Life

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.

26 JAN 15

After the Holy Order of God by which they were called. (Alma 43:2)

That title is very interesting. It seems very similar to names given to the Melchizedek priesthood in ancient times. I think this is just another indicator of how the Nephites operated under having the Melchizedek priesthood and not limited to just the Aaronic as the Israelites were at this time.

 

Some basic characteristics of Moroni. (Alma 43:16-20)

I forgot how young Captain Moroni was. I always picture him as a man in his 40’s. More seasoned in years but more physically able. I was 25 and a Sergeant/Staff Sergeant during my first deployment in Iraq. While I took on a lot of responsibility I can’t fathom being essentially the Commander in Chief of the military. That would be insane. I also like the mentioning of protective clothing and armor in this section. After returning from Iraq I took my equipment to a few seminaries (by request) and gave a speech on wearing the full Armor of God.

 

“defend their lands and their country their rights and their liberties” (Alma 43:26)

These are some of the honorable reasons to go to war for. I think this gets repeated a few times. It must be important as a principle then.

 

“defend them by stratagem” (Alma 43:30)

I like the use of strategy in these war chapters. While being saved in amazing devine ways is great, also having wisdom given for strategy is a great thing. Having it all work to plan exactly just shows it’s divine. Nothing ever goes to plan like that.

 

“defend themselves, and their families, and their lands, their country, and their rights, and their religion“ (Alma 43:47)

This repetition of words has shown up again. It has to be important and essentially for reasons we would need to shed blood.

 

27 JAN 15

First reference to scalping. (Alma 44:14)

This makes me wonder if this was an event that already took place or if later native americans picked up the tradition later.

 

Alma prophecy? (Alma 44:7,18)

It seems a soldier of Moroni prophesied the Lamanites being decimated. This is an interesting bit from someone that’s not a prophet.

 

This land will be cursed for those that do wickedly. (Alma 45:16)

This is one of those times that I wonder if we are ripening for destruction. Not the church but the nation. It seems value’s are crumbling around us and what’s wicked is valued. How far does this country have to go before it’s considered fully ripened. I remember one seventy in a particularly bad area for missionary work saying that, “if it weren’t for the saints in the area, this city would be destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah”.  I’m not sure if that seventy had leave of the brethren to say that or it was a personal opinion but it was a sobering moment for us there.

 

The “Title of Liberty”. (Alma 46:12).

The reasons he write on the title of liberty are: freedom of belief and religion, freedom in general, peace and lives of family. Those are all very honorable things to go to war for. It gives us a look into the type of man Captain Moroni was.

 

28 JAN 15

Lamanite second in command takes charge. (Alma 47:17)

This sounds similar to the order of succession that our government has.

 

Raised hand as a token of peace. (Alma 47:23)

This sounds like a variation of a hand salute to me. In the military we were told of the ancient origin of this custom. I could see how it would have divergent paths of becoming a custom.

 

Ancient propaganda. (Alma 48:1)

It’s good to know that propaganda and yellow journalism isn’t something new. Even in ancient times it existed.

 

Made weak strong. (Alma 48:9)

I love how Moroni deployed his largest bodies of troops to his weakest fortifications. That’s some great messing with the Intel that the Lamanites had. In addition we see that the Nephites practiced good OPSEC as the Lamanites didn’t find out about these troop movements.

 

If we look further ahead at (Alma 48:11) we get even more of an insight when we are told that while he was a man of war he “did not delight in bloodshed”. While in the Army most of the people I knew didn’t love bloodshed, there were a few that I ran into that it was a good thing they had that as an outlet. It was a bit disturbing but let’s get back to Captain Moroni, he was a much better example in that area. He was so righteous “that if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men” (Alma 48:17). Captain Moroni is one of my heroes. He’s a much better hero than many of the movie stars and athletes that are the heroes of people today. I wish more people would strive to be like him.

 

29 JAN 15

The Ammonites give their covenant. (Alma 53:11)

This was amazing to see the healing that went on with this group of Lamanites and closing the rift with the Nephites.

 

The Ammonite sons (Alma 53:17)

Luckily there was 2,000 young men who had not taken the oath of their parents. The Lord plans ahead in ways we can’t fathom.

 

Moroni did not delight in bloodshed (Alma 55:19)

I’ve met a few soldiers that did. That was pretty disturbing. They enjoyed being on gun trucks in Iraq and “using force by fire” to get cars of the road or destroyed. Most other gunners weren’t so gleeful about doing that duty.

 

In Alma 56 and Alma 57 we read about Helaman and his 2,000 stripling warriors. The story reminds me in small ways of when I have worked with young men and have seen the faith they have acted with at times. They tell us in Alma 56:47 how they had faith in the words of their mothers and if that “if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.” I have seen young men in different times of their lives tell me of experiences when they were in spiritual peril.  They told me that they remembered the what they were taught in their family and how the Lord would help them overcome the obstacle they faced. In small ways I was reminded of the bravery of these young men.

 

I’m also reminded of other young men which were brought up well from their families. In Alma 57:19-21 were are told more about the work ethic and obedience of these young men. When Helaman says “they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness” in reminds me of some young men that I have worked with in the past that also obeyed and performed every duty above and beyond. While many of the young men I have worked with have been the more rebellious sort, I was blessed to see a few who I think that had the same spirit instilled in them as the 2,000 from their families.

 

30 JAN 15

Pahoran gets rebuked by Moroni. (Alma 60:6)

Ouch! these are some harsh words. Moroni will later take these words back but I would not want to be on the receiving end. I am reminded of some of the letters of George Washington to the Continental Congress with this.

 

Teancum (Alma 62:34-36)

We don’t hear too much of Teancum but what we do know is that he is hard core. I like to compare Moroni and Teancum. They were both officers, just with different leadership styles and talents. Moroni had a great deal of charisma and foresight that he used to inspire other leaders. Teancum was the type of officer that would join in the work with his men and not send anyone on a mission he wouldn’t go on. When he made a mission with high chances, there was no one he could send with good conscience except himself. I’d also say Teancum would have also been one of those leaders with several tabs on his shoulder (Special Forces, Ranger, Airborne).

 

 

Hagoth (Alma 63:5-8)

Where did he go? I heard many speculation pieces on it but I finally ran across a reference to confirm. President Joseph F. Smith said, “I would like to say to you brethren and sisters…you are some of Hagoth’s people, and there is NO PERHAPS about it!” (Cole and Jensen, p. 388.)