Alma 48:6-7 Preparing the hearts of the people

Humans are highly susceptible. What we listen to, read and watch molds our view of what we believe is right or wrong. If we want to develop the spiritual man within us, we put spiritual things into our minds. If we enjoy the baser things, we fill our minds with that kind of material. If we listen to contentious messages, we either turn it off our start agreeing with what is being said. Captain Moroni and Amalickiah were manipulating their peoples back in the Nephite times. In Alma 48:7 we read:

"Now it came to pass that while Amalickiah had thus been obtaining power by fraud and deceit, Moroni, on the other hand, had been preparing the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord their God."

I agree with what Moroni is doing. We all need to have our minds prepared before the testing occurs. Once our minds are prepared to be faithful, when the trial occurs, enough faith can be mustered to meet the challenge. This is happening every time we read our scriptures. It happens when the prophets confer with us during General Conference.

On the other hand there are many deceiving voices out there trying to get us believe lies. There are base TV shows, music lyrics, talk show hosts, movies, etc. They can help us become more carnal, sensual and devilish. They can make feel contentious. In Alma 48:1 we read:

"And now it came to pass that, as soon as Amalickiah had obtained the kingdom he began to inspire the hearts of the Lamanites against the people of Nephi; yea, he did appoint men to speak unto the Lamanites from their towers, against the Nephites."

The Lamanites were bombarded with war propaganda from towers erected to disseminate information. Previously they were scared of the power of the Nephites. Many had taken oaths never to come against Nephites again. But the constant bombardment from these towers, swayed the Lamanites into taking up arms again. Their towers are equivalent to our air ways.

We need to be careful not to get sucked into the negativity of the age. We need to be careful not watch movies and TV shows that bring out our baser selves. We are what we listen to. So, listen to and watch good, uplifting and wholesome things!

The easiness of the way

Sometimes as a Latter-Day Saint I think I have it all wrong. When I read verses like the one in Alma 37:40 I start to wonder if I am complicating matters. The verse says, 'For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.' I am not sure I completely understand this verse. I figure that compass represents word of God which comes in various forms: The Holy Ghost, the scriptures, the prophets, etc. It is as easy to give heed to the word of God now as it was for Lehi's family to give heed to the Liahona. Hum, I am still not getting it completely. In 1 Nephi 16:28 I read, 'And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the pointers which were in the ball, that they did work according to the faith and diligence and heed which we did give unto them.' Faith, diligence and heed. I first must believe and cast off my doubt. Then I must be diligent. Diligence is the earnest and persistent application to an undertaking; steady effort. It's the steadfast part of the faith. 2 Nephi 31:20 says, 'Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.' I think diligence is akin to being steadfast. So what is heed? Heed is to pay attention to; listen to and consider. Since the writing on the Liahona changed from time to time, so it is today that our instructions from the various sources changes from time to time. As I receive new instruction, I need pay attention to it, listen to it and consider it.

The word 'easy' still bothers me. In verse 46 it says, 'O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever.'

Alma is either stating that the way is easy or that it is easy to get side tracked in a pursuit to living the gospel. If the way is truly easy, that would mean that once a person has a change in heart his path through life becomes significantly easier. He believes that he will be guided and directed and comforted as he travels through the vissitudes of life. He is at rest. He has burdens but they a swallowed up in Christ. Slothful means disinclined to work or exertion; lazy. Alma is exhorting his son to keep on working even though he in in the way. I think it is easy to get into the trap of enjoying the nice things of life and forgetting to get out there to do our duty. Serving isn't necesarily fun but it grows our spirits.

I hope to get to a place in my life where the living the gospel is easy. Even though it is easy, we should alway be found doing our next errand from the Lord.

How To Find Rest To Your Souls?

How does one find rest to their souls? Alma teaches his son that the way to rest is "... repentance, and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ". He then says that we should be "... humble ... [and] ...be meek and lowly in heart [and] to withstand every temptation of the devil, with [our] faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. "(Alma 37:33) What I see here is the need walk the low road, to have a certain attitude.

Alma than tells us to ..."never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart; for such shall find rest to their souls." (v.34) So, rest is found by those who do good works and are very humble. He then adds that we start doing these things at an early age.

How do I walk with meekness and lowliness of heart? This requires coming unto Christ on a daily basis. In verse 36 Alma says, "Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever. " In order to walk with God, we must always remember Him in all that we do. Alma continues the same counsel in verse 37, "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God". And, "if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day. "

This is the gospel way of life in a nut shell. Alma explains it very clearly. There isn't any compartmentalization of parts of our life. In our business we act one way and in our home we act another way and at church we act another way. We act the same at all times and places. Nephi declared, "May the gates of hell be shut continually before me, because that my heart is broken and my spirit is contrite! O Lord, wilt thou not shut the gates of thy righteousness before me, that I may walk in the path of the low valley, that I may be strict in the plain road!" (2 Nephi 4:32)

Rest to our souls comes by walking the humble path of life, every increasing our reliance on the Lord. This approach to life is foolishness in the eyes of the world.  The natural man in each us cries out NO WAY as we consider and contemplate these deep changes in our disicipleship.

