Jewel Making

D&C 101: 1-4 “Verily I say unto you, concerning your brethren who have been afflicted… I, the Lord, have suffered the ^aaffliction to come upon them… Yet I will own them, and they shall be ^amine in that day when I shall come to make up my jewels. Therefore, they must needs be ^achastened and tried, even as ^bAbraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son. For all those who will not ^aendure chastening, but ^bdeny me, cannot be sanctified.”

Zechariah 13:9 “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will ^arefine them as silver is refined, and will ^btry them as gold is ^ctried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.”

D&C 136: 31 “My people must be ^atried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not ^cbear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom.”

Isa. 48: 10 “Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the ^afurnace of ^baffliction.” Alma 34: 29 “Therefore, if ye do not remember to be ^acharitable, ye are as dross, which the refiners do cast out, (it being of no worth) and is trodden under foot of men.”

Zech. 9: 16  “And the Lord their God shall ^asave them in that ^bday as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the ^cstones of a crown, lifted up as an ^eensign upon his land.”

Romans 8:16-18 “The Spirit itself beareth ^awitness with our ^bspirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; ^aheirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we ^bsuffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the ^asufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the ^bglory which shall be revealed ^cin us.”

Mosiah 5: 7 “And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are ^bchanged through faith on his name; therefore, ye are ^cborn of him and have become his ^dsons and his daughters.”

Mosiah 15: 10-13 “When his soul has been made an offering for ^bsin he shall see his seed… And who shall be his seed?  Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the ^aprophets, … and believed that the Lord would redeem his people… these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God. For these are they whose sins ^ahe has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions.”

D&C 132:19 “Exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.”

Moses 1: 39 “For behold, this is my ^awork and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

God’s Glory is jewel making

Isa. 62:3 “Thou shalt also be a ^acrown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

We are children of Christ, His followers and His jewels. When we are exalted, we will bring Him glory. If glory is a continuation of seeds forever and ever, then the highest glory we can give to our Savior is to be exalted.

Thank Goodness for Maps

I have been totally and completely reliant on maps.google.com since we moved to Arizona. I feel so much more confident about going someplace if I have checked google maps, printed out the directions, and checked the street view to see what side of the street it’s on:

I’m starting to recognize some streets, and memorize if they go north/south or east/west. I’m becoming more familiar with the different kinds of streetlights and road markings. Sometimes I feel like this is a different country because when you drive south towards Mexico, the signs change from miles to kilometers and meters:

I would not feel very comfortable going somewhere in this new city without checking a map, getting a little guidance first. Thank goodness for guidance in life’s journey too. Elder Nelson said,

“[God] provided a guide—a spiritual road map—to help us achieve success in our journey. We call that guide the standard works, so named because they—the Holy Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price—constitute the standard by which we should live. They serve as a standard of reference, as are standards of time, weights, and measures that are kept in national bureaus of standards.” (Living by Spiritual Guidance)

I am totally and completely reliant on my spiritual guides. Without them, I would often be lost. Thank goodness for maps in the scriptures. Elder Nelson calls these maps “the standard by which we should live.” Elder Bednar calls them “patterns:”

“A pattern is a plan, model, or standard that can be used as a guide for repetitively doing or making something. And the scriptures are full of spiritual patterns. Typically, a scriptural pattern is broader and more comprehensive than a connection. In the Doctrine and Covenants we find patterns for preaching the gospel, for avoiding deception, for constructing temples … and for a variety of other purposes.” (Elder Bednar – A Reservoir of Living Water)

The patterns and guides in the scriptures help and comfort me when I feel nervous or anxious or unsure. So do all the people who love me. I’m thankful for parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, friends, cousins and teachers for leading and guiding me. Most of all, I’m thankful that the Lord answers my prayers when I seek guidance.

“For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy ^aname’s sake lead me, and guide me.” (Psalm 31:3) 

This scripture reminds me of “I am a child of God…and so my needs are great. Help me to understand his words, before it grows to late. Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do, to live with Him someday.”

“Be thou ^ahumble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.” (Doctrine and Covenants 112:10)

I know the Lord is extending his hand to us, to lead us and comfort us.

Love to everyone who reads this!

