Saturday, June 28, 2008
Book of Mormon Lesson 24
Book of Mormon Lesson
Give Us Strength According to Our Faith...in Christ
I. Introduction
A. We will be continuing the Alma’s preachings to the people of Ammonihah today. Remember that the people of Ammonihah were prideful and wicked, but that Alma and Amulek began to have success, but for the most part they were rejected. When we left them last week they were contending with one of Ammoniahah’s most notorious lawyers Zeezrom.
B. Remember that Alma was once very similar to Zeezrom and the people of Ammonihah. He contended against the church and tried to destroy it. How do you think his previous life may have influenced how he preached in Ammoniahah? He was probably more committed because he knew what they would go through if they didn’t repent.
C. There are many important principles taught in Alma 13-16 and we won’t have time to go through all of them. I have chosen to concentrate on just a few:]
1. The pre-existence and the doctrine of foreordination.
2. Free agency and what it has to do with God allowing us to suffer.
3. How we should react when we are rebuked.
II. Foreordination and the priesthood.
A. Read Alma 13:1-3. What does this tell us about those who are called to hold the priesthood? They were “prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God.”
B. What perspective does our knowledge of the pre-existence give us? We know that our life here is just one of the acts in the play.
1. When I was 17 years old I went on a 2 week mini-mission where I lived with 2 Elders in the Tempe Mission and went out and did what they did. During the 2 weeks I was able to participate in the discussions and watch a 16 year old kid get baptized. He was raised Catholic. When we taught him the plan of salvation, he was astonished when we told him about the pre-existence. He has always believed that his entire existence had begun when he was born. I was surprised to find out that other Christian churches did not have knowledge of the pre-existence. It always seemed intuitive to me; I could not imagine not existing.
C. What perspective should the knowledge of the doctrine of foreordination give us?
1. Read Abraham 3:22-23. This is the preeminent scripture about foreordination. From this scripture we learn that there were some “noble and great” spirits in the pre-existence and that Abraham was among them.
2. I sometimes cringe when I hear members of the church speculate about who else is included among the noble and great and worse, who wasn’t. I personally don’t feel it is very useful to think of our own situations in this like as either a reward or a punishment for our relative valiance in the pre-existence (which we can’t remember anyway).
D. These scriptures in Alma do make it clear that those who hold the Melchizedek priesthood were foreordained. But what else does it say about this. Read Alma 13:4-5.
1. What does this tell us? That there are many called to the priesthood, but not all will receive it? Why not? Because of the “hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds.”
2. What does it say in D&C 121 :34-35
E. How does it influence your life to know that many of us were foreordained to do great things but few of us will fulfill them? Do you think God will hold us responsible for the things we did not do that we were capable of doing?
1. I have had a good friend since elementary school. People have always been drawn to him. He is just the type of guy people like to be around. I can’t think of a situation he has been in - be it school, church, work, or social - that he hasn’t taken a leadership role in and been the center of. He has a great gift to influence people. He has never been perfect, but he went on a mission and was an excellent missionary. However, when he got off his mission he started drinking and joined a fraternity. He is no longer active in the church. He has the same gifts but he is not using them for good. I spent last weekend with a group of my old friends down at Aspen Grove. One of my other friends ran into this guy a few months ago and they got talking. My other friend is much better and calling people to repentance than me. He told this guy, “you know, you have a great gift to influence people. You won’t only be responsible for your own soul, but for all the others you could have influenced.” Do you believe this is true?
2. Harold B. Lee said: “I fear there are many among us who because of their faithfulness in the spirit world were ‘called’ to do a great work here, but like reckless spendthrifts they are exercising their free agency in riotous living and are losing their birthright and the blessings that were theirs had they proved faithful to their calling. Hence as the Lord has said, ‘there are many called but few are chosen’.”
F. Read Alma 13:12. One of the ways we can know when we have fully repented is when we can no longer “look upon sin save it were with abhorrence.” Many of our sins we still look back upon fondly and with nostalgia.
III. The Responses to the Rebuke.
A. Read Alma 14:1-3. Why were these people angry with Alma and Amulek? They were plainly telling them what they were doing wrong. Why do we react this way when people plainly point out what we are doing wrong?
1. A few weeks ago President Thurgood came to our Elder’s Quorem and rebuked us for not doing our home teaching. It was painful to hear because we all knew it was something that we should be doing. It hurts to have your faults pointed out to you.
2. But it is we who decide how to respond to a rebuke. We can respond like the majority of the people of Ammonihah, or we can respond like Zeezrom.
B. Read Alma 14:6-7. Do you see the contrast between the other people and Zeezrom? Do you see the great change in Zeezrom? His humility? Remember, just a few chapters ago Amulek called Zeezrom a “child of hell.”
