The Sublime Roundabout

The plates of Nephi were small and the method of inscribing them on the plates was very cumbersome. Thus Nephi, in handing off the plates to Jacob, instructs him to touch lightly the history of the people but to engrave the heads of important things - like prophecies, preaching, or miracles - on the plates. I wonder about my own journal writing. Am I too into my own history? Do I spend so much time on mundane matters of little consequence? Or do I more appropriately give reasonable background and context for my stories and personal testimonies? I hope I do the latter. I want to be remembered as someone who loved the Lord. I want people to know that I had a testimony of the truthfulness of things. There are many things I have come to know are true. And I want people to know how and why I know they are true. I want to be remembered as someone who loved the scriptures. I want my love for the scriptures to be passed down from me to my children and to future generations that may come. I hop...

Some of the greatest doctrines ever given From our Father above who lives in Heaven Are written so simply and pure And the simplest of all is to endure We trudge through this existence each day And suffer what reverses come our way We fight with despair and trial and sin And are often tempted to just give in But God has not left us by ourselves Nor placed our lives upon His shelves To be glanced at on occasion But reaches us with the Spirit's persuasion He tells us that we must pray to Him To love Him and forsake all sin In humbling ourselves in this way He promises to be with us through our days He also tells us that we must feast Upon His word - daily, at least For therein can we find the power That will sustain us hour by hour We may feel that we are alone and weak We dare not pray or ask or seek We doubt ourselves and our poor state We fear, we fail, we learn to hate But these things are not from God Who raises us from this mortal sod To a higher sphere of love and grace And ho...

I once asked my father why more people did not join our Church. Clearly, we have the most pure gospel. We have a living prophet to guide us. We have more testimonies of the divinity of Christ. We teach that we can have a personal relationship with God and that He will speak to/with us. We are given opportunities to lead and serve. We are given blessings that are available no where else, and we extend these blessings and opportunities to everyone, including our ancestors. We have a Church that encompasses ALL truth, not just what we know now or may know in the future. And we are given the chance to enter covenants that will seal our families together for the eternities in the Celestial Kingdom of our Father. If our religion, our gospel represents such an amazing path to joy in this life and exaltation in the life to come, why don't people flock to our Church now? My dad said that I should think about it this way: imagine you like to eat hot dogs. They are good. They fill you up. The...

We have been warned repeatedly that the last days would be perilous. I'm afraid that we are firmly bogged down in these perilous times. There is much in the world that is firmly in the control of the Adversary. But the promises to those who will repent are strong and reliable. If we will come to rely on the Lord and His mighty arm, we will be OK regardless of everything else that's going on in the world. We will overcome. The Adversary's methods have become refined of late. Gone are the visible idols of Baal and Moloch. Gone are the golden calves and the marbled halls built to a pantheon of gods. Gone are the very obvious devilish and damning practices - they were designed to deceive the weak and they worked for a season. Now he seeks to deceive the strong and he must change tactics. Now we have Satan whispering in people's ears that there is no Satan. He tells people that a little sin is OK - God loves us and will save all of us! How can we doubt God's love?!? He t...

Is seeing really believing? I wonder. We live in an age of visual manipulation. Photoshop, clever video editing, and computer generated images can make anything seem real, from things that are mundane to things that are unbelievable. Virtual wars can be fought, treasures won, women enhanced, men made to do strange and miraculous things... We also live in an age of information manipulation (say that 10x fast!). People distort truths or report selectively in an effort to deceive or to promote a certain agenda. Surely this has been happening since the dawn of time, but it seems to be more prevalent now - perhaps because our individual access to information is greater now than it has ever been. I recently visited a friends home. He had purchased a set of encyclopedias dated 1975. He got them mainly as a curiosity and to fill up space on his bookshelf - they make your bookshelf look more scholarly! I perused the "A" volume and was interested to note that asbestos was listed. Follo...

