Victory Over Death

I was reading in the Old Testament the other day and came to the story of Jacob's wife, Rachel, dying in childbirth, one of the tougher parts of Jacob's life. Jacob's name had already been changed to Israel. And the Lord had told him it was time to return to the Land of Promise, the Land of Canaan. On the journey, they stopped at Bethel, the place where Abraham had built an altar when he first arrived in the Land of Canaan about 190 years earlier. Jacob had gone to Haran, to stay with Laban, his uncle, after his father, Isaac, had given him the birth right instead of giving it to his older brother, Easu. On his way there he had stopped at the same place and seen the vision in which the promises made to Abraham were also given to Jacob. At that time Jacob had built a memorial and said, "This is the Gate of Heaven." But that's a different story. 

On the trip back, Jacob's wife, Rachel, who was expecting a child, gave birth a little after the family had left Bethel, at a place called Ephrath. It was a hard delivery and Rachel did not survive, though the baby did. Rachel named the baby, a boy, "Ben-oni", which is given as "Son of my Sorrow" but the scriptures say his father called him "Benjamin", which is given as "Son of the Right Hand." Jacob had lost the wife of his youth, his first choice, the girl he had worked 14 years for. His heart was broken, he'd lost his wife to death. Jacob buried his wife and built a pillar of rocks to mark her grave and then moved on. 

As I read the story of Jacob's loss and sorrow at the death of his wife, and saw that the place of her burial was at Ephrath, which is also called Bethlehem, I thought it ironic that the place where Jacob was so heart broke by the death of his beloved wife, Rachel, was also the place where, 1,900 years later, the Prince of Peace was born, the Bread of Life, the Fountain of Living Waters. The Savior who would deliver mankind from death. The one who would give Rachel back to Jacob for eternity. 

The prophets tell us that the Lord gave us numerous signs and likenesses throughout the Old Testament to point us to Christ. It made me wonder if this was one of them. 

Thoughts for a Sunday Afternoon

And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God. And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.

(Moses 5:10-11)

An Old Companion

I've been trying to remember how long I've had this scripture case.  I know its been a real long time.

I don't think it was on my mission with me.  We used to keep a bag that we always called "the tasche", which is simply "the bag" in English.  It probably took me a little while to feel the need for a scripture case after I got home.  I think I was married when I got this case.  At any rate, I've had it a very long time.  It is probably one of my oldest possessions.

This hole is from when I set it on top of the car and then forgot about it and drove off with it still up there.  Of course, it fell off and landed in the road, bouncing and rolling a bit.  Luckily I saw it in the rear-view mirror and stopped.  This hole was the only sign of the episode it got.  Its a pretty tough old scripture case.

But gradually it has begun to show the age and wear of constant use.  Lots of handling.

Finally the zipper began to come unstitched so that I could no longer zip it from both ends like I like to do, so that the two zippers meet in the middle.

Even though its a big, roomy case, over the years I have accumulated enough stuff in it that its gotten pretty crowded inside.  All these years, whenever I was at church, it was a pretty convenient place to stuff things. I began keeping a small note book in it when we first moved to Wisconsin. That 's still there, along with a bunch of other stuff.

I carried my scriptures from my mission around in it until they got so worn I replaced them.  I still have my mission scriptures but they sit in a box with a bunch of other stuff from my mission. They are no longer the set I use all the time.

But its been long enough that the "new" set is no longer pristine, its getting pretty marked up and worn, too.

All kinds of study guides and little handbooks have lived in my scripture case over the years.  The church, for the longest time, had what they called the correlated study program that worked through all four of the standard works every four years.  I have the little study guides from all four years.  I've been through them at least three or four times.  There were two versions of For The Strength of Youth in it, both outdated.  A Duty to God handbook from when that program got updated to correlate more closely with the scouting program, which the church is now getting out of.  My, how times have changed.  I know for a while I had a Personal Progress handbook in there but it isn't there anymore.  Maybe that made its way into my briefcase that I've used off and on for church.

This has also been the place where I put the programs from funerals I've been to.  Both my parents' funeral programs are there.  A couple from services I conducted back when I was branch president over twenty years ago. A number of others from friends and others I've known, funerals I've attended over the years. Lots of history there.

My scripture case and my scriptures fell into disuse the last few years as I have begun using the electronic scriptures on my phone.  Also because when I was at my unhealthiest, carrying a scripture case was a lot of work.  But I'm healthier now. And, while there are a lot of advantages to using the electronic scriptures, there is also something nice about the books, as well.  I've been wanting to get back to using them more.  So I bought me a new scripture case.  I'm not sure this one is real leather.  The old one must have been to have survived so long and take all the abuse its had.  So I recently moved all my stuff from the old case into the new case.  I actually threw a few things away.  But not much.  I am my father's son, I am a bit of a pack-rat on certain things.

