The Fruits of Faith

The Fruits of Faith: Hebrews 11

What is faith?

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen...”

The gospel of Jesus Christ begins with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Having faith in Christ includes having a firm belief that He is the Only Begotten Son of God and the Savior and Redeemer of the world. It is to believe there is no “salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Those who have Faith in Christ recognize that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father only by relying on His Son’s grace and mercy. When we have faith in Christ, we accept and apply His Atonement and His teachings. We trust Him and what He says. We know that He has the power to keep His promises.

In Hebrews chapter 11, Paul gives us a more complete understanding of the relationship between faith and grace that makes it clear how we are saved through grace as we exercise Faith in Jesus Christ. We see in Hebrews 11 an illustration of what the Book of Mormon teaches:

“For if there be no ​​​faith​ among the children of men God can do no ​​​miracle​ among them.” — Ether 12:12

Consider this: Is there anything you do as a disciple that you can do without exercising faith in Christ? Is there any gift of grace that comes into your life without the exercising of faith? I think when you consider the list from Hebrews 11 you will see that by FAITH come ALL good things.

By faith we understand.

By faith we we offer a more excellent sacrifice.

By Faith we obtained a witness that we are righteous.

By faith we please God, without faith it is impossible to please him.

By Faith we became heirs of righteousness.

By Faith we obey.

By Faith we build foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

By faith we are persuaded to believe in and embraced the promises of God.

By Faith we are faithful in trials.

By Faith we forsake the riches of the world.

By Faith we forsake the momentary pleasures of sin.

By Faith we follow the prophets.

By Faith we prophesy.

By Faith the walls of our enemies fall.

By Faith we perish not.

By Faith we work righteousness.

By Faith our weakness is made strong.

By Faith we are valiant in the fight.

By Faith we and our ancestors are made perfect.

By Faith we obtain the promises of God.

As you can see, Faith is a principle of action, a principle of good works. Faith is how we access the grace of Christ, it is how the strengthening and enabling power of His atonement makes it into our hearts and moves us forward on the covenant path. Faith in Christ is the power by which we progress and through faith we receive the promised blessings of His grace; the greatest of which are perfection and exaltation.

Show Up! Even on Your Worst Days

Today I had an experience that once again reaffirmed how much my Father in Heaven loves me, despite my weaknesses and failings. I was struck today by the ways that He finds to let me know that he knows my heart and cares about my struggles.

This past week was a very tough parenting week... just tough overall... for me. By Tuesday night I just couldn't bear to be around anyone because I was on the edge of tears at every thought. I took a needed break and went to visit my best friend for the weekend.

Today in church, in Kansas, my friend's stake president (the Salina Kansas Stake) was visiting her ward and his talk helped me with my feelings of being overwhelmed by my personal weaknesses and the sins that do so easily beset me. Despite my best efforts, at times my struggle with self leaves me feeling like an utter failure in the most important roles of my life, wife and mother. This discouragement is because of the difference between what I know I should be and what I am OR between what I desire to be and what I am currently.

The Salina Kansas Stake president talked about how progression is made possible because of the law, agency, and the atonement of Christ. My thoughts during the first part of his talk, which was on the importance of the law, caused me to feel that it's because of my knowledge of the law, of what is expected of me, that I often feel so "fallen." I guess in this way you could say the law "hurts," but as he continued to explain how we would be unable to make choices that would move us forward in our progression without a knowledge of the law, my feelings of discouragement began to wear off.

He gently reminded me anew that the presence of law is essential to agency and agency essential to progression. He also talked about the principle that Obedience to the law increases our agency. He taught that positively exercising our agency doesn’t mean taking on every requirement of the law all at once and doing so with perfect execution, rather, it means opening our hearts and minds to the next step the Lord would have us take. He promised that the Holy Ghost will never demand of us more than we can do -- with our abilities, circumstances, and faith in the Lord --- he said that the Lord will move us along the covenant path line upon line, here a little and there a little as we exercise our agency in faith.

He promised that our positive use of agency will result in personal growth and progress. He asked us to engage our agency more actively, to submit more fully to his will, to more perfectly activate the enabling and strengthening power of Christ’s atonement in our lives. He also identified the Agency constraining thoughts and beliefs that are hurled at us from the adversary and asked us to resist these voices and replace them with positive agency affirming thoughts and beliefs.

