Abiding Precepts – 1 Nephi 20

Read the full chapter here: 1 Nephi 20

Passage #1

For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

For mine own sake, yea, for mine own sake will I do this, for I will not suffer my name to be polluted, and I will not give my glory unto another.

1 Nephi 20:10-11

Precept #1

Let your personal difficulties refine you into a better person and one who brings glory to God.

How have the challenges of life refined you and strengthened your relationship and connection with God?

Passage #2

Hearken unto me, O Jacob, and Israel my called . . .

1 Nephi 20:12

Precept #2

Listen to God.

What is God trying to tell you right now?

Passage #3

. . . who among them hath declared these things unto them?

1 Nephi 20:14

Precept #3

Declare the gospel to the people around you.

How does sharing Gospel principles with people bring you closer to God?

Passage #4

And thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I have sent him, the Lord thy God who teacheth thee to profit, who leadeth thee by the way thou shouldst go, hath done it.

1 Nephi 20:17

Precept #4

Let God teach you how to profit, how to succeed.

What have you let God teach you to succeed at?

Passage #5

Go ye forth of Babylon . . .

1 Nephi 20:20

Precept #5

Change your decision making so that it is in line with God’s way of being instead of the world around you.

Are your decisions more in line with the Gospel teachings than they ever have been before?

Bonus Passage

And it came to pass that I did frankly forgive them all that they had done

1 Nephi 7:21

Bonus Precept

Forgive. Everyone who harms you in any way. Intentional. Unintentional. Forgive them no matter the cost.

How has forgiving others brought freedom to your life and soul?

Published by Russty

I remember my first truly sacred experience when I was 12 years old. The next was somewhere around 14. My teenage years after that - after beginning a life-long study of the LDS canon of scripture - was chalked full of sacred experience after sacred experience which have developed in me a love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a devotion to His teachings as taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Because of those experiences as a young man I can say for sure that Jesus Christ lives today and is the Son of the Living God. He atoned for me and has "redeemed my soul from hell." It was in those years that I learned for myself that the Book of Mormon is the true word of God. That came to be a huge social battle for one young as I was growing up in the Bible belt. I spent those years trying to live my life in such a way that people would know that I was a follower of Christ only to find out after years of hanging out with my friends that none of them believed I was Christian. This was devestating to me, a young man simply trying to show a good example as a follower of Christ. I felt like I had failed. It was only after serving my two year mission for the LDS Church that I realized the reason for their opinion was simply because our definition of what it meant to be Christian was drastically different. For me it had been about following Christ and living His teachings. For them it was whether or not my beliefs fell within their narrowly defined window of what they believed about God and Jesus Christ. I realize now that I was doomed to fail from the beginning! It was in those years while I was trying to show people that I was a follower of Christ - facing opposition from friend, minister, and teacher alike - that I began studying the scriptures not just to understand His Gospel, but to come to understand answers to the challenges I was being presented with. In short I became as much of a Mormon apologist as a teenage boy with little education could ever become. But I at least had the scriptures and and the guidance of truly devoted and inspired friends and teachers - and that was all I needed. It is this pattern of questioning and searching for answers which has informed all of my scripture study and learning over the years of my life since then. My research and understanding of the Gospel, the Church, The Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith have all grown and expanded because of that constant and consistent devotion to studying. And they will all continue to do so - for the knowledge of God is infinite and there is no way in the life to learn it all. This blog is an outlet for all I have learned and considered over the years of my Gospel study. I have found - as many people who have come to know the teachings of Christ the way I have - that when the Word is a part of one's soul he or she cannot escape the desire to share It. So share it I do. There are imperfections and missing pieces in what I write, but all in all I truly feel the Lord has blessed me with the one thing I have desired more than almost anything else: a well rounded understanding of His doctrine and truth as He has given to us at this point. Please forgive my imperfections for this blog is as much about improving myself and my own knowledge and faith in God and Christ as it is for helping anyone else do the same.

Abiding Precepts, Russty's Daily Coat, The Book of Mormon

, , , ,

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Website Powered by WordPress.com.

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: