That ye may not be destroyed

Now after Alma had called his people to repentance (as I spoke of yesterday), telling them what would happen if they did not turn to the Lord and follow his commandments he gave them a promise.  “And now for this cause that ye may not be destroyed, the Lord has sent his angles to visit many of his people declaring unto them that they must go forth and cry mightily unto this people, saying: ‘Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is nigh at hand: And not many days hence the Son of God shall come in his glory… And behold he cometh to redeem those who will be baptized unto repentance, through faith on his name.” (Alma 9:27 &28)

This was written about 82 BC and nothing has changed. Not with our Lord anyway. He still sends angles, and ministers, missionaries, good neighbors, and etc. to remind us of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are just in a different stage of the ongoing plan. Christ was born, and he was baptized, and then went about teaching and healing the sick. He atoned for our sins, was crucified on Calvary, he gave up his life and rose again on the third day that we too might have everlasting life. He lives that we may follow his path to eternal courts on high and loves us still.

My dad used to say that the world ends every day for someone. He was right about that and we need not put off repentance. The kingdom of Heaven is nigh at hand, and not many days hence he will come again and gather his sheep into his fold despite where we are in the choices we make.      

God does not want us to sufffer.

In order to go up in a hot air balloon certain things have to be in place. I am not a balloonist so I don’t really know how those things work exactly. I am pretty sure however, that there must be the right amount of lift verses weight. Too much lift and I think it would spin out of control and too much weight and it won’t lift off.  I think getting into heaven is much the same way, and we can equate spirituality to lift and sin to weight.

There are natural laws that govern the universe, and allow us to rotate around the sun and moon giving us twenty four hours in a day and four seasons. There are laws that govern how our bodies grow and develop physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually. The Lord has said that he has not at any time given us a temporal law. In other words it is all spiritual and allows us to return to our heavenly home. Neither has he left us down here without access to knowledge of these things. I remember the American Indian that spoke in our fireside a while back. The stories in the Book of Mormon had gone by word of mouth from one generation to the next apparently since the days of Nephi. At one time even the forgotten tribes in far off lands knew the word of God.  

God wants us to return to him and has done everything he can to direct us in the right course of action without taking away our agency.  We make our own hell and pass it on to our children who are innocent. Now there’s a sticky wicket. Still the answer is the same. We cannot blame God if we go to hell.  

“For he (God) will not suffer you that ye shall live in your iniquities to destroy his people.” (Alma 9:19)    

I know...

These are a few of the things that Alma delivered to the people in their cities and villages throughout the land. “Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this the spirit of revelation which is in me… I know that Jesus Christ shall come, yea, the Son, the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy and truth. And behold it is he that cometh to take away the sins of the world yea, the sins of every man who steadfastly believeth on his name.” (Alma 5:46 & 48)   

We likewise must fast and pray until we know beyond a shadow of doubt these same things… until we no longer just believe but we know.  When we have done this then we are fit to teach and to share our knowledge of the gospel in as much as it is prudent and directed the Lord.

Stories passed down for hundreds of years.

 Jacob, the younger brother of Nephi, and sons of the prophet Lehi, who left Jerusalem in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, King of Judah (about 600 A.D. See 2 Kings 24:18) wrote to us. He spoke of the difficulty of engraving on the metal plates, but he wanted to write that “which will give our children and our beloved brethren, a small degree of knowledge concerning us, or concerning their fathers… that they may know that we knew of Christ, and had a hope of his glory many hundreds years before his coming.” (Jacob 4:3-4)  

I recently had the privilege of hearing an American Indian speak at a fireside. He told of hearing the stories of the Book of Mormon and he recognized them as stories that were passed down among his people for hundreds of years. I think of the legacy I am, or should be, leaving my children and beloved brethren and sisters and in fact all that I associate with, that Jesus is the Christ and that he lives. He arose from the tome on the third day and he lives.

Do we know Christ died and arose from the grave

Inspired by the writings of Isaiah Nephi taught his people in plainness being filled with the spirit of prophecy. “… When the day cometh that the Only begotten of the Father, yea even the Father of heaven and of earth shall magnify himself unto them in the flesh they will reject him, because of their iniquities and the hardness of their hearts and the stiffness of their necks. Behold  they will crucify him, and after he is laid in a sepulcher for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God.” (2 Nephi 25:12-13)

This of course was before the birth and resurrection of Christ Nephi left his writings knowing that in our time we would understand. We of course have the Bible with the Old Testament and the New Testament which bear record of these things. We can know the writings of Nephi to be correct.

John speaks of Christ

John speaks of Christ in that philosophical way he had that brings peace and joy to my heart.

“He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name, which were born, not of blood not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”  (John 1:12 – 14)

I do know what he’s talking about and yet I don’t quiet grasp the full extent of what is implied here. It is like one of those puzzles with letters in all the little squares. You look at it one way and certain words jump out at you, but there are other words on the diagonal, spelled backwards or such.

I see the words Jesus Christ, only begotten of the Father, power of the father, priesthood, born again, baptism, converted, endure, light, glory, truth, gospel, spiritual, not earthly, the will of God be done, born of flesh and blood, yet immortal. Those are the things that come to my mind. What words does it bring to your mind?