There weren't any "new" principles in his talk, no concepts I hadn't already understood, but his choice of words and the Spirit that accompanied them spoke to my heart in a very personal way. Through his words it felt to me as though my Father in Heaven was reminding me that he doesn't expect me to be perfect right now and that his grace will sustain me if I but trust in him and take a step.

I was blessed by the words of this faithful man and the Spirit that accompanied them. I was blessed because I showed up, because I made an ordinary choice for me, the choice to go to church; to be where my Father wants me to be. My burdens of the week were made lighter as my hope was increased and I was comforted and I was able to feel the love of my Father in Heaven. This is why it is so important to worship together, to continue on in our daily and weekly devotions; to show up. These things keep the lines of communication with our Father in Heaven open so that he is able to speak to us when we are in need and keep us on the straight path home to him.

To Receive His Love

This is very personal, and I hesitated to share it because of how personal it is, but as I pondered whether to or not I should share this, I felt that it was important because it may be that I am not the only person who loves the Lord, desires to follow Christ, who strives to apply the principles of the gospel in my life and still struggles to feel that it is enough. I believe everyone struggles in some way. I’m certainly no exception. Struggling is part of life, an important part of life. The struggle with self (personal weakness) is my greatest struggle. I don’t see myself as “amazing.” I see myself as persevering in good works. For this reason I want to share the thoughts of my heart from this week.

This week while I pondered how the Atonement of Jesus Christ enables us to feel the tender love of our Father in Heaven even when we don’t feel deserving, and even when we feel that what we really deserve is his wrath. During one of my personal prayers this week I experienced such a sweet feeling of love and peace that stopped me from even speaking. It felt as though Heavenly Father wanted me to just sit there and listen to Him, as though he was saying, "Don't speak, let me speak, let me tell you (show you) how I feel about you." It was so compassionate, so humbling, so beautiful, so peaceful, so precious!

In my life I frequently feeling that I deserve the wrath of God for my sin, folly and slothfulness. I plead for his forgiveness, I ask for His strength to be upon me, and I continually strive to change through faith on Christ, but still this feeling of unworthiness has been far too often a block between me and my Father and has made it hard for me to feel his LOVE. I am beginning to realize that I have essentially been pushing his love away, and this week I let Him in. When the Spirit came upon me and I felt that I shouldn't speak but just feel it, listen, I didn't push it away and the feelings that followed overwhelmed me to tears. I can't look on this experience as say that I felt "worthy" of this expression of love, because of my weakness I fall short of the glory of God, but I accept that I don't need to be "worthy" in order to receive his love and that the Atonement of Jesus Christ enables my Heavenly Father to reach me if I but accept the gift.

Our Father’s love is infinite and eternal, it is ever extended outward, but sadly we are our own worst enemy and it is our own stumbling blocks that keep us from feeling his love; as well as our stumbling blocks that keep us from having sufficient faith to be healed, changed, and sanctified. I hope for the day when I can feel a greater measure of his love on a daily basis (I say *feel because I can see the tangible evidence of his love everyday, and maybe *love is the wrong word anyway because I know he loves me, but feeling that he is well pleased with me, that is harder) and I believe it will come in greater measure as I am able to be more Christlike through exercising faith in his grace, the strengthening and enabling power of his atonement, until I no longer desire anything except that which is right in his sight.

I love my Savior so so much for all the ways his sacrifice for me blesses me and helps me feel close to God and become more like him.

Trustworthy: Well Done thou Good and Faithful Servant

Yesterday I finished a scripture poster that represents a concept that I've been pondering for many months now. It is a concept I've been trying to solidify in my mind because it relates to the principle of trust that I've been trying to help my son understand. My son wants so badly for his parents to trust him, but he frequently does things that are destructive to trust. After his mistake he is sorry and he asks for forgiveness and desires to change but it is a struggle he has not conquered yet. He is in the process of learning and repenting but he has not achieved the status of being "trustworthy." Sound familiar? I think if we are honest with ourselves we are all this child and in need of help to overcome our weakness.

I've taught him throughout his life that trust is like a tower you build block by block, and sadly, it is a tower that can fall verily easily when you do something untrustworthy. This is of course is a hard reality of life, and a painful one to learn from personal experience. There are very sad examples of the tragedy of broken trust throughout our society. Public figures such as Bill Cosby have tragically lost the admiration, respect, and even trust of the public, very often their misdeeds and crimes are extremely destructive and so it is painfully difficult to recover. Fortunately for children there is time to learn and grow so that they might not suffer the destruction of these cautionary tales. What I have been learning as a parent is that teaching my child to be trustworthy requires that I be forgiving and patient, willing to place my trust in my son over and over again as he learns and grows. Only by doing so will he learn what he needs to in order to progress to becoming a trustworthy person.

