Summary Mosiah 2

In Mosiah 2, King Benjamin has all his people come together.
They are having a temple experience.  (They live the Law of Moses.)  Anyway, the people are called to come to the temple.  They perform temple sacrifices.  It is a very sacred time and what a neat experience!  I mean, this is a righteous people who kept the Law of Moses truly, who came together to worship and learn of God. 
Bring your family, bring your tent, come listen to King Benjamin.  He's going to teach you truth.  There are so many people that they don't all fit in the temple, so there is a tower built so that they can all hear his words.  There are scribes so that the people will be able to read the words after the assembly.
To me, this looks like General Conference.  (Only, it is King Benjamin's last farewell speech.)

He reminds them of what blessings they have had during his reign.  He has not gone about imprisoning people, causing taxes, or let his people steal, murder, commit adultery, plunder, etc...  He has worked with his own hands, get this;

 13 "... (I) have taught you that ye should keep the commandments of the Lord, in all things which he hath commanded you—

 14 "And even I, myself, have ^alabored with mine own ^bhands that I might serve you, and that ye should not be ^claden with taxes, and that there should nothing come upon you which was grievous to be borne—and of all these things which I have spoken, ye yourselves are witnesses this day."

And then he tells us why he says it and the doctrine behind it;

 15 "Yet, my brethren, I have not done these things that I might ^aboast, neither do I tell these things that thereby I might accuse you; but I tell you these things that ye may know that I can answer a clear ^bconscience before God this day.

16 "Behold, I say unto you that because I said unto you that I had spent my days in your service, I do not desire to boast, for I have only been in the service of God."

He teaches them to continue to be righteous, to serve God, but that doesn't count for anything unless you are obedient to him first.  We have to be obedient to God.
He declares to the people that his son, Mosiah, will be the next king and he guarantees the people that he will be a righteous leader and that they should follow him and they should follow God and if they do they will be happy.  It is that simple.  He admonishes them to follow God and if they rebel against him, then he teaches, if they rebel against God, they have no right to mercy and no claim to mercy at the last day, the judgement day.

Likewise, we receive the same admonition of the Nephites during King Benjamin's reign. Obey God and prosper.  Teach truth to your families.  Teach righteousness.  Live it.  Come unto Christ and find joy in him.  Lead where you lead in righteousness.  I thought, he is teaching us what the modern prophets have taught us "You Matter to Him."  Then, the part about leading reminded me of this talk.  I don't even remember it, just the title; "Lift where you stand."
I know that not everything makes sense, yet.  But if we are faithful to God, he will keep us.  He will hold on to us.  And if we turn away from Him, he is always there with his arms stretched out, ready to hold our hand as we walk back home.  As rocky, dark, hard, and overwhelming as the journey is, He Never Gives Up On You.  You are his precious child and he will always want you to come back.  Feeling the pain and muck is worth the joy, relief, comfort, purity and peace that come by the end of the journey.

Summary of Mosiah 1

Mosiah chapter 1

King Benjamin leads a peaceful people all his days.  He teaches his sons the language of his fathers;

2."...And he caused that they should be ^btaught in all the ^clanguage of his fathers, that thereby they might become men of understanding; and that they might know concerning the prophecies which had been spoken by the mouths of their fathers, which were delivered them by the hand of the Lord.

 3   "And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the ^aplates of brass, saying: My sons, I would that ye should remember that were it not for these ^bplates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ^cignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God."

I think that the purpose of this is not just so that they can read and write and reason and understand and be smart, but so that they will not forget their fathers and their history.  So they can teach it to their children and posterity.  So their people can be guided by leaders who understand truth and who understand that truth will make them free. 

7.  "And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to ^asearch them diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would that ye should ^bkeep the commandments of God, that ye may ^cprosper in the land according to the ^dpromises which the Lord made unto our fathers."

(you get footnotes in that one!)

King Benjamin has 3 sons, Mosiah, Heloram, and Helaman.  He appoints Mosiah to be the next king.  I just had the thought that Heloram and Helaman are also in positions of leadership.  I don't know if they are or not, but I just thought it could be so. 

I guess that the main lesson we have to learn from this is we need to be literate in studying, knowing, learning, loving and living the word of the Lord, so that we can be a prosperous people.  Our leaders need to make moral choices and lead in righteous ways that promote freedom and a happy people.  Likewise, we need to lead in righteousness in our homes and neighborhoods.  Our work places and volunteer places and churches and in public.  If we know truth, we have a responsibility to not only live it, but to teach it.  Sometimes, this may mean directly bearing witness of the truths that we know and sometimes it may mean indirectly bearing witness.  Either way we do it, as we live according to our knowledge, we find peace, and happiness and we are able to share that with others. 

