Chapter 16, intro to 17

Today I read chapter 16 in Alma. It is a pretty interesting chapter, and a quick read. I also read the beginning of 17. Starting in 17 will start "an account of the sons of Mosiah, who rejected their rights to the kingdom for the word of God, and went up to the land of Nephi to preach to the Lamanites." What a great example to latter-day missionaries that have a difficult time putting their life on hold for two years to go on a mission! I hope that my boys (if I have any) will be excited to go on missions and that it won't be something they struggle with. I am excited to read these next few chapters.

Alma 8

Okay, so I am finally sitting down to write about what I'm reading... Chapter 8 is pretty cool - you should read it if you haven't in a while. :) It is basically introducing Alma and Amulek to talk about their experiences preaching the gospel together from chapters 9-14.

Verse 11 talks about the people rejecting Alma because of his "foolish traditions." I thought that was interesting, especially because we see people use that excuse a lot even now. "America isn't a Christian nation" stated by our current president illustrates the point that people see our Christian values as foolish traditions of our forefathers.

In verse 15 an angel is talking to Alma and says, "thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivest thy first message from Him." If we are keeping the commandments we DO have great cause to rejoice. Look at all of the examples of people that have endured great tribulations in the scriptures and in our LDS history. Where are they now? With our Heavenly Father...all of us should rejoice if we are keeping the commandments and working toward our goal of returning to our Father in Heaven.

In verse 18 Alma follows the angel's instructions and "speedily" returned to the city. Not casually, or even the same pace he left...speedily. When I go to general conference and get direction from the Lord's prophets I usually resolve to change little things in my life. We should come home from conference and speedily change those things we need to, as little as they are. Then Alma goes into the city another way...we should try sharing the gospel with different approaches.

Finally, the last 2 verses of the chapter (31-32) talks about the power of God, which will be illustrated in the next couple chapters...they will be good ones!

Alma 7

I have decided that on the weekends I will read, but just wait to post my readings on Monday...

This weekend I finished up chapter 5 and 6...In chapter 7 there are a couple points that I thought were interesting in my manual.

Alma 7:10: This verse has been one of the favorites for anti-mormon literature. It says that Jesus will be born in the land of Jerusalem. In my manual it talks a lot about the wording. Alma had no intention of declaring that Jesus would be born in the city of Jerusalem. He simply said he would be born "at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers." Here Jerusalem is not the city, it is the land. Christ was born about six miles from Jerusalem in the village of Bethlehem. So, technically it WAS in the land of Jerusalem. This makes sense to me, as I always tell people I am from Seattle, when I am actually from Maple Valley (but no one knows where that is) :)

The second point in this chapter is Alma 7:23-24 which lists requirements of a true follower of Christ.

1. Humble

2. Submissive

3. Gentle

4. Easy to be entreated

5. Full of Patience

6. Long-suffering

7. Temperate in all things

8. Diligent

9. Keep commandments

10. Asking for what we need (spiritual & temporal)

11. Returning thanks for those things

12. Faith

13. Hope

14. Charity

15. Good works

Scripture Mastery cont...

I wanted to go over the scriptures I've already done and then do a couple more today...

Gen. 1:26-27: God created man in His own image.

Gen. 39:9: Flee from temptation

Exodus 20:3-17: The ten commandments

Exodus 33:11: The Lord spoke to Moses face to face

Leviticus 19:18: Love thy neighbor as thyself

Deut. 7:3-4: Don't marry outside the covenant

Joshua 1:8: Meditate on the scriptures day and night

Joshua 24:15: "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

In the footnotes there are a lot of references I thought were interesting for this scripture:

choose - agency, commitment (we have our free agency to choose and once we do we need to make a commitment to it)

this day - procrastination (don't "procrastinate your day of repentance")

house - family, children, responsibilities toward (it is a major responsibility as parents to teach our children the gospel and mostly teach by example)

serve the Lord - example, loyalty, objectives, service, sustaining church leaders (I thought the sustaining church leaders was an interesting footnote for this scripture)

Talents...

I found some notes I had taken about Talents

Talents - responsibility/stewardship
1. Discover (try new things)
2. Willing to spend time & effort
3. Faith that the Lord will help us
4. Faith in ourselves
5. Learn skills necessary
6. Practice our talent
7. Share it

I also looked up some more scriptures:
Ether 12:35 - If Gentiles have not charity, the Lord will take away their talents
D&C 60:2 - the Lord is not pleased with those who hide talents
D&C 82:3 - of him who much is given, much is required
D&C 82:18 - saints to be equal, that every man may improve his talents and gain other talents

The Lord really does give us everything we have - even talents, and we should be looking for ways we can use them to help others, or just share them and lift others. I think that we can be utilizing the talents we already have while we are also gaining other talents. I think that part of sharing our talents is teaching others how to gain the talents we have too.