Monday, July 1, 2013

Finding Christ in The Book of Mormon - Title Page

I have determined to re-read the Book of Mormon again, cover to cover.  (Yes, I mean re-read again.)  This is the most beautiful book I have ever read.  So, As I was reading, I thought I would post a little bit about my studies or learning or thoughts from it as I read.  So, here goes.  The first post is about the title page.
What I thought was interesting about this is that every time before, when I have read it, I have noticed that this book is for the remnant of the Lamanites and the Jews and the Gentiles.  Well, I also realized today that in the next paragraph it says,
"Which is to show unto the remnant of the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever - And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that JESUS is the CHRIST, the ETERNAL GOD, manifesting himself unto all nations - And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men: wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgement-seat of Christ." 
When I first read this sentence today, I realized, this book is for ALL of the House of Israel.  It is not only for the Lamanites, Jews and Gentiles - although that seems to cover everybody.  This is all the House of Israel.  If there is any question of which group of people you belong to, and if this book is for you, now you can know - it is for you.  So, this book is for everybody.  I guess I knew that and I had read that, but it hadn't stood out to me before like it did today.  This book is for me.  This book is for you. 

The next part of that sentence talks about covenants.  The Lord is always making covenants with his people.  If you haven't noticed that by now, that is okay.  Just read the scriptures, or listen to them, and you will find out.  The Lord makes covenants with his people, and you know what, those covenants are always, always to benefit His children.  The purpose of every single covenants and every single ordinance is to bring God's children back to Him.  He loves us.  That's why. 

What do we need to know to understand our covenants and why we have them?  Well, we have to understand that the purpose is to bring us back to God's presence and the other thing this says is to know that "JESUS is the CHRIST, the ETERNAL GOD."  He is the CHRIST.  He is the Savior of the World!  He has redeemed our souls from Hell and eternal torment!  We sin and we are not perfect, but because we have the Redeemer, the Savior, the Messiah, we can become perfect.  We can be made perfect.  We can become polished, finished, perfected and live with God again!  Isn't that beautiful?  If you don't know about Christ, you can learn of Him.  If you knew him once, and turned away, you can come back to Him.  If you are curious and just want to know a little bit more about Him, you can.  This link http://jesuschrist.lds.org/SonOfGod/eng/  shares about who Christ is and how we can have faith in Him.  Try it out and see it work in your life. 

Jesus is the Christ.  he will show himself unto all nations.  It may not be the way I expect, it may not be in my lifetime.  But it may.  All I know about it is this, that if I hold on and stay true to the Lord, he will be with me and He will not let me go.  The same goes for you.  Yes, you.  No matter how alone, desperate, betrayed, sinful, wicked, awful, guilty shameful or imperfect we feel, Christ will lift us up if we let him.  He has already atoned for our sins, our sorrows, our imperfections.  He is our great mediator and we can use the great atonement to change our hearts and bring us to God.   That is why we have prophets.  That is why we have this book.  That is why I am writing this blog and that is why I am reading the Book of Mormon.