To read or listen to the whole chapter go here:
 https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/1?lang=eng#listen=audio

Summary of Words of Mormon

I apologize for not doing a very good job of summarizing.  Let's pick up where we left off.  This is not the best summary I have ever done, but it will have to do for now.  If you want to add any details, there is a comments section below and I would be happy to read them. 

Words of Mormon  (Summary)

Remember, Mormon is at the end of the Nephite period.  His country, his nation, his people have been destroyed because of wickedness and rebellion against God.

So, he interrupts us to tell us about where these writings came from.  They were handed down from King Benjamin until they ended up in Mormon's possession. 
These are also plates of/from Nephi.  These contain sacred writings and prophesies from the holy prophets and the Holy Ghost says, "Add these things to your book."  So, he puts the abridgement in and hopes that it will help people be righteous and that the posterity of the remaining fragment(s) of his people will read the book and come to Christ and be happy.  He studied this book from Nephi and realized that all the prophecies that were written about his people have come to be.  He has faith that prophecies for the future will also come to fulfillment.

Mormon lived and did this in about 385 A.D.
King Benjamin lived around 130 B.C.

Now, we go back to King Benjamin's story:  There was war between the Lamanites and the Nephites. 
King Benjamin finishes the war.  Sends the Lamanites away and some Nephites follow them to live with them and become part of them.  "many dissensions away unto the Lamanties"
"And it came to pass that after there had been false Christs, and their mouths had been shut, and they punished according to their crimes;
"And after there had been false prophets, and false preachers and teachers among the people, and all these having been punished according to their crimes... contention...and... dissensions... with the assistance of the holy prophets..." King Benjamin eradicates the wickedness among his people and restores peace to the land and people of Nephi. 

We find out that King Benjamin is a righteous man, a holy man and he not only follows God, but he leads his people in righteousness and with the holy prophets works and works and works until his people live in peace.

Now, one day in the future when I come back and read Words of Mormon, I will have some sort of base upon which to build my knowledge and understanding. 

Summary of Omni

(There is a video at the end.)

Okay, I was thinking it would be good to write a short summary of each chapter in the Book of Mormon.  I would like to start at the beginning, but I am currently in Omni and I am finding this chapter fascinating.

Why did these 4-5 generations keep so little records?  It just blows my mind that they didn't write anything except "We have been commanded to keep the records, so here they are."  Okay, some of them say something like, "I'm not as righteous as I should be."
or (direct quote from v. 11: )

"I know of no revelation save that which has been written, neither prophecy; wherefore, that which is sufficient is written.  And I make an end."

And they tell us there has been warring and they have been involved.  
Okay, let's move on from the line who doesn't keep the records (I mean, they wrote their name and a paragraph summary of their life...  Let's move on to some meat.)

Let me interrupt to tell you who is part of the book of Omni.
Jarom gave the plates to his son, Omni.
Omni gave the plates to his son, Amaron. 
Amaron gave the plates to his brother, Chemish.
Chemish gave the plates to his son, Abinadom.
Abinadom gave the plates to his son, Amaleki.
Amaleki records the meat of this chapter. 


Mosiah.  Here is some meat. 

The Lord warns this man, Mosiah, that he and all the people who want to follow Christ and live their religion should flee from their homeland.  So, he takes the righteous people with him into the wildnerness.  They travel with him and are taught the word of God and they find this land called Zarahemla.

Zarahemla is peopled but the people there don't have any records!  They came from Jerusalem when Zedekiah (King of Judah) was taken to Babylon.  So, the people of Zarahemla have been having lots of wars and they didn't bring any records with them and so the Nephites (Mosiah's people) cannot understand them.  They have lost even their language!  And they "denied their Creator," meaning God.

So, Mosiah "caused" that the Zarahemlans should be taught in his language!   I can't really imagine that in our day.  Maybe it is because I live in the U.S....  Anyway, back to the story.  Mosiah teaches the people of Zarahemla his language.  Then Zarahemla (The king/leader of Zarahemla is named Zarahemla) tells Mosiah his geneology from memory.  Um, I know my geneology 5 generations back on my Mom's side.  He obviously knows it is important to know where he hails from and who he is.
Okay,
The people unite and get this, MOSIAH is "appointed to be their KING!" (emphasis added)
King Mosiah.  He must have been one able leader.