The challenge for children is understanding that building trust is not an automatic thing and learning how to separate trust from love. For my son this has been a hard concept because when he sees that his parents don't fully trust him, he feels less loved. It is because of this struggle that I've been trying to better understand how this aspect of love and trust is manifest in my relationship with my Heavenly Father so that I can teach my son more effectively and behave more correctly. 

The first principle is rather simple and therefore it is easier to communicate, that is the difference between love and trust. Heavenly Father loves all his children, perfectly and endlessly. His love continually reaches out to his children regardless of their behavior, even his punishment is given in love and purpose, all that he does is for the love of his children and his desire for them to progress and become what He desires them to be. His love is not conditional, it does not disappear because Love is the nature and character of God. A parents love is not so perfect but it is very much like this. Good parents love their children with all their hearts and never stop loving their children, no matter what they do. Their children can break their hearts, break their trust, and drift away from them, but there love remains and the deepest desire of a parent is to see their child happy and have them come home. This is how our Heavenly Father feels about us.

Just as love is descriptive of the nature of our Heavenly Father, trustworthy is also descriptive of the nature and character of God. We can trust him fully because he is faithful and true at all times, his promises are sure, he is perfectly honest and has complete integrity. He is perfectly just and merciful, and because of this he is perfectly trustworthy. He desires for us to become like him, to become in every way as he is, therefore, we know that it His desire that we become perfectly trustworthy. 

In Jesus Christ we have a perfect example to follow. He is true at all times in whatsoever His Father entrusts him and his will is swallowed up in the will of his Father. He does nothing except what he sees the Father do. For this Jesus Christ has the full trust of his Father. To be perfectly trustworthy is like any other kind of perfection, it is a quality that is difficult for a human beings to achieve, but this is no reason not to strive for it, in fact we are commanded to strive for it and given the way by which we will come off conqueror. Those of us who desire righteousness, who desire to become what our Father wants us to be, who desire to be like Christ, long to be trustworthy in the sight of our Father in Heaven in the same way that a child desires to be trustworthy in the sight of their earthly parents, must look to Christ for in him is the only way. Through Christ we can understand what is required in order to stand trustworthy before God. We must have an eye single to the Glory of God and to be true at all times in whatsoever the Lord has entrusted to us. That is an overwhelming thought to most of us, it is discouraging when we view ourselves so weak and imperfect but our hope is in Christ.

What is the way to becoming worthy of God's trust? It's as simple and as daunting as the oft repeated injunction that we keep the commandments and for children building trust with their parents feels just as daunting. To be obedient and to be true at all times in whatsoever we are entrusted is no small achievement. As children of God we long to hear our Father say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." (Matt 25:23) Just as a child longs to feel that they are trusted by their parents. Sometimes it seems a far chasm between our weakness and that place of honor, but our Father is patient and merciful. He extends opportunities for his children to exercise faith unto obedience, thus helping them develop that Christlike quality of being trustworthy. 

As with the acquisition of all Christlike attributes, faith is the principle of action that enables us to become as He is. If we do not understand the essential elements of faith and how we build it and use it in a continuous upward progression then we will become discouraged by the commands to be perfect, to be good and faithful servants, and the voice of Father saying, "We will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them," (Abraham 3:25) may fill us with fear rather than a peaceful hope.

How do we come to understand and use faith to become as he is? The Book of Mormon records that Captain Moroni was a man of perfect understanding and firm in the faith of Christ. What did he know and how did he know it? He understood how to acquire spiritual knowledge by study and by faith. The scripture poster I made yesterday was made for this purpose, as a teaching tool for helping my son understand how to acquire this knowledge and faith that is the key to becoming the trustworthy person he desires to be. Something I need just as much as he does.

Months of pondering and a few drafts of this poster came together perfectly after I studied a talk by Elder David A. Bednar called "Seek Learning By Faith." Elder Bednar was able to explain how faith is applied and works in our lives in a way my mind was unable to articulate. In the first draft of my scripture poster I representing this upward progression toward becoming a good and faithful servant by drawing an upward coil but when I tried to find the words to describe the elements of building faith, a "faith" cycle, I struggled. When I read Elder Bednar's talk it all came together. I was blown away when he described this ongoing process of increased faith and change like a coil spiraling upward. I knew instantly that the Lord was giving me the answer, filling in the blanks, and it was the very same visual that had been coming to my mind.

