The Book of Mosiah

The Reading and Lesson Schedule for 2016 is ready: Click on the above tab to find it.

Alma the Younger has a life-changing experience, and it is brought on by his father's prayer of faith. What can we do to influence our children as they grow into adulthood?
You can find The Alma Family: Control vs. Influence Parenting here.

So many great things happen in the Book of Mosiah! King Benjamin teaches a masterful lesson on the gospel of Jesus, and commits his people to Christianity in a great discourse that is also a perfect model for teachers to follow.

You can find King Benjamin Teaches Gospel Doctrine hereere.

After the death of Mosiah, we encounter the wicked King Noah and the great prophet Abinadi, and the drama ratchets up a notch. Alma (one of the king's entourage) is converted by the lonely prophet before his death, and becomes the leader of a new group of Christians. Alma describes in six steps what the convenient of baptism really means. We invited Laura Berry to lead this discussion and three fantastic returned sister missionaries to share their insights: Andrea Williams, Eleanor Potter and Kristi Krause, and Kristi also knocked our socks off with a gorgeous song.

You can find the Meaning of the Baptismal Covenant here.


For our Christmas Lesson we got our Bibles out and did a close reading of Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2, the birth narratives. Each serves as a "parabolic overture" for the gospel that follows, and reveals a unique perspective on the life and mission of the Savior.

You can find 5 Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Christmas Story here.

The Ten Commandments

We loved having Rabbi Adam Wright return as guest lecturer and teach us about the Ten Commandments. I asked him to spend extra time on the fourth commandment, since our two faiths are almost unique in a commitment to Sabbath observance. He had some fascinating insights. He taught us the word, shamar, which means to follow closely, or to guard, so Jews speak of "guarding the Sabbath." It's a meaning-full phrase, isn't it. We presented the Rabbi with his own replica of the 1830 version of the Book of Mormon, and he was pretty excited about it! Here is the recording of that session.

CLICK HERE to listen to: Mosiah 13: The Ten Commandments ~ Rabbi Adam Wright: 11/18/2015

Jacob: The Pleasing Word of God

     The Book of Jacob is packed with powerful messages. Beginning with his great sermon at the temple, it moves into an extended allegory on the House of Israel and also records Jacob's encounter with Sherem, one of three "anti-Christs" in the Book of Mormon.      One of the most relevant doctrines for us right now is Jacob's injunction to:        
     
     "Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that theymay be rich like unto you. But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdomof God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted. (Jacob 2:17-19)     
     
     Sins of pride, unchastity and materialism were an ongoing theme in Jacob's teachings. When we lose the feeling of being guided by the Spirit, or when life begins to seem meaningless, it's good to take a look at those areas in our lives and see if we are caught up 'in the thick of thin things.' 

With Patience and Faith

     We also talked about loyalty to our faith and to our leaders, and some of you asked for a copy of the quote that was read from our former prophet, Harold B. Lee. Here it is:

      “Now the only safety we have as members of this Church is to do exactly what the Lord said to the Church in that day when the Church was organized. We must learn to give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through His prophet, “as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; … as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith” (D&C 21:4–5).
     There will be some things that take patience and faith. You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life. But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord Himself, with patience and faith, the promise is that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory'” (D&C 21:6). (Harold B. Lee, Improvement Era, Dec. 1970, p. 126) 

     Patience and faith: two such important qualities for troubled times. A poetic prophet, Jacob ends his record with a beautiful description of the rather melancholy nature of his people, torn by civil war. Though uncertain about the future, his own personal faith remains securely fixed, and he leaves us with a challenge to choose wisdom over the ever changing winds of public opinion:

     "And it came to pass that I, Jacob, began to be old; and the record of this people being kept on the other plates of Nephi, wherefore, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days.      
     "O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, and enter in at the strait gate, and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life. O be wise; what can I say more?"          (Jacob 7:26 and 6:11-12)  

Book of Jacob Lesson Recording

CLICK on the above link to listen to our lesson on the Book of Jacob 11/11/15

Reading/Lesson Schedule for November/December

Here is the lesson and reading schedule for November/December

November 4 - NO CLASS ~ Field trip to the Temple

November 11 - Jacob - The Allegory of the Olive Tree and Me  

November 18 - GUEST TEACHER ~ Rabbi Wright ~ The Ten Commandments

November 25 - Enos - The Wrestling Match

December 2 - Mosiah 1-10 - King Benjamin Teaches Gospel Doctrine
December 9 - Mosiah 11-20 - The Prophet, the Priest and the King
December 16 - Mosiah 20-29 - Parenting Adult Children: Control vs. Influence
December 23 and 30 - NO CLASS

Why We'd Better Not Skip Isaiah

       

