Suffering and Faith

I have been pondering this scripture for the last few weeks:

1 Nephi 19:9

9 And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.

I a nut shell, if we want to follow Christ we to do as He does. This is the essence of being meek and lowly of heart. We abase ourselves or suffer through things that others say and do. Meek means to stay in Christ-centered control. We do not react from our fallen nature. Meek means, that once in a while we are prompted to unleash righteous indignation. As Jesus did, we throw over some tables or call a spade a spade regarding the wickedness of a group of people.

Most of the time we practice being lovingly kind and long-suffering towards others.

As we do this we show our faith in Jesus Christ. Without doing this our faith is vain.

Moroni 7:42-43

43 And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.

44 If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart;

Grace

I am still fascinated by Grace.  Looking at life through the eyes of Grace rather than through the eyes of Sin.  Sin, in that you see yourself in shame that you aren’t good enough, you aren’t enough, that you have too much Sin (or too many sins).  This puts Sin in the limelight.  If you put God’s grace in the limelight, then it shines on Sin and exposes it for what it really is: dumb stuff.  Sin wants to be on center stage.  I want to put Christ’s love on center stage.

I am trying to decipher something Adam Miller said in Grace in Not God’s Backup Plan.

Here it is:  “To understand grace, we have to surrender a very natural assumption.  We have to stop pretending that the world revolves around us.  We have to let God be the center of the universe. We have to stop looking at God’s grace from the perspective of our sin and, instead, let sin appear in the light of grace.  And this grace is everywhere. God’s work of creation is a grace.  His work of sustaining that created world is a grace.  His willingness to shape us in his image and let us make our own way is a grace.  His gift of the law is a grace.  His Son is a grace.  And His willingness to stand by us, regardless of our weakness and wanderings, is a grace.”

Let sin appear in the light of grace.  That is what I am trying to understand.  It is a profound perspective.  Instead of saying I am such a sinner, poor me, maybe we are giving sin too much power over us.  Sin likes to be in the lime light.  Since grace came first, if I were to shine it on my sins, how do my sins look?  Like dumb actions that make no sense at all.  The sins should just shrivel up in the light of God’s grace.

Thanks,

Scott

To the Atheist

To an Atheist:

You deny the pattern that has been given us to know what is right and what is wrong.  You say that feelings are just synapses going off in the brain.  Thus, there is no way of knowing anything.  Actually, it is very easy to know what is right and what is wrong.

Because of this denial, there's no common ground.

There is only one way to know whether something is true and good or not.  It is by planting it in your heart.  The heart, because this implies intention without any hypocrisy.  Let's call it a seed.  So, take anything and give it a try.  Is Free Sex a good seed or a bad seed?  Plant the idea in your heart.  Does it produce a feeling of temporary pleasure or a long term feeling of love and joy?  Are humility and meekness good seeds or bad ones?  Experiment by planting them.  Do they cause you to be in control of yourself or to be controlled by others?  Can others pull you strings when you are meek and humble?  If you answer, no, of course not, then the seed is good.  It is swelling.  It is growing.  Bad seeds never grow and take root.

For example, is love real? If you begin to love someone (you have planted the seed) and that person reciprocates and love back (they have planted the seed, too), then is this not real?  The seed is beginning to swell.  It is taking root.  I feels good.  As you both nurture the seed it begins to grow. You now know something.  You know love.

Plant the seed of deception in your heart.  What does it do?  It doesn't feel good.  It brings sorrow by and by.  People no longer trust you.  Friends and family begin to see that you are a liar.  You get mad that people don;t accept you in your deceptive state.  You become a victim, blind. Deception is a bad seed.  It doesn't swell within you.

So, If I were to ask you plant Jesus Christ in you heart, what would you do?  He is either real or not real.  Lots of people say he is real.  Lots of people say he isn't real.  Did this man really pay for the sins of the world?  Did he balance the books in some cosmic way?  Did he set the pattern for all of us to follow?  Or, was he just a man or a figment of our imagination?  How could you know whether or not he is real, once and for all?  I don't give that crap that you already know because it is obvious - because my professor in college said so.  This is the blind leading the blind.

The only way to know is to follow the prescribed pattern set forth.  And this requires you hear the pattern from someone and to believe enough to do the experiment. How hard is that?  But, remember, that the seed must be planted in your heart!  Not in your head.  You must get to a place where you do this with real intent.  You must be sincere.  If not, you're just playing a game and you are a hypocrite.  A hypocrite is a person who says that they did what you asked, but really didn't.  You have just lied.  Liars won't get answers.

So, if Jesus Christ is really your Savior, and you plant this idea in your heart, it will definitely begin to swell.  This promise is unto all.  This is the only way of knowing.  Once you know this, everything will begin to fall in place in your life.  This is the beginning of faith in Christ.  Remember, you have only planted the seed.  Now you have to nurture the seed that it may grow.  As it becomes a tree it will start producing fruit.  As you partake of the fruit you will be filled with the love of God.  You life will be complete in Christ.

And, it is that simple.  So, give it try!

Scott Nelson

The 'Do' Verses

I got a smile from Ronan this morning.  He is angelic.  What a beautiful boy!  Perfect features.  Perfect personality.

Herschel said that faith is the do verses.  I see it now.  Give a grace to receive a grace.  Grace for grace.  That is how you progress.  Some things are just doing something in your mind.  Sometimes it is repentance.  Other times it is just reframing a story.  Or, reprogramming the memory.  Or, re-storying.  This is all doing.  Now, add to this, prayer, telling the Lord what your intentions are and asking for his enabling power (grace).  Do it will real intent, nothing doubting (Mormon 9) and the blessing (power to overcome the weakness) occurs.  You start advancing from grace to grace.  Well, that is my theory.

Scott

My Weaknesses

I have addictions and I am progressing slowly.  I don’t blame it my addictions.  My addictions have more to do with going after life’s pleasures.  But, I always keep these pleasures within the bounds the Lord has set.  That seems to appropriate.  Perhaps my addictions are really what Adam Miller calls, in his Romans paraphrase, “While we were still weak – fearful, unfaithful, and numb to everything but our favorite distractions – Jesus sacrificed His life for our behalf”. Romans 5, third paragraph.  I do go after my favorite distractions (talking about spiritual things, reading spiritual texts, enjoying intimacy, socializing with the guys, playing racquetball, eating chocolate, watching my favorite TV shows and movies, reading Abraham Lincoln books and teaching the gospel.  These are my distractions.  Some are good and some not so good.  I do like some sugar each day.  Addiction!  My hormones turn on every three or four days.  Addiction!  But, I try to put this stuff in perspective – within the bounds the Lord has set.  Good food is a good bounds.  Learning to surrender to comments of others that I perceive to be threatening, permitting myself to feel diminished, not permitting my ego to control me, looking at the trigger with gentle curiosity,- I believe is at the essence of overcoming the mother of all sins and natural man – Shame.

Scott

David Believed in Christ

Did you know that David the king believed in Christ and his grace? Psalms 32:1-2


1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, [or, Blessed are those whose lawlessness is forgiven.]
[Blessed is he] whose sin is covered. [or, Blessed are those whose sins are covered by God’s grace.]
2 Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, [or, Blessed is the one that God doesn’t count as a sinner.]