Elder Bednar defines the three elements of faith as 1) Faith as the assurance of things hoped for that are true, 2) Faith as the evidence of things not seen that are true, and 3) Faith as the principle of action in all intelligent beings. He explains how "assurance, action, and evidence influence each other in an ongoing process. This helix is like a coil, and as it spirals upward it expands and widens... in a continuous cycle upward... and the faith that fuels the process develops, evolves, and changes." With this talk finally all the pieces of this lesson came together and with it greater hope that we can increase in understanding, faith, and obedience until we come to stand before our Father and hear him say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant, thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many." (Matt 25: 12)

"Help Thou Mine Unbelief"

Today I was the teacher in Relief Society, the women's class at church, and the lesson topic was Elder Uchtdorf's talk from general conference, "Believe, Love, Do." I prepared a study sheet for each woman in the class, to help them be introspective and apply his teachings to them personally and make action goals to help them tackle their own personal challenges. On one side of the sheet there were four boxes with labels:

1) My Deepest Heartache & Struggle

2) My Struggle to Believe

3) My Struggle to Love and Serve

4) The Spiritual Work I neglect. 

I asked the sisters to begin by being thoughtful and introspective in filling out these boxes. I read to them from 2 Nephi 4:18: "I am encompassed about, because of the temptation and sins which do so easily beset me," And asked them to think of those things in their lives that they continually struggle against, and with, whether they are sins, weaknesses, or circumstances, and to write down the one that they desire most to be rid of, or to be able to endure, through greater faith. I then asked them to write down their primary struggles and stumbling-blocks as it pertains to the three areas Elder Uchtdorf speaks about, Belief, Love, and Do (Obey). 

After the women in the class had spent sometime identifying their personal challenges I had them turn the sheet over where there were four more boxes. They were labeled:

1) My Deepest Desire for Change & Healing

2) "Help Thou Mine Unbelief"

3) "That Ye May Be Filled with This Love"

4) Nourishment and Strength in Obedience

I then broke the class into three groups and had each group read a different section of the talk, Believe, Love, Do, and record in the corresponding boxes the principles, action words, or ideas that they found in the talk or thought of while reading the talk. The front side of the worksheet was where they expressed their heartaches and challenges and the backside where they were to find help in overcoming them.

During this exercise it seemed that it was in the "Believe" category that class members struggled the most to identify a stumbling-block or challenge related to their belief. I too struggled to identify a full list of ways in which unbelief is a stumbling block. It dawned on me that this principle of belief if not fully understood it would be hard for members of the class to connect the principle of belief to the principles of LOVE an DO.

Elder Uchtdorf's words mainly focused on those impediments to belief that come from doubting the existence or personal presence and care of God, but in my experience I have observed that there are other more subtle stumbling-blocks to belief and faith in God. During the class, and our learning exercise with the study sheet I had prepared, I described the different types of struggles that fall into our lack of belief, or lack of faith. I referenced the story in Mark of the father whose child was seriously ill and he sought the Lord to heal him. Jesus said unto him, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." The father cried out through his tears, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." (Mark 9:24). I wanted each of us to ponder whether after our initial certainty we have not realized that our faith or belief is lacking in some way.

I believe we are all this man at sometime in our lives, and for some we may feel this as this father felt often. As sincere striving saints our immediate thought to the question, "Do you believe?" Is an affirmative: "Lord, I believe!!" But when we take a second thought, a more introspective look at our hearts, we often realize that our belief, our faith, is lacking. With the life of his daughter on the line this man in tears answers the Lord with an honest heart saying, "Lord, 'help thou mine unbelief.'" This was true honesty from a man standing in the presence of the Son of God and Savior of the world. In his humble honesty he thought only to ask the Lord to help his weakness, to make up the difference for what he lacked, and from the result of the story, this was enough for the Lord to heal his child.

Like this father we are each struggling in someway to change, forsake sin, love others, serve, etc., and like this father our struggling is because of a weakness in our belief, a lack of faith in some form. Jesus taught that if we have faith like a mustard seed we could move mountains, and "nothing shall be impossible unto you." (Matthew 17:20) With the understanding that God will not give that which is not his will to give, so far as we seek to know and do God's will in all things and that we "ask not amiss," (2 Nephi 4:35) we will receive what we ask for in faith. If we lack something, if we need to improve in some area, then the place to start is to strengthen our belief and faith that Christ, for He is able to make us sufficiently strong to overcome all things.

