Mosiah 24

Mosiah 24:14-15

“And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.”

God does not lighten their burdens, God gives them strength and cheer to bear them. Happiness does not depend on the state in life that one is in, but on how they handle their life and the perspective from which they see it. A rich man can be very sad, and a poor man can be the happiest. When we pray for patience we may get a burden, but we should also get the strength to bear it. Sometimes even if something does not bother us we pretend or try to make it bother us because we want recognition, because we want a reason to rebel, because we insist on our tragedy. The Nephites could have succumbed to these reasons, but they were able to follow along with the cheer that God gave them.

Written 9-24-14

Mosiah 4

Mosiah 4:27

“… for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength…”

Humanity is stupid. As creatures we are nowhere close to understanding or being part or in harmony with the divine. Thank God that reaching our goal does not depend on how fit we are, but only on whether we are striving appropriately. Our best thoughts are completely evil, but what counts is when we try our best to be good. Does this seem like pretending?

“… And again, it is expedient that he might win the prize…”

            This is not pretending, although are acts of goodness may as well be pretension. But when we have a genuine desire to be good we only do “good” the best we know how, even if it is only as good as pretending to do “good”. If a baby is crying on the hot asphalt in the middle of the street, and the best we can do is drop a cracker beside him and pretend to ourselves that we help him out, though our acts are still evil and pathetic, they are enough for God.

Written 9-23-14

Mosiah 4:2

“And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth…”

They were able to see themselves in a new light. They saw themselves in the light of such a great manifestation that they saw their worthlessness. This is an essential revelation that all must have. People tend to have a degree of pride that is part of their everyday lives. This degree of pride makes one think that their life matters, that they have a duty and a responsibility to make something out of their existence. This degree of pride makes one think that they must succeed and excel beyond what they are, that they must make themselves suffer through great efforts to make certain things happen; and yet, the collective struggles of all of humanity do not even measure up to a whimper in the universe. In the light of God we may as well not exist.

Mosiah 4:5

“For behold, if the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state –”

Mosiah 4:11

“I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility,”

This realization frees you from all responsibility, from all desire and pressure to change something in the world. It makes one’s pain, conflicts, struggles, meaningless. One can finally rest from the cares of the world and admit that they could never make anything “meaningful” no matter how much they try. It is all in God’s hands, there is nothing on your shoulders. God carries all burdens, you are free to roam or to stay, you are free to run or to struggle, but you are never obligated to do either.

Mosiah 4:11

“And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of an angel.”

Written 9-24-14

Mosiah 2

Mosiah 2:9

In this verse, as well as in other verses and parts of the book of Mormon, there are many indications of a belief that there is a distinction between the mind and the body, in other words there is a belief in duality, the dual nature of a human being.

           

            The following is a list of the verses in which this idea of duality are present:

Mosiah 2:9 – “Open your ears that you may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view.”

            In this verse, each property of the human being has a different function in the listening process. The ears hear, the heart understands, and the mind receives revelation.

Mosiah 2:11 – “But I am as yourselves, subject to all manner of infirmities in body and mind”

Mosiah 2:26 – “for I am also of dust… and am about to yield up this mortal frame to its mother earth.”

            Verse 26 not only implies that the essence of the human being is separate from its body (this mortal frame), but also refers to the earth as a “mother”.

Mosiah 2:28 – “I am about to go down to my grave… and my immortal spirit may join the choirs above…”

            This verse finishes the description of the duality which begins in verse 26. Verse 26 describes the body as a mortal frame, and verse 28 describes the inhabitant of the mortal frame as the self as an immortal spirit that never ceases to exist regardless of the circumstance of the mortal frame.

Mosiah 2:41 – “They are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual”

            As there are strong indications of duality in the book of Mormon, the words more commonly used to describe this duality are “temporal vs. spiritual”; this pair of words is also frequent in first or second Nephi.

Mosiah 4:26 – “I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor… both spiritually and temporally…”

            This is one more of the many indications of a tradition of duality expressed with the word-pair “temporal vs. spiritual”.

Written 9-23-14

 
Mosiah 2:24

“And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?”

“And ye are still indebted to him.”

