Day 100: 3 Nephi 10-11

We have now arrived at the crowning event of The Book of Mormon; the visitation of Jesus Christ to the peoples on the American continent. There's little I can say for the beginning of this marvelous event, but a few bits to note just prior to the Savior's descent includes:
- Repentance
- Promises fulfilled
- People gathering at the temple
- They heard the voice of their Heavenly Father

“He speaks and says simply, with a voice that penetrates the very marrow of your bones, ‘I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.’ (3 Nephi 11:10.)

There it is—or, more correctly speaking, there he is. The focal point and principal figure behind every fireside and devotional and family home evening held by those Nephites for the last six hundred years, and by their Israelite forefathers for thousands of years before that.

Everyone has talked of him and sung of him and dreamed of him and prayed—but here he actually is. This is the day and yours is the generation. What a moment! But you find you are less inclined to check the film in your camera than you are to check the faith in your heart.” (Elder
Jeffrey R. Holland, On Earth As It Is In Heaven, p. 125)

Day 99: 3 Nephi 7-9

“Here another lesson is obvious. Throughout ecclesiastical history we find that those who rejected the prophets and failed to repent of their wickedness were struck by calamities which caused them literally to weep and to mourn and to regret their failure to heed the warnings of the prophets. We know that Christ was crucified and some of his apostles persecuted and stoned simply for trying to establish the kingdom of God and bring people to repentance and a happier way of life.

Today the world is rejecting the messages of the prophets of God. Is it not true that there is weeping and wailing over the face of the land because men are at war one with another? Do we not have among us many who lament the waywardness of their youth and the tragedies that befall them as they turn away from righteousness and suffer the consequences of tampering with alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, and other forbidden things[pornography]? How many mourners do we have as a result of the lawlessness that is extant in our communities? We need to heed the lessons from the history of the past lest we be consumed as were some of those earlier civilizations.” (Elder N. Eldon Tanner, Conference Report, May 1975 Ensign, p. 34)

Let us look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ with hope and happiness, no matter what befalls around us. Let us keep the faith, fight the good fight, and be found worthy to present ourselves before our Savior in purity and love.

Day 98: 3 Nephi 6-7

“I have been deeply impressed with the beauty and power of this scriptural account in 3 Nephi, and with its great value for our time and our generation.

The record of the Nephite history just prior to the Savior’s visit reveals many parallels to our own day as we anticipate the Savior’s second coming. The Nephite civilization had reached great heights. They were prosperous and industrious. They had built many cities with great highways connecting them. They engaged in shipping and trade. They built temples and palaces.

But, as so often happens, the people rejected the Lord. Pride became commonplace. Dishonesty and immorality were widespread. Secret combinations flourished because, as Helaman tells us, the Gadianton robbers ‘had seduced the more part of the righteous until they had come down to believe in their works and partake of their spoils’ (Hel. 6:38). ‘The people began to be distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning’ (3 Ne. 6:12). And ‘Satan had great power, unto the stirring up of the people to do all manner of iniquity, and to the puffing them up with pride, tempting them to seek for power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world,’ even as today (3 Ne. 6:15).” (President Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, May 1987, p. 4)

Let us be wise in this short duration of life and do the best we can to build righteousness and extend the wonderful gift we have all been given - agency.

Day 97: 3 Nephi 4-5

3 Ne 5:1 "there was not a living soul…who did doubt in the least" - Conversion by crisis is the theme among the Nephites. Only when disaster strikes are they willing to repent and call upon the Lord, but it is always a last ditch effort to avoid extinction.

“…changing circumstances can like wise affect nearly a whole people's faith…Now, listen to this: ‘There began to be great doubtings and disputations among the people, notwithstanding so many signs had been given.’ (3 Nephi 8:4.)

As I check the years of these two verses, I note that this decline happened in the space of a mere ten years or less! Circumstances changed from one in which ‘not a living soul’ doubted the prophecies to a time in which there were ‘great doubtings.’ It isn't very confidence inspiring, is it?” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, We Talk Of Christ, We Rejoice In Christ, p. 64)

“Someday when we kneel again in those corridors where that special shout once echoed, having been delivered from our last enemy, death, we will have hearts ‘swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears.’ (3 Nephi 4:33.) It is a moment we must not miss! It is worth cheerfully enduring a few disappointments and pains now and letting a few mortal appetites go unsatiated.” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Notwithstanding My Weakness, p. 58)

Day 96: 3 Nephi 2-3

After such a marvelous experience with prophecies come to pass, blessings poured out, and faith following the miracles, why did the people fall so quickly into the traps of Satan? Oh...wait...faith following the miracle? This is why faith before the miracles are so important! Roughly 5 yeas had passed and the people were already blinded. If we do not have the faith, we too can be blinded within a very short time.