Even when we don't struggle to believe that we have a Heavenly Father, that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World, and that the Holy Ghost can guide us, we may be struggling to believe that he can change us, that he can strengthen us, and that we will overcome through Him. This is why, as Elder Uchtdorf says, belief is first in becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Belief is requisite to both LOVE and DO. Through our belief and acting upon that belief in faith, we acquire the gifts of faith, hope, and charity. which are gifts of the Spirit.

As a sister in my class expressed today, I have often thought to myself, "I have always believed in God, I have always known my Heavenly Father is there and that Jesus is my Savior," and for far too many years I have looked at my struggles to love, to serve, and to be obedient as different matters, matters unconnected to belief. I saw myself as weak, but not my belief as weak. I was wrong, it is because my belief is weak that I am weak. I believe that gaining more awareness for how my belief is weak has helped me to know better how to pray, how to exercise the faith I do have in a more powerful way. The deepening of belief begins with more humility to answer the Lord, "Help though mine unbelief." If I had realized this truth sooner I would have seen the miracle of God's transformative power working more fully in my life. Only in more recent years have I begun to understand this principle and more fully receive Christ's extraordinary power working to change me.

I know that if we "believe in God... believe that he has... all power..." (Mosiah 4:9) that "the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men..." (1 Nephi 7:12), if we humble ourselves, daily striving through mighty prayer and fasting, our faith will invite sufficient power into our lives to bring a "might change of heart;" so mighty that we will have "no more disposition to do evil" -- may I substitute a more apt word for the sincere striving saints of God -- "no more disposition to [be slothful]... but to do good continually." (Mosiah 5:2) This is the what I believe Elder Uchtdorf means by being true disciples of Jesus Christ. This is the true conversion I seek. This is the change I long for and I know that it will come as I continue to pray to God for with all the energy my heart for the gifts of increased faith, hope, and charity.

With Faith in Every Footstep

As some of you know I am the mother of a missionary who is serving in Hungary. He has been serving 18 months and will be coming home late this summer. He will come home and one week later will begin school at Brigham Young University in Provo. He is beginning to feel the trepidation that many missionaries feel at the thought of coming home from their missions to begin "real life," as he calls it. He has the normal fears about being successful in college and career and even more nervousness about the prospect of marriage and family.

Today at church one of the Elder's (young male missionaries) in our ward (congregation) was expressing his fears of going home. I was in the foyer talking to this elder, his companion and a member of the Omaha mission presidency (an old family friend of ours), he asked the President if he could get a life long extension of his mission. After the President has laughed that off, reassured him and moved on to his other duties, the young Elder turned to me and continued to talk about his fears of going home, getting back to work, school, and most of all his fear of marriage and family. 

I told him that he had spent two years learning how to put his trust in Christ to do this work, this very important work. I asked him if he had learned about faith on his mission. I asked if he had increased in his faith and understanding of how to walk by faith. He confidently said, "YES!" He said he wishes he could extend his mission indefinitely and keep doing this work. 

I told this young man that what he needed to understand is that the work he will do when he gets home is the Lord's work too, in fact, it is the most important work he will do in this life as he prepares to provide for a family and becomes a husband and father. In this work he will take upon him the mantel of father, a sacred work of manhood. I told him that this work, the work of college and career, the work of marriage and family, is also a work of faith. Surely as the Lord directs mission work he directs the work that each of us perform as we follow in the footsteps of our Heavenly Parents and begin to build a family and raise children to the Lord. 

I told this young man that the promises of the Lord are sure and that if he will focus each day on walking by faith and continue forward into his life doing good in all the ways that he knows God would have him follow, he will be given all that he needs to accomplish this great work of life, this work of family.

Talking to this young man, the things I shared with him, are the things I really want to share with my son (face to face) to help him to walk more confidently into this next phase of life and to feel at peace and be able to stand still and in faith know that God will provide the way. I want him to walk, just as he has on his mission, one step at a time, one day at a time, and with faith in every footstep he can feel confident in the Lord's tender care.