IV. Why bad things happen to good people.
A. We next read what they people of Ammonihah did to the people who believed the words of Alma and Amulek. Read Alma 14:8-11.
1. How do you think Alma and Amulek felt as the were forced to watch this? These were the converts from their missions. For those of you who have helped bring people into the church, you know you have a special relationship with them. This was watching the families you baptized on your mission, who you had so much hope for, being thrown into a fire because they believed what you taught them.
2. Amulek makes the suggestion to stop this. Read Alma 14:10. Do you think they had to power to do this? Why didn’t they.
3. Read Alma 14:11.
B. Why does God allow horrible things to happen in the world? One of the enduring questions about theism is: if there is an all powerful and all good God in the world, why does He allow bad things to happen to good people? He created us and all the world - why didn’t he make us perfect? Why aren’t we in a perpetual state of bliss.
1. Free agency.
2. Also, we know that as individuals we are co-eternal with God. God organized us and set us on the path, but he did not create us to be evil.
3. President Spencer W. Kimball said: “Now, we find many people critical when a righteous person is killed, a young father or mother is taken from a family, or when violent deaths occur. Some become bitter when 0ft-repeated prayers seem unanswered. Some lose faith and turn sour when solemn administrations by holy men seem to be ignored and no restoration seems to come from repeated prayer circles. But if all the sick were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. If pain ans sorrow and total punishment immediately followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a misdeed. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given to the doer of good, there could be no evil–and would do good and not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, now free agency, now Satanic controls. Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment or even death; and if these were not, there would also be an absence of joy, success, resurrection, eternal life, and godhood.”
C. We learn that Alma and Amulek are beaten and imprisoned.
1. I wonder if Joseph Smith thought of Alma and Amulek while he was in Liberty Jail. He was in a similar situation. He was stuck in prison while the people who believed him were being mobbed, raped, and run out of Missouri, and he could do nothing about it. Read D&C 121:1-3.
2. Compare this to what Alma said in Alma 14:26.
3. Alma and Amulek miraculously escaped from prison. Joseph Smith sort of had a miraculous escape from Liberty Jail. They were allowed to buy whiskey for their captors and when they were drunk they escaped.
D. We learn in chapter 15 that Alma and Amulek go to Sidom where many of the believers had escaped. There they heal Zeezrom who was sick and he goes on to be a missionary companion with Alma.
E. We learn in chapter 16 that the city of Ammonihah was destroyed by the Lamanites and the area was called the “Desolation of Nehors.”
V. Conclusion - I hope that we can all try our best to live up to our foreordained potentials. I hope that we can be humbled when we are called to repentance by our leaders. I hope we have a better understanding of what free agency really is and it’s part in suffering in the world. I testify that part of Christ’s atonement will make up for the suffering of the innocent. Amen.
References:
Beardall, Bill
F. Jim - Times and Seasons
LDS Church Book of Mormon Gospel Doctrine Teacher's Manual
Proctor, Scot and Maurine - Meridian Magazine
Give Us Strength According to Our Faith...in Christ
I. Introduction
A. We will be continuing the Alma’s preachings to the people of Ammonihah today. Remember that the people of Ammonihah were prideful and wicked, but that Alma and Amulek began to have success, but for the most part they were rejected. When we left them last week they were contending with one of Ammoniahah’s most notorious lawyers Zeezrom.
B. Remember that Alma was once very similar to Zeezrom and the people of Ammonihah. He contended against the church and tried to destroy it. How do you think his previous life may have influenced how he preached in Ammoniahah? He was probably more committed because he knew what they would go through if they didn’t repent.
C. There are many important principles taught in Alma 13-16 and we won’t have time to go through all of them. I have chosen to concentrate on just a few:]
1. The pre-existence and the doctrine of foreordination.
2. Free agency and what it has to do with God allowing us to suffer.
3. How we should react when we are rebuked.
II. Foreordination and the priesthood.
A. Read Alma 13:1-3. What does this tell us about those who are called to hold the priesthood? They were “prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God.”
B. What perspective does our knowledge of the pre-existence give us? We know that our life here is just one of the acts in the play.
1. When I was 17 years old I went on a 2 week mini-mission where I lived with 2 Elders in the Tempe Mission and went out and did what they did. During the 2 weeks I was able to participate in the discussions and watch a 16 year old kid get baptized. He was raised Catholic. When we taught him the plan of salvation, he was astonished when we told him about the pre-existence. He has always believed that his entire existence had begun when he was born. I was surprised to find out that other Christian churches did not have knowledge of the pre-existence. It always seemed intuitive to me; I could not imagine not existing.
