3 Nephi 14:14: "Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
'Find' implies action on our part. We don't just stumble across doing the right things and being on the path to Christ, we have to find it, search for it, and make an effort to stay on it.
3 Nephi 14:16-20: "Ye shall know them by their fruits..." this little scripture block reminded me of Jacob 5, and I think it adds some cool insights to it. Cross reference it and take a look if you like. :)
3 Nephi 18:4-9: There is a repeated phrase on this page. That phrase is "and were filled". I found it interesting that the same wording was used all of the four times the disciples and other ate. It struck me that we are filled (completed, full, satisfied, etc.) by Christ. It was a good reminder and a sweet insight about how Christ really does complete us and make us feel whole.
3 Nephi 18:32: "for unto such shall ye continue to minister... and I shall heal them, and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them" We are helping Christ heal and save others when we teach them of Him. :)
3 Nephi 19:22: "they pray unto me because I am with them." Christ was literally with these people, but this verse reminded me that we should always pray to Christ, and that implies that even when he is not physically with us, we should strive to have Him with us always. This means to live in a way that His spirit can continually abide in us. It was a good reminder.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Counsel from Christ - Can I just say I Love Third Nephi?
3 Nephi 12:2: Christ lists a bunch of things we should do/be in the next few verses, and I liked how the FIRST thing he asked was for the people to believe in Him and His words. Believing in Christ is very important. :)
3 Nephi 12: 23-24: "be reconciled to thy brother, and then come to me with full purpose of heart." This reminds me of something from last week; Brother Griffin gave us some insights about prayer and how our will and actions must change to meet His. The reason this verse reminds me of that concept is that it asks an action and change of heart before you go to Him.
3 Nephi 12:30: "for it is better that ye should deny yourself of these things wherein ye will take up the cross than that ye should be cast into hell." Reading into this a little bit, I realized that it is a verse about the Atonement. When we deny/forsake our sins, we can use the Atonement and then we are better. :)
Sorry it was short, and late! What counts is that I found some gems. :)
3 Nephi 12: 23-24: "be reconciled to thy brother, and then come to me with full purpose of heart." This reminds me of something from last week; Brother Griffin gave us some insights about prayer and how our will and actions must change to meet His. The reason this verse reminds me of that concept is that it asks an action and change of heart before you go to Him.
3 Nephi 12:30: "for it is better that ye should deny yourself of these things wherein ye will take up the cross than that ye should be cast into hell." Reading into this a little bit, I realized that it is a verse about the Atonement. When we deny/forsake our sins, we can use the Atonement and then we are better. :)
Sorry it was short, and late! What counts is that I found some gems. :)
Sunday, February 12, 2012
When Prayers Go Unanswered...
Something I really really LOVED from class this week was something Brother Griffin told us about prayer, and our will versus God's will. He had us look up 'prayer' in the bible dictionary:
When the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought together.
Our will is what we desire, His will is what He desires for us. Brother Griffin then took two markers, said one was God's will and one was our will. He brought each marker closer to each other, and said: "So this is how it works, right?" and looked at us expectantly. Most of the people in the class caught his flaw fairly quickly. His flaw? He brought God's will down to ours, and our will up to God's, making them meet somewhere in the middle.
A compromise? That's not how God works.
God's will doesn't change, what must change is our own will, our own heart, so that we can then gain the blessings He already has the capacity to give us. When we refuse to change, the blessings we receive are less, or compromised, because we did not meet God's will. His will doesn't change, but the blessings that come from Him lessen according to our willingness, or unwillingness, to change.
Brother Griffin told us that sometimes what we need to do is ask for what WE can do to meet Him and gain the blessings, NOT for Him to change His will to what you want.
I had an interesting thought with this: When we don't change our own will, when we just ask for God to give us what we want, this is when prayers seem to "go unanswered" - because we refuse to align our will with His, to CHANGE.
Brother Griffin then asked us to "put our will on the alter" and ask "What would thou have me do?"
WOW. This almost made me cry, I felt the truthfulness of it so strongly. Thank you, Brother Griffin. I Love this class, and more importantly, Christ and His restored Gospel.
Here's some more awesomeness from my reading, if you're interested.
Helaman 16:16: "Some things they may have guessed right... but behold, we know that all these great and marvelous works cannot come to pass." This is an evil doctrine: Prophesy is coincidence. Satan will always try to convince us to remove God from everything in our lives. Let's please not let him. :)
Helaman 3:12: I got really excited when I found out that Lachoneus was a good guy. It was one of those fist-bump moments. I Love when I have those while reading scriptures. Go righteousness!
Helaman 4:2-4: "But behold, there were no wild beasts nor game in those lands which had been deserted by the Nephites, and there was no game for the robbers save it were in the wilderness... Therefore, there was no chance for the robbers to plunder and to obtain food, save it were to come up in open battle against the Nephites..."
I took a really cool principle from this: Just like the Nephites did, when you leave a place that can harm you (like a sin or something that is tempting you), leave it completely. Leave it desolate, then the enemy can harm you with it no longer.
3 Nephi 6: This connects back to the pride cycle, and how quickly it seems to happen, sometimes in the course of one chapter. In reading this, I was reminded of the phrase "oh, how quickly..." and thought how obvious it seems to us now that these people are jumping into the pride cycle over and over again. I guess, when you're the characters in the story rather than the ones reading it, it's harder. So, knowing that it is hard, we should really pay attention to our own lives and strive to not fall into pride and iniquity. Let us not have anyone say of us "oh, how quickly...", but rather, Go righteousness!
When the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought together.