Truths Clarified #1: The Book of Mormon Prophesied of Anciently

Clarify means to make less confused, more clearly comprehensible; to illuminate, shed light on, make plain, and simplify. One of the great blessings of the Book of Mormon is the way that it sheds light on the teachings of the Bible and how beautifully it compliments Bible study. The Holy Bible is a miracle. It is a miracle that we have scriptural records from ancient times preserved over millennia that we can read today in our own languages. Many faithful saints have sacrificed, even to death, to protect this record. I can't imagine my life without the Bible! But I also cannot imagine studying the Bible without the light that the Book of Mormon gives to the teachings of Christ. The Book of Mormon is truly "Another Testament of Jesus Christ."

As miraculous as the Bible is it is also a challenge. The simple truth is that is is not possible for us to the read the words of the prophets as they came straight form their mouths. The writings of the Bible are the result of millennia of translations by imperfect human beings, and while certainly the power of God has been in the preserving of this record, even the most faithful Bible scholars recognize the limitations of translation and admit that there are likely errors in translation. 

The great reformers like Tyndale and Luther were all too familiar with the challenges of translation and addressed what were believed to be errors in the text from both deliberate corruption within the church and innocent human error. Since the first days of translating the Bible from the Latin and Greek -- which themselves are not the native languages of the Bible prophets -- there have been over 100 complete translations of the Bible and approximately 50 incomplete translations of the Bible. The choices that translators make in word choice, sentence structure, syntax, and error corrections all contribute to how doctrines of the scriptures will be interpreted and understood. But this is not all, translators bring with them their own religious ideas and traditions which have significantly impacted the translations of the Bibles we use today. When you consider these realities and the undeniable confusion that persists in the Christian world as different churches provide different Biblical interpretation, it is easy to see why greater clarity is needed.

Joseph Smith was an honest boy of faith who was born at the dawn of America's Second Great Awakening and the religious excitement of his time, and his inquisitive nature, led him to ask difficult questions about why there were so many Christian churches teaching the "same" gospel is so many different ways. Joseph Smith observed:

"There was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in that region of country. Indeed, the whole district of country seemed affected by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties, which created no small stir and division amongst the people... For, notwithstanding the great love which the converts to these different faiths expressed at the time of their conversion, and the great zeal manifested by the respective clergy, who were active in getting up and promoting this extraordinary scene of religious feeling... when the converts began to file off, some to one party and some to another... a scene of great confusion and bad feeling ensued—priest contending against priest, and convert against convert; so that all their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words and a contest about opinions." (Joseph Smith History)

Joseph was a 14 year old boy when he began to grapple with the confusion that different interpretations of the Bible caused among the Christians of his day. He was a faithful boy whose family were faithful followers of Christ and read the Bible regularly in their home. He had many questions that he did not have clarity on, and while many of those he could set aside, the primary concern he had was that the different Christian sects fought over simple fundamental portions of the gospel such as the nature of God, repentance, baptism, and what one must do to be saved. The Book of Mormon he would later translate through the gift and power of God recorded a vision of an ancient prophet who saw our day. The prophet Nephi saw the difficuties that would arise in the Christian world because some of the "plain and precious truths" would be lost from the Bible text. Nephi saw that "because of the many plain and precious things which have been taken out of the book, which were plain unto the understanding of the children of men, according to the plainness which is in the Lamb of God... an exceedingly great many do stumble" (1 Nephi 13:26-29, 34, 40) This state of confusion in the Christian church is referred to by Latter-day Saints as "The Great Apostasy," which was foretold by Paul when he said that Christ would not come again until there was a "falling away first." Joseph records:

"During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties, though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit. In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them; but so great were the confusion and strife among the different denominations, that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was wrong. In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?" (Joseph Smith History)

It was with these questions and feelings that Joseph was touched when he read these words from James chapter 1 verse 5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." He recorded that: "Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible." (Joseph Smith History)

Joseph needed clarity but he wasn't alone in this, it was evident that the entire Christian world needed clarity. It was evident that the Bible was inadequate to give this clarity to the Christian world. What Joseph did to receive clarity was not extraordinary, many Christians over the centuries had prayed for their own clarity, but Joseph entered a grove of trees as an innocent boy with an innocent and pure faith to ask God which church to join and the answer he received was anything but ordinary. In time the Lord would make his mission clear, he was to be a prophet and that through him the Lord was to bring forth a "marvelous work and a wonder." The work he would do would bring clarity and shed light upon those plain and precious points of the gospel of Jesus Christ which so far the Christian world had been unable to work out by means of study, debate, or counsel. Through the power of God alone Joseph Smith became an instrument through which the Lord Jesus Christ would bring to the world an ancient record of scripture preserved untouched for nearly 1,500 years. The sole purpose of this record was to provide "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" and to restore plain and precious truths that had been lost in translation. After the work of translation was complete the Lord would continue this work by restoring His church and the power of his priesthood to the earth.

