Thoughts on Digging a Pit

This week's lesson in my Fundamentals of Religion class was on 2 Nephi 28-33.  These are the last few chapters that Nephi wrote and they contain an amazing amount of information for the latter days.

I began reading in Chapter 28 using my newly-learned study skill of symbolism. There are not as many symbolic references in this chapter as in our prior reading block of Isaiah. However, there are still quite a few.  Some are familiar, some are not. Nephi is writing of the vain and foolish doctrines of men. The one verse that stuck out to me was a reference to digging a pit for your neighbor in 2 Nephi 28:8.  Here is the verse in its entirety:

And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.

I wondered what Nephi meant by "dig a pit" so I looked up all of the references associated with it. The references suggested it meant dig a pit to hell. But, how can you dig a pit to hell for someone else? As I pondered this I thought of several ways in which this could be done.

The first was by persuasion; using flattery, lies to convince someone to move away from the gospel. The second is by ridicule. I thought of 1 Nephi and Lehi and Nephi's vision of iron rod.  People holding fast and moving along the rod being ridiculed by the people in the large and spacious house.  some fell away from the gospel and were lost.  Both persuasion and ridicule could be used to remove someone from the gospel; it could be considered digging a pit for them. Both of these scenarios play out today.

My thoughts then turned to bullying and how insidious it is.  It can lead its recipients to despair and even to suicide.  I think it could be considered digging a pit for your neighbor also.  The implications of this are far reaching and immense.  These thoughts led to many questions.

If you are the one who commits suicide under this kind of extreme duress, would you still be held accountable to normal judgements of our Heavenly Father? Are most suicides committed when people feel they are under extreme duress, despair or persecution? Would a suicide prompted by bullying or persecution be a different or mitigating circumstance? My final question was; If you are the perpetrator of the bullying and the recipient ultimately takes their life, what implications does this have for you?

I do not have the answers to these questions as yet. I will have to make them a subject for prayer. For now I only know how I feel about it.  Although I am working on having more charity in my life,  I feel like the abuser should be judged severely.  They, literally, dug the pit that swallowed up and damned a precious child of god.

I would like to think, no, I hope, that Jesus Christ would be able to mitigate on behalf of that beautiful child of God that is no longer a part of this world. I hope.

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He Knows All

This week while reading and studying the scriptures, specifically 2 Nephi Chapters 9 through 16, I came upon a scripture that prompted some reflection. I have been pondering this one scripture throughout the week; it has provided much food for thought. Those thoughts have been circling in my head and I will try to put them into a coherent form of communication.

I'll start with a quote: 2 Nephi 20,  O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it.  This is a simple, but, far-reaching statement because He knows all, and, in his wisdom has given us all that we need to be successful in this life.

He has given us free agency, knowing that we would learn and grow in the exercising of that agency. Knowing that with the freedom to choose we might not make the best choices. He sent a Savior to atone for our sins knowing that we would succumb to temptations and need a way back from our fall. Even in that he gave us a choice; life eternal or everlasting death.  He knows what is best for us, yet we have the power to choose.

He knows us well; loves us unconditionally.  He knows our needs, our wants, our strengths, our weaknesses and fears.   He allows trials and adversity that we might become stronger, choosing the higher path. Our trials seem to be tailor-made for each of us individually.  He knows what opposition we need to face in order to grow and gives us no more than we can handle.

He has given us the Holy Ghost, the scriptures and prayer, knowing guidance and protection are needed. We can go to Him in prayer when life decisions need to be made, we can ask for his advice. We are free to take His advice or not. The Holy Ghost is meant to be our companion to keep us safe and help guide us through this mortal life.

In summary, He knows all. He knows us, what we need, allows us the freedom to choose, allows us to stumble around a bit, and is there to pick us up, lift us up, when we fall. He knows what is needed and provides all for us.  I quote again 2 Nephi 9:20, O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it.

I leave these thoughts with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

A Little Bit at a Time

Once again, I am posting at the prompting of my Fundamentals of Religion class.  This post is inspired by the words of Elder David A Bednar in a talk Spirit of Revelation. His words on how we receive revelation made me reflect upon my life.  Did I receive revelation? If so, when and how did I receive it? I began to reflect on my entire life. What I found was surprising to me.

It seems that the Spirit has been testifying to me my whole life.  Do you see what I see? This is a pretty truncated account, but to list everything would take far too long and you would grow bored. So here is my short, but, sweet account.

Although my family attended church while I was growing up and I knew of Christ, I did not know Him. I knew of the atonement, but did not truly understand what it meant in my life or comprehend the depth of Christ's love for us. I could not understand why the churches we attended believed in the trinity when the words of the Bible said differently.  What I understood when I read the scriptures seemed pretty plain to me; the Father, Son and Holy Ghost were separate beings. I pondered these things for years.  I wanted to have a closer relationship with the Lord and to know why I understood things differently than others. I attended many churches. No one had good answers for me.

