Category: Scripture Notes
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A place of shelter
How do we make our home place of shelter from the heat and from rain? In short, how do we make a place of refuge? Perhaps a more critical question is, can we have a refuge and still include everyone? I think the answer needs to be “yes” but that requires that we find a…
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Avoiding leadership
We may assume that the Lord removed capable leaders from the people as a punishment (“the Lord of Hosts, doth take away…The mighty man…the man of war…the judge…the prophet…the prudent…the ancient…”) which is certainly sometimes true but it sounds like the leadership vacuum is mostly caused by those with the capacity to lead refusing to…
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Ask thee a sign
It is not common that the Lord invites people to ask for a sign (I’m not sure He invited Gideon to ask but He certainly allowed it) but what does it say about Ahaz that he would not ask? Some might view that as faithful (“I will not tempt the Lord”) but the Lord sounds…
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A cloud and smoke by day
How will we recognize the cloud and smoke by day and the pillar of fire by night that the Lord will create upon every dwelling place in Mount Zion? I am working to build such a dwelling place for my flock.
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Children to be their princes
I’ve always thought of this as people chasing after and doing the bidding of actual children (which we certainly see) but today I realized that we are watching at scale as technical adults who act like children and think like children and throw temper tantrums like children and increasingly in charge of very adult institutions…
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The day of the Lord of hosts
It is clear that the day of the Lord of hosts has not come yet because we are still clearly in the time that will precede that where people are lifted up in pride and worshipping the work of their hands and mistreating the poor.
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The fundamental thing
Nephi knew how to stay focused and make his decisions based on the most fundamental thing. He used his words to testify of Christ and he based his decisions about what to share based on the sin to prove to the people the spiritual necessity of building faith in Christ. The focus on Christ is…
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Conditions for the promised land
Jacob lays out clearly the conditions for being blessed upon the promised land—don’t fight against Zion and have God as your god. This applies to the children of Israel—specifically the seed of Lehi—as well as the gentiles who will be less to the land later. Those conditions for blessings really aren’t specific to the promised…
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Saved by default
Contrary to most Christian sects, Jacob teaches of a plan whereby people are not condemned in ignorance. Those who have not been given the law are covered by the Atonement of Christ. Some people might conclude that leaving people in ignorance is the easiest way to save most of His children but they fail to…
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The people in whose heart I have written my law
This is a good example of the interplay between agency and grace. The Lord would willingly write his law in the heart of every person but we have to allow it to happen. On the other hand, we can’t write His law in our hearts all we can do is allow Him to do His…