What would you do for a dollar? For a million dollars? For a comfortable and convenient lifestyle? What if you could do it all in the name of God? In the name of Him who gave everything for peace and lived His life in poverty? What would you do? Would you say you had been called by God Himself to bring a message of prosperity? Would you say that you could forgive sins if the donation plate is full? Would you say that the work suffers because people are not paying enough tithing? Would you preach peace and love in a time when you should be preaching repentance and fear of the Lord, all in the name of receiving more money - in fear of your potential loss of income? Would you adapt your sermons to accommodate those whose chosen lifestyles are expressly repugnant to the Son of Man in an effort to appeal to a wider audience? Would you relax your morals and standards to the point where good becomes evil and evil good? There is much good that is done by other churches around the world. I woul...

The purpose of the Book of Mormon is to testify of Christ and bring souls to Him. Who can deny this who have read the book and pondered it's sacred import? My life has been blessed and I have come to know Christ through reading this holy book. I know that Christ lives and loves us. I know He is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that through His merits alone we are saved from an eternity of misery and woe. I know that He died for us. I know He lives for us, advocating our cause before the throne of the Almighty. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the Master, the Son of God, the great Jehovah. Blessed and praised be His Holy Name forever and ever! To Him be all glory, honor, and majesty to an eternal day! It is the atonement of Christ - His suffering and subsequent victory - that makes all of this possible. His grace is sufficient for all after all we can do. And make no mistake - we must do all in our power. But through Him and by Him we can and will overcome. I love H...

Lucifer is fallen. Lucifer is, of course, one of the names we give the adversary of our souls. He is also referred to as Satan (from the Hebrew shaitan meaning adversary or accuser), the devil (from the Latin diabolus which is from the Greek diabolos meaning slanderer) or various and sundry other names. I like the above mentioned things - as Lucifer, he was near to God and an angel of light who was cast out of our Father's presence for rebellion; and as the Satan or the devil, he is the main destroyer of our peace and confidence and liberty. He is miserable, and seeks that we all shall be miserable like him. It is against him that we fight on a daily basis - not some unseen or unknown entity, but against a very real and personal being who was in the presence of our Father and was cast out. It was the great battle in Heaven before we came here that was fought between Michael and his angels and the devil and his. The description is instructive: Revelation Chapter 12 - 7 And there was...

Malachi gets quoted for saying that the hearts of the children will turn to their fathers (ancestors). Joseph Smith said that Moroni quoted the verse differently, stating that the hearts of the children will turn to the promises made to their fathers. What are these promises? Abraham was promised incredible things. He was promised that if he lived worthy he would have posterity like the sands of the sea, and that in his seed the entire world would be blessed. We usually think of this as meaning through the gospel and the spreading of the missionary work. I think that's true, but I also think that it is literally true, too. Through the power and authority of the Priesthood, worthy members of the Church can bless others, which blessings are literal and not figurative. Abraham was also known as the friend of God. I can think of no greater blessing that may be attained or sought in this life. How did Abraham qualify for these blessings? Abraham was willing to sacrifice his own son for ...

Destruction is immanent. What a great name! I think I'm going to change my name. You can call be "Hash" for short... ;-) So who cares about the political warnings given to ignorant and unreceptive leaders 3000 years ago? Are they of any relevance to us today? Why bother studying them? Is destruction any less immanent now than it was for Jerusalem? Are we not facing the same kinds of concerns and issues today that they faced then? Are there lessons that can be learned from the situation? The answer seems to lie in the fact that all of these things are cyclical - the names change, and the scale of operations changes, but the lessons and the applicability remains the same. We are a people who tend to want to trust each other more than we want to trust God. Which is ironic, because God is really the only one worthy of our complete trust. But it's true - Stalin trusted Hitler, Chamberlain trusted Hitler, the Cambodians trusted Pol Pot, etc, etc, etc. The point of all of th...

