Day 115: Ether 2-3

Thomas S. Monson

“Are we today serving the God of the land, even the Lord Jesus Christ? Do our lives conform with His teachings? Are we entitled to His divine blessings?

Headlines from America's leading newspapers, depicting recent events, pass silently in review, that you and I may judge: ‘Serious Crime Registers 10% Increase in Past Year,’ ‘Violence Rocks South,’ ‘Racial Strife Hits East.’ Murder, rape, arson, burglary, assault, narcotics violations are all on the increase in the America of today. These are the headlines of today's newspapers.

The revered Abraham Lincoln accurately described our plight: ‘We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.’ (Proclamation for a National Fast Day, March 30, 1863.)

“Can we extricate ourselves from this frightful condition? Is there a way out? If so, what is the way? We can solve this perplexing dilemma by adopting the counsel given by Jesus to the inquiring lawyer who asked: ‘Master, which is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus said unto him, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ (Matthew 22:36-39.)” (Be Your Best Self, p. 96-97)

Day 114: Mormon 9 - Ether 1

Mormon 9:4 ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God…than ye would with the damned souls in hell...

“Later, when I began a serious study of the scriptures, I noticed references to being spiritually clean. One verse says, ‘Ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell.’ “I could understand that. I remembered how I felt that day in Los Angeles. I reasoned that to be spiritually unclean would bring shame and humiliation immeasurably more intense than I felt then. I found references—there are at least eight of them—which say that no unclean thing can enter the presence of God. While I realized those references had little to do with dirty clothes or soiled hands, I decided I wanted to stay spiritually clean.” (President Boyd K. Packer, Conference Report, May 1997, “Washed Clean”)

"We are responsible for our reactions when we see imperfections in others." - Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“Do you get answers to your prayers? If not, perhaps you did not pay the price. Do you offer a few trite words and worn-out phrases, or do you talk intimately to the Lord? Do you pray occasionally when you should be praying regularly, often, constantly? Do you offer pennies to pay heavy debts when you should give dollars to erase that obligation? When you pray do you just speak, or do you also listen? Your Savior said, 'Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.' (Revelation 3:20.)….The Lord stands knocking. He never retreats. But he will never force himself upon us. If we ever move apart, it is we who move and not the Lord. And should we ever fail to get an answer to our prayers, we must look into our lives for a reason.” (President
Spencer W. Kimball, "Prayer," New Era, March 1978, pp. 16-17)

Day 113: Mormon 8

“I would like to call your attention to one thing in the Book of Mormon. The Lord has promised us greater knowledge, greater understanding than we find in the Book of Mormon, when we are prepared to receive it. When the brother of Jared went upon the mount to have the Lord touch stones to give them light to light their way across the great ocean, the Lord revealed to him the history of this world from the beginning of it to the end. We do not have it.

“…Now the Lord has placed us on probation as members of the Church. He has given us the Book of Mormon, which is the lesser part, to build up our faith through our obedience to the counsels which it contains, and when we ourselves, members of the Church, are willing to keep the commandments as they have been given to us and show our faith as the Nephites did for a short period of time, then the Lord is ready to bring forth the other record and give it to us, but we are not ready now to receive it. Why? Because we have not lived up to the requirements in this probationary state in the reading of the record which had been given to us and in following its counsels.” (President Joseph Fielding Smith, Conference Report, Oct. 1961, pp. 19-20)

Day 112: Mormon 5-7

The end of Mormon, we look back at the thousand years complied in previous books and chapters - the rise and fall of the peoples who once inhabited the Americas. In a few days we will be reading in Ether wherein Moroni compiles their civilization and life in a matter of a few pages. Why the contrast? Because there are many important lessons to be learned from these sacred words. “The tragedy of the Book of Mormon is not what became of the Nephites but what the Nephites became.” (Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah)

“A loving father does not despise his children. These [Lamanites] are a chosen people, and this Church has an important part in restoring them to their rightful inheritance. The chasm between what they are and what they will be is opportunity. The gospel furnishes that opportunity; it is ours to give.” (President Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, Dec. 1975, p. 7)

“Great nations do not fall because of external aggression; they first erode and decay inwardly, so that, like rotten fruit, they fall of themselves. The strength of a country is the sum total of the moral strength of the individuals in that country.” (President Ezra Taft Benson, This Nation Shall Endure, p. 95)

Day 111: Mormon 3-4

“That is our duty. When we see evil lurking, when we see dangers confronting the people, and especially the Latter-day Saints, it is our duty to raise the warning voice, and not only in behalf of the Latter-day Saints, but to warn all people, for our mission is one that is world-wide, and we should warn all men and give them the opportunity of repentance, of serving the Lord and keeping his commandments if they will. If they will not, then we have saved our souls. We are clear from the blood of this generation. That is our duty.” (President Joseph Fielding Smith, Conference Report, Oct. 1933, p. 61)

Day 110: Mormon 1-2

Regarding Mormon 2:13 "their sorrowing was not unto repentance…it was rather the sorrowing of the damned" is best summed up in the words from Elder Spencer W. Kimball:

“Often people indicate that they have repented when all they have done is to express regret for a wrong act. But true repentance is marked by that godly sorrow that changes, transforms, and saves. To be sorry is not enough. Perhaps the felon in the penitentiary, coming to realize the high price he must pay for his folly, may wish he had not committed the crime. That is not repentance. The vicious man who is serving a stiff sentence for rape may be very sorry he did the deed, but he is not repentant if his heavy sentence is the only reason for his sorrow. That is the sorrow of the world.

The truly repentant man is sorry before he is apprehended. He is sorry even if his secret is never known. He desires to make voluntary amends…Repentance of the godly type means that one comes to recognize the sin and voluntarily and without pressure from outside sources begins his transformation.” (Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 153)

“Recognition is a sacred moment…real remorse floods the soul…False remorse instead is like ‘fondling our failings.’ In ritual regret, we mourn our mistakes but without mending them.” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Conference Report, Nov. 1991 Ensign, “Repentance”)

“…the natural man never picks up the cross. His is the ‘sorrowing of the damned,’ which involves regret but not necessarily over the sin itself. Instead, it is because these sorrowers can no longer take pleasure in sin (see Mormon 2:13). Quite a difference, for the natural man still clings, not to the cross, but to his old ways” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, That Ye May Believe, p. 48)

Day 109: 3 Nephi 29 - 4 Nephi

For many years following the visit of Jesus Christ among the people of the Americas, peace, love, and prosperity abounded. This society was living the consecrated life and keeping selfishness and judgment from tainting their society.

“We need to learn, practice, study, know and understand how angels live with each other. When this community comes to the point to be perfectly honest and upright, you will never find a poor person; none will lack, all will have sufficient. Every man, woman, and child will have all they need just as soon as they all become honest. When the majority of the community are dishonest, it maketh the honest portion poor, for the dishonest serve and enrich themselves at their expense.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 232)

The First Presidency “Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World”)