C. What perspective should the knowledge of the doctrine of foreordination give us?
1. Read Abraham 3:22-23. This is the preeminent scripture about foreordination. From this scripture we learn that there were some “noble and great” spirits in the pre-existence and that Abraham was among them.
2. I sometimes cringe when I hear members of the church speculate about who else is included among the noble and great and worse, who wasn’t. I personally don’t feel it is very useful to think of our own situations in this like as either a reward or a punishment for our relative valiance in the pre-existence (which we can’t remember anyway).
D. These scriptures in Alma do make it clear that those who hold the Melchizedek priesthood were foreordained. But what else does it say about this. Read Alma 13:4-5.
1. What does this tell us? That there are many called to the priesthood, but not all will receive it? Why not? Because of the “hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds.”
2. What does it say in D&C 121 :34-35
E. How does it influence your life to know that many of us were foreordained to do great things but few of us will fulfill them? Do you think God will hold us responsible for the things we did not do that we were capable of doing?
1. I have had a good friend since elementary school. People have always been drawn to him. He is just the type of guy people like to be around. I can’t think of a situation he has been in - be it school, church, work, or social - that he hasn’t taken a leadership role in and been the center of. He has a great gift to influence people. He has never been perfect, but he went on a mission and was an excellent missionary. However, when he got off his mission he started drinking and joined a fraternity. He is no longer active in the church. He has the same gifts but he is not using them for good. I spent last weekend with a group of my old friends down at Aspen Grove. One of my other friends ran into this guy a few months ago and they got talking. My other friend is much better and calling people to repentance than me. He told this guy, “you know, you have a great gift to influence people. You won’t only be responsible for your own soul, but for all the others you could have influenced.” Do you believe this is true?
2. Harold B. Lee said: “I fear there are many among us who because of their faithfulness in the spirit world were ‘called’ to do a great work here, but like reckless spendthrifts they are exercising their free agency in riotous living and are losing their birthright and the blessings that were theirs had they proved faithful to their calling. Hence as the Lord has said, ‘there are many called but few are chosen’.”
F. Read Alma 13:12. One of the ways we can know when we have fully repented is when we can no longer “look upon sin save it were with abhorrence.” Many of our sins we still look back upon fondly and with nostalgia.
III. The Responses to the Rebuke.
A. Read Alma 14:1-3. Why were these people angry with Alma and Amulek? They were plainly telling them what they were doing wrong. Why do we react this way when people plainly point out what we are doing wrong?
1. A few weeks ago President Thurgood came to our Elder’s Quorem and rebuked us for not doing our home teaching. It was painful to hear because we all knew it was something that we should be doing. It hurts to have your faults pointed out to you.
2. But it is we who decide how to respond to a rebuke. We can respond like the majority of the people of Ammonihah, or we can respond like Zeezrom.
B. Read Alma 14:6-7. Do you see the contrast between the other people and Zeezrom? Do you see the great change in Zeezrom? His humility? Remember, just a few chapters ago Amulek called Zeezrom a “child of hell.”
IV. Why bad things happen to good people.
A. We next read what they people of Ammonihah did to the people who believed the words of Alma and Amulek. Read Alma 14:8-11.
1. How do you think Alma and Amulek felt as the were forced to watch this? These were the converts from their missions. For those of you who have helped bring people into the church, you know you have a special relationship with them. This was watching the families you baptized on your mission, who you had so much hope for, being thrown into a fire because they believed what you taught them.
2. Amulek makes the suggestion to stop this. Read Alma 14:10. Do you think they had to power to do this? Why didn’t they.
3. Read Alma 14:11.
B. Why does God allow horrible things to happen in the world? One of the enduring questions about theism is: if there is an all powerful and all good God in the world, why does He allow bad things to happen to good people? He created us and all the world - why didn’t he make us perfect? Why aren’t we in a perpetual state of bliss.
1. Free agency.
2. Also, we know that as individuals we are co-eternal with God. God organized us and set us on the path, but he did not create us to be evil.
3. President Spencer W. Kimball said: “Now, we find many people critical when a righteous person is killed, a young father or mother is taken from a family, or when violent deaths occur. Some become bitter when 0ft-repeated prayers seem unanswered. Some lose faith and turn sour when solemn administrations by holy men seem to be ignored and no restoration seems to come from repeated prayer circles. But if all the sick were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. If pain ans sorrow and total punishment immediately followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a misdeed. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given to the doer of good, there could be no evil–and would do good and not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, now free agency, now Satanic controls. Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment or even death; and if these were not, there would also be an absence of joy, success, resurrection, eternal life, and godhood.”
C. We learn that Alma and Amulek are beaten and imprisoned.
1. I wonder if Joseph Smith thought of Alma and Amulek while he was in Liberty Jail. He was in a similar situation. He was stuck in prison while the people who believed him were being mobbed, raped, and run out of Missouri, and he could do nothing about it. Read D&C 121:1-3.