        What does Isaiah have to do with your daily life? Filled with archaic references and symbols from another age, Isaiah may not seem relevant to you at first, but there are nuggets of gold in these chapters. Nephi loved Isaiah, and said that Isaiah had seen the Savior, as Nephi had, along with Jacob. These three special witnesses of Christ have much to teach us.
         I don't think you need to get everything in Isaiah; it's just important to get something from him each time we go through the Book of Mormon. Northrop Frye, the great Christian literary critic, spoke of polysemous (layered) meanings in the scriptures: each time we go through we find something different, because we are different each time we go through. So, since Nephi and Jacob offer their own "midrash" on  Isaiah's prophecies, I'm going to offer one as well. Here is the passage:
         “And all the nations that fight against Zion, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision; yea, it shall be unto them, even as unto a hungry man which dreameth, and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty; or like unto a thirsty man which dreameth, and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite; yea, even so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.” (2 Ne 27:3)
        I first encountered this verse as a missionary, when my Japanese companion read it to me during our study time and asked if we were really offering our investigators what they needed. We reexamined our lessons and decided to focus more on the Savior right from the start, which really increased our effectiveness. Many years later, in a totally different setting, this verse became meaningful again.

Isaiah Goes to Girls Camp 

        I have spent many of my years in the Church serving in the Young Women’s organization, and fifteen of those years putting on Girl’s Camp. (I personally feel that this should assure my exaltation.) Camp traditionally ends with a testimony meeting, where the girls have a chance to get up and express how they have been affected by their camp experience. These are, of course, tearful, emotional meetings. (With 200 pubescent girls involved and 40 – 50 exhausted leaders, there are bound to be lots of tears!) But over the years as I planned our camp activities I began to worry that what we were creating there was perhaps not as substantive as it should be. The girls would get all worked up, but within a few days all that good camp “mojo” seemed to drain away and life went back to its old patterns. Were we really changing lives? I wasn’t quite sure what to do about it. Then one day I was struggling through the Isaiah passages in the Book of Mormon and came upon the same verse that we had studied together during my mission.

At first glance this scripture wouldn’t seem to apply to a bunch of teenaged girls; they are not nations fighting against Zion!  (Though random acts of violence may occasionally occur in cabins filled with teenage girls.) But the image of the hungry dreamer struck me, and made me think about how emotion can be a deceptive substitute for real change. We may get very worked up and feel all ready to reform our lives, but after the excitement of the meeting we are like the hungry man that dreamed about a yummy dinner but woke up just as empty as before. I realized that these girls were coming to camp, getting very emotionally wrought up, but that a real change of heart was not occurring in their lives. They were being emotionally stimulated rather than spiritually filled.

So what was the answer? Nephi says that the key to Isaiah is the spirit of prophecy, or the testimony of Jesus. So I began to think about what we were doing specifically to build the testimony of Jesus in the hearts of girls. The next year, we tried to emphasize gaining a knowledge of the Savior and his atonement in our lessons, in our devotionals, in our messages, and in our private discussions with girls. We trained our counselors to give a daily devotional on the Savior, and planned a final one for the last day of camp with each of our counselors giving a lesson on the parable of the ten virgins to her little group, and bearing a special testimony of Jesus and his atoning mercy.

Campers Converted to Christ  

These wonderful counselors fasted and prayed and really poured their hearts into those lessons. On the final day each group found a quiet spot and the lessons were given. As they drew to a close our Stake President (who had come up for the occasion, dressed in his suit) walked around to each group and quietly invited them to come with him, because the “Bridegroom was come.” The girls, surprised by his sudden appearance in their midst, came reverently, singing hymns along the way, and gathered in the amphitheater where a large picture of the Savior was displayed. Our sweet Stake President then bore a powerful testimony of the Savior, and invited them to do the same. 

The difference in that meeting was palpable. Certainly there was emotion, but the testimonies (which in former years had focused mostly on friends and family) were centered on the Lord and his redeeming love, which they had felt all week and which poured out on that gathering like a little Pentecost. I felt afterward that the testimonies that were borne that day were substantive; they were still there the next morning, and in subsequent weeks and months. That experience taught me that Jesus is the only bread of life and the living water. Anything else is just snack food, an illusive experience like a dream that leaves you hungry and thirsty later. I have Isaiah to thank for that lesson. 

So gird up your linguistic loins and make your way through Isaiah, maybe with a goal to just find three or four things about which you can make a little midrash, lessons that will apply to you and your calling or your kids or your job. There is some good stuff in there, and it's all about Jesus. Let's be sure that the fruit we offer our youth and everyone in our circle of influence is the real thing, the Lord and his redeeming love. That's what Isaiah is saying.


Want to listen to the lesson?

CLICK HERE to listen to Why We'd Better Not Skip Isaiah         Scripture Class 10/21/15

Poetry in the Scriptures

What makes the scriptures so beautiful? Hebrew poetry has its secrets, and poetry in English has its tricks and techniques. The Psalm of Nephi (2 Nephi 4) combines all of these elements in a mini-masterpiece that could have only come through inspiration.

