February 2015

9 FEB 15

Ponder, think and pray (Helaman 10:1-4)

In Helaman 10 Nephi is sitting pondering the things shown him by the Lord and it’s a great time of division among his people.  He gets a very powerful visit and blessing from the Lord. I think this is highlighted here to remind us to ponder the words of the Lord more to receive personal revelation of our own. I am making a goal to do better to remember to wait for answers when I pray.

In Helaman 10:7 Nephi has the sealing power bestowed on him. I had previously highlighted this section as I realized that the words concerning “seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven” related to authority to seal couples and families. What I didn’t realize was what was pointed out in the student manual. I didn’t realize that this same authority was similar to Elijah’s authority to literally seal the heaven’s for several years so that it didn’t rain. I just previously hadn’t made the connection that it was the sealing power that allowed him to do that. I had previously only understood it to be limited to families but now I realize that limitation isn’t given anywhere. It makes me wonder of other ways the sealing power could be used. Could the prophet seal someone to the earth so that they wouldn’t die for a time? This isn’t really pertinent to our salvation but it was just a thought I had as I read about the sealing power.

10 FEB 15

Famine instead of the sword. (Helaman 11:4)

Elijah barred the heavens with the sealing power and it seems that Nephi did something similar in this instance. I guess he had enough of war being the instrument used as the tool to humble the Nephites and Lamanites. War as a humbling tool doesn’t always work well as the Nephites find out later when they are not humbled and are destroyed.

Humbled (Helaman 11:7)

Nephi’s plan works. The people are humbled and turn to the Lord. Unfortunately this is just another turn of the Pride Cycle for them as this humble state never lasts long.  It seems to normally take near destruction to get the Nephites humbled.

Lehi like brother in righteousness (Helaman 11:19)

It’s good that Nephi had a strong brother that supported him. I could imagine it being lonely being a prophet. Having a brother, friend and supporter in the work must have been a great blessing to Nephi. At least that is what I thought when I read this.

Rise of Gadianton robbers. (Helaman 11:26)

That short lived humility, righteousness and prosperity I spoke of earlier… yeah these guys are here to throw that all off. These guys also never seem to never go away. I think of Hydra from the popular Marvel movies and comics. Both are evil and when you cut off a head, two grow back. It’s insidious.

11 FEB 15

Prosperity (Helaman 12:1-2)

I am thankful for the time of relative prosperity that we live in. It’s truly a blessing to live in the world we have today… well more so the developed nations but the gospel is rolling forth and prosperity and happiness can be found in many parts of the world.

Wickedness (Helaman 12:4-6)

Some of this is what I fear for us today. Are we prideful? Are we ripening for destruction? While the gospel will not be taken from the earth again, there was no promise of this country remaining intact or that famines and scourges wouldn’t waste the land.

Power of God (Helaman 12:7-14)

It’s amazing to think of the overwhelming power of the Lord. He can truly command all things by his voice. Hopefully I won’t live to ever see it used in a manner to humble us.

12 FEB 15

Samuel the Lamanite (Helaman 13:4)

I was looking for a good picture to use of Samuel like in the lesson for this week but it seems some of the best ones (except for official church ones) have restrictive copyrights attached. I try to keep copyrights in my posts and I share my journal here on paul.darr.org. In my search I found a couple blog pictures like this that I have to remember the idea for future family home evening lessons. We all know the story so I won’t regurgitate it but I have a great deal of admiration for a guy that gets kicked out and then preaches on a wall while getting shot at. That’s some faith there.

In Helaman 14:30-31 Samuel talks about our agency to do good and evil. I am surprised this section wasn’t mentioned in the manual. I have found it to be an interesting scripture. I like how it explains that the negative impact of poor choices are us just inflicting things on ourselves. At least that’s what I gather from the statement “whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself”. Sometimes our poor choices also impact others but generally they impact us the most. When it comes to repercussions; I see it less as the Lord punishing us and more as us punishing ourselves at the last day.

We have knowledge of good and evil. Either we can choose the good or choose the evil. Often when we choose evil we receive an earthly reward. If we have patience and choose good; our reward will come later.

13 FEB 15

Restoration of Lamanites. (Helaman 15:13)

The restoration of the Lamanites has been ongoing in our day. It’s amazing to see the growth has had in South America. Someday I wouldn’t be surprised if there were many more in the apostles who came from that area. I have also had Native American and Polynesian friends that are part of the church as the Lamanites have been reclaimed.

Believe and be baptized  (Helaman 16:1,3,5)

Samuel saw success in his difficult mission. I picked over a few scriptures I thought were important in tracking the faith, repentance and baptism of those who chose to follow the teachings of Samuel.