2. Compare this to what Alma said in Alma 14:26.
3. Alma and Amulek miraculously escaped from prison. Joseph Smith sort of had a miraculous escape from Liberty Jail. They were allowed to buy whiskey for their captors and when they were drunk they escaped.
D. We learn in chapter 15 that Alma and Amulek go to Sidom where many of the believers had escaped. There they heal Zeezrom who was sick and he goes on to be a missionary companion with Alma.
E. We learn in chapter 16 that the city of Ammonihah was destroyed by the Lamanites and the area was called the “Desolation of Nehors.”
V. Conclusion - I hope that we can all try our best to live up to our foreordained potentials. I hope that we can be humbled when we are called to repentance by our leaders. I hope we have a better understanding of what free agency really is and it’s part in suffering in the world. I testify that part of Christ’s atonement will make up for the suffering of the innocent. Amen.
References:
Beardall, Bill
F. Jim - Times and Seasons
LDS Church Book of Mormon Gospel Doctrine Teacher's Manual
Proctor, Scot and Maurine - Meridian Magazine
Friday, June 27, 2008
Aspen Grove
We spent last weekend down at Aspen Grove Family Camp with a group of our old Mesa friends. Wednesday I went back down to go mountain biking at Sundance with them. Here are some pictures.
Mindy Evens - Photographer
Aaron Evens and Me
Paint Balling
Do you think I would have been injured if it was a bullet?
Craig Loveland and Jay McKinley
Michelle and Marshal Coleman
Me and Christian Woolf
Mosh and Me. I like his shirt. "Old School Conservative-1980"
Marc Moore's battle wounds. I fell more times than he did but he seems to have gotten more damage.
Craig Loveland and Me
Left to right: Marshal Coleman, oldest Coleman girl (someone help me out here), Michelle Coleman, Holly Loveland, Craig Loveland (back row), K.C. Woolf, Jay MacKinley (back row), Christian Woolf, Marc Moore, Kyle Thorton.
Mindy Evens - Photographer
Aaron Evens and Me
Paint Balling
Do you think I would have been injured if it was a bullet?
Craig Loveland and Jay McKinley
Michelle and Marshal Coleman
Me and Christian Woolf
Mosh and Me. I like his shirt. "Old School Conservative-1980"
Marc Moore's battle wounds. I fell more times than he did but he seems to have gotten more damage.
Craig Loveland and Me
Left to right: Marshal Coleman, oldest Coleman girl (someone help me out here), Michelle Coleman, Holly Loveland, Craig Loveland (back row), K.C. Woolf, Jay MacKinley (back row), Christian Woolf, Marc Moore, Kyle Thorton.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
17 Weeks to Run My Butt Off - Week 14
This is the week of the yo-yo. Down to 144, up to 146.. back and forth. Well, that race this weekend will help me past this frustrating platue. I think when I ran 7 miles it burned over 1,100 calories. My brother and sister seem excited, although we are all injured.. Dave has blisters on his foot from over-training, I fell off of Whitney's scooter, going full blast, fell square on my butt and bruised it pretty bad, and Lisa (on top of having a twisted ankle) will be running it after working a graveyard shift and donating plasma. But despite our best efforts to get out of racing, "Team Whitney" is running! It will make for good journal entries later on. Anyway, I'm still going strong and going to work extra hard these last few weeks of my challange.
Starting ~ 163.5 lbs, 42% body fat
Week 1 ~ 161.0 lbs, 41% body fat, 2.5 lbs lost, 6.37 miles, ave minutes per mile 13:33, best minutes per mile 11:43
Weeks 2/ 3~ 159.5 lbs, 41% body fat, 1.5 lbs lost, 4.12 miles, ave mpm 13:31, best mpm 11:14 Also kayaked and swam.. not as effective.