Singing the Song of Redeeming Love

I was reading in Alma 26 the other day. Ammon is talking about what it mean to be converted. He compares and contrasts the humble follower of Christ with the natural man using the converted Lamanites as examples. He starts out by saying that his Lamanite brethren "were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how many of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God!" (v.6)

Ammon goes on to say that the Lord has loosed these brethren "from the pains of hell; and they are brought to sing redeeming love..." (v.13) What will it take for me to sing redeeming love? I believe in the gospel. I have been a member for a long time. But, I don't think I have come unto Christ to same degree as the converted lamanites.

What does it mean to be "loosed our brethren from the chains of hell"?(v.14) "Yea, they were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction; but behold, he has brought them into his everlasting light, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love..." (v.15)

I want to be in that amazing state of love and peace! I want to view life the way Ammon is describing it. Sure, you have your troubles, trials and afflictions. But with this foundation, the problems of life take on a different feel. You know that Christ is with you and you can rely on Him. You don't view adversity with any degree of trepidation. In Alma 27:28 we read that the people of Ammon "never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ and the resurrection; therefore, death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it."

Ammon then relates his own experience of God and His mercy. He says in verse 17, "Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state?...why did he not consign us to an awful destruction, yea, why did he not let the sword of his justice fall upon us, and doom us to eternal despair?... Behold, he did not exercise his justice upon us, but in his great mercy hath brought us over that everlasting gulf of death and misery, even to the salvation of our souls." Why did God snatch Ammon and his brethren? Maybe, the bottom line is that God is full of grace and mercy. Maybe He knew their souls and knew that they their immediate repentance and faith had the substance of permanency. For some of us the grace comes more slowly and in God own due time. Getting a perfect knowledge too early would only condemn us. Why? Because we would probably go back to our old ways. Some how our anchoring has to be sufficient for the snatching to occur.

There are only two ways to live our lives on this earth: the natural man way or the humble follower of Christ way. There is a struggle that everyman must have to cast off the natural man and come unto Christ. The process seems to be slow for me. I keep on dipping my toe in the water and pulling it out over and over again. I also get stuck at various half way houses along the way. I seem to think that a particular stage of arrivedness is all that their is. The level is comfortable. But, the natural man is still lurking underneath my outward facade. I am surprised when I my natural self makes a surprise appearance when I least expect it.

Anyways, Ammon is talking about a complete transformation away from the natural man when faith and repentance meet mercy, grace, cleansing and healing. Something might changes within us. In verses 21 and 22 we read, "And now behold, my brethren, what natural man is there that knoweth these things? I say unto you, there is none that knoweth these things, save it be the penitent. Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God..." I believe the first great mystery if our own conversion. We are no longer walking in darkness. We have sung and are singing the song of redeeming love. When this happens in our hearts then great things begin to happen in our lives: "... yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance. " We have become men and women of God. We life completely different than our old natural selfs. We are amazed at the new vistas that we see. We want everyone to come and partake of the same fruit. We are part of the ransomed host.

Buring Our Weapons of War

Like the Lamanites, we all have weapons of war. Due to our fallen state we end up relying on and creating habits that served the natural man within us. The converted Lamanite's addiction was killing people or blood lust. All they could do to be saved by grace was to repent of their sins. For them, the process of repentance required them to stay away from the shedding of blood. In Alma 24 we read,

11 And now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do, (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to take them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain—
12 Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away our stains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren.
13 Behold, I say unto you, Nay, let us retain our swords that they be not stained with the blood of our brethren; for perhaps, if we should stain our swords again they can no more be washed bright through the blood of the Son of our great God, which shall be shed for the atonement of our sins.

The converted lamanites could not return to their old ways. These old ways would require them to return to their addiction. Leaving their weapons lying around would be like a alcoholic leaving alcohol around the house. Like an person with addictions, they made an absolute commitment by burying their weapons of war. They would rather die than go back to their old habits. God had healed them through his grace. There could be no going back. Here's what the king says:

15 Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us hide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby.
16 And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall go to our God and shall be saved.

And they did exactly that. There would be no going back. In verse 17-19 we read,

17 And now it came to pass that when the king had made an end of these sayings, and all the people were assembled together, they took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth.
18 And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood; and this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives; and rather than take away from a brother they would give unto him; and rather than spend their days in idleness they would labor abundantly with their hands.
19 And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin; and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace.

