Awww. . . . Thanks, Google Autocompleter!

"Your only supposed to highlight the parts you like!"

Haha. Yeah, doing that is for sissies.  Real men highlight their scriptures like this:

 

By the way,  this is a Book of Mormon that I read/highlighted towards the later part of the mission.  My mission president got the idea for this activity from Preach My Gospel.  I'd strongly recommend trying it out, because it was a really cool spiritual experience for me.

Highlighting the Book of Mormon in more than 100 Days

A little while ago, I finally finished the "read the Book of Mormon in 100 Days" challenge I set out to do as one of my New Year's resolutions.  I was doing extremely well with keeping up with the number of pages that I was required to read in order to finish in time right up to the 85th day.

But I made one fatal error:  I didn't plan for finals or end of semester projects.  I got so super caught up with my final art project, my MCOM final case, my ISYS website, and my Finance final that I sadly missed several days of reading.  And when you miss just one day of reading, that puts additional pressure on every future day after that.  So in the end, I finished the Book of Mormon in about 110 days. 

In my defense, I did decide to add an additional wrinkle to the Book of Mormon resolution.  I went through and highlighted (1) every single reference to Jesus Christ or God the Father--including pronouns--in green, (2) every instance of God communicating to man in blue, and (3) every instance of man doing something to merit that communication in red.

I was pretty liberal with my highlighting.  In the end, the typical page of the Book of Mormon that I had read looked something like this:

 
It took a little while longer and was sometimes pretty tedious, but I learned a lot of neat little bits of information along the way that I wanted to share with y'all.

More often than not, prayer and faith precede revelation.  This might seem like a no brainer, but it became apparent withing just a few pages that many of the spiritual experiences Book of Mormon characters received came as a direct result of their own actions.  Consider this example from the very first chapter of the BofM.

In the very first chapter, on the second page, father Lehi is praying to the Lord when he receives a very impressive vision of the coming Messiah.  As you can see from the picture above, the experience is book ended by Lehi praying to the Lord before the vision, and Lehi again praying to the Lord afterwords (the vision itself occupies most of the left column).  This time, his prayer is in gratitude.  This pattern would be seen again with Nehpi, Ammon, and many other prominent characters throughout the Book of Mormon.

Next time you read about an amazing spiritual experience in the scriptures, pay careful attention to what the recipient of that experience was doing right beforehand.  Oftentimes, you'll find there's a cause-and-effect relationship there.

God tries to get our attention in many different ways.  Angels, visions, dreams, revelations, voices from Heaven, signs, and miracles: all of these are some of the many ways that God communicated with the people of the Book of Mormon--and still communicates with us today.  But the most common way is usually through much less glamorous methods.  God usually works through prophets and other saints, the scriptures, or the whisperings of the Holy Spirit when answering prayers. 

Devastation follows when a people completely and utterly reject every single attempt at communication.  Just look at the four times in the Book of Mormon that we read about massive destruction:

1. The destruction of Jerusalem
2. The huge natural disaster following the death of Christ,
3. When the Nephites are completely wiped out by the Lamanites
4. The total annihilation of the Jaredite people 

In three of the examples, the scriptures explicitly state that "many prophets" visited the people; warning them of their need to repent (see 3 Nephi 10:20, and Ether 9:28-29).  Most of the events were preceded by things such as famines, wars, and prophecies.  It's no wonder that the Lord felt it was necessary to take dramatic action.

Don't assume that God isn't speaking to you just because it's not immediately apparent.  The further into my reading experiment, the more items I highlighted.  This isn't because God became more social once we got through the Isaiah chapters.  Instead, it's because I started to realize that many small and simple events that I had been ignoring were really answers to prayers or tiny little proddings from Heaven.

While on a mission, at the close of those days where just nothing was going right, I realized that one of the best ways to quickly lift myself up was to write in my journal.  I would go through my day in my mind and start looking for every possible way that I had been blessed during the day.  By forcing myself to look for the good in the day, it soon became apparent that the Lord had deeply blessed me throughout the entire day.