Week 4 ~ 157 lbs, 40% body fat, 2.5 lbs lost, 9.98 miles, ave mpm 13:02, best mpm 11:21
Week 5 ~ 155 lbs, 40% body fat, 2 lbs lost, 18.31 miles, ave mpm 12:50, best mpm 10:32
Week 6 ~ 154 lbs, 39% body fat, 1 lb lost, 13.5 miles, ave mpm 12:31, best mpm 10:27
Week 7 ~ 151 lbs, 39% body fat, 3 lbs lost, 17.91 miles, ave mpm 12:07, best mpm 10:20
Week 8 ~ 151 lbs, 39% body fat, 0 lbs lost, 18.20 miles, ave mpm 11:36, best mpm 9:30
Week 9 ~ 149 lbs, 38% body fat, 2 lbs lost, 18.26 miles, ave mpm 11:27, best mpm 9:29
Week 10~ 149 lbs, 38% body fat, 0 lbs lost, 10.34 miles, ave mpm 10:47, best mpm 8:42
Week 11~ 147 lbs, 37% body fat, 2 lbs lost, 15.74 miles, ave mpm 11:35, best mpm 8:10
Week 12~ 146 lbs, 37% body fat, 1 lb lost, 13.52 miles, ave mpm 11:09, best mpm 7:42
Week 13~ 145 lbs, 37% body fat, 1 lb lost, 13.59 miles, ave mpm 11:01, best mpm 8:32
Week 14~ 145 lbs, 36% body fat, 0 lb lost, 13.85 miles, ave mpm 10:53, best mpm 8:21
Overall Totals ~ 18 lbs lost, 6% body fat lost, 174.05 miles run
Friday, June 13, 2008
Book of Mormon Lesson 22
Book of Mormon Lesson 22
“Have Ye Received His Image in Your Countenances?”
I. Introduction
A. Last week we learned that Alma gave up the judgement seat (secular power) in order to focus fully on his role as leader of the church. What does this tell us about Alma? He was not power hungry. Something that always irritates me about presidential elections is that the only candidates we have to choose from are people who really want to be, and think they deserve to be president. What kind of person can think, “I am better suited than anyone else in the country to lead the free world.” I guess that’s one of the disadvantages of Democracy, and is one of the reasons that Plato thought it an inferior form of government to a “philosopher king” who ruled for the good of the people, not for person gain. But where are you going to find one of those?
B. After giving up the judgement seat, Alma first assembled and taught the people of Zarahemla. Apparently, most of the people here were already members of the church. He then goes to the city of Gideon and teaches the people there, who are described as righteous people. Why did Alma spend time preaching to the converted? We could say that Alma was “fine tuning” the people of the church and getting things in order before setting out on his mission to teach the wicked.
II. “Have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers.”
A. Read Alma 5:3-6. Why does Alma want the people to remember the bondage of their fathers?
B. What did the angel tell Alma the Younger when he appeared to him? Read Mosiah 27:16.
C. Alma the Younger and the people of Zarahemla were living in a situation similar to our own - of relative peace and prosperity. They were reaping the benefits of the sacrifices made by their parents and grandparents. The angel seems to be telling Alma, “Listen, you spoiled brat. Your father and ancestors suffered a lot so that you could have it this good. Stop being such a jerk.”
D. What are some things that our ancestors and predecessors have done for us? What do we have today that we owe to them?
1. Fighting wars to protect us from tyranny.
2. Pioneer ancestors making great sacrifices so that we could worship freely and have the gospel today.
E. How is it beneficial for us to remember “the bondage of our fathers.”
F. One of my pioneer ancestors was William Hyde. Almost every narrative about the Mormon Battalion includes quotes from William Hyde. This was not because he was an important leader in the battalion or because he was a particularly good writer. It’s simply because he kept a journal. One of the stories he tells is the miracle of the turkeys. When he and a group of men were traveling from California back to Winter Quarters to reunite with their families, they were cold, tired and nearly starved to death. He wrote: “ On the morning of the 19th, we all were united in calling on the Lord to regard our situation in mercy and send us food from an unexpected quarter that we might have wherewith to subsist upon. And here the Lord heard our prayer. Soon after......wild turkeys began to pass our camp in droves, and such a sight I never before witnessed. Drove after drove continued to pass through the woods until night set in. We succeeded in getting four, which was one to every four persons, and after this we could not get any more, although our shots might be considered ever so fair, and we concluded to be satisfied. Probably it would have been a damage to us if we had got all we wanted as we were then suffering in extreme with hunger.”
1. I wouldn’t know about the sacrifices William Hyde made and how God blessed him if he hadn’t kept a journal.
III. “Have Ye Received His Image in Your Countenances?”
A. Read Alma 5:14.
1. What does it mean to “receive his image in your countenance?”
2. Brother Andrew Skinner said: “An ‘image’ is not just an outward visual impression but also a vivid representation, a graphic display, or a total likeness of something. It is a person or thing very much like another, a copy or counterpart. Likewise, countenance does not simply mean a facial expression or visual appearance. The word comes from an old French term originally denoting ‘behavior,’ ‘demeanor,’ or ‘conduct.’ In earlier times the word countenance was used with these meanings in mind. Therefore to receive Christ’s image in one’s countenance means to acquire the Savior’s likeness in behavior, to be a copy or reflection of the Master’s life. This is not possible without a mighty change in one’s pattern of living. It requires, too, a change in feelings, attitudes, desires and spiritual commitment. This involves the heart.”