“How quickly [Satan] moves in even where people have had special spiritual experiences, seeking to get people who have seen signs ‘To disbelieve all which they had heard and seen.’ (3 Nephi 2:1-2.) The adversary has a better chance to persuade us that what we believe is foolish if we worry about looking foolish in front of our fellowmen. We read about the subtleties of the devil and that the adversary persuadeth not one man to do good. (Alma 12:4; Moroni 7:17.)” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Things As They Really Are, p. 41)

Day 95: Helaman 16 - 3 Nephi 1

Before brushing off the song below, think of the words when you remember what happened with the Nephites in the city of Zarahemla. The closing chapter of Helaman shows how Satan did stir up the hearts of the Nephites to do iniquity. They reasoned amongst themselves that a Christ is not needed nor is possible for one to be able to atone for all.

To add to this confusion, the great prophet Nephi departed from the land right before the prophecies of all the prophets were coming to pass! Many had mixed emotions, and the believers feared the prophesies they believed in, may not happen. Some continued to look steadfastly for the signs. To add to this turmoil, the more wicked part decided to "put to death...all those who believed in those traditions".

Thus we see, the Lord does not leave them hopeless. The night before, the Lord comforted Nephi by confirming His coming into the world the next day as He promised - "I will fulfil"! And we see the Jesus did come into the world, and the sign was given; the righteous spared. Truly the light shined in those dark streets and the hopes and fears, of the last 5 years specifically, were met in the Lord that night.

O little town, Zarahemla,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee to-night.

How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His Heaven.
No ear may hear His coming;
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still
The dear Christ enters in.

"Joy to the world, the Lord is come!"

Day 94: Helaman 14-15

Helaman 14:30 ’Remember, my brethren...ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.’

"If you feel pressed in and pressured and not free, it may be for one of two reasons. One, if you have lost freedom, possibly it has been through some irresponsible act of your own. Now you must regain it. You may be indentured-indentured to some habits of laziness or indolence; some even become slaves to addiction. The other reason is that maybe if you are not free you have not earned it. Freedom is not a self-preserving gift. It has to be earned, and it has to be protected.

For instance, I am not free to play the piano, for I do not know how. I cannot play the piano…The ability to play the piano, the freedom to do that, has to be earned. It is a relatively expensive freedom. It takes an investment of time and of discipline. This discipline begins, as discipline usually does, from without. I hope that you do not have contempt for discipline that originates from without. That is the beginning. A parent usually presses a youngster to practice the piano. But somewhere, it is hoped, practice grows into self-discipline, which is really the only kind of discipline. The discipline that comes from within is that which makes a young person decide that he wants to be free to play the piano and play it well. Therefore, he is willing to pay the price. Then he can be free from supervision, from pressure, from whatever forms of persuasion parents use.”(Elder Boyd K. Packer, That All May Be Edified, p. 254)

“These words taken from the Book of Helaman indicate the purport of what I should like to say this afternoon…Among the immediate obligations and duties resting upon members of the Church today, and one of the most urgent and pressing for attention and action of all liberty loving people, is the preservation of individual liberty. Freedom of choice is more to be treasured than any possession earth can give. It is inherent in the spirit of man. It is a divine gift to every normal being. Whether born in abject poverty or shackled at birth by inherited riches, everyone has this most precious of all life's endowments -- the gift of free agency; man's inherited and inalienable right.

Free agency is the impelling source of the soul's progress. It is the purpose of the Lord that man become like him. In order for man to achieve this it was necessary for the Creator first to make him free. ‘Personal liberty,’ says Bulwer Lytton, ‘is the paramount essential to human dignity and human happiness.’” (President David O. McKay, Conference Report, Apr. 1950, p. 32)

“The great misery of departed spirits in the world of spirits, where they go after death, is to know that they come short of the glory that others enjoy and that they might have enjoyed themselves, and they are their own accusers.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 310-11)