I think the Come Follow Me for Families and individual comes in a smaller size, one that would fit quite nicely in my brand new scripture case.  I ought to see about getting a copy.

And He Will Teach Us of His Ways

Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye ... that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.
(Jeremiah 7:2)

This is the Way

For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. … yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

Isaiah 30:19-21

Conference

“The Lord sent his word unto Jacob and it hath lighted upon Israel.”

Isaiah 9:8

As the Dews of Carmel

Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak;

And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

My doctrine shall drop as the rain,

My speech shall distill as the dew,

As the small rain upon the tender herb,

And as the showers upon the grass.

(Deuteronomy 32:1-2)

His Holy Place

The House of the Lord

Holiness to the Lord

Sunday Thoughts

It's been an interesting experience these last several weeks as I have prepared a lesson nearly every week for priesthood and then, for one reason or another, ended up not giving it. This has happened the last four or five times I've prepared a lesson.  Some of those lessons I have really struggled with while preparing them, struggled to find what felt like the right message out of the material.  Being third hour, these lessons are usually taken from the most recent General Conference.  As the quorum leader, it's typically me that selects the talk.  You'd think that would make it easier.  Neither do I normally feel constrained to limit myself to the selected talk to use as resource material for these lessons, although I do try to keep whatever material I use on topic and supportive of the message.  That seems like it ought to make it easier, too.  The struggle has been finding the right message in the talk, the right material to convey that message, and then putting together an outline to use in presenting the message.  Sometimes it just seemed really hard to feel like it was coming together right.  

The thing I find noteworthy in all this is that as I have struggled to prepare I have prayed for help and every time it has come, even though the Lord knew I would not be giving the lesson.  How easy it would have been to just let me struggle and worry since He knew that whatever I prepared would not be presented.  You know, the blessings of adversity and all that. But instead, each time the Lord answered my prayer and helped me, blessed me to be able to get the lesson to where I felt prepared, ready, and comfortable.  I look upon it as the response of a merciful God to a child calling for help.  I've long felt that I usually gain more than the class members when I teach because in preparing I study and see lots more material than I ever end up presenting in class.  So all these lessons I've prepared but never given were not wasted in the least.  On top of that, the help I've asked for has been given even though it was just for me.  He does that, in little things as well as big things.

"In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears." II Samuel 22:7

A Season of Celebration of Deliverance

Easter and Passover are not single, individual days.  Rather they are each seasons of celebration. Easter Sunday is the culmination of what's known among Christians as Holy Week, but the whole Easter season could be said to begin with Ash Wednesday and Lent, six weeks earlier, and end with the Feast of the Ascension, forty days after Easter Sunday.  The Passover celebration also runs for a week, this year beginning at dusk on Friday, March 30th and running until dusk on Saturday, April 7th.  Both are occasions of prayer, worship, and celebration, often filled with family and favorite traditions.

Because of the way these celebrations are calculated each year, based on astronomical calculations, they seldom align to the same days, even though they often overlap.  But they have much in common.  Christ, in the last week of his earthly ministry, had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.  But he also knew it was the last week of his life.  The Passover was observed as the celebration of the delivery of the Children of Israel from captivity in Egypt.  However, King Benjamin explained that the Lord showed the Children of Israel "many signs and wonders, and types, and shadows" to point them toward Christ (Mosiah 3:15).  As Elder Boyd K Packer explained, "When the plague of death was decreed upon Egypt, each Israelite family was commanded to take a lamb—firstborn, male, without blemish. This paschal lamb was slain without breaking any bones, its blood to mark the doorway of the home. The Lord promised that the angel of death would pass over the homes so marked and not slay those inside. They were saved by the blood of the lamb." (Who is Jesus Christ?, March 2008 Ensign). Centuries later, the Blood of the Lamb of God was shed to save the Children of Israel.  The type of the Messiah, to which Israel was pointed, was accomplished by Christ.

When I consider what the atonement and resurrection mean for me there is a wide range of emotions that come.  To think that Christ willingly subjected Himself to everything He went through is amazing to me.  He did that out of His love for His Father and for us. He had everything and yet He willingly did this great thing.  Well did the angel call it "condescension."  What an incomprehensible opportunity and blessing He gave to us in this unselfish act.