Our will is what we desire, His will is what He desires for us. Brother Griffin then took two markers, said one was God's will and one was our will. He brought each marker closer to each other, and said: "So this is how it works, right?" and looked at us expectantly. Most of the people in the class caught his flaw fairly quickly. His flaw? He brought God's will down to ours, and our will up to God's, making them meet somewhere in the middle.
A compromise? That's not how God works.
God's will doesn't change, what must change is our own will, our own heart, so that we can then gain the blessings He already has the capacity to give us. When we refuse to change, the blessings we receive are less, or compromised, because we did not meet God's will. His will doesn't change, but the blessings that come from Him lessen according to our willingness, or unwillingness, to change.
Brother Griffin told us that sometimes what we need to do is ask for what WE can do to meet Him and gain the blessings, NOT for Him to change His will to what you want.
I had an interesting thought with this: When we don't change our own will, when we just ask for God to give us what we want, this is when prayers seem to "go unanswered" - because we refuse to align our will with His, to CHANGE.
Brother Griffin then asked us to "put our will on the alter" and ask "What would thou have me do?"
WOW. This almost made me cry, I felt the truthfulness of it so strongly. Thank you, Brother Griffin. I Love this class, and more importantly, Christ and His restored Gospel.
Here's some more awesomeness from my reading, if you're interested.
Helaman 16:16: "Some things they may have guessed right... but behold, we know that all these great and marvelous works cannot come to pass." This is an evil doctrine: Prophesy is coincidence. Satan will always try to convince us to remove God from everything in our lives. Let's please not let him. :)
Helaman 3:12: I got really excited when I found out that Lachoneus was a good guy. It was one of those fist-bump moments. I Love when I have those while reading scriptures. Go righteousness!
Helaman 4:2-4: "But behold, there were no wild beasts nor game in those lands which had been deserted by the Nephites, and there was no game for the robbers save it were in the wilderness... Therefore, there was no chance for the robbers to plunder and to obtain food, save it were to come up in open battle against the Nephites..."
I took a really cool principle from this: Just like the Nephites did, when you leave a place that can harm you (like a sin or something that is tempting you), leave it completely. Leave it desolate, then the enemy can harm you with it no longer.
3 Nephi 6: This connects back to the pride cycle, and how quickly it seems to happen, sometimes in the course of one chapter. In reading this, I was reminded of the phrase "oh, how quickly..." and thought how obvious it seems to us now that these people are jumping into the pride cycle over and over again. I guess, when you're the characters in the story rather than the ones reading it, it's harder. So, knowing that it is hard, we should really pay attention to our own lives and strive to not fall into pride and iniquity. Let us not have anyone say of us "oh, how quickly...", but rather, Go righteousness!
Saturday, February 4, 2012
March on, Christian soldiers.
Sometimes these war chapters are really hard to read, because of the wickedness that causes them. I really like how Brother Griffin has been helping us to find our lives in them, because it makes them a huge source of learning, rather than just a gory storyline. As I read, I can't help but feel like I'm marching through this learning process as the people on the page march through war.
Helaman 1:32-33 - "the Lamanites did yield themselves into the hands of the Nephits... and Moroni... caused that the Lamanites who had been taken prisoners should depart out of the land in peace." In reading this, I likened the captured Lamanites to our sins when we capture them. Sins yield for us when we get ahold of them, and we can then have them depart form us in peace.
Helaman 4:13 - "And because of this their great wickedness and their boastings in their own strength, they were left in their own strength." If we think we can refute the Enemy all alone and refuse to let God help us, because we think our own strength is enough - that's what we'll be left with: ourselves, alone, with our own strength. This seems like a no-brainer, but think about it. What would it be like to have to go through all the hard stuff about life completely alone, with no strength save that which was given to our human bodies? It would be incredibly difficult. I'm so very glad I understand and know how to ask for and use the Lord's help, as I know there are a lot of times I would fall short of success without it.
--I've been finding many lists (good and bad). The are a great help. I hope you're finding them too!--
Helaman 11:17 - The Lord takes the famine away, because Nephi prayed for it. I thought it was interesting that very similiar wording is used in Nephi's prayer and in the result (11:13, 17). That brought me this insight: If you are righteous, your prayers will be answered with exactness. This is a fabulous promise :)
Read on, Christian Soldiers! :)
Helaman 1:32-33 - "the Lamanites did yield themselves into the hands of the Nephits... and Moroni... caused that the Lamanites who had been taken prisoners should depart out of the land in peace." In reading this, I likened the captured Lamanites to our sins when we capture them. Sins yield for us when we get ahold of them, and we can then have them depart form us in peace.
Helaman 4:13 - "And because of this their great wickedness and their boastings in their own strength, they were left in their own strength." If we think we can refute the Enemy all alone and refuse to let God help us, because we think our own strength is enough - that's what we'll be left with: ourselves, alone, with our own strength. This seems like a no-brainer, but think about it. What would it be like to have to go through all the hard stuff about life completely alone, with no strength save that which was given to our human bodies? It would be incredibly difficult. I'm so very glad I understand and know how to ask for and use the Lord's help, as I know there are a lot of times I would fall short of success without it.
--I've been finding many lists (good and bad). The are a great help. I hope you're finding them too!--
Helaman 11:17 - The Lord takes the famine away, because Nephi prayed for it. I thought it was interesting that very similiar wording is used in Nephi's prayer and in the result (11:13, 17). That brought me this insight: If you are righteous, your prayers will be answered with exactness. This is a fabulous promise :)
Read on, Christian Soldiers! :)
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