As a bonus our own Amy Jones shares her 5 step plan of happiness in a follow-up to last week's lesson.
Enjoy!

CLICK HERE to listen to Poetry in the Scriptures class 10/14/15

The Plan of Happiness

Everybody wants to be happy, but are we willing to do what it takes? Here is a recording of our lesson on 10/7/15 on the Plan of Happiness: 2 Nephi 2 and 9


CLICK HERE to listen to Plan of Happiness class on 10/7/15

We Talk of Christ ~ Or Do We?

           I want to begin our study of 2 Nephi at the end of the book, because it states the theme of this book, and in fact of the entire Book of Mormon so perfectly:

“And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.” (2 Ne 25:26)

Vivian Harmer, a young LDS student, had a revealing experience while studying at a university in northern England. One day she found herself seated on a bus next to an Evangelical Christian, and the talk turned to religion. When she learned that Vivian was Mormon, her seat mate flatly stated, “Mormons aren’t Christians.” Of course Vivian denied this and explained that LDS people really are Christians, just often misunderstood. The young woman replied that she knew better, because she had once been visited by the missionaries, who claimed that they had a message for her about Jesus Christ. “I let them in to talk about Christ,” she said,  “and all we talked about was some man named Joseph Smith. I don’t believe in him, and they didn’t tell me anything about Christ. Your church isn’t Christian.”^⁠1 

For the first time Vivian realized that there may be some reason that LDS people are often considered to be something other than devout Christians. And at that moment these words of Nephi came to mind, and she began to examine her own patterns of conversation, especially in regard to her missionary efforts. To her surprise, she realized that she had many gospel conversations where she covered a variety of topics - from the Book of Mormon to living prophets to the pioneers - but somehow failed to mention that the point of all of these gospel blessings was to lead us to Christ, whom we worship, adore and by whose grace we are saved, after all we can do. This led to a change in her own life, and in her priorities.

In this verse, Nephi is describing his daily walk with Christ, and his words challenge us to take a close look at ours. Do your children, grandchildren and friends hear you talk about Christ, rejoice in Christ and preach of Christ? Do they see you looking first and foremost to Jesus (rather than to programs or commandments or goal-setting sessions) for a solution to your problems? Are you a person who speaks often and freely about grace? In other words, are you easily identifiable as a born-again Christian as well as a commandment-keeping Mormon? After all, the whole point of the commandments is to guide us to the rebirth of the spirit and the outpouring of grace that comes as we seek Christ. This, the Book of Mormon teaches, "is the whole meaning of the law." (Alma 34:14)

As Latter-day Saints, we have so many facets to our faith that it is easy to get caught up in discussing the tributaries and miss the source of the living water. But when it comes right down to it, we either talk about Christ, rejoice in Christ, and preach of Christ, or we don’t. People who know us well regard us as devout Christians, or they don’t, based on our performance in those three areas. From our daily conversation, our peace and joy, and what we choose to talk about in church, it will be obvious who or what comes first. With all that we have been given, with the grace and mercy He has poured out upon us, our faith in Christ should be so obvious to our neighbors that they will just laugh should anyone describe us as anything other than followers of Jesus! Right?

¹ Harmer, Vivian. We Talk of Christ. New Era, April 1987.

Tripping Over the Liahona

One day when Lehi looked out of the tent door, there was something new.  

“And it came to pass that as my father arose in the morning, and went forth to the tent door, to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness.” 

It looked like a fancy compass, but this wasn’t just a compass, it was a piece of craftsmanship fashioned in a heavenly realm. And it only worked under certain conditions: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the pointers which were in the ball, that they did work according to the faith and diligence and heed which we did give unto them. And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was plain to be read, which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord; and it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it.” 

(1 Ne 16:10, 28-29)) 

What in our lives today is like the Liahona? Well, since it acted as a guide for Lehi and his family, since it was only activated by faith, and since it actually contained words of guidance, the Liahona could symbolize the word of God in our lives. Or, because it was something special and outside of the day-to-day routine, and because it was a little hard to understand, it might symbolize the temple. In either case, we have in the Liahona a symbolic source of divine guidance that is close at hand, yet requires significant spiritual preparation in order to utilize it. 

What is the Liahona waiting at the door of your tent, and are you stepping over it every morning rather than taking time to consult it? Taking a few minutes to read the scriptures or to attend a temple session doesn’t get noted anywhere. We don’t get “credit” for it, or praised for it, nor can we deduct it from our tithing. But these quiet efforts to get in touch with God’s guidance make a significant difference in our lives.