Substory here:
Mosiah interprets a stone that was written upon a long, long time ago.  He interprets it "by the gift and power of God."  The story is about a man named Coriantumr.  He came to this "new world" when the tower of Babel happened.  The people of Zarahemla discovered him.  He stays with them for 9 moons.  His entire people had been wiped out!   "their bones lay scattered in the land northward."  It doesn't say what happened to Coriantumr.  

King Mosiah dies and King Benjamin reigns in his stead.  There is another war between the Lamanites and the Nephites.

Another substory.  This explains who the Nephites and Lamanites are.  Sorry I didn't explain this earlier.  
These 2 people are named after 2 brothers; Nephi and Laman.  They came with their family to the "Promised Land" around 600bc.  Laman was very hard hearted and didn't want to come but did.  Laman and another brother, Lemuel, were always fighting against Nephi.  They didn't like to follow the Lord and they didn't like to get in trouble for not following him.  Nephi wanted to follow God.  He wanted to keep the commandments and he wanted his family to keep the commandments of God because he knew that it is the only way to find true and everlasting, eternal happiness.  Since then, the followers of Laman (Lamanites) have been enemies to the followers of Nephi (Nephites.)  Nephi had to take the Nephites with him away from his family in the dead of night so they could escape the brutality of the Lamanites.  (God warned Nephi that the Lamanites wanted to kill him so he should flee with his people and go live somewhere they could be free.)  

So.  The Lamanites and Nephites fight.  But King Benjamin drives the Lamanites out of Zarahemla.  (It's looking like the Lamanites were looking for the fight, came to Zarahemla and attacked.)

Amaleki is old.  He doesn't have any posterity to pass the plates on to.  He sees that King Benjamin is a man who will keep the commandments of God, so he gives the plates to him.  He ends with 2 things:
His testimony,

"Exhorting all men to come unto God, the Holy One of Israel, and believe in prophesying and in revelations and in the ministering of angels, and in the gift of speaking with tongues, and in the gift of interpreting languages, and in all things which are good; for there is nothing which is good save it comes from the Lord: and that which is evil cometh from the devil.

"And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.  Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved." 

Then he tells us of his love and concern for his brother:

A large number of men went back to the land of Nephi to live in their land of inheritance.  The leader is "mighty" but "stiffnecked."  He causes a contention and all but 50 die.  The 50 return.  They take more people with them to find and live in that land.  Amaleki's brother went with them.  Amaleki has not seen nor heard from his brother since then and he is so old he probably never will in this life.
That is how the chapter ends.  We don't get the rest of Amaleki's story.  That's it.

In fact, the next book in the Book of Mormon, The Words of Mormon, is a jump to the future.  (Not our future.  This already happened.  It is a jump to the future for the Nephites and Lamanites.)  You see, all these things that have happened in the Book of Mormon up to this point have been Mormon's abridgement of the actual recorded events.  He, Mormon, has been our narrator, our story teller, our teacher.

So, don't let it confuse you.  Just go as slow as you need when you read, or re-read to get more clarification.  Or just get what you can the first time you read the book and then read it again or study from it. 

It is a beautiful book.  And even though there is sorrow, that helps you see and feel the joy.  Because there is destruction, it brings you an appreciation for life.  Because we can read what these people went through, we can choose to make our lives full, beautiful and happier.  Most of all, we can build our testimonies of the Savior, Jesus Christ, through a study of this book.  We will become better people for having read and studied it and we will have a greater portion of the Lord's spirit.  I know this because I have felt it in my own short life.  I remember the difference in my life when reading this book and not reading this book.  I know it is true.  I know that Christ lives.  I know God lives.  He loves his children.  You are his child.  This book is for you so you can know his love for you and the love that Christ has for you.  I hope you will read it.

Enjoy this beautiful presentation of the Restoration of the Book of Mormon.  
 

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.

Consider the Love God Has for You.

Today, our church choir sang a song written from the scripture passage in Matthew 6:28, " And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:"

The piece is stunningly beautiful and beautifully full of truth. The song invites us to consider all the Lord, God, has provided for us and reflect on his love for each of us, His children. He will lead us and guide us if we trust Him. He will make our hearts as gold if we let Him. Some lines that stood out to me talk about Christ bearing our burdens, "Consider the sweet tender children who must suffer on this earth; The pains of all of them He carried from the days of His birth." Christ has carried our pains, our burdens, our sins. We can turn to him and repent; we can turn to him and find joy. "And He will heal those who trust Him, And make their hearts as gold."

At a practice, our choir talked about this part. I read the words and posed a question about the meaning. We really looked at what it meant and when we knew what we were singing about and could feel the Holy Spirit witness in our hearts that it is true, we were able to share that witness with whoever heard us singing. Our spirits touched their spirits. The Holy Ghost touched our hearts.