3. In 1 John 3:2: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
B. Alma then goes on to give a long series of questions we can ask ourselves to better assess our own worthiness.
1. Have your been spiritually born of God?
2. Have you received his image in your countenances?
3. Have ye experienced this mighty change of heart?
4. Do ye exercise faith in Christ?
5. Do you look forward to the resurrection and the judgement?
6. Do you have a pure heart and clean hands?
C. Read Alma 5:26.
1. Neal A. Maxwell said: “It is not enough for us to have once been close to the Savior. (So was Sidney Rigdon.) Alma said, if we have once ‘felt to sing the song or redeeming love,’ can we feel so now?’ Dutiful discipleship creates many happy memories, but it does not make nostalgia a substitute for fresh achievement.”
IV. Pride.
A. Alma then goes on to talk about a particular sin. In his book Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis describes this sin in a chapter called “The Great Sin.” I’m going to read how he describes this sin and have you try to guess what it is: “There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a mon more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.” What is he talking about? Pride.
B. I enjoy listening to conference as much as the next guy, but I have to admit that off the top of my head I can’t remember much about what anyone talked about in conference last April. But I remember exactly what President Benson talked about in April of 1989, just a few months before I left on my mission. That was his famous talk on Pride. He quoted from and paraphrased much of this Chapter in C.S. Lewis’s book Mere Christianity. So I will be referring to it today.
C. Read Alma 5:27-30. At first glance it may seem that Alma is talking about 3 different sins here, pride, envy and mocking. I think that as we look closer at the sin of Pride we will see that envy and mocking stem from it.
D. Why is it so hard to recognize when we are committing the sin of Pride or Self-Conceit? It is not hard to know when we are guilty of stealing, lying, adulatory, murder. We may try to justify these sins, but we know when we’ve committed them. But most of us in this room are guilty of pride and may not even know it. How can we know when we are being prideful? Lewis says a good way to know by how easily we recognize it in others. “I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, ‘How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me, or show off?’ The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise. Two of a trade never agree.”
E. Lewis then explains that pride is competitive. “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If someone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”
1. This is how envy is a symptom of pride.
F. Lewis says, “it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.” Why is that? How does pride make us miserable?
G. Lewis observes, “Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people. But pride always means enmity– it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.” How is Pride showing enmity to God?
1. “In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurable superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that– and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison– you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God.”
H. Alma is talking to a group of mostly converted Christians. Why is it important for Christians to constantly be vigilant against Pride? Because we can be religious and still be guilty of Pride.
1. Lewis says, “That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshiping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people: that is, they pay a pennyworth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound’s wort of Pride towards their fellow-men.........Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good–above all, that we are better than someone else– I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil.”
H. Read Alma 5:53-55. How is charity related to humility? It is pride that makes us covet our own processions; that makes us think we deserve what we have.
IV. Conclusion.
A. Throughout chapter 5-7 of Alma we are reminded how we can “experience this mighty change of heart,” and overcome our sins. Read Alma 5:48. It is only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven and become like Him. And it is only by recognizing our own nothingness in comparison to God and Jesus Christ that we can overcome pride. Amen.
References:
Beardall, William
F., Jim - Times and Seasons
Lewis, C.S. - Mere Christianity, 1952
“Have Ye Received His Image in Your Countenances?”
I. Introduction
A. Last week we learned that Alma gave up the judgement seat (secular power) in order to focus fully on his role as leader of the church. What does this tell us about Alma? He was not power hungry. Something that always irritates me about presidential elections is that the only candidates we have to choose from are people who really want to be, and think they deserve to be president. What kind of person can think, “I am better suited than anyone else in the country to lead the free world.” I guess that’s one of the disadvantages of Democracy, and is one of the reasons that Plato thought it an inferior form of government to a “philosopher king” who ruled for the good of the people, not for person gain. But where are you going to find one of those?
B. After giving up the judgement seat, Alma first assembled and taught the people of Zarahemla. Apparently, most of the people here were already members of the church. He then goes to the city of Gideon and teaches the people there, who are described as righteous people. Why did Alma spend time preaching to the converted? We could say that Alma was “fine tuning” the people of the church and getting things in order before setting out on his mission to teach the wicked.
II. “Have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers.”
A. Read Alma 5:3-6. Why does Alma want the people to remember the bondage of their fathers?
B. What did the angel tell Alma the Younger when he appeared to him? Read Mosiah 27:16.
C. Alma the Younger and the people of Zarahemla were living in a situation similar to our own - of relative peace and prosperity. They were reaping the benefits of the sacrifices made by their parents and grandparents. The angel seems to be telling Alma, “Listen, you spoiled brat. Your father and ancestors suffered a lot so that you could have it this good. Stop being such a jerk.”