Just Slightly Off Course Can be Deadly

Dieter Uchtdorf compares being in tune with spiritual guidance to the navigation of a great airliner. He describes a large passenger jet with 257 people aboard that flew from New Zealand to Antarctica in 1979. Unbeknownst to the pilots, the flight coordinates had been modified just two degrees, meaning that the plane was 28 miles east of where the pilots assumed it to be. This resulted in the airplane flying into the side of a 12,000 foot volcano, killing everyone on board. Elder Uchtdorf concludes: 

“Through years of serving the Lord and in countless interviews, I have learned that the difference between happiness and misery in individuals, in marriages, and families often comes down to an error of only a few degrees.

Small errors and minor drifts away from the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring sorrowful consequences into our lives. It is therefore of critical importance that we become self-disciplined enough to make early and decisive corrections to get back on the right track and not wait or hope that errors will somehow correct themselves….

These commandments and covenants of God are navigational instructions from a celestial perspective, and will lead us safely to our eternal destination. That destination is one of beauty and glory beyond understanding. It is worth the effort. It is worth making decisive corrections now and then staying on course.”^⁠1 

Commandments (scriptures) and covenants (temple) are the needles on the ball that keep us on a straight course, as the Liahona did the family of Lehi. And thus we see, that “by small means the Lord can bring about great things.” (1 Ne 16:29)

¹ https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/04/a-matter-of-a-few-degrees?lang=eng

Living With Vision: Lehi's Dream

We talked about vision this week, living with it and living without it. Lehi's vision sets the tone for the entire narrative. It is first and foremost a family affair, with the members of Lehi's own family playing all of the principal roles. His reaction to it is personal. It is Nephi who, through his interaction with the Spirit of the Lord, sees that the meaning of the vision is cosmic in scope; it involves the whole plan of salvation, hinging on the birth and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When he asks the meaning of the things his father saw, his Spirit guide says simply, "Look." And so he might say to us.

Nephi makes what is, in my opinion, the most breathtaking leap of understanding recorded in the scriptures, when he looks upon a young girl, holding a child in her arms in Nazareth, near his old home town. When the angel first asks him if he understands the "condescension of God," and then tells him that this young woman is "the mother of the Son of God in the flesh," Nephi suddenly understands the meaning of everything. It is the love of God.

We won't ever be alone, and this life is not a random set of experiences with no purpose. God himself was willing to be born in a barn, live as a homeless person and eventually suffer every pain and temptation in order to redeem us. That is what the Book of Mormon and every work of scripture is all about. Feeling the joy of this deliverance is partaking of the sweet, delicious fruit. Offering it to our children and loved ones is the purpose of our existence. Christ is the tree of life.

Symbols and Semitic Connections

Here are the main symbols of Lehi's dream along with the interpretations of the symbols as given to Nephi:

Dark and Dreary Wasteland: 1 Ne 8:7                   (What do you think?)          

Large and Spacious Field: 1 Ne 8:9,20                   World: 1 Ne 8:20                 

Tree of Life: 1 Ne 8:10; 11:25; 15:21-22               Love of God: 1 Ne 11:21-22

Fruit of the Tree: 1 Ne 8:11-12                               (What do you think?)

Fountain/River of Filthy Water: 1 Ne 8:13; 12-16   Hell/depths: 1 Ne 12:16, 15:26-36

Rod of Iron: 1 Ne 8:19                                            Word of God: 1 Ne 11:25; 15:23-25

Mist of Darkness: 1 Ne 8:23                                    Temptations: 1 Ne 12:17

Great and Spacious Building: 1 Ne 8:26                 Pride, worldly wisdom and

                                                                                   vanity: 1 Ne 11:35-36; 12:18

Each of these symbols has connections in the literature that Lehi and Nephi would have been familiar with at the time. (And that Joseph Smith would have known nothing about, by the way.) Ancient legends included a tree of life that offered both water and fruit, mists of darkness and a spirit guide to take the hero through the dark and threatening wasteland.  

—  Dreamed a Dream” ~ Hebrew “cognate accusative” dreamed a dream, built a building, sacrificed a sacrifice – uncommon in modern languages but would have been common in Lehi's time

—  Dark and Dreary Wasteland ~ Narrative of Zozimus (600 BCE) has him going through a wilderness praying and receiving a spirit guide

—  Mary as the Mother of God ~ In Ancient Israelite tradition in the Northern Kingdom, the “Sacred Tree” symbolizes Asherah, wife of God and symbol of divine wisdom

—  White Tree/White Fruit ~ 7 th BCE texts describe sacred tree, white fruit

—  Filthy Water = Muddy Wadi. Awful Gulf: “In the Orphic gold plates… the avoidance of the spring on left = the avoidance of suffering, or hell.”

       Combo Living Fountain/Tree of Life: Babylonian creation myth has tree of life “bathed in watery             white vapors,” both a source of food and water

Here is an interesting article about these connections: Lehi's Dream and Ancient Symbols 

Ne 8:9,20  World: 1 Ne 8:20