So I am starting this post 3 minutes before midnight, so this counts as my Friday study! I am telling you...weekends are just tough. My schedule gets all thrown off! What will happen tomorrow? Who knows. But I am determined to not miss a day...I really want to have this good habit.
So moving on to chapter 9. My online course skips this chapter, but I am reading it see why it is important enough to be in the scriptures. This chapter mostly talks about the 2 different sets of plates that Nephi has engraven and what they contain. It is obviously important for us to know that information otherwise it wouldn't be in the scriptures. But to me, the last verse is the most important of all. It says (1 Nephi 9:6) "But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words..." Isn't it a great comfort to know that the Lord knows everything...from the beginning...AND He loves us and wants us to find everlasting happiness? This verse is a faith-builder to me. It shows me the power that comes from Heaven in the fact that he hath all power to fulfill his words and He already knows what needs to happen. These words just make me want to really try to be in tune with the Spirit even more because I know that Lord knows my path and has the power to lead me...if i will allow myself to be led. I guess the nervous part is believing in me and thinking that I can be in tune enough or good enough to really know that I am feeling the Spirit. You will see this as a re-occurring theme for me. It is something I struggle with.
It was a short chapter, but that final verse was worth it. Wish me luck for the rest of the weekend.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I love this chapter for a couple reasons, one being the reason you mentioned. Nephi and his successors do not seem as interested in communicating history through these pages, but instead communicating the hand of God in the lives of the people (history being the large plates). This seems simple and inane superficially, but really, it's rather significant. There is a lot of scholarship these days hoping to establish the empirical reality of the Book of Mormon and its people, and certainly this work makes a lot of sense. But because of this short chapter, we should keep in mind that we aren't reading a history, therefore there is so much left out that would otherwise establish its historical veracity. Little, if any, empirical findings should be brought to bear on the message of the Book of Mormon; we shouldn't presume to know as much as we do with what little historical information we've been given.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's as it should be: we should instead focus on the message of the Savior, and his works and power among the children of men.
Thank You. I think it is so true. Some get so caught up in trying to prove something with historical facts. I think Heavenly Father has given just enough so we can make sure that we rely on our faith as well. Don't you think if we, in our state of being right now, we given a perfect knowledge of everything (historical facts included) that it would be awful because we wouldn't be prepared to live the kind of lives someone with that knowledge should live? Does that make sense? There would be much more expected of us, but we wouldn't be prepared to accept it yet...that's what I think anyways.
ReplyDelete