There was an old Indian Chief who had three wives. He loved his wives, and to prove it, he gave them each a special animal hide on which to sleep. The first he gave a bear hide, the second he gave an elk hide, and the third wife got a hippopotamus hide. The first two wives wanted nothing to do with this ridiculous hide and the squaw who sat on it, so they moved their hides to the opposite side of the tepee... In due course, sons were born to each of these women. The son of the squaw of the bear hide joined the son of the squaw of the elk hide in tormenting the other young man. Eventually, this poor picked on young man complained to his mother. His mother, enraged, thrashed the other two young men severely... The moral: The squaw of the hippopotamus hide is equal to the sons of the squaws of the opposite hides. (Thanks for that one, grandpa! It always makes me smile!)

Isaiah had the rare privilege of seeing God on His Throne. Immediately he speaks of his unworthiness. I can relate to that. I almost always feel unworthy of the presence of the Lord. I feel His presence in many ways in my life, the blessings I have received from Him are immeasurable. But I am grateful and humbled by His attention... Isaiah receives a commission from the Lord to go forth and share the gospel. He is told to make people's hearts heavy and ears deaf and eyes blind. I wonder about this. It seems that conversion to the Lord, which is the object and design of the work of His servants, is not a logical, empirical thing. We cannot quantify the Spirit. It is real, and it is discernible. But it is not something you can measure or really even describe. The feelings have been likened to a burning in the bosom, or a still small voice, or a warm, fuzzy feeling. All of this are accurate, but incomplete. When my spirit, that eternal side of my nature, the "me" in me, feel...

For some reason this simile has always made me smile. It's not in a particularly cheerful section of the Book of Mormon: Isaiah's warnings about excessive lifestyles and living continue to ring true and valid to this day. But the idea that there are "round tires like the moon" that will be taken away, thus removing the arrogance and pride from the daughters of Zion... Remember, the daughters of Zion are the daughters of the covenant. They are those who are supposed to be righteous and really to know better than to adorn themselves in this way. But it appears that even the best among us are susceptible to the siren call of worldliness. This seems to be a major concern for Isaiah. He mentions that through the skillful labors of his own hands, man has created for himself a substitute for the real God, which is the LORD (Christ). Jeremiah, speaking some 200 years later, comes to the same conclusion, pointing out that it is the worship of idols (and all that that implies) ...

One of the recurring themes of the Book of Mormon is the idea that the land in which we live is a choice land above all other lands. Growing up, this was a source of pride to me - hey, I'm an American and proud to be one! Now that I am more seasoned, I realize that it's the LAND that is blessed, and that the people on the land are blessed only if they will follow the God of this land, who is Christ. And since Christ is God of the entire universe, it seems just a little spurious to me to think that those in other lands who choose to follow Christ are not blessed equally. Having married someone from another country my eyes are open to that in ways that they were not before. And having spent time in a country that generally likes the United States and yet has some significant issues with the foreign policies and things that we are doing here was also very eye-opening. Couple of things to note: 1. The land is blessed to be a land of freedom and superiority, conditioned on if the pe...

When I was on my mission, I learned some great truths about the Gospel of Jesus Christ: 1. It is simple - there are no extraneous, unnecessary, or complicated things with relation to the Gospel. It is clear and easy to understand. 2. Because it is simple, it is easy to teach and to understand. Many of the complicated catechisms and dogmas of the various other sects and religions are wiped away, much like the convoluted explanations and mathematical formulas were wiped away once Copernicus noted that the earth revolved around the sun. Who knew?!? 3. It is also infinitely rich and powerful. Just because something is simple and easy to understand does not mean that there isn't a wealth of knowledge and experience to be gained from searching diligently the precepts and possibilities that are contained in the Gospel. Here it is: Man, in the beginning, lived with God as spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father. A plan was presented in which people were given the opportunity to come t...