As an adult a dear friend introduced me to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I started attending with her. This church did not believe in the trinity. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost were separate beings!  Jesus Christ was at the very center of its doctrine and the members were all working on getting to know Christ personally.  My children were not only allowed, but, wanted in Sacrament meetings.

I can see I had been given, little by little, what I needed to keep me on the right path. The answers I did not receive needed to come to me in the Lords time and in the Lord's way. What I had been searching for was found. I began working with the missionaries and was baptized.

The day of my baptism, as I was being confirmed a member and given the gift of the Holy Ghost, I felt the spirit flood over me.  It was the most amazing thing I have ever felt. It defies description. It was a instant testament to me that I was doing exactly what the Savior wanted me to do, what I had been prepared to do.

I can see in my life for the most part I have be given revelation of truth a little bit at a time. Except for the moment of my baptism, when I was given an immediate and huge testament.

Now that I have been a member for almost thirty years, I can honestly say that I would never go back to my old way of life. I can not conceive what life would be like without the Savior at its center.  I am happy to have a more personal relationship with the Lord, to have the Holy Ghost to testify of truth and to help keep me safe. I am proud to bear my testimony that Jesus is the living Christ, that he bore our sins and died for them, and, that through the plan of salvation we can be made clean again.

I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

1 Nephi 1-5

This is my first blog post, so please be bear with me.  I hope to post regularly although I am not sure who will actually be interested in what I have to say.  Today I would like to share my thoughts and insights from a Fundamentals of Religion course I am taking.

As part of this week's lesson, I am to organize what I have learned from course work, other students and my instructor into an effective form of communication. The type of communication I chose was to write a Church talk.  One of the other forms of communication was a blog entry.  I realized that I would like to share that talk with others because I may never get to deliver this talk in Church.  So, I am including it here on my new blog and combining a talk and a blog post into one.

My talk is as follows:

Brothers and Sisters, today I would like to relate my thoughts and feelings regarding the first five chapters of 1 Nephi.   I am studying the Book of Mormon in one of my classes, Fundamentals of Religion, in the Pathway program. Just as many of you, I have read these chapters many times.  I know what is contained in these chapters fairly well.  I thought studying this first lesson was going to be a piece of cake. That I would breeze right through them on my way to meatier stuff. However, I was very surprised at what I found; what I had never noticed before.  Now I know some of you are more well versed in the Book of Mormon than I am, but please bear with me as I share  my insights today.

The first thing that struck me as never before were the tender mercies of the Lord which we read of in 1 Nephi 1:20. Tender mercies can be a blessing, strength, deliverance, spiritual gifts. If it weren’t for my study guide, I might not have looked for them .  Lehi was the recipient of many tender mercies;  he had gifts of the spirit; he was visionary and he was warned to leave Jerusalem. He was delivered from those that sought to take his life and his is family survived in the wilderness.

Additionally, Nephi was gifted with obedience; we have a primary song that praises him for his obedience.  I have sun that song hundreds of times, yet never thought of obedience as a tender mercy. When Nephi prays to know the truth of what his father has seen in a vision, he is visited by the Lord and given confirmation. In Chapter Four as Nephi again tries to try again to obtain the brass plates he came upon Laban lying on the ground in a drunken stupor. The Holy Ghost gave him strength to do as he was commanded and slay Laban.

Also, we have tender mercies that come to Laman and Lemuel who were visited twice by an angel.  Even though they chose to ignore these blessings, they were still tender mercies. 

Further into my study I had a couple of other thoughts on Laman and Lemuel.  They murmured against their father and they were violent toward Nephi. However, I had never stopped to think about what it must have been like for them.  One of my fellow students pointed out they were probably close to a marriageable age, ready to take wives and receive their inheritance.  I asked myself if I was moved to the wilderness and made to leave behind all I held dear, including a substantial inheritance, how would I feel?  I felt I should show them a little charity.

Finally, I remarked on how Lehi, Sariah and their family weren't so different from a modern day family. The father is a bit of a dreamer (visionary), the mother is a bit emotional thinking her sons are lost. I suppose would be a bit emotional too, if my sons were overly late coming home. The older kids are upset over the upheaval and are rebelling.  Many of our older youth would be upset by an untimely move during their senior year also. Hopefully, there would be no violence though. Then, we have the younger kids who just want to do what is right.  Sounds somewhat like a modern day family dynamic, minus the violence of course.

These are my insights and I am sure many of you could add to my knowledge of these scriptures. I would welcome the chance to discuss them with you.  I bear testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I have a tendency to write a talk in a conversational and familiar form. I write as I would speak in front of a congregation. I hope you have enjoyed my reading my talk.  If you have further insights I would appreciate hearing them. Thanks for stopping by.