This year the Sunday sessions of General Conference fall on Easter, something I always think is kind of special when it happens.  This year, one of the hymns sung in conference was one of my favorites, a hymn titled "Praise to the Lord, the All Mighty", written by a man named Joachim Neander.  Neander lived out his life in Germany during the 17th century.  I first learned this hymn while I was on my mission in Germany, I first learned the hymn in the language Neander wrote it.  I love it.  The translation in our hymn book today was done by Catherine Winkworth some two hundred years after Neander wrote it.  While its obviously a good translation, I think it misses ever so subtly some of the praise and gratitude of the original.  But it is still very good, I still love it. I love the sentiment, as well as the music.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation!
Join the great throng,
Psaltery, organ and song,
Sounding in glad adoration!

Praise to the Lord! Over all things he gloriously reigneth.
Borne as on eagle wings, safely his Saints he sustaineth.
Hast thou not seen
How all thou needest hath been
Granted in what he ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy way and defend thee.
Surely his goodness and mercy shall ever attend thee.
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
Who with his love doth befriend thee. 

Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath breath, join with Abraham's seed to adore him!
Let the "amen"
Sum all our praises again,
Now as we worship before him.

Sunday Thoughts

The prophet historian Mormon

One of the speakers at church today spoke of the Book of Mormon and that got me to thinking of my favorite parts of the book.

For the most part, the Book of Mormon was written by a man who, among other things, was an historian.  He had at his disposal extensive records that covered nearly a thousand years of the history of his own people, as well as an additional record that covered thousands of years of history of the people that inhabited the area before his own people arrived.  The work he did in compiling all that history into a single record was nothing short of amazing.  In doing that compilation, he was guided by inspiration as to what to include and often what not to include to give us what we know today as the Book of Mormon.  One of the things he did, acting under inspired direction, was to include some plates written by one of the first prophets of his people, Nephi.  This probably seemed odd to him as he had already included that same period of time in the compilation he had done.  Adding the actual record of Nephi was a duplication that Mormon must have wondered about.  If the Lord ever told Mormon what would happen 1400 years later and why both were included, Mormon never wrote about it.

As Mormon neared the end of putting together that great work he gave all the records, as well as the compilation he had made, to his son, Moroni, with the charge that he finish the record.  It was actually Moroni that summarized the history of the people who lived there before his own people into a very brief history we know as the Book of Ether, which is part of the Book of Mormon.  When Moroni was done with his father's compilation and the Book of Ether, he hid the plates on which it was written and thought he was done.  But some twenty years later he came back and added a little bit more.  All that together is what we have today as the Book of Mormon. It is not the entire record compiled by Mormon but it is all that we have been given at this point.  So, with the exception of the record of Nephi and the small portion that Moroni added at the very end, the Book of Mormon as we have it today is the work of Mormon, this historian prophet.

As I listened to the speaker and thought of my own favorite parts of the Book of Mormon, it occurred to me that my favorite parts are not from the compilation done by Mormon, but from the portions originated byby Nep, Mormon, and Moroni, not intended as part of the compilation, at least on Nephi and Mormon's part.  That's not to lessen anything at all of the compilation Mormon wrote, but it made me wonder if it may have been a little closer to their hearts as they wrote their deepest feelings in their own writings.

Nephi, who brought his people to the Promised Land

The writings of Nephi that I have come to think of as being so rich in spirit and feeling are at the end of his writings, II Nephi, chapters 30, 31, 21, and 33.  Most of the history that Nephi wrote is in I Nephi.  In II Nephi he gives a little more of the events that happened after his family arrived in the promised land and eventually separated into two groups.  Then he included the testimony of his younger brother, Jacob. After Jacob's testimony, Nephi included some of the writings of the prophet Isaiah, who had lived about 80 years before Nephi's time.  Lastly, Nephi included his own testimony. Perhaps he was observing the Law of Witnesses, and giving the testimony of of Christ from three witnesses.  Unlike Mormon, who was writing to people far in the future, Nephi was writing to his own people, his own family.  He cared about them deeply, and had strong hopes that many would listen and follow Christ. He had seen their future in prophetic vision but still held hopes that many as would listen and follow Christ.  He wrote the things of his heart to a people he knew and loved a great deal.

Mormon, after witnessing the demise of his people

While most of the writings of Mormon that we have are his history of his people, we have some of his letters and teachings that he wrote to his son, Moroni, or that Moroni otherwise had record of.  These, however, are included because Moroni added them after Mormon had turned over all the records to him. In the Book of Moroni, the last book of the Book of Mormon, Moroni includes a sermon given by his father, Mormon.  We have that now as Chapter Seven of the Book of Moroni. In it, Mormon teaches his people, for whom he has loved and sacrificed so much, about the love of Christ.  Mormon left them with some very powerful teachings about becoming like Christ, and how to become like Him. How, at the very beginning, to move toward Christ and the great gift of Eternal Life that He offers. All in admonishment, not lose hope despite all the wickedness and resultant adversity that surrounded them in all their lives.  Times very much like our own in many ways. Like Nephi, Mormon was not speaking to people in the distant future but to his own people. He wrote the things of his heart to a people he knew and loved a great deal.