I've never been one to back down easily from a "discussion." I have also never been one to back away from a challenging task. In this regard, I feel a lot like Isaiah. Isaiah, when asked whom the Lord should send, immediately responded - Here am I; send me! His willingness to engage people in righteous "discussion" is inspiring. I have had opportunities to do this. On my mission, in particular, people seemed to go out of their way to find things to "discuss." These sometimes friendly conversations often devolved into something much more sinister and bleak. When that happened, I almost always ended the "discussion" and either moved on or left. I have found that nothing much ever comes of these heated "discussions" and that the Spirit is never there. But here's Isaiah saying - in essence - bring it on! Bring on the enemies, the doubtful, the deceitful. Bring on the proud and haughty, the learned and wise, the rich and powerful. Br...

Nephi is so real to me. He struggles. He fights with his brothers (who want to kill him). He loses his dad. He has to run off and escape. He's a prophet and he's trying to do what he feels he should, but that gets him in trouble. About the only thing we don't know anything about in Nephi's life is his wife and children. But Nephi writes things on a very personal level that I can completely identify with: His struggles in the night over his past transgressions His struggles due to his weakness and frailties when he would rather rejoice His temptations and sins which encompass him and destroy his peace His ultimate faith and hope in the unfailing love of the Redeemer His shouts to himself to not give in to his anger His cries to the Lord to encircle him about in robes of righteousness His trust in the Lord. I can identify with Nephi in many of these things. I don't consider myself a violent or angry person, but I find myself with inner struggles that I probably should...

What would you say to your children if you knew you were going to die? What words of wisdom would you leave? What kind of legacy would you like to instill in them? These sobering thoughts must have caused Lehi great concern. His recalcitrant sons gave him great fear - what would become of them after he was gone? With Lehi out of the picture, would his sons stay true to what they had felt and knew to be true? Would they stay close to the Lord or would they leave Him? Lehi, of course, being the prophet knew what was to come. He spoke to them extensively about rising from the dust and being men, shaking of the chains that would hold them down, and listening to the Spirit's gentle promptings. This, of course, they did not do. Lehi knew they wouldn't, but he felt it incumbent on himself to tell them one last time that they should fulfill their duty. Father Lehi left an indelible mark on his sons. We don't have the words of Lehi to Nephi. Some things are just too personal and sac...

I heard often while I was growing up that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. It often feels the other way around - that we are physical beings who occasionally have spiritual experiences. I am gratified, then, to hear that some things have dual meanings and can be understood on different levels. The winding up chapters of 1 Nephi are informative along those lines. He discusses the events surrounding the diaspora, the coming of the Messiah, and the eventual restoration of the 12 tribes in to the lands of their inheritance. This is literally true. The land of Israel has already become a place where Jews from all over the world can return home to the land that was promised them. They have suffered greatly from their long estrangement from this land, and now they have a place where they can gather and be at home (if not necessarily always at peace). But peel back the physical, temporal dimension of these things, and you come to understand that these things are really spi...

I love Isaiah. Let me just state that for the record. It's my mission president's fault (thanks, President Nielsen!). I have always loved the Book of Mormon, but growing up we skipped the "Isaiah chapters" because my parents thought (perhaps rightly) that they were a little dense. So it wasn't until my mission that I really grew to love Isaiah and the Old Testament. Let me offer a few things that I have gained from my study - things that have helped me come to this appreciation for Isaiah and his writing: 1. Isaiah is tough. He is very profound and deep in the doctrinal area. Most of what he says has multiple meanings and applications and symbols that are meaningful in many ways. No study of Isaiah should begin lightly - get yourself a good study manual (the Old Testament religion course book is very good) and prepare to spend a lot of time studying. But like a dog gnawing that bone for the delicious marrow inside, once you crack Isaiah you're in and it will b...

Ramses got you down? Need water in the wilderness? Or food? Or meat? Need to cross the Red Sea but have no way of obtaining boats for 2 million of your closest friends? Need to build a boat to get to the proverbial or actual promised land? Or... Do you want to draw closer to the Lord? Do you want to change your life and live better? Do you want to be more effective as a parent, child, brother, sister, spouse, teacher, professional, whatever? Do you want to find greater joy and happiness and peace in this life, with a promise to receive eternal exaltation in the next? With God, nothing is impossible. Though our sins be as scarlet, they can be as snow; red like crimson sins will be washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. God can even take someone like me and make out of my rough and unrefined state a tool that He can use to further His work.