Link to buy the sheet music if you like it: http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/Consider-the-Lilies/17214656

Faith and hope, weak to strong

The beginning of a new semester holds many emotions. One is that I cannot do all this. Another is that I can do it all, with God's help. Today I read in Ether 12 and decided that chapter is my new theme. Faith dives hope, or faith gives foundation for hope and weak things can be made strong. Studying was never really my forte, and I have been out of American school for about a year and a half. This is going to be very intense, but I know that as I do what is right and try my best at it, the Lord will help me strengthen my weak areas and give me power to do things that I must.
Here is the discourse on faith from Ether 12 as well as the link to the chapter. (The link highlights verses 2-22, but I pasted the whole thing. Verses 27 to/and 37 talk about making weak things strong.
http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/ether/12.2-22?lang=eng#

Chapter 12

The prophet Ether exhorts the people to believe in God—Moroni recounts the wonders and marvels done by faith—Faith enabled the brother of Jared to see Christ—The Lord gives men weakness that they may be humble—The brother of Jared moved Mount Zerin by faith—Faith, hope, and charity are essential to salvation—Moroni saw Jesus face to face.

1 And it came to pass that the days of Ether were in the days of Coriantumr; and Coriantumr was king over all the land.

2 And Ether was a prophet of the Lord; wherefore Ether came forth in the days of Coriantumr, and began to prophesy unto the people, for he could not be restrained because of the Spirit of the Lord which was in him.

3 For he did cry from the morning, even until the going down of the sun, exhorting the people to believe in God unto repentance lest they should be destroyed, saying unto them that by faith all things are fulfilled—

4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

5 And it came to pass that Ether did prophesy great and marvelous things unto the people, which they did not believe, because they saw them not.

6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

7 For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead; and he showed not himself unto them until after they had faith in him; wherefore, it must needs be that some had faith in him, for he showed himself not unto the world.

8 But because of the faith of men he has shown himself unto the world, and glorified the name of the Father, and prepared a way that thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift, that they might hope for those things which they have not seen.

9 Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith.

10 Behold it was by faith that they of old were called after the holy order of God.

11 Wherefore, by faith was the law of Moses given. But in the gift of his Son hath God prepared a more excellent way; and it is by faith that it hath been fulfilled.

12 For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.

13 Behold, it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the prison to tumble to the earth.

14 Behold, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites, that they were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost.

15 Behold, it was the faith of Ammon and his brethren which wrought so great a miracle among the Lamanites.

16 Yea, and even all they who wrought miracles wrought them by faith, even those who were before Christ and also those who were after.

17 And it was by faith that the three disciples obtained a promise that they should not taste of death; and they obtained not the promise until after their faith.

18 And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God.

19 And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad.

20 And behold, we have seen in this record that one of these was the brother of Jared; for so great was his faith in God, that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared, because of his word which he had spoken unto him, which word he had obtained by faith.

21 And after the brother of Jared had beheld the finger of the Lord, because of the promise which the brother of Jared had obtained by faith, the Lord could not withhold anything from his sight; wherefore he showed him all things, for he could no longer be kept without the veil.

22 And it is by faith that my fathers have obtained the promise that these things should come unto their brethren through the Gentiles; therefore the Lord hath commanded me, yea, even Jesus Christ.

23 And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them;

24 And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them.

25 Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words.

26 And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness;

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

28 Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness.

29 And I, Moroni, having heard these words, was comforted, and said: O Lord, thy righteous will be done, for I know that thou workest unto the children of men according to their faith;

30 For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove—and it was removed. And if he had not had faith it would not have moved; wherefore thou workest after men have faith.

31 For thus didst thou manifest thyself unto thy disciples; for after they had faith, and did speak in thy name, thou didst show thyself unto them in great power.

32 And I also remember that thou hast said that thou hast prepared a house for man, yea, even among the mansions of thy Father, in which man might have a more excellent hope; wherefore man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared.

33 And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men.

34 And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father.

35 Wherefore, I know by this thing which thou hast said, that if the Gentiles have not charity, because of our weakness, that thou wilt prove them, and take away their talent, yea, even that which they have received, and give unto them who shall have more abundantly.

36 And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity.

37 And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore, thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.

38 And now I, Moroni, bid farewell unto the Gentiles, yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood.

39 And then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he hath talked with me face to face, and that he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things;

40 And only a few have I written, because of my weakness in writing.

41 And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen.