little children are alive in Christ, it means that the fall of Adam has no effect on them because of the mercy that comes through the atonement of Christ.

I found a particular phrase interesting, "...if they are cut off in the thought".  I believe this phrase is saying that if the person was thinking that children need baptism at the time that they go out of this life God would hold them accountable and they would condemn themselves.  I'm probably misunderstanding but that is what I thought about vs. 14.

I want to spend some more time pondering upon vs. 25 and 26.  I love how it addresses meekness and lowliness of heart and what seems to be the cycle we need to adhere to once we are baptized.

Church Membership - Moroni 4 - 7

Moroni 4 and 5: have the prayers for the Sacrament.  What a wonderful blessing it is to have these specific prayers to help us in our worship. They allow us to renew our covenants with the Father and I need that. They point our minds and our hearts to our Savior who made it possible.

Moroni 6:  vs 1.  Why did they not mention deacons? Were deacons not apart of the church at all in the Americas in ancient days?  vs 4 After they were baptized the church took care of these new members.  They were taught the word, and they were reminded to pray.

vs 7 there was a lot of effort put towards helping the membership to be clean and pure.  Just like today. They were counseled to repent and be forgiven.

These verses in Moroni 6 are really about how to endure to the end in the church.

Moroni 7:  Is another one of those chapters, that to me, is based on the triad: Faith, Hope, and Charity.  We all remember how this chapter ends with us hearing the attributes of charity and being exhorted that we musth pray for this gift.  This has always been really important to me.  Earlier in the chapter we learn about judging whether something is good or bad.  Does it bring forth good fruit?

vs 16, I think that having the Spirit of Christ which helps us to judge between right and wrong, good and evil, can be developed and refined to become the gift of discernment.

Ordaining Priests/Teachers - Moroni 3

Moroni again mentions that before a man would ordain another to be a priest or a teacher they would first pray to the Father in the name of Christ.  We don't do this formally, but I think of it as being the responsibility of the one doing the ordaining to have this prayer in his heart.  Or is this prayer the one that the leadership offers asking for confirmation that the person should be ordained to this office?

Giving the Gift of the Holy Ghost - Moroni 2

Moroni teaches us that the Apostles received from the Savior the power to give the gift of the Holy Ghost.    He teaches that they were instructed to have a prayer before they laid their hands on someone's head.  They were to "Call on the Lord in mighty prayer".

Record of Moroni - Moroni 1

Moroni avoids the Lamanites and writes more in the record so that he can benefit the Lamanites in the last days.  I think he was surprised that he had that opportunity.  

Coriantumr at the End - Ether 15

Battle after battle, and Coriantumr tries a couple of times to reverse the inevitable, with no success.  His time to choose was when Ether first warned him about the destruction of his people.  Prophecy fulfilled.

The part that stuck in my head today after I was done listening to this chapter were the words of Ether. He is told to go and talk to Coriantumr, and then he goes.  He puts the plates where they will be found by the people of Limhi.  At last he says, I don't know if I'm going to be translated or stay here to wander by myself.  He knew it was a possibility.  I wonder what happened.  Either way he said it didn't matter.

In talking with a friend today I asked him about whether the ability to see Jesus in this life was for prophets only. He spoke with confidence that that opportunity was open to all.  I agree, and I have a long way to go before my consistency will prove me worthy to be in His presence.

Coriantumr's Warning - Ether 13

Ether is told to go and prophecy unto Coriantumr that if his people don't repent he will watch them all be killed.  He doesn't repent.  Ether spends his time in hiding.  I wonder if he had family and what happened to them.

Mormon Comments on Faith - Ether 12

A favorite chapter for sure.  We have read in the last few chapters how the people and especially the kings go from righteous to wicked and now have remained more or less wicked.  But we now come to a prophet - Ether, who is going to witness the end of his people.  He prophecies to them that they need to repent or be destroyed.  One of the great points here is that this people began with a prophet who was so righteous - the Brother of Jared.  And the people will now come to a close Ether, another great prophet, witnessing the fulfillment of the prophecies.

Mormon takes some time here to tell us what he learned about weaknesses and faith.  He starts by saying that he is concerned about not being able to reach more people because they don't write better, or more like Jared and his brother.  Then the Lord says that the fools will regret their mocking and that the Lord gives us weaknesses to help us to be humble. Weaknesses can be made strengths and I hope to be one who can turn to the Lord to better understand my weaknesses and grow from them.

Cycles of Wicked Kings - Ether 11

Not sure what else to say other than we cycle through wicked kings and finally we end with learning of Ether coming on to the scene to preach repentance to the people.

