reading mormon
sometimes when i am reading the Book of Mormon, i dread the time i will spend in 4 Nephi, Mormon, Ether and Moroni. there is so much sadness and destruction. it's hard to read about the fall of a people i feel like i've come to know and love a little bit. it's hard to be with mormon and moroni as they live their lives not able to save their people. they must have felt so helpless. these are some verses that made me think and that touched me in my reading today:
"...and they are without Christ and God in the world; and they are driven about as chaff before the wind.
They were once a delightsome people, and they had Christ of their shepherd; yea, they were led even by God the Father.
But now, behold, they are led about by Satan, even as chaff is driven before the wind, or as a vessel is tossed about upon the waves, without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her; and even as she is, so are they."
--Mormon 5:16-18
to be without Christ and God in the world when once you walked with them and were led to green pastures and upheld and protected and strengthened by them. to have had a life of light, to have been blessed. i don't know, the words "to be without Christ and God in the world" is terrifying to me and i know that i'm no saint, but i've felt the light of God in my life and when i don't feel it, i miss it and i go looking for it and He's always there to return to and he's always ready to lift me up. and it's knowing that, as mormon says, "the mercies and longsuffering of the Lord", as he said himself "... how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, yea O ye pople of the house of Israel, who have fallen; yea, O ye people of he house of Israel,...how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not.", it's the availability of forgiveness of shelter, if only you take it, that makes the sorrow of their decisions to throw themselves out there in the merciless world with hard hearts, all the harder to bear.
"And my soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and i cried:
O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!
Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss.
O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye hsubands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen!
But behold ye are gone and my sorrows cannot bring your return."
"...and they are without Christ and God in the world; and they are driven about as chaff before the wind.
They were once a delightsome people, and they had Christ of their shepherd; yea, they were led even by God the Father.
But now, behold, they are led about by Satan, even as chaff is driven before the wind, or as a vessel is tossed about upon the waves, without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her; and even as she is, so are they."
--Mormon 5:16-18
to be without Christ and God in the world when once you walked with them and were led to green pastures and upheld and protected and strengthened by them. to have had a life of light, to have been blessed. i don't know, the words "to be without Christ and God in the world" is terrifying to me and i know that i'm no saint, but i've felt the light of God in my life and when i don't feel it, i miss it and i go looking for it and He's always there to return to and he's always ready to lift me up. and it's knowing that, as mormon says, "the mercies and longsuffering of the Lord", as he said himself "... how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, yea O ye pople of the house of Israel, who have fallen; yea, O ye people of he house of Israel,...how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not.", it's the availability of forgiveness of shelter, if only you take it, that makes the sorrow of their decisions to throw themselves out there in the merciless world with hard hearts, all the harder to bear.
"And my soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and i cried:
O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!
Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss.
O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye hsubands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen!
But behold ye are gone and my sorrows cannot bring your return."
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