This same pattern can be seen in the Book of Mormon as well as in your own life.  A great example of this is Nephi.  Even though he lived in the wilderness, left behind all his worldly possessions, and had to deal with his brothers, he still recognized that the Lord was blessing his life (1 Nephi 1:1).

Another great example of this is an experience my little brother had this week.  He is currently stationed in the middle of nowhere Japan.  A typhoon has been sweeping through the city these last couple of days.  Listen to his story:

"On Saturday, it was raining like crazy. Being outside was like jumping in a pool. It was one of those days where I thought: 'what`s the point?' There was nobody outside and even if there was somebody to talk to, they obviously wanted to get inside quickly. . . As we were riding our bikes, I thought 'yeah, this sucks but we really don`t have a choice, do we?' As I was riding, it was incredible how quickly and how clearly I was able to feel as though I was doing what I was meant to be doing. It was almost like I could feel the Lord put his hands on me and hear him say "thank you." It was a cool feeling and I`m glad that I had that experience even though everything in my bag got completely drenched and all of my clothes are still soaking wet."

Always look for the sunny side!

It's Probably Been Too Long Since I Shared a Spiritual Thought

I apologize for not updating this blog as regularly as I should.  I really wanted to get this up before Easter, but things have been a little nuts lately with finals last week, and then this week my body decided to go crazy with allergies, which left me a sniffling, eyeball-watering, mess for most of the time.  Classes start again tomorrow, so hopefully things clear up by then.

This post is mainly directed at a man named John who is currently the only person cool enough to have left any comments on the post I wrote back in November titled "A Talk I Recently Gave on Baptism."   John requested that I answer a couple of questions about the LDS church, which I am more than happy to do--especially since he asked so nicely.

So here is my response:

John,

In the brief conversation I've had with you, I mentioned that "We are unique among Christian churches as being the only one that claims to receive its doctrine by revelation from God, and then we use the Bible and other scripture to confirm what we believe."

In response to this, you asked: "What is the revelation of doctrine LDS has received from God?"

Before I get to that question, I have a quick side-note:  I feel that one of the root causes of all the contention between Mormons and much of the Christian community is that both sides spend too much time talking about why they are different from each other and not enough time talking about the beliefs and goals they have in common.  I came to this conclusion while serving a mission in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi.  My companion and I would of run into people who had a built-in mistrust of Mormons, which when coupled with our different terminologies, would lead to some deep misunderstandings.  I usually left these encounters with lots of negative energy and also feeling spiritually empty.

Me as a missionary in Senatobia, Mississippi

One of the biggest arguments that we ran into was that we taught a different Gospel--one in which we worked our way into Heaven without relying on Jesus.  This is simply not true.  While we do believe that "faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone," (James 2:17)  we likewise believe that works without faith is just as dead.  I soon came to realize that most churches believe the same thing, with some noteworthy exceptions. 

So first of all, here are the basic steps of the Gospel that we believe:

1. We believe that having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary to salvation and that no one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven without it (Acts 16:31).
2. We believe that no unclean thing can dwell with God the Father, therefore, repentance from our sins is the second major step of the Gospel (Luke 13:3).
3. We believe that as a witness of our willingness to follow the Savior, and as a saving ordinance, baptism by immersion is required (John 3:5).
4. We believe that after baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost is received by the laying on of hands (Acts 8: 14-20).
5. We believe that it is important to endure to the end--meaning that we continue to exercise faith in Jesus Christ and to strive to be more like him throughout our lives (Titus 3:8).
6. All of this is possible only because of the infinite and eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  He is the only way into Heaven (John 3:16, Isaiah 53:3-5).

This, in a super-condensed nutshell, is the Gospel.  It is unchanging and cannot be added upon. Based on what you wrote, I think we have very similar ideas on what God requires of us--believe, repent, be baptized, and keep the commandments.

With Mormons also believing in modern-day prophets, temples, abstaining from alcohol, and new scripture; it can sometimes become easy to lose focus on what is at the center of all that we do.  The Prophet Joseph Smith once declared that all things “which pertain to our religion are only appendages” to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Carl Bloch's Gethsemane

 There are very few members of the church, if any, that do not understand how important the doctrine of Christ's sacrifice is.  But like I said before, I think we sometimes spend too much time focusing on what sets us apart from everyone else.  You mentioned that members of the Mormon church that you knew often appear to pedal their church rather than Christ.  Regardless of whether that was intentional or not, it is truly unfortunate.  I hope that everything we do and say would be a proper reflection of our beliefs and our testimonies of the living Savior.

