A Lot Like Today

While I was reading in Alma 21 I noticed a scripture that sounded a lot like the people in our world today...

5 Therefore as Aaron entered into one of their synagogues to preach unto the people, and as he was speaking unto them, behold there arose an Amalekite and began to contend with him, saying: What is that thou hast testified? Hast thou seen an angel? Why do not angels appear unto us? Behold, are not this people as good as thy people?
6 Thou also sayest, except ye repent ye shall perish. How knowest thou the thought and intent of our hearts? How knowest thou that we have cause to repent? How knowest thou that we are not a righteous people? Behold we have built sanctuaries, and we do assemble ourselves together to worship God. We do believe that God will save all men.

Doesn't that sound familiar? Aaron has a good response we can all learn from:

"Believest thou that the Son of God shall come to redeem mankind from their sins?"

The man said "We do not believe that thou knowest any such thing. We do not believe in these foolish traditions. We do not believe that thou knowest things to come..."

Now Aaron began to open the scriptures unto them concerning the coming of Christ, and also concerning the resurrection of the dead, and that there could be no redemption for mankind save it were through the death and sufferings of Christ, and the atonement of his blood.

Ensign Article

Since we were camping the last 2 days, I brought the Ensign with me and was able to read the First Presidency Message, "That He May Write upon Our Hearts" by Henry B. Eyring.

I don't know what my deal is lately, but I almost cried when I read it. Probably because lately I have been worried that I don't know what I need to be teaching Allie as she is becoming older and more aware and understands more. I have been worried that I am not ready for more than just a baby (who's needs are mostly physical because they don't understand a lot) Reading this article helped me figure out the most important things I need to teach my kids. Here is what I decided:

1. How important prayer is (teach by example)
2. Jesus Christ's atonement
3. The Plan of Salvation (that we are children of our Heavenly Father)
4. We can be together forever as a family if we are obedient and live the gospel.

This article talks about a lot more, and gives good advice for parents with children who have strayed. I hope that my kids will love the gospel and live it. That is the most important thing to me. I don't care if they don't do well in school or don't have any great talents, I just care that they are righteous and caring people who treat others with respect and have a strong testimony.

The Suffering of the Righteous

Well, I am finally back to my everyday scripture study, after weeks of weird schedules on vacation and preparing for my lesson last week. Today I am reading Alma chapter 14...


I am a little worried. Yesterday there was a comment made during the lesson about how sometimes when you attend the temple your family may not be safe and it doesn't mean you are a bad person. Then, today the first thing that jumped out to me from my manual on chapter 14 was the section about how bad things happen to good people ("The Suffering of the Righteous.")


I really hope that the Lord isn't trying to prepare me for something...


Alma 14:8-11 Talks about how Alma and Amulek had the power to bring down punishment on the men who killed the believers of God, but didn't because he said that God permits the righteous to suffer for a purpose.


It says this in my manual:


"...if all sick were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. If pain, sorrow, and total punishment immediately followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a misdeed. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil-all would do good and not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, no Satanic controls...no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or death...an absence of joy, success, resurrection, eternal life. and godhood.

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.

A Little Bit About Satan

Alma 12:3-4

He uses lying and "craftiness"...very "subtle plans" to deceive people...

Alma 12:5-6:

He uses "snares" to "catch" the people, "that he might bring you into subjection unto him, that he might encircle you about with his chains, that he might chain you down to everlasting destruction, according to the power of his captivity"

In my footnotes I had written "Discouragement is the tool of the Devil"

I cross referenced Moses 4:

Satan's Goals: Verses 3-4
-sought to destroy the agency of man
-wanted all the power
-deceive and blind men
-lead them captive at his will

Know the Scriptures

So, one of my goals in my scripture study (besides actually reading them everyday) is to know my scriptures better. Although I did do my scripture mastery in seminary, for some reason only a few out of the hundred I "mastered" stuck with me :) So, I am going to start with the scripture mastery scriptures and "remaster" them the best I can. This time I am going to learn the reference and topic of the scripture rather than just memorizing it.

Starting from the beginning:

Moses 1:39 - This is my work and my glory...(the plan of salvation)

Moses 7:18 - The Lord called His people Zion...(Zion, Unity in the church)

Abraham 3:22-23 - These I will make my rulers...(Council in Heaven, Intelligences, Foreordination)

If anyone has any good ways of remembering these please share :)