This day of restitution was prophesied of in the Old and New Testaments and even the coming forth of the Book of Mormon was testified of by old Testament prophets. When you read and study the text of the Bible with the companionship of the Book of Mormon these prophesies are made more plain, for this reason this is my first "truth clarified" by the Book of Mormon in this section of my Book of Mormon study. Let's look at a few of these Bible scriptures that prophesy of the Book of Mormon and subsequent restoration in the "fullness of times."

The prophesies of Isaiah, which are hard to understand and often neglected because of the mystery of his language are used by ancient prophets in the Book of Mormon to teach important truths about the "last days" when Christ would set his hand again the second time to restore his gospel.

Isaiah 29:13-14 "Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid."

2 Nephi 25:17 "And the Lord will set his hand again the second time to restore his people from their lost and fallen state. Wherefore, he will proceed to do a marvelous work and a wonder among the children of men."

Ezekiel is another Old Testament prophet who prophesied of Christ's first and second comings but many of his prophesies are incomprehensible until you see them in the light that the Book of Mormon sheds.

Ezekiel 37:15-17 "The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand."

Because of the Book of Mormon we understand that these sticks represent two records, one that would come from Judah, the Bible, and one that would come from Ephraim, the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is an ancient record of Israelites from the lineage of Joseph who come out of Jerusalem before it's destruction. Ezekiel saw that these two records would join together to create one complete gospel. The Book of Mormon does not destroy the first stick it becomes one with it.

Peter also prophesied that Christ would not come again until the "times of the restitution" of all things and taught that this restitution, or restoration, had been prophesied of by all the holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19-21) These scriptures are bridges between the Bible and the Book of Mormon and prophesy of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the last days before his second coming, but they are not alone, I share them particularly because they are the easiest to understand without greater scholarship in both the Bible, Book of Mormon, and doctrines of Christ.

I believe that the ancient prophets looked forward to our times and placed their hopes in this restitution of all things. The unity that Ezekiel prophesied of when these two records would come together as one was the unity of faith Joseph Smith sought when he entered the grove of trees to ask God which church to join. Sadly, much of the world would not receive this restitution, as the world did not receive the Savior the first time he came; but as in times of old if the faithful will "come and see" they can know for themselves that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and this knowledge will provide beautiful clarity to the gospel of Jesus Christ taught in the Bible and beloved by Christians throughout the world.

The Book of Mormon Clarifies the Bible Teaching

In the October 2017 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Russell M. Nelson asked the church to ponder what life would be like without the Book of Mormon and how precious the Book of Mormon is. He repeated the last challenge the church received from President Thomas S. Monson before his passing that “each of us prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day.” More recently in the October 2018 general conference of the Church he asked the women of the church to read the entire book of Mormon before the New Year. It was a wonderful experience to read the Book of Mormon again, but to be challenged to read it so quickly meant that I spent far more time each day in scripture study then I usually do and the discernible impact on my spiritual strength was profound. My testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon to draw us to Christ increased.

In President Nelson's 2017 address he gave this prophetic promise:

"I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life. I promise that as you daily immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the evils of the day, even the gripping plague of pornography and other mind-numbing addictions."

One year later President Nelson gave us a specific challenge that would result in our immersion in the Book of Mormon and I was able to see more clearly the truth of his words. I could feel the windows of heaven open to me and I received answers to prayers and struggles that have long perplexed me. I felt greater power against the temptations that so easily beset me (2 Nephi 4:18). There was less time in my day for meaningless entertainment and as a result I felt an increase of the Lord's spirit.

It's been almost a year since I began a special study of the Book of Mormon patterned after President Nelson's study that he shared with the church in October of 2017. I have completed the first portion of that study which was to research and write about the religious Myths the Book of Mormon refutes. At the beginning of this plan I intended to complete the entire study in one year. I've not even scratched the surface, but that's no reason to give up. I chose to do this study in hopes that it would help increase my desire and commitment to "never want to live even one day without" studying the Book of Mormon. My desire and commitment has increased and my understanding of the atonement is increasing as well, but the study is not complete.

Just a reminder as I begin to work through the second section of this study, President Nelson choose to do this study as he answered President Monson's challenge. He said that he "made lists of what the Book of Mormon is, what it affirms, what it refutes, what it fulfills, what it clarifies, and what it reveals." In the coming days and probably months, but I hope it won't take another year, I will focus my study on what teachings of the Bible that the Book of Mormon clarifies.