This might lead you to ask why things like the Book of Mormon or a living Prophet are necessary if the basic steps of the Gospel never change.  This is because people are imperfect, and if there is something in the scriptures that can be misunderstood, people will misunderstand it.  That is the reason there are so many different churches on earth today.  They all started with someone saying something along the lines of "I think we're doing <blank> wrong," or "this is what the scriptures really meant."

The Book of Mormon adds another witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Much like how the four different Gospels in the New Testament support each other, the Book of Mormon helps confirm what is written in the Bible.

For example, here is a passage out of the Book of Mormon that talks about Jesus Christ and his infinite and eternal sacrifice:

“Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah. …

“Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.

“Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.

“Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved.”-2 Nephi 2:6-9

This is just one of many examples of the doctrine taught in the Book of Mormon.

The living prophet, on the other hand, helps keep the doctrine that has been set forth in the scriptures pure.  His main calling is a teacher of the Gospel.  He also gives us council that applies specifically to our day and age, and warns us of the consequences of sin.

Since it is the Easter season, I figure it would be appropriate to share this video produced by the LDS church.  It shows one of our apostles, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, sharing his thoughts about the death and resurrection of Christ:

The full text of his talk can be read here.

I hope this answers your questions, John.  I know it's not exactly scholarly writing, nor is this very comprehensive, but I think it at least answers your questions.

Sincerely,

-Jake

P.S.  I love answering questions about the LDS church, so feel free to ask away.  However, I will not answer any questions that have malicious intent, and I will  delete any comments I deem to be negative or belittling of what I (or anyone else, for that matter) believe.

Storms, Sirens, and Prophets

I've been assigned to give a talk in my home stake in Farmington (a stake is a collection of 10-12 congregations in the LDS church, FYI).  Since I'm a recently returned missionary, I was told that I would be asked to speak a couple of times in a couple different congregations.  The high councilor who called me with the assignment told me that my topic was "using agency to change our very natures." 

"Huh?"  I said.

"Yeah, that was my reaction when I heard the topic, too," he replied.

Well, that call was a couple of weeks ago, and my talk is going to be on the 27th.  I'm still not sure what I'm going to talk about, so I think I'll brainstorm some thoughts on here.

For the uninitiated, agency, in the LDS sense of the term, is our ability to choose  between good and evil.  It is a gift that every person is born with, and is something that is so important to God that he has never put a limit on it.  In other words, God has given us commandments and laws, but he will not stop us from choosing to break them.

Of course, even though we are free to choose to do whatever we want, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.  For example, Jonah was commanded to go preach the Gospel to the people of Ninevah and command them to repent.  He chose to turn tail and flee to Tarshish (which is believed to be present-day Spain, which is as far in the opposite direction as you could go at the time).  It was Jonah's right to choose to do that.

As a consequence of his poor decision, Jonah was swallowed by a whale and had to live for three days in the whale's digestive tract.  It was only after he was brought to the depths of humility and repentance that Jonah was spared and given another chance to make the right decision.

One of the biggest ironies of our agency comes from the way we choose to use it.  In the Book of Mormon, we read of some of the consequences of sin:

". . .he [the devil] leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth

them with his strong chords forever." --2 Nephi 26:22

"And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security

that they will say:  All is well in Zion--and thus the devil cheateth their souls,

and leadeth them carefully down to hell.

And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell;

 and. . . I am no devil, . . .and thus he whispereth in their ears,

until he grasps them with his awful chains from whence there is no deliverance." --2 Nephi 28: 21-22

I love the imagery of these two scriptures.  Flax is a fine, golden material.  So when Nephi tells us that the devil leads us with a flaxen chord, he's saying that the devil's temptations always start out soft and appetizing in appearance.  And then these cords eventually turn into stronger chords and then into awful chains.