Reason into hell (Helaman 16:17)

I was struck by the word reason into this scripture. We can easily reason and justify ourselves into false doctrines and hell. It takes brutally honest self reflection to avoid this path.

Memory sharing time of when I had the chicken pox and when I had the measles. I remember when I had both and it wasn’t a fun time. While these memories were brought up by recent outbreaks, to me it’s more remembering a time when I was living in some crazy conditions as a kid.

Before I went into foster care my bio-mom kidnapped my brother and I while we visiting our grandma. At some point while we were staying with her, I got chicken pox. It was pretty miserable and I remember the one bedroom apartment we were staying in only had a stall shower. So her and her boyfriend stuck a washcloth over the drain and filled up two inches of water and splashed baking soda in it. I then would try to splash the water on me. It kind of helped a little bit I guess but I was still pretty miserable.

2 FEB 15

Helaman 1:24 “And supposing that their greatest strength was in the center”

I love how this little bit of information is missed on what ever Intel they had previously gathered. Making weak things strong is an important theme we see in these battles.

How can we apply this lesson to our lives? Well our lives aren’t in physical battle but we are in constant battle with Satan. He seeks to probe our weaknesses and destroy them. The answer is of course to make our weaknesses strengths as the Nephites did. What’s one of the weaknesses I work at? I’m terrible at naturally expressing feelings of love. This is a weakness I have identified before. I expect to say something once and people know that’s just forever. So to counter that I work on expressing my love to my family. In many small ways.

Helaman 2:13-14 “I do not mean the end of the book of Helaman, but I mean the end of the book of Nephi, from which I have taken all the account which I have written.”

You have got to love the ominous foretelling that Mormon puts into the narrative here. Think… Mormon is looking around seeing how his civilization has fallen apart and and lived through his own sort of Apocalypse. He’s looking at this and saying “this is where it all went wrong”. This is where the destruction of the Nephites started.

3 FEB 15

Helaman 3:14-16 “hundredth part”

What a small part of everything do we have from their records. In the surrounding scriptures they talk of cement work and ship building. I wonder what it was all like. The ships would be all rotted away but does the reference to cement really mean cement or does it mean clay or other work?

In Helaman 3:24-28 we see some of the prosperity of the church. Normally when I think of prosperity and the Nephites, I think of the temporal wealth and inevitable pride that comes before the fall in the pride cycle. In this case we are told of a great spiritual prosperity that goes on and the great growth of the church. Maybe the close brush with destruction in the earlier chapter humbled the people and brought them closer to Christ? At any rate, I think it’s also great to hear about the positive things that went on amidst these difficult times. I stopped at verse 28 because I love how it tells us that “we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all”. That sounds like a really pleasant invitation, if we just get up and choose to do what’s needed to walk through the gate.

4 FEB 15

Helaman 5:12 “Rock of our Redeemer”

What is the imagery from this scripture? Rock, Foundation, Mighty Winds, Storm.

I’m imagining a powerful storm beating on a home. Having lived in California I’m remembering images of Malibu and some other hill areas where million dollar homes were built on dirt. Or how most of the bay area is built on silt. In both areas they have had huge damage in storms or earthquakes. It’s a very practical reminder of why building on a strong foundation is important and helps me to remember the importance of a spiritual foundation.

 

Don’t be this guy.

Helaman 5:29, 32-33  “voice as it were above the cloud of darkness”

Voice coming out of the darkness to repent. I would be scared out of my wits. That’s a time to get on your knees and pray for forgiveness.

5 FEB 15

In Helaman 6:21-22 it talks about the secret signs used to distinguish brothers and to help hide their murders and thefts. This made me think of when I was a teen and lived in foster care. Many of the other foster children were in gangs or tagging groups and used signs of their own. They would use these signs to mark territory or to recognize someone from their group, much like the Gadianton robbers.

We still have crime today and gangs are an issue law enforcement is still working on but did you know that violent crime this year dropped from the previous year and that violent crime has dropped to 1963 levels? This has been a continuing trend from the early 1990’s. You wouldn’t realize that from the news. Most people I run into still think things are more dangerous today as opposed to safer. So take hope. If we keep working at opposing evil in the world, we are able to see success.

6 FEB 15

Helaman 7:5 corruption in government and justice

Well at least it’s not just us with corruption today… well that’s still not a good thing. This makes me fear what we potentially have to look forward to. Can this sort of corruption also spell our doom?

Helaman 7:23 “it shall be better for the Lamanites than for you except ye shall repent.”

That’s some more foretelling there. It’s not looking good for the Nephites. Some people say that the book of Mormon paints the Nephites as all good and Lamanites mostly bad but ultimately who did the Lord have survive? Those that were the least evil in the end.