Clarify means to make less confused, more clearly comprehensible; to illuminate, shed light on, make plain, and simplify. One of the great blessings of the Book of Mormon is the way that it sheds light on the teachings of the Bible and how beautifully it compliments Bible study. Not too long ago I was talking with a friend who was interested in learning more about the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but felt that he should do a more meaningful study the Bible before reading the Book of Mormon. I encouraged him to do them together and told him that the Book of Mormon would only add to his study of the Bible. The reason this is true is because of this clarity that the Book of Mormon brings. In these next posts I will do my best to identify teachings in the Bible that are made more clear when studied in partnership with the teachings of the Book of Mormon.

The Struggle IS the Blessing

This past week I asked my missionary son to tell me what has been the primary struggle of his mission, among other questions, but I decided to answer his reply on this question this week. After writing it I wanted to record it here on Ponder the Path because it's an important concept that can't be repeated too much.

My son said: "I think my mission has made me aware of the deficiencies in my testimony, what I need to work on. I do feel like I've gotten a greater sense of urgency for being more fully converted and acting on what my purpose in life... I've learned that my personal relationship with the Savior is weaker than I would like... One of my greatest regrets is that I've never really been good at praying, and sometimes it is still hard, I wish I knew how to do it better, I wish I understood the spirit better."

My reply: None of us are all that we want to be... none of us are yet who we need to become... but Christ said: "If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness..." If your mission is showing you your weakness then it is because you are striving to "come unto Christ." To begin to see our weakness is a blessing if we respond to it the right way. 

What is the right way? "I give unto men weakness that they may be humble..." Respond with humility, not pride. When we respond in pride -- and I will point out here that the most common ways that believing yet imperfect saints respond in pride looks like becoming discouraged, beating ourselves up, comparing ourselves to others, and trying to fix ourselves without the help of our Savior. All of this will cause us to fail and be caught in a depressing cycle that will not help us become what God desires us to be. I KNOW! I've made ALL those mistakes. 

The Lord tells us that the reason he sent us here to earth and gave us mortal weakness was so that this weakness would move us to our knees and humble us before him. I promise you that whether you do it now or not, someday you will be forced to be humble and admit that you cannot overcome these things without the help of your Savior in ALL things. He teaches us that his "Grace (the strengthening and enabling power of His atonement) is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." (Either 12:27)

There are two companion scriptures to this one that have helped me understand how this principle works. The first is from King Benjamin (Mosiah 2-4). In his address he basically lays out all the essential points of the gospel of Jesus Christ and what we must do to be saved. He teaches us that salvation comes ONLY through Christ, that we must repent and keep his commandments and that when we do he immediately blesses us, that we must serve others, that we must "submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us]" and be diligent and endure to the end.

"Be diligent that thereby ye might wind the prize."

After all these things I am sometimes out of breath and saying, "I know!, BUT HOW?" Well he tells us that too. He says, "See that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that man should run faster than he hath strength... therefore all things must be done in order." (Mosiah 4:27) We cannot do what we don't have the spiritual strength to do, if we try to do it without the spiritual strength needed we will fail and fail. So how do we get strong? How do we get the spiritual strength we need to do all the things that God has commanded? 

Here I will add my final scripture in this lesson. Moroni 7:33: "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." To understand how to get the power of Christ's atonement, his grace, into our lives -- to understand how faith works to do this -- is the greatest lesson we must all learn in order to have our nature changed and become as God wants us to become. I have another lesson for this principle, but in a nut shell, we must put all our trust in Christ and pray always to him for his power to be with us that we may resist temptation and always remember him; and then he will be with us and his grace will make us stronger than we are naturally, better than we can ever be alone! Through his grace we will be able to sustain the good works and "not be weary in well-doing." (D&C 64:33). We will be enabled to be obedient. That obedience will bring increased power to maintain our righteousness and we will move ever closer to Christ as we become more and more like him.

So, you see -- your mission has given you one of the greatest blessings a person can receive -- it has shown you your weakness and in that is the first step toward becoming exactly who you want to be. It's a struggle but the struggle IS the blessing. I am happy to hear that you are learning these things and that you are turning to the Lord for help. If you keep doing that he will keep teaching you and he will strengthen you and change you, line upon line, a little at a time, throughout your life and you will walk a path that leads you closer to him. That is what this life is all about.