40 Day Walk with Christ - Day 17, 18, 19

Read Alma 37-41
Mark & Ponder Alma 36:18-19
Scripture of the day "...I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood."  (D&C 101:80)
Thought for the day: "Nothing pleases Godmore than to have His children seek greater light and knowledge." (Hugh Nibley)

I read this late last night when my brain was barely functioning because I didn't want to get another day behind after missing Thanksgiving my thoughts may not be of the genius nature.  Alma 37:46: "...do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever."  If the Lord asked me to give up my life for Him I would do it in a heartbeat.  If He asked me to leave my home and all my possession behind and walk to Missouri with only the stuff I could carry in a backpack I would totally do it  But when He asks me to read my scriptures every day, or to love and serve my neighbor, or to go to the temple as often as possible...I struggle.  These are all easy things in comparison to what He could ask of us and yet they are harder for me to do. 

Alma 36:3 "...whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions..." I know this to be true for I have experienced this many times.  Even when I've been in the middle of a very difficult trial I've been able to feel peace and the love of God and been able to be happy even though everything around me was crap.  I don't know how people without God in their lives get through their trials without Him.

Alma 39:14 "Seek not after riches nor the vain things of this world; for behold, you cannot carry them with you." We, as a nation, spend WAY too much time seeking after the vain things of the world.  Why do we do that?  I always have a list a mile long of the things I want.  They aren't bad things; most of them are actually good things.  I want window well covers so the kids don't fall in the window wells, I want a fence so the kids can play out in the backyard without me worrying about them running into the street, I want the internet so I can keep our family journal on this blog and keep in contact with family and friends and be a part of their lives, I want lasik eye surgery so I don't have to deal with my contacts anymore, I want to do IVF so I can have another baby and add sweet little soul to our family...there isn't anything wrong with any of these things but they all require money so I'm constantly "seeking after riches."  I always want more money.  In today's world, how do you not focus on money?  The answer of course is found below in tomorrow's scripture but much easier said than done.


Read Alma 42-44
Mark & Ponder Alma 34:32-34
Scripture of the day: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)
Thought for the day: "Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, if He is not born in thee, thy soul is still forlorn."

 Something that has always baffled me about the scriptures: if someone swore an oath, good guy or bad guy, it was a concrete thing that wasn't broken.  In these chapters, Moroni tells Zerehemnah that if they will lay down their weapons and swear an oath that will never come against them in war again he will let them depart in peace.  Zerehemnah says they will not swear an oath they know they will break and would rather die and goes back to fighting.  That makes no sense in today's world.  We're talking about evil men who will not break an oath because they have integrity?  Bad guys today would say sure we'll make an oath with absolutely no intent of keeping it and it wouldn't bother them a bit.  A person's word today doesn't really mean anything.  Even good people tell someone they'll do something and then don't do it.  What was so different back then that a person's word was gold, regardless of how good or honest of a person they were?  Baffling...

Read Alma 45-50
Mark & Ponder Alma 46:12
Scripture of the day: "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be like unto Moroni, behold the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." (Alma 48:17)
Thought for the day: "The central conflict in the premortal council was: Shall man have agency , or shall he be coerced to be obedient? Christ stood for the former, satan for the latter. The conflict continues in mortality. One of Lucifer's primary strategies has been to restrict our agency through the power of earthly governments...we live in one of history's most exceptional moments - in a nation and a time of unprecedented freedom. Freedom as we know it has been experienced by perhaps less than 1 percent of the human family." (Pres Ezra Taft Benson)

It's hard to understand how a person like Amalikiah can be so incredibly evil and cunning.  Today I believe George Soros is an Amalikiah.  They seek to destroy and gain power and will do anything and everything in order to do so.  They don't care about human life or anyone else's quality of life, or how their actions will affect other people.  They only care about power.  It is frightening and hard to understand how someone could be that evil. 

One thing that always stands out to me in the war chapters is the need to prepare, strengthen, and fortify ourselves.  In these chapters they are physically fortifying themselves against the Lamanites.  In our lives we need to spiritually fortify ourselves against Satan.  Because there are such evil men in this world and it is only getting worse by the day (being the last days and all), we need to be spiritually prepared to meet the challenges, trials, afflictions, tribulations, etc that will befall us.  Adversity will come.  Are we prepared to meet it?  The reason there are so many members of the church today who have lost their testimonies and become inactive or fallen away is because they weren't prepared when Satan attacked.  Moroni dug ditches, built walls of dirt, put walls of timber on top of the dirt, put spikes on top of the timber walls, and built towers on top of that.  He didn't just do one thing and hope it was enough.  He kept strengthening and fortifying until the Lamanites came.  If we aren't constantly working on our spiritual fortification we won't be prepared when Satan attacks and we will fall spiritually.  We will commit sin.  We will lose our testimonies.  We will be like the Lamanites who completely forgot the Lord their God and will become people of the world instead of people of God.  It is so hard to watch loved ones who have fallen prey to this.