Skip to main content

1 Nephi 22:10-11

"And I would, my brethren, that ye should know that all the kindreds of the earth cannot be blessed unless he shall make bare his arm in the eyes of the nations.  Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to make bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations, in bringing about his covenants and his gospel unto those who are of the house of Israel."

The Lord will make bare His holy arm in the eyes of the nations...to me this phrase speaks of the visibility of His power.  It will be clear that the Lord is leading his people.  It will be clear that His protecting, guiding, all-powerful arm is in control and that He is in the midst of the people - invested in the daily moments as well as the eternal plan.  To those who believe in Him and call on His name, His arm being made bare will be glorious and joyful.  To those who fight against Zion, it will be an awesome and terrible thing - one that fills with fear, dread, and trembling.  

There is only truth and everything else.  Pride leads to everything else.  I see His arm being made bare all around me.  As Isaiah tells us, the Lord will make war against His people.  He will lay siege against them and distress them until they are humbled and brought down to the dust.  The they will see the tenderness and the mercy of it all.  As I see the trials and troubles around me, I cannot help but rejoice that I am watching God make bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations.  The distressing of Ariel is glorious and beautiful when viewed through an eternal eye.

I don't know why, but these two verses really make me think of Isaiah 29 and the symbolism found there about how we heal and come to really have God in our hearts and not just on our outward parts.  Ariel is all a part of it.  Ariel (another name for Jerusalem which is symbolic of Zion which is symbolic of every person who takes upon them the name of Christ) is everything.  To Him, we are everything.  And He will distress us until we are brought down to the dust so that we can finally find that eternal voice within each of us that gives knowledge and understanding that is beyond human comprehension.  He distresses us until we find our Knowing. 

We go through these things that we may find Him.  That His arm may be revealed...or in other words, that we can see and understand things as they truly are - understanding truth from error and understanding doctrine.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My life ended 10 days ago and then it started again.

Cory. The first time I met him and he told me his name, five minutes later I called him "Cody." And that is how we began, with me hurting his feelings because I remembered the wrong name. Twenty years and 3 months and one day after that first meeting, he died. I can hardly believe the life I've lived in those 20 years...it seems we packed an eternity of experiences - both good and awful - into those two decades. We were engaged the day we met. Four months later we were married. Thirteen years later we divorced. Two years after that, we were married again. Four years (plus a little) later, divorced again. Ten months, three weeks, and five days later, he was dead. The first divorce, I didn't know it was mental illness. One moment he was loving and the best man I'd ever known. The next moment he was scary and someone I was afraid to be around. He would apologize and I would believe him when he told me he would not do it again. I would immediately extend trust...

Shifting the Blog

Hi friends.  Up to today, the blog has just been writing some of the thoughts I've written in the margins of my scriptures as I studied them.  This morning, however, I am feeling pulled to change this blog in a different direction. All of us have baggage from life.  Maybe we were abused.  Maybe we thought of ourselves  as abused.  Maybe we didn't have the kind of parents our friends had.  Maybe we had the perfect parents and still felt sad.  Maybe we were struggling with fitting in so much that we completely changed who we were and now have no idea how to find ourselves again.  Maybe we were so popular that we felt constant pressure to perform and live up to the expectations of those around us.  Maybe life is lovely and we feel ungrateful because there is this nagging feeling that something is missing - but life is good and all of our needs are met.  Maybe we feel like our best isn't enough no matter what we do.  Maybe we fee...

"...seek first to obtain [my word]."

In Doctrine and Covenants 11:21 we read: "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea the power of God unto the convincing of men." Why did the Lord say obtain here?  Why not learn?  Why not understand?  Why not study?  Why not ponder?  Why obtain?  What does obtain mean?  To make it your own, yes?  How do you make His word your own?  How do you obtain it? To obtain something you must know it, understand it, be able to replicate the principle in entirely unrelated situations.  It must become yours.  It must be, as Elder Bruce R. McConkie said in his final testimony in General Conference before he died, "In speaking of these wondrous things I shall use my own words, though you may think they are the words of scripture, words spoken by other Apostles and prophets.  True it is they were first proclaimed by ...