So, let's consider a  person who had made poor choices their entire life.  Let's say this person didn't study very much in school and started to hang out with a rough crowd.  Eventually, this person dropped out before graduation.  One thing led to another, and pretty soon this person was involved with drug addiction and started having problems with the law.  I could keep on going with this example until this person meets their bitter end, but I think you get the idea.

Sadly, I've met many people like this.  Sometimes they're aware of the misery of the situation they're in; other times, they still think they're on a never-ending joy ride, blissfully unaware that they're actually on a train that about to run out of tracks.

With each bad choice, our options become more limited. How much freedom does a drug addict without a job have?  It's truly appropriate to say that they have become bound with the 'awful chains' of the devil. 

Like I said earlier, on of the greatest ironies of agency comes from when our choice is to simply give it away.

Contrast that with someone at the other end of the spectrum.  When you study hard, get good grades, and finish school, multiple colleges will want to have you.  From there, you can pick your major, find a good job, meet the right person, etc.  So with each good choice, our freedom increases.

Alright, now that I've preached to you, let's move on to a story from my mission:

I remember almost a year ago, I was a missionary in the Walnut Grove area, which is a street in the eastern subdivision of Memphis, TN (Cordova, to be exact).  The area is on the wealthier, whiter side of Memphis and is famous for having the school where "The Blind Side" takes place.

Briarcrest Christian Academy: the real home of Michael Oher
of "The Blind Side" fame

Our lovely apartment complex.

Me, in the Walnut Grove area.  I wish I could say that
we rode in that vehicle.

All of us missionaries had been warned for several months that tornado season was coming up, so be extra cautious.  We were given packets on what to do in case of a tornado and told what the warning signs were.  My mission president's wife warned us that if we went out of our way to get a picture of a tornado, she'd kill us.

Well, one night, my companion and I woke up at 2 AM to the sound of tornado sirens going off.  We got out of bed and went straight to our balcony to see what was going on.  It was a little windy, but nothing catastrophic was happening.  There were a few other people in the surrounding apartments who were also on their balconies, but none of them were panicking.

My companion and I looked at each other.  We didn't know what to do.  Missionaries aren't allowed to watch TV or listen to the radio, so we had neither in our apartment, so we were clueless whether or not we should take this alarm seriously. Our options were:

•  Call a member of the congregation and ask them to check the TV for us
• Stay up and see if conditions worsen
• Run to Wal-Mart and get food
• Hide in the bath tub
• Go back to sleep

In the end, we decided to go back to sleep.

Shortly after we woke up, the sirens started going off again.  This time, we felt comfortable calling someone and asking them what was going on.  We were informed that the sirens in Memphis are set up so that whenever a tornado goes off anywhere in the county, all the sirens in the county start sounding.  At the moment, the sirens were for a tornado that was several miles away and didn't pose any danger.

We breathed a little bit easier.  But now the wind outside had been replaced by a downpour of rain.  Here's a video of some of the action:

The tornado sirens continued to go on and off for the remainder of the day.  Sometimes, the sirens would last for up to two hours.  Every time they went off, we would find out where the tornado was, and every time we found out that the tornado was several miles away and posed no threat to us.  But because of the rain, we were stuck in our apartmet for most of the day, and the sirens started driving me insane.  I eventually just started to tune them out. 

When I finally went to bed, the sirens were still going off.

The next day was Sunday.  When we went to church, we discovered that a tornado had ripped right through Germantown Parkway--which was only a couple miles south of us--at around 3 AM.  The sirens had gone off, but I had slept right through them!  I repeat: I slept through a tornado siren as well as an actual tornado!

It was the first Sunday of the month, so we had a testimony meeting.  One of the members talked about how their day went yesterday.  It was pretty similar to ours: lots of tornado sirens, a run to Wal-Mart to get supplies, eventually tuning out the sirens, etc.

When this guy went to sleep, he had an interesting dream.  He dreamed that the sirens were still going off, but the sound was replaced by the prophet's voice.  He could hear Thomas S. Monson on the giant speakers all across the city saying over and over things like this:

"Keep a supply of food storage. . . Keep a supply of food storage. . ."

"Do your home teaching. . . Do your home teaching. . . Do your. . ."