Cycles of Jaredite Wickedness and Righteousness - Ether 10

In this chapter is another long list of Jaredite leaders, some are righteous and some are wicked.  In one particular case we read of a leader who does right by the people but lives wickedly.  I find it interesting that that distinction is made.  I feel gratitude for the righteous leaders and sadness for the wicked ones.  Their kingdoms seem to cycle just like our individual lives do if we do not do all we can to protect against the temptations of the evil one. 

Jaredites' Leadership - Ether 9

It gets a little boring to follow the genealogy of the leadership of the Jaredite people.  But there do emerge patterns out of what we read.  Simply put when there is righteous leadership the people prosper.  When there is wicked leadership the people become wicked quickly and those that use wicked practices to gain leadership or power die by that same wickedness and don't end up with what they really wanted.

I was pleased to read about Emer.  It says that he saw the Son of Righteousness.  Did he see him because of his role as leader of the people?  I'm feeling more like it was just a matter of his righteousness and that we all have that same potential if we live righteously to receive that personal visitation as a witness of our relationship with him and that our calling and election can be made sure.

Divisions in the Kingdom - Ether 7

Jared's People Praise the Lord - Ether 6

Jared and his people are brought through the ocean by 8 large barges, lit by the stones the Lord touched.  When they arrived they were filled with gratitude and praised the Lord and they sang.  They used music to praise and to worship.  I think we as a people often forget that we should do the same.   Hopefully the use of sacred music will help us to be more filled with gratitude, the spirit, and reverence even in our homes.

The people want a king, Jared and his Brother recognize right away the pitfalls of such a plan.  We see it elsewhere in the Book of Mormon and we know that the end result is exactly what Jared predicts - captivity.  Jared's sons and nephews are all wise enough to not want the role of ruler unto themselves.  I wonder if Orihah realized that if he didn't take the job that there might be others who would choose to be king and do very poorly in the calling.  It looks as though he will reign in righteousness and that's a good thing.

Instructions to Joseph Smith - Ether 5

Could you imagine being in the middle of translating the scriptures and finding a chapter like this?  Would you not act on it?  Joseph Smith had this kind of faith and understanding that he was able to read a chapter like this and know that he needed to inquire of the Lord how he should proceed. And then he did exactly how he was instructed.  Three men were selected and they were able to pray and receive the marvelous vision of the plates, to hold them and heft them and to be instructed by an angel.  But these men knew from reading the book that it was true already.  The spirit had borne witness to them.  This, over seeing the angel was their greatest witness.  They did take this experience and document it and used it as their testimony to the world that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God. 

Moroni Seals the Book of Ether - Ether 4

Moroni is commanded to write of the experiences of the brother of Jared and told to seal them up until the time that the people on the earth should have faith like his.  I'm always thinking in the back of my head, what proof do I have that man on earth today can be shown the Savior of the World in the flesh.  Is this a real principle? I truly believe it is.  From the writings of Joseph Smith, to the writings of Nephi, Jacob, Isaiah, the brother of Jared and Moroni.  In our day there are many that have faith sufficient that they have seen the Lord Jesus Christ.  I truly belie this.  It is that time when the Book of Mormon has been brought forth because their is faith sufficient to sustain such a miracle.

Seeing the Lord - Ether 3

The brother of Jared has such great faith that he sees the finger of the Lord.  But his faith is not just faith, right? I mean he has had such amazing experiences in prayer, that he knows who he is speaking to and what His great role is.

In prayer is the brother of Jared speaking to Jesus Christ or God the Father?  I know it doesn't really matter because of their oneness, but out of curiosity, I would like to know.  In our day we know we speak to Father and blessings come through the Son and the Holy Ghost.  When the Savior visited the Nephites they prayed directly to him.  The phrase, 'Jehovah, God of the Old Testament' comes to mind as well causing me to think that that is who they really were praying to.

I'm also surprised that knowing the Lord as he did, why was he fearful of the Lords hand?  Why was he fearful that he would be smitten.  A couple of thoughts occur to me on this.  I think the brother of Jared expected the Son of God to have a body similar in shape to his own, but did not expect to see just a hand that looked like any other man's hand appear out of nowhere to touch these stones.  I think maybe he expected to see something more spirit like.

Also, the brother of Jared knew of his people's wickedness and that they journeyed in the wilderness because they needed time to repent.   I think that maybe the brother of Jared was fearful that his idea of asking the Lord to touch the stones was so wrong that maybe he would literally be smitten as a chastisement for such a request.

Jaredites Preparation to Travel - Ether 2

The lord teaches the brother of Jared how they are to breath in the boats but not how they will receive light.  I love that all of these chapters focus on the concept of prayer.  How crucial it is for us to be in constant contact with Father through prayer.  As we improve in our gratitude, and our humble listening, we truly can receive revelation from Him.  Both for personal wants and needs as well as on behalf of those for whom we have responsibilities.