Moroni, the final keeper of the record

Included in the material that Moroni included at the end of the Book of Mormon, some twenty years after he thought he was done, are a little of his own writings.  As Moroni put it, "Now, I Moroni, after having made an account of the people of Jared, I had supposed not to have written more, but I have not as yet perished ... Wherefore I write a few more things, contrary to that which I had supposed; for I had supposed not to have written any more" (Moroni 1:1 & 4).  What a marvelous thing that he did that! He concluded the additional things he wrote, which included his father's sermon, with "a few words by way of exhortation" (Moroni 10: 2).  He then went on to give a powerful promise that has been used by missionaries the world over since the restoration of the Gospel almost 200 years ago, that one can know the truth of anything by the power of the Holy Ghost.  He taught ways to recognize the work of the Lord, and how closely the Lord attends his work.  He concluded with a powerful exhortation to come unto Christ.  In this instances, Moroni was writing to people in the distant future, but people who were the descendants of his own people and a people he had seen in vision. People he therefore knew. The events of his life had shown him there was no hope for his own people in his own time.  But he still held great hope for his descendants in the future.  He had full faith in the promises of the Lord to restore and gather his people, the House of Israel. He wrote the things of his heart to a people he knew and loved a great deal.

The prophets of the Book of Mormon, in many instances, endured great hardship to do their part in preserving the Book of Mormon, that great tool of the restoration.  That was in addition to their work among their own people, in trying to keep them in the way of the Lord.  Their love and dedication to the Lord and those they served is evident in their writings.  Mormon said it well, "be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ, ... that when he shall appear we shall be like him" (Mormon 7:48).  They were like him, filled with the love Mormon taught us motivates God in this great work that the earth was made for.  They wanted the same for us.  This is evident in their writings and that is what makes these some of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon.

Thou Didst Hear

In my  distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.

(II Samuel 22:7)

Sweet Hour of Prayer

Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. (Psalms 27:7)

On This Christmas Eve ...

Christmas - the celebration of the birth of Christ.  The occasion that began the culmination of the mission of Christ.  To celebrate is most appropriate.

I wonder, what does Christmas mean,

With its stars an shiny balls?

Is Christmas more than Christmas trees

And toys and games and dolls?

Of this I'm sure: There's something more,

For I've heard many say

That in a strange and far-off land,

A child was born this day.

And Christmas is to celebrate

His coming from above.

He showed us how we all should live

And told us we should love.

(Thomas S Monson, December Ensign, 1987)

The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever; the Lord shall rejoice in His works.  He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: He toucheth the hills and they smoke.  I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.  My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. (Psalms 104:31-34)

The Lord is Thy Keeper

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is thy keeper: The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Psalms 121

And Trust His Grace

Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!

That calls me from a world of care

And bids me at my Father's throne

Make all my wants and wishes known.

In seasons of distress and grief,

My soul has often found relief

And oft escaped the tempter's snare

By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!

Thy wings shall my petition bear

To him whose truth and faithfulness

Engage the waiting soul to bless.

And since he bids me seek his face,

Believe his word, and trust his grace,

I'll cast on him my ev'ry care

And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

(Hymn 142, William W Walford)

Conference Thoughts

And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.  And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places (Isaiah 32:17-18)

Merry Christmas!

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.  

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.  And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 

And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.  And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

Luke 2:8-18

There was no little drummer boy at Bethlehem that night.

The animals did not know how to talk.

The wise men didn’t make it on time to see that sight.

But shepherds, ah yes,

Were out upon the hill ‘neath starry sky.

To them the angels came with message rare –

Glad Tidings of Great Joy … to shepherds.

A man who tends a flock of sheep by day,

Watching over them all through the night,

Searching for the one that’s gone astray

Until again the lost one’s in his sight;

Who leads his followers to pastures sweet

And keeps them safe from perils they can’t see –

This kind of man, this kind was first to see

The King of Kings. They knew that it was He.

Why shepherds?

Why were they the first to view the babe?

Because, He was a shepherd, too.

Teresa Bateman

At the Conclusion of General Conference

And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them.

III Nephi 17:5

Sunday Scripture

2 Kings 6:16

And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.