"Read the Scriptures. . . Read the Scriptures. . . Read the Scriptures. . "

Sometimes, we wonder why the brethren ask us to do the same things over and over.  I remember one time my little brother said how annoyed he was that he had heard three sermons on the evils of pornography in the last month.  "I'm so sick of hearing about it! I get it!" he said.  My dad replied that the reason we keep hearing about it is because many people in the church aren't listening--so we're going to keep hearing about it until they do.

Prophets, scriptures, personal revelation.  All these things are sirens to help guide us in the storms of life.  But none of them can ever force a person to change their behavior.  A change in our nature has to come from within; from the proper exercise of agency. 

Does that mean that preaching the Gospel to those who are bound is a waste of time?  No, of course not!  Quite the opposite.  The only thing that can cut those awful chains that bind us and keep us from heeding the sirens of our day is the healing power of the atonement.  This is the reason that Lehi councils Laman and Lemuel to "awake! and cast off the chains that bind you."  He was hoping that something he was saying would sink into his sons' rebellious hearts and awaken something in them.  Sometimes in the scriptures we see this work.  Other times it doesn't.  But there is always hope that we can change our future by coming to Christ.

That's why prophets, apostles, bishops and missionaries keep saying the same thing over and over and over again.

Accountability Time

Given that we're a whole month into the new year, I figure it's time to give you an update on how I'm doing with my five new year's resolutions (which you can read about here).

Work out for 30 Minutes Three Times a Week -- A-

I'm doing pretty good with this one.  I've figured out my schedule so that I can make time for exercising on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  I was worried that I wouldn't have time to do this because of my increasingly demanding studies, but I have figured out a solution that I will get to later.

I gave myself an A-minus because of the hardcore fail so far in achieving my vision:

But did anyone really expect that to happen in one month?

Read The Book of Mormon in 100 Days -- A+ 

I am about 30 days into my challenge, and am currently slightly ahead of schedule (Mosiah 13, page 172).  I'm pretty happy about that.  I haven't yet set aside a consistent time to read everyday, so I often find myself reading in between classes and during lunch.

I give myself extra credit for having a special highlighting system for this read.  Right before I started, I picked up a blank, hardcover copy of The Book of Mormon from the BYU Bookstore.  I decided that I would highlight the following:

• Any reference to Jesus Christ or God the Father (including pronouns) in Green
• Any communication from Heaven (angels, signs, prophets, voices, etc.) in Blue
• Anything mankind does to merit this communication (praying, showing faith, obeying commandments) in Red

By doing this, I've been able to find a lot of if/then statements throughout the BofM that I might of otherwise missed, such as the relationship between Lehi's prayers and his vision that is found in 1 Nephi chapter one.  I'll likely blog about this more in the future.

Earn at Least a B+ in All My Classes -- B (wait for it. . .) Plus

It's pretty hard to judge this one right now given that none of my grades have come out and that we haven't even gotten to midterms yet, but I can make a couple of observations.

I totally Jimmered my finance test with a 99percent, but I BYU-Football-at-the-start-of-last-seasoned'd my Business Grammar exam with a 77percent.  I heard later that the average for that test was 76.8 percent, so I at least beat the curve.

I've been able to do this by staying on campus from 9:30 AM to about 7:00 PM every day.  I'm even studying while exercising in the mornings (I seem to remember what I read better when I'm on an elliptical machine anyway).

Give at Least Five Compliments a Day -- C-

It's pretty hard to keep track of this, but if I were to estimate, I would say I'm averaging about 2-3 compliments a day--and that's being generous. 

Thing is, I don't want to become a person who gives out compliments just because I said that I need to give out compliments.  I want to do this so that I get better at seeing the good in others, and because I like to make people happy.

Cut Back on The Mormon Swears -- [What the] F!!!!

I still say fetch, fudge, eff, shiz, and the rest of the classics like a Sailor on basic cable.  I've realized that cutting back doesn't happen naturally, so I need to find some way to motivate myself.  I'm thinking that maybe I should get my roommate to punch me in the arm every time I say a Mormon cuss--a la 'Best Two Years.'  That could end poorly, but I can't think of any better ideas.