D. What are some things that our ancestors and predecessors have done for us? What do we have today that we owe to them?
1. Fighting wars to protect us from tyranny.
2. Pioneer ancestors making great sacrifices so that we could worship freely and have the gospel today.
E. How is it beneficial for us to remember “the bondage of our fathers.”
F. One of my pioneer ancestors was William Hyde. Almost every narrative about the Mormon Battalion includes quotes from William Hyde. This was not because he was an important leader in the battalion or because he was a particularly good writer. It’s simply because he kept a journal. One of the stories he tells is the miracle of the turkeys. When he and a group of men were traveling from California back to Winter Quarters to reunite with their families, they were cold, tired and nearly starved to death. He wrote: “ On the morning of the 19th, we all were united in calling on the Lord to regard our situation in mercy and send us food from an unexpected quarter that we might have wherewith to subsist upon. And here the Lord heard our prayer. Soon after......wild turkeys began to pass our camp in droves, and such a sight I never before witnessed. Drove after drove continued to pass through the woods until night set in. We succeeded in getting four, which was one to every four persons, and after this we could not get any more, although our shots might be considered ever so fair, and we concluded to be satisfied. Probably it would have been a damage to us if we had got all we wanted as we were then suffering in extreme with hunger.”
1. I wouldn’t know about the sacrifices William Hyde made and how God blessed him if he hadn’t kept a journal.
III. “Have Ye Received His Image in Your Countenances?”
A. Read Alma 5:14.
1. What does it mean to “receive his image in your countenance?”
2. Brother Andrew Skinner said: “An ‘image’ is not just an outward visual impression but also a vivid representation, a graphic display, or a total likeness of something. It is a person or thing very much like another, a copy or counterpart. Likewise, countenance does not simply mean a facial expression or visual appearance. The word comes from an old French term originally denoting ‘behavior,’ ‘demeanor,’ or ‘conduct.’ In earlier times the word countenance was used with these meanings in mind. Therefore to receive Christ’s image in one’s countenance means to acquire the Savior’s likeness in behavior, to be a copy or reflection of the Master’s life. This is not possible without a mighty change in one’s pattern of living. It requires, too, a change in feelings, attitudes, desires and spiritual commitment. This involves the heart.”
3. In 1 John 3:2: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
B. Alma then goes on to give a long series of questions we can ask ourselves to better assess our own worthiness.
1. Have your been spiritually born of God?
2. Have you received his image in your countenances?
3. Have ye experienced this mighty change of heart?
4. Do ye exercise faith in Christ?
5. Do you look forward to the resurrection and the judgement?
6. Do you have a pure heart and clean hands?
C. Read Alma 5:26.
1. Neal A. Maxwell said: “It is not enough for us to have once been close to the Savior. (So was Sidney Rigdon.) Alma said, if we have once ‘felt to sing the song or redeeming love,’ can we feel so now?’ Dutiful discipleship creates many happy memories, but it does not make nostalgia a substitute for fresh achievement.”
IV. Pride.
A. Alma then goes on to talk about a particular sin. In his book Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis describes this sin in a chapter called “The Great Sin.” I’m going to read how he describes this sin and have you try to guess what it is: “There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a mon more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.” What is he talking about? Pride.
B. I enjoy listening to conference as much as the next guy, but I have to admit that off the top of my head I can’t remember much about what anyone talked about in conference last April. But I remember exactly what President Benson talked about in April of 1989, just a few months before I left on my mission. That was his famous talk on Pride. He quoted from and paraphrased much of this Chapter in C.S. Lewis’s book Mere Christianity. So I will be referring to it today.
C. Read Alma 5:27-30. At first glance it may seem that Alma is talking about 3 different sins here, pride, envy and mocking. I think that as we look closer at the sin of Pride we will see that envy and mocking stem from it.
D. Why is it so hard to recognize when we are committing the sin of Pride or Self-Conceit? It is not hard to know when we are guilty of stealing, lying, adulatory, murder. We may try to justify these sins, but we know when we’ve committed them. But most of us in this room are guilty of pride and may not even know it. How can we know when we are being prideful? Lewis says a good way to know by how easily we recognize it in others. “I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, ‘How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me, or show off?’ The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise. Two of a trade never agree.”
E. Lewis then explains that pride is competitive. “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If someone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”
1. This is how envy is a symptom of pride.
F. Lewis says, “it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.” Why is that? How does pride make us miserable?
G. Lewis observes, “Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people. But pride always means enmity– it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.” How is Pride showing enmity to God?
1. “In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurable superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that– and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison– you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God.”
H. Alma is talking to a group of mostly converted Christians. Why is it important for Christians to constantly be vigilant against Pride? Because we can be religious and still be guilty of Pride.
1. Lewis says, “That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshiping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people: that is, they pay a pennyworth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound’s wort of Pride towards their fellow-men.........Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good–above all, that we are better than someone else– I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil.”