Nephi says - I took one of the daughters of Ishmael to wife. Next verse he states - I had been blessed exceedingly. Coincidence? I don't think so... Life is good, but it's better when we're yoked together with our best friend. And one day, this yoking will strengthen us and uplift us and ultimately exalt us.

We are repeatedly told that it is a commandment to diligently and faithfully seek the Lord. Nephi's brothers do not and thus find themselves in a position where they have no relationship with the Lord. As King Benjamin states (in Mosiah) how can we know a master we have not served and who is far from the thoughts and intents of our heart? The short answer is that we can't. But why? Laman and Lemuel had the same upbringing and access to information that Nephi had. Yet the assumed that the Lord would not let them know what they wanted. Were they lazy? Did they ask frivolous questions? Were they arrogant? Or were they doubtful? The record is unclear. What is clear is that we MUST seek the Lord. When I was growing up I was told by a fellow student that I must A.S.K. - meaning ask (and I will receive) seek (and I will find) and knock (and it shall be opened unto me). Seems pretty simple... Why don't we do these things? I have said it before - faith asks the question believing th...

There once was a king who commissioned a great and beautiful crown made. It was made of pure gold and had only the clearest, most pure and precious gems laid in it. The crown took a long time to make, but once it was perfected the king wished to share his crown's beauty with his most trusted subjects, prior to his sharing it with the entire kingdom. The king invited everyone he could think of that would appreciate his crown and people he knew he could trust to a great feast. At the climax of the celebrations, he brought forth the crown and began to pass it around so that his subjects could appreciate it's beauty. At first, everything went well. But as the crown changed hands and moved further down the table and away from the king, it often passed to hands that were less worthy. People began to lust after the precious jewels laid in the crown, until one removed a small knife from his pocket and popped one out. The crown became imperfect, if still glorious. Once the trend was s...

So Nephi, after having heard his father's dream, decided he wants to hear and see and experience for himself. It occurs to me that faith is the desire to know things, the belief that those things CAN be known, and the action required to obtain that knowledge. Sometimes it's as simple as being still and pondering - this has often been the case for me. Some of the sweetest experiences I've had in my life have come when I was pondering scripture, the words of Church leaders, my parents, or life in general. The communication that takes place between me and my Father in Heaven will often transcend verbal communication and I send Him feelings, hopes, desires, and even images from my mind. He gets them and responds in kind. The angel that is guiding Nephi through the visions he is having asks him if he knows the condescension of God. Condescension is almost always used as a negative term, as in - Oh, she is SO condescending... Where the implication is that someone is haughty and a...

Lehi's dream, and Nephi's subsequent revelations in response to the dream, constitutes one of the major themes of this portion of the Book of Mormon. I can think of few passages of scripture that are as seminal to the Latter-day Saint experience than this. The Book of Mormon contains several such passages - King Benjamin's speech, the ministry of Ammon and his brethren amongst the Lamanites, the ministry of Alma and his companions, the final words inscribed by Moroni before burying the plates, and of course, the crowning event in the Book of Mormon: Christ's personal visit to the American continent. More on each of those will be forthcoming. The thing that interests me about this vision is it's uniqueness. The doctrines found in the other instances are relatively common themes found all over in the scriptures - loving each other, serving God, miraculous healings, and dramatic conversions. But Lehi's dream is interesting in that it is unlike any other vision reco...