“The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose”

I walked around the neighborhood this morning and was stunned by all the pretty plants that I hadn’t noticed before. It’s interesting how you notice things when you’re walking and not when you’re driving.

I thought I was in the desert, where nothing grows and nothing blooms, but there so many gorgeous plants blooming in all the neighbor’s yards that it gives me hope! Maybe I can grow something here after all.

I thought of Isaiah’s prophesy that “the wilderness and the ^asolitary place shall be ^bglad for ^cthem; and the ^ddesert shall rejoice, and ^eblossom as the rose” (Isaiah 35:1).

Isaiah was talking about the day of restoration, building Zion, and Christ coming again – how the Lord would prosper Zion even though it seemed impossible, impossible like growing things in the desert. As the Saints gathered during the early church, this prophesy was fulfilled. In Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord uses the same language as Isaiah’s prophecy to reprimand the Saints who were nervous about giving up their possessions for Zion:

“Let them repent of all their sins, and of all their covetous desires, before me, saith the Lord; for what is ^aproperty unto me? …For have I not the fowls of heaven, and also the fish of the sea, and the beasts of the mountains? Have I not ^amade the earth? Do I not hold the ^bdestinies of all the armies of the nations of the earth?

“Therefore, will I not make ^asolitary places to bud and to ^bblossom, and to bring forth in abundance?

“… Is there not room enough on the mountains of ^aAdam-ondi-Ahman, … that you should covet that which is but the drop, and neglect the more weighty matters? Therefore, come up hither unto the land of my people, even Zion” (Doctrine and Covenants 117:4-9)

Nothing is impossible with to the Lord. If he can make the desert blossom as a rose, he can make us prosperous even when we seem to be in a desert. After all, He holds the destinies of the armies and nations of earth, He created the earth – we don’t need to worry about “drops” as small as property, cars, clothes, finances, 10% of our income – as long as we follow Him.

The Lord will take care of all the “drops” in our lives, if we will devote ourselves to the “weightier matters.”

Acting in Faith, Mailing the Letter

I substitute taught Lance’s mother’s seminary class last week, and as usual, I think I learned more than the students did.

I covered the book of Hebrews. I ended with a discussion about faith from chapter 11. Paul wrote to all the Jewish Christians about acts of faith from men and women in their scriptures (the Old Testament – they didn’t have the New Testament yet, it was still being written). Paul started by defining faith, a very similar definition to the one Alma gave:

Heb. 11:1 Now ^afaith is the ^bsubstance of things ^choped for, the ^devidence of things not seen.

Alma 32:21 ^aFaith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye ^bhope for things which are ^cnot seen, which are true.

James taught that faith isn’t just a mere hope, it is accompanied by works, or an action: “I will shew thee my ^afaith by my ^bworks” (James 2:18).

The seminary manual had a GREAT illustration of faith:

When you go to the post office, and drop a letter in the mail to your brother, you are showing faith that will be delivered. You aren’t actually going to see the letter as it is loaded onto an airplane, flown across the country and delivered by a post man to your brother’s mail box. However, you mail the letter – an act of faith – because you know that it will be delivered. How do you know? Maybe you had a previous experience with mailing a letter and it was successful. Maybe trusted friends have testified to you about the result of mailing a letter.

It was so fun to apply the “mailing the letter” definition to the examples of faith that Paul lists in Hebrews 11.

Heb 11:7 By faith ^aNoah, being ^bwarned of God of things not seen as yet, ^cmoved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the ^drighteousness which is by faith.

When did Noah “mail the letter,” or show his faith? He acted in faith when he built the ark. He “mailed the letter” – followed God’s commandment to build an ark because his previous experiences had taught Him that when he obeyed God’s commandments, he was blessed.

Heb 11:8 By faith ^aAbraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an ^binheritance, ^cobeyed; and he went out, not ^dknowing whither he went.

When did Abraham act in faith, or “mail the letter”? When he obeyed God to leave his home and wander in the wilderness. What was the evidence that “the letter was received” – that his act of faith led to a result that could not be seen at first? When God blessed him with a land of inheritance.

Sometimes by following God’s commandments, we feel like we are wandering in the wilderness. This strange desert land that I am now living in feels very wilderness-like, but I know I’m supposed to be here. From experience, I know that the Lord takes care of those who keep his commandments.