Book of Mormon Friends' Messsages by Virginia Pearce, 2004 at BYU-I
Please see the email I'll send you with Virginia Pearce's talk. I'd love to see your comments and insights at the reflections blog. There is some text inside [ ] symbols. These are comments Sister Pearce made when she delivered the address that were not included in the published text.
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4 comments:
As we begin the coming year of seminary I am looking forward to doing the scripture mastery with Wil and Mitch. I enjoyed this article about Nephi, Alma and Moroni. I found myself thinking about how each prophet seems to give us a theme. President Benson was to avoid pride and focus on book of mormon. Hunter spoke of the temples. Hinckley perhaps importance of family and expanding temples and much more. Also as we go through life there are things we learn from different people that filter into our life at different stages. Perhaps a family who stays in your ward for just 6 months but becomes life long friends or helps you in a tight spot. The lessons of Nephi teach the gospel basics we all need. Alma 5 and his teachings do help us focus on trying to become like Christ. Moroni the last patriach who saw the past and prophesied to our generation his warnings but also the taught the lessons that God will answer our sincere prayers. My goal is to read from this book daily so I can feel of its spirit. Great talk. Mark
A new perspective for me in looking at Nephi.
In the past if I thought of Nephi I characterized him as one who said "I will go and do." Sister Pearce's thoughts of Nephi being one who went to the Lord to find out for himself is opens a new insight. To exercise faith we must both pray with faith in Christ AND get up from our knees and act with faith in Christ. Nephi both went to the Lord (prayed) and acted om faith (go & do). Next in the faith cycle is being quick to observe the hand of the Lord in our lives, the change in our desires, the enlightenment of our minds and hearts, and our willingness to commit (Alma 32-observe & Mosiah 5-changes from atonement). Then we return and report. By following this cycle we progress from hope and faith to knowledge (Alma 32). So Nephi wasn't just one to "go and do." His doing was part of something much larger. Going to the Lord was just one part of exercising faith which enabled him to progress toward knowing for himself.
Sister Pearce's statement that the Book of Mormon "isn’t about people who came to the Americas, it isn’t about civilizations who rose up and who fell. It is about how a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ works and how we become new creatures through the atonement." Or Elder Eyring's statement that the Book of Mormon "is a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and the atonement and how it may work in our lives."
With this in mind I reread the title page of the book of Mormon where it lists what the Book of Mormon is to do:
-show what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers-- causes me to think about how the atonement enabled spiritual rebirth and becoming perfected in Christ.
-know the covenants of the Lord-- the covenants made as the atonement worked in the lives of people, whether basic gospel covenants or covenants relating to matters of concern as people became more Christlike and worked in their callings (see Enos versus 16-18 or Helaman 10:4-7 for example).
-Jesus is the Christ,... manifesting himself unto all nations-- This reminds me that Christ will manifest himself not only to me, but to our children & those to whom we witness in our personal ministries as we follow the patterns (D&C 52:14) or means (Alma 37:6-7) the Lord has given us to receive revelation.
What other insights does the clarification of the purpose of the Book of Mormon provide you? How does it affect the way you'd introduce the book to a friend? What does it tell you about what you can find when you read the war chapters in the book of Alma? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
I appreciated how Virginia Pearce taught from examples in the Book of Mormon. I subscribe to the (free) BYU speeches podcasts and was recently listening to a talked called, "Gifts of the Spirit for Hard Times" by President Eyring. In his talk, he points out three ways that we can increase the gifts of the Holy Ghost. He also quotes specific teaching from the Book of Mormon and applies them in ways I had not considered. I’ll try to briefly summarize:
1. The Gifts of the Spirit come when we have faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. In other words, we must be confident in the Lord during times of need. Nephi and Lehi are great examples as they received many revelations daily. Dad’s (Rick’s) comment regarding Nephi’s example of praying with faith and then doing provides additional clarity. Many of the Nephi’s revelations probably came while he was serving (doing) with faith.
2. We must be clean to receive the gifts of the Spirit. Throughout the Book of Mormon we see the church “dwindle” because of iniquity and the Spirit withdraws. In some cases the people of the Book of Mormon overcome the iniquity by returning to item #1 – having faith and repenting.
3. Pure motives and the desire to do God’s will increase the gifts of the Spirit. President Eyring points out the pure motive of Moroni who often taught about charity - the pure love of Christ. Perhaps in this case charity could be the pure “will” of Christ as we look to serve and bless the lives of others (and not just get gain for ourselves).
I found Elder Eyring’s talk quite timely, as I have been looking for ways to increase and maintain the presence of the Holy Ghost in my life. During this past spring and summer I have felt especially close to the Spirit has I have sought for and received guidance regarding changing jobs and relocating.
Initially I thought this outpouring of the Spirit was simply a special gift in a time of need and change. Indeed it was, however, I’ve come to realize that I can always have (and need) this special closeness with the Lord and the Spirit.
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