Do these verses apply to us? We haven't physically murdered anyone. We don't have any weapons to bury. Or do we? Do we have weapons of war that we pull out and use? Depending on our level of spiritual effort to change our lives, we tend to recognize the our personal weapons to varying degrees. Bad habits are like knee jerk reactions. When the right stimulus occurs we almost unconscously react. This happens so instantaneously that we only realize later, when our reposte has calmed down, what we have done. We feel bad but can't figure out how stop doing the same thing over and over again. These are natural man habits that we have developed over the years. They may have had effective results in the past. We got what we wanted. But, as we embrace the gospel of our Lord we realize that these habits are sin and we no longer want to get what we want by sinning.

We have been so blinded by our cultural traditions that you can't even recognize what I am talking about! If this is the case, then repentance has not yet been granted unto you. To have deep, heart rending knowledge of all of our weaknesses is a step in the right direction. To seek to quietly cover them up will only make you a recidivist.

What am I talking about? What do we need the bury and never use again? King Benjamin said 'And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them.' (Mosiah 4:29). Everyone has their own (sins, bad habits or addictions) but here's a few: shaming others, manipulating others for your gain, getting angry to fight back when you are emotionally hurt, denying what you just did since to the victim or those watching it is plausible that your really didn't say it or mean it with evil intent to satisfy your desire to win at all costs; holding back information that is requiried for another to make an important decision. These are only a few. I could go on and on. All these things are what we naturally do when we feel threatened and need regain the upper hand. The Gentiles are full of all manner of lyings and deceivings and so are we.

As we come unto Christ, we repent of everything that isn't in harmony with Christ's teachings. Like the Anti-Nephi-Lehis, as we become aware of our evil habits, addictions, etc., we repent of them. To keep our swords bright, we bury them. We never pick up our weapons of war again. We put them far from our minds asking God to make our personal weaknesses into strengths for the rest of our sojourn on this earth. We abhor our sins so much that we retract from the thought of using them once again. As we show our God our humble resolve, God, in His due time, will bless us with a knowledge that our sins have been remitted and we shall sing the song of redeeming love and become part of the ransomed host.

Be Still

Is being still part of trusting in God? How does one receive direction from God without taking the time to be still? When my mind is confused and I don't know what direction to take, I chose to be still. The only other option is to continue in the confused state - and most likely, the state will get worse.

Ps. 46: 10
10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Sometimes we show a lack of faith when we take action. When the going gets rough, we discard God and take whatever action that our natural man deems necessary to resolve the situation. We justify our actions by thinking, God doesn't care about this situation and wants me to figure it out on my own. We never know what miracle would have happened if we held out faith a little longer.

Ex. 14: 13
13 ¶ And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

Sometimes you just have to slow down, stay calm and mellow out. The Lord will take care of the rest!

2 Chr. 20: 17
17 Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.

The natural man says that we need to do something RIGHT NOW! When we succomb to the natural man, we don't get the see what the salvation of the Lord would have been. Wait, get your errand of the Lord and then take action.

Lamentation 3:22-26
¶ It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
24 The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
25 The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

You see, it is good to hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord! We don't have to worry and fret about things. Since there is a God, and we believe in Him, there is no need to worry. Slow down, get direction from the Lord, and then act. This is what I am practicing doing. The other way sometimes works but doesn't build one's faith. It reinforces your unbelief so that the next time your trust in God it is less.

D&C 5

34 Yea, for this cause I have said: Stop, and stand still until I command thee, and I will provide means whereby thou mayest accomplish the thing which I have commanded thee.

Is it heart rending to wait on the Lord for first time in your life! You bet. It feels like you are going to crazy. How could the Lord really help in my situation? My problem is so special that I am on my own. God helps others but doesn't help me. Will I look like a fool by standing still and waiting on the Lord? I am going to keep on trying and I get this down. I want to cast off my unbelief. I want to break the veil of unbelief!

Heb. 11: 6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Mosiah 4: 9
9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

D&C 123: 17
17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

It is my believe that God watches over me, that I can receive my errand from Him as I stand still and be believing. What is that one thing that God would have me do today?

Planting a Delicious Seed

I was reading in Alma 32 and wanted to share with you some of my thoughts. Look at verse 27:

But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

This is the beginning of testimony, just a desire to believe. It sometimes seems foolish to believe something that I cannot see. But, when anyone does it with real intent and a sincere heart something wonderful happens! Look at verse 28:

28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

This is how I felt about the church and the gospel when I was a teenager. The doctrine tasted delicious!

29 Now behold, would not this increase your faith? I say unto you, Yea; nevertheless it hath not grown up to a perfect knowledge.

To simply believe will bring a good feeling. To exercise faith will bring it even more. Then comes repentance (turning away) from anything that make that good feeling withdraw. Skepticism will sometimes enters into our hearts. We can become cynical. Here's what Alma says:

38 But if ye neglect the tree, and take no thought for its nourishment, behold it will not get any root; and when the heat of the sun cometh and scorcheth it, because it hath no root it withers away, and ye pluck it up and cast it out.

We need to continue working on your testimony using the pattern above. I still make alot of mistakes and say stupid things - but, I know many things to be true regarding the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I also believe many things to be true. I let go or put aside the rest.