After having returned from the plate-saving mission, Lehi and his wife Sariah are overjoyed. Seems there's been a little dissension in the ranks - Sariah thought that Lehi sent the boys off on a fool's errand that would get them all killed. I am particularly interested in the fact that she complained (again, I love the earthy reality of these Old Testament figures) but I really appreciate how Lehi dealt with the complaints. He agreed with her. He spoke kindly to her, and gently reminded her that he was being led by the Lord. If she accepted that, she must surely also realize that the Lord would not abandon her sons. There are certainly moments of concern that arise in anyone's life - moments of weakness and doubt, moments where we complain and are frustrated, moments where we just need to vent. That's OK. That's normal. And anything less would speak of a certain level of apathy - especially where one's children are concerned - that is unrealistic. People in any ...

So there they were, having a good time, enjoying the desert air, when suddenly they get directed to go back to Jerusalem after the brass plates. Laman and Lemuel, who ironically didn't even want to be there in the first place, now don't want to leave... Nephi heads the trek back to get the plates. You know the story... Interesting insights in today's reading include: 1. Nephi must repeatedly convince/persuade/cajole his brothers into keeping the commandments. This must get irksome after a while, especially after they had been beating him with a stick... 2. Laban is a bad dude. The things he does - lying, stealing, attempted murder - are all capital crimes in traditional Judaic law. It has been suggested that the brass plates were not his, per se, anyway, and that he was just a care taker. This makes sense then, since their first approach was to just go and ask him if they could have them. 3. Could you kill someone if directed by the Spirit? I hope I never have to find out. ...

1 Corinthians 2:14 - But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Ah, Laman and Lemuel. These murderous, backsliding, and generally faithless men! They become the quintessential antagonist to our protagonists early in the Book of Mormon. You want to loathe them, but then, if you're like me, you often find yourself identifying with certain aspects of their nature... One of the interesting things that comes from the second chapter of 1 Nephi is how hard headed these young men are. Lehi, being their father, has to speak rather harshly to them in order for them to come along for the ride. Their complaints never really ever quit, and they eventually found the opposing nation to the righteous Nephites. The thing that grabbed my attention this morning was how they thought that their father was foolish for abandoning their lands and gold in pursuit of some kind of unkn...

Obedience is something I struggle with. I am good for the first little while but staying the course on a long-term goal is difficult for me. I find my interest wanes and I struggle to stay on task. I prefer tasks that are quick and easy to accomplish. I don't think I'm alone in that, but it's something I wish I could do better. President Banks, our new Stake President, has asked us to re-read the Book of Mormon before our next stake conference (in six months). He suggested that we also keep a record of our feelings and inspiration as a result of this study. This is something I think I would like to do. I am going to try daily to keep a record of my impressions as I read the Book of Mormon and would invite any of you who are interested to follow along. I am going to take weekends off because I don't have internet at home. I am also not going to be perfect at this, but I am going to do my level best. To start off, I have read the Book of Mormon almost daily (again, I'...

What a week. First, our bishopric gets reorganized. Then the very next week we get a new stake president and a new stake is formed in our area. I just wanted to state that I know independently and of myself that we are led by men who are inspired. We are led by men who are, in turn, led by God. Christ is at the helm of the Church and it is His work we are engaged in. I am incredibly humbled to be a small part of this organization. I know that God lives and is mindful of us. He loves us and is aware of our needs and desires. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration of the gospel in these latter-days. I know that President Monson is the prophet of the Lord on the earth today. What an honor it is to be a part of this work! "...the Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth o...

1 Tim. 3: 1-2 1 This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; So, it happened. Bishop Carraway was released on Sunday. But wait - let me back up. Saturday evening, at about 5:30, I get a phone call from President Smith - our Stake President. He would like to see me and Youngshin at 7 PM in his office. GREAT! I say. I honestly don't know what this is about. I know that Stake Conference is coming up, so there's a lot going on. I thought maybe he wanted Youngshin and I to give prayers or talks or something. But I also knew that Bishop Carraway was being released soon, and I also knew that the Stake Presidency would be reorganized this next Sunday. It's going to be a busy week... We met with him in his office, and after the normal chit-chat (which of course is not just normal chit-chat but is in fact...