More about Alma 12:7-11

I noticed there was a section in my manual for the scriptures I talked about yesterday. This talks more about knowing the mysteries of God by being faithful and believing, rather than talking about gaining knowledge. Here is some of the quotations:

"Men receive assurance and knowledge due to their faithfulness and adherence to the commandments of Jesus Christ. Those who reject their Redeemer and refuse to keep His commandments cannot know and comprehend these eternal truths...They cannot understand them because they are a 'fallen' man, and without the enlightening influence of the Holy Spirit, they are as the Lord expressed it, 'carnal, sensual, and devilish.'"

It goes on to talk about why the Lord spoke in parables, which we all know was so those that were not ready for the true meaning of the analogies would not be accountable for them.

Temporal and Spiritual Knowledge

Alma 12:10 "...he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him it is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full."

I had cross referenced D&C 130:18-19

"Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come."

I have been wondering about this lately...with my limited amount of time to study, I am sometimes torn between reading to increase my temporal knowledge and reading the scriptures. I searched "knowledge" on lds.org for some answers. The first 24 articles about knowledge were spiritually related, here is what #25 said (New Era > February 1972 Q&A's):

“Is religious education more important than academic education?”

"...we cannot neglect our academic learning if we are to follow the counsel of the Lord...The academic knowledge we gain will benefit us in our temporal pursuits but the knowledge we gain of spiritual and eternal truths will prepare us to live happily in this life and throughout eternity in the kingdom of God. Our eventual goal is to gain all knowledge necessary to be like our Eternal Father. We can move in that direction only if we devote our energies and abilities to gaining knowledge of God and his laws and incorporating into our lives eternal truth wherever it is found."

So, from this I am feeling that I should use most the time I have gaining spiritual knowledge, but when I can I should also try to gain more temporal knowledge, especially that will benefit me and my family in this life.

Feast Upon the Words of Christ

A scripture quoted often:

2 Nephi 32:3

"Feast upon the words of Christ"

This reminds me of a lesson my dad gave in church one Sunday. It was a fast Sunday so his class was especially hungry (I think it was a younger Sunday School class but I can't remember.) He brought in pictures of food - really yummy-looking food. Of course his lesson was about feasting on the words of Christ. He helped them understand the real meaning of feasting when they thought about how much they wanted to eat and how good food would taste to them. He reminded them that we should be studying the scriptures like we feast after fasting on Sunday. We shouldn't just pick at our "food" or just take one bite and call it good. We should be excited to study the scriptures, dive right into them and enjoy every bite until we are full. (These definitely aren't his exact words)

I think that I have been a casual eater lately, and much more picky that I used to be. I hope this blog will help me feast on the scriptures, and hunger for them like I used to.

Welcome!

I have a confession to make... Ever since I have had my one-year-old daughter, Allie, I have been horrible about doing my daily personal scripture study. I don't know about all of you new moms out there, but scripture study was just one of the many things that I have had to adjust since having another person to take care of. I used to be excellent about reading my scriptures every night, but now that nights are a little crazy, and so are mornings, oh and every other part of the day Allie is awake, I just don't have a set time of the day I read my scriptures and a lot of the time I don't get to them. When Allie takes her naps is usually when I shower and clean up our messy house. So, I thought that maybe if I had other people to hold me accountable (anyone that looks at my blog) I would try a little harder to find the time. Hopefully this blog will help me study my scriptures more regularly (even if its just a short study a day) and will lift others that look at it once in a while too! I hope that it will and I look forward to discussion and insight from anyone who feels the need to! Thanks! Oh, and don't be afraid to get at me if I miss a day or two here or there!