H. Read Alma 5:53-55. How is charity related to humility? It is pride that makes us covet our own processions; that makes us think we deserve what we have.
IV. Conclusion.
A. Throughout chapter 5-7 of Alma we are reminded how we can “experience this mighty change of heart,” and overcome our sins. Read Alma 5:48. It is only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven and become like Him. And it is only by recognizing our own nothingness in comparison to God and Jesus Christ that we can overcome pride. Amen.
References:
Beardall, William
F., Jim - Times and Seasons
Lewis, C.S. - Mere Christianity, 1952
17 Weeks to Run My Butt Off - Week 13
Sorry this is late.
Well, I did a 7 mile run this week! My longest yet. I've really enjoyed this 17 week challange, and can't believe I only have 4 weeks left. As you can see, I'm working through a platau.. or however you spell it. Those can be frustrating at times (weigh-in day, mostly) but progress resumes after a couple of weeks. I just keep on running and counting my calories. I definitly need to add the weights into my routine. Having the extra muscle will help burn more fat per mile, give me more strength for speed and endurance, and, most importantly, it just looks really good in a bathing suit.
Starting ~ 163.5 lbs, 42% body fat
Week 1 ~ 161.0 lbs, 41% body fat, 2.5 lbs lost, 6.37 miles, ave minutes per mile 13:33, best minutes per mile 11:43
Weeks 2/ 3~ 159.5 lbs, 41% body fat, 1.5 lbs lost, 4.12 miles, ave mpm 13:31, best mpm 11:14 Also kayaked and swam.. not as effective.
Week 4 ~ 157 lbs, 40% body fat, 2.5 lbs lost, 9.98 miles, ave mpm 13:02, best mpm 11:21
Week 5 ~ 155 lbs, 40% body fat, 2 lbs lost, 18.31 miles, ave mpm 12:50, best mpm 10:32
Week 6 ~ 154 lbs, 39% body fat, 1 lb lost, 13.5 miles, ave mpm 12:31, best mpm 10:27
Week 7 ~ 151 lbs, 39% body fat, 3 lbs lost, 17.91 miles, ave mpm 12:07, best mpm 10:20
Week 8 ~ 151 lbs, 39% body fat, 0 lbs lost, 18.20 miles, ave mpm 11:36, best mpm 9:30
Week 9 ~ 149 lbs, 38% body fat, 2 lbs lost, 18.26 miles, ave mpm 11:27, best mpm 9:29
Week 10~ 149 lbs, 38% body fat, 0 lbs lost, 10.34 miles, ave mpm 10:47, best mpm 8:42
Week 11~ 147 lbs, 37% body fat, 2 lbs lost, 15.74 miles, ave mpm 11:35, best mpm 8:10
Week 12~ 146 lbs, 37% body fat, 1 lb lost, 13.52 miles, ave mpm 11:09, best mpm 7:42
Week 13~ 145 lbs, 37% body fat, 1 lb lost, 13.59 miles, ave mpm 11:01, best mpm 8:32
Overall Totals ~ 18 lbs lost, 5% body fat lost, 160.2 miles run
Friday, June 6, 2008
What if Juno was FLDS
Michelle and I rented Juno last night. It was a pretty good movie that made me laugh out loud several times. (“Your eggo is preggo.”) But, considering recent events, I couldn’t help but notice some cultural irony in the film.
Let's dress the main character in a pastel prairie skirt, make her boyfriend 3 years older and place them on a ranch in Texas. Suddenly we're no longer watching a light hearted, coming of age comedy about a quirky, precocious, pregnant teenager. Instead you have a Lifetime movie about "child abuse" and “sexual slavery” in a "religious cult."
Evidently it’s cute when teenagers have irresponsible sex and impregnate each other. We can even find humor in little Miss Juno’s ill-fated trip to the abortion clinic.
But there’s nothing cute about a pregnant 16 year old FLDS girl. In fact, her very existence is evidence of wide spread sexual abuse -- enough that the state should take away her baby and give him to a nice Baptist family in Dallas so he doesn't grow up to be a sexual predator.
I know from personal experiece on my OB rotation at University Hospital in San Antonio, where over half of the delivering mothers were under 18, that the state of Texas does not routinely treat teenage mothers as abuse victims; we sent babies home with 16 year old mothers and their 19 year old gang-banger boyfriends all the time. So, from what I can tell, the only reason the teenage FLDS mothers were singled out was that their religion and family life was just too weird and icky. Although I personally don’t approve of the FLDS lifestyle (and I find it weird and ichy myself), I think we should take a long hard look at our own cultural problems before we start casting too many stones in their direction.
It was still a great movie though. I'd give in 4/5 stars.