From Fasting to Feasting

The last verse of 1 Nephi 1 and the first two verses of 1 Nephi 2 read: "But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender  c mercies  of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of  d deliverance . "For behold, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto my father, yea, even in a dream, and said unto him: Blessed art thou Lehi, because of the things which thou hast done; and because thou hast been faithful and declared unto this people the things which I commanded thee, behold, they seek to  a take away  thy  b life . "And it came to pass that the Lord  a commanded  my father, even in a  b dream , that he should  c take  his family and depart into the wilderness." We again see that God often communicates in dreams. This is a very normal way for us to begin to see and understand the revelations God has for us. Most nights I find myself praying to have revela...

We learn in the next few verses of chapter 1 that Lehi was not accustomed to Spiritually intense manifestations. He came home exhausted and fell to his bed. Here is the next truth we learn…often the initial revelation is only the tip of the iceberg.  There is another beautiful truth we gain here - God is aware of our human bodies and the limitations they have when we are beginning our interactions with the Spirit in very powerful ways. Again and again the doctrines, instructions, truths, and mysteries are revealed in dreams. This is incredibly efficient as the body can rest and the conscious mind doesn’t fight the message that is coming. God is able to do things like that and He does them for us often. But the big takeaway for me in verses 6-14 is that there was SO much more the Lord desired to reveal to Lehi than what was revealed in the very beginning. Lehi could have panicked after that first pillar revelation and fought through his exhaustion to talk with his family about it al...

 Over the years, as I’ve talked with people about the Book of Mormon and especially about Nephi, I always hear the same things. It goes something along the lines of, “The stories are good, but those Isaiah chapter…” And that seems to be what people get from 1 and 2 Nephi.  At one point I thought to write a book about how I see and understand those pages of scripture. But let’s face it, I’m me. Writing a book takes organization and that is something I really do not do well. So instead I’m going to try to pull things together here.  To me, the first 117 pages of the Book of Mormon are the manual for how to enter into the presence of Christ, not when I die, but here in this mortal world in this mortal body. But to convince you of this, I need to first explain what I feel it means to follow Jesus Christ. For as long as I can remember I was told to follow Jesus, to do as He did. As a little girl I wondered how in the world I was going to be able to walk on water, or cause the ...

  “Whom shall he teach a knowledge ? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are b weaned from the c milk , and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, a precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little…” Isaiah 28:9-10 God, from the beginning of the fall of Adam and Eve, instituted the eternal laws of progression; a pattern for learning. There is an order to progression. It comes the same way for every one of us, from the least to the greatest. We are taught that even Jesus Christ, our Savior and Mediator, learned in this fashion. He did not have a fullness at first, but learned line upon line. (Luke 2:40, Doctrine and Covenants 93:12-14) Thus the pattern was established that we should grow into our gifts, our purposes for being on this earth, and our eternal progressions. Understanding that this is the way our Father in Heaven works, I have always struggled with the idea that Joseph Smith was a pro...

Having experienced much of what could be termed abuse in my life, I have sought deeply to understand the truth of man and woman that I might heal and have whole relationships.  There are some truths which are hard to hear and some truths which cause rejoicing when heard.  The particular truths I desire to share here, if a person is not ready to hear them, will sound very wrong and hard to hear.  So before you read further, I ask that you pause and consider whether or not you are willing and ready to read my words as I intend them, giving them my meaning and not adding your own on top of them.  If you are not in a healthy space with masculine and feminine truths, if there is bitterness or anger in you, please pause and consider coming back to this post another time.  Otherwise, this post may incite you and cause anger to rise in your heart because you won't be ready to understand the true meaning of these words. That very long disclaimer said, if you choose to ...

As we continue on with the conversation of Jacob in preparing us to understand the Olive Tree Allegory, he begins to tell us the real purpose for the truths he is going to make known to us. In verses 11, Jacob is telling us to reconciled to Christ, that we might obtain a resurrection in Christ, "...and be presented as the first-fruits of Christ unto God, having faith, and obtained a good hope of glory in him before he manifesteth himself in the flesh."  In other words, we are to be reconciled to God through Christ, by way of the Atonement of the Savior.  What do these words mean?  Application and personal receiving of the Atonement into our hearts for sure.  But there is more to it than that.  Jacob goes from speaking of reconciliation to the stumbling of the Jews to being filled with the spirit of prophecy to teaching the parable of the olive tree.  This, it would seem, is the answer to what it means to be reconciled to Christ and to God through the Ato...

I recently had a dear friend text me the following: Question for you about sacrificing our wills: what is the point of God preserving our wills if we just give it up to Him? It seems like kind of a waste. For the record I know I need to (submit my will to His).  I'm trying to understand why. I told him this was a long conversation that required a foundational view of several doctrines in order to understand this doctrine truly.  As I was pondering on the conversation to have with him, I felt impressed to write the conversation here and share it. First, is my will the same thing as my moral agency?  What is agency?  What is "my will"? Agency is the right with which we are each endowed to choose according to our will. Our will is the desire within our hearts. God preserves agency that we might have the ability to submit our will.  He does not preserve our will - as sentient beings, even God does not and could not tamper with our will without it affe...