Do we have a right as human beings to demand something from God? Does the clay say to the potter, “You are doing it wrong”? Everything is God’s and we have no say in what he creates. As human beings, creatures, creation, we are part of the world not the owners of it. If we do what God commands it does not mean that we deserve or have right to a reward; we are just part of the world, part of the phenomena that is under his command. Yet, God has mercy towards us by “paying” us back for our efforts, by rewarding our work. God’s mercy is in that the laws of reality are somewhat consistent enough to recognize a pattern and work along that pattern for our good; or God’s mercy is in that as creatures we see workable patterns that seem consistent and are able to track these patterns and use them for our good.

            We can never pay God back because everything is his. Life is not fair. Thank God life is not fair, because every day we live a life better than we deserve. Our comfort is a result of reality’s mercy; we know this because even in our earth we can see how much worse our lives could have been if we were just born, even as human beings, in another part of the world. Life is not fair, and as followers of Christ we hope it never is.

Written 9-23-14

Mosiah 2:38

“Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like and unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever.”

King Benjamin describes the “dynamics of sin.” This is one way to describe sin to explain why a sinful person “goes to hell.” It is not as simple as to say that God just does not like the person because of what he does and decides to have them burn forever, but this verse describes “hell” as the torment within one’s own self, as the manifestation of guilt, that is the result of their own decisions. God does not condemn them, their own actions condemn them, in fact they condemn themselves! I’d like to recall the concept in 1 Nephi 14:3. In infinite manifestation (when “divine justice do[es] awaken his immortal soul) the fruit of destruction will destroy itself, and hate will hate itself. Like this is all of sin. It is not that God does not like sin, it is that sin does not like God though God is everywhere such that there is no way to escape him. Sin does not like to be, sin does not like itself. This makes it a necessity for him who lives under the guidance of sin to ultimately be in conflict.

            To be an enemy of God means to be against one’s own self. Because to be without harmony of the truth means to be twisted into something incompatible with what there is.

Written 9-23-14

Luke 15

Verse 20

“And he arose and came to his father.  But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

Instead of maintaining his rightful dignity and honor as an oriental patriarch, however, he abandoned social propriety and ran out to meet his son while he was still far away.”  - David K. Bernard

Our God is a desperate God,
He is a God that ridicules and makes a fool of Himself by begging.

Desperate because He is doing everything in His power to bring us back to His Harmony.

And yet we still reject Him in exchange for suffering.

He is desperately crying out to us with all His might;

so loudly it even killed Him at the cross;

so loud the fires of hell burned inside His throat.

He does so because He is not willing to lose us to that hell fire.

He does so because He knows about the impending pain we will go through; it is already hurting Him, He already sees it coming, He is already experiencing it for us, and He is warning us.

He does so because He is willing to set Himself on hellfire to get our attention,

if it means we will be saved.

He is not just as desperate as I am from my own suffering, He is even more desperate, because He is even sympathetic for the suffering that I have numbed from and have tucked away.

He is resorting to ridicule Himself, not because He is foolish, but because we have already crossed those lines ourselves.  What kind of father would be afraid to get a little mud on his shoes to save his child out of the pile of dung that is pinning him down?

He ridicules Himself; it reflects how wrecked our situation really is.

Because if a reasonable God who knows everything is acting like this about us…

What must He know?

And if an omnipotent God is doing all He can do for us…

What is there left to do?

Written on August 26, 2012

Psalms 103

Verse 8-10

“The Lord is merciful! He is kind and patient and his love never fails.

The Lord won’t always be angry and point out our sins;

He doesn’t punish us as our sins deserve.”

How much punishment do we deserve? We deserve the worst of hell.  He has enough mercy even to let us live ignorantly of this.  Without His protection we will not be able to escape. Truth is inescapable, we cannot avoid our verdict (See Psalms 139:7).  There is no death that will keep us from judgment.  God rules all, Life rules all (See Psalms 139:10).  We cannot escape life.  All we can do is submit to it, and everything it throws at us.  I kneel at your feet Lord, as I willing bear all the agony that you have set for me.  Refine me with your fire.

September 23, 2012