God is here, we just need to see...
Here I am again in the short side of the stick. The day is half over and so much more to do.
I hope that all of you are enjoying your Sabbath Day. Ours has been wonderful so far. It is good to be home again. I don't think I need to travel again until the end of next month(that starts tomorrow). It will be nice to hang here, get into a routine, only to mess it up again.
This week my pondering has continued along the same lines as last week. As I go back and review, what I posted last week, I realize that it went a completely different direction that I had intended it to go. I hope it was what someone needed.
To continue: Ether 12:19-21
"And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad."
"And behold, we have seen in this record that one of these was the brother of Jared; for so great was his faith in God, that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared, because of his word which he had spoken unto him, which word he had obtained by faith."
"And after the brother of Jared had beheld the finger of the Lord, because of the promise which the brother of Jared had obtained by faith, the Lord could not withhold anything from his sight; wherefore he showed him all things, for he could no longer be kept without the veil."
If you remember correctly, we were talking about faith last week. This whole chapter talks about faith. As I reflect upon the experiences I shared last week, I have to think that my zone leaders were probably studying this part of the Book of Mormon when they met with us as a zone/district. This is some pretty powerful stuff. It does inspire one to have more faith, stronger faith, exceedingly strong faith, doesn't it?
But what if I don't? What if I am not that strong yet, does that make me a bad person? NOPE! It just means we have things to keep working on. We all do. Perfection is a journey. As Elder Holland has reminded us, it is an eventual destination that we most likely will not obtain in mortality. The idea is that we just keep working on it.
That being said, what do we learn.
"...truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith,..."
In the strength of their faith, they saw the potential outcome of themselves, their families, the human race. Because of faith they were able to discern these things. It was because of their exceedingly strong faith that they were able to see them with their physical eyes. Just because our faith is not yet exceedingly strong does not mean that we do not have faith.
"...that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared,..."
If you go and read the account of Jared we learn that in his "eye of faith", he believed that God had a body, he just hadn't seen His body. Now he had. That is crazy in and of itself.
But what about me. I, like Jared, have faith to kneel in prayer. I am sure we all do. What I learn from this is that when I go to my Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ in faith, even if I don't see them they are there. They are touching the events of our lives. Their hand is in our lives. We may not see them physically, but we can see that light that results from their hands in our lives. That is faith.
I know that they hear and answer prayer. I know they are real. I know they act according to our faith. The more I exercise that faith, the less there is that is held back from me. Line upon line, precept upon precept.
Our week -
It has been busy. As I said, it was a short weekend last week. I missed out on our weekly zoom session. Some of us were able to have a mini discussion over dinner. I hope that we are able to do the same this week. If you are not going to be with us for dinner, you are welcome to call in.
Any who, I was flying during our normal meeting time. I spent the week back in the "Windy City". It was not so windy and actually kind of nice. Spring was in the air.
On the home front - The Queen held down the fort. It was just a normal week of work. It is always hard to come back to the grind after a week of vacation. She was a little frustrated due to technology glitches in the beginning, but it all worked out.
The Professor enjoyed a week of ups and downs. Life is moving forward, but there is so much craziness in her work place that it is hard not to get emotionally and physically involved. I love seeing how the whispering of the Spirit plays out in her craziness.
There was some good news from Tall Man and Ehl-Bo, it sounds like school shared some financial aide early in the game. Come fall, they should have plenty to cover school and books.
Haven't heard much from Puddin and Lady Hawkins this week. We hope to catch up with them this weekend, hopefully today.
SnackPack has been in and out this week from what I understand. He came up early in the week to support a couple of friends, then down, and back again to support the old alumni polo team. Sounds like he had an amazing day of adventure.
I hope that all of you are enjoying your Sabbath Day. Ours has been wonderful so far. It is good to be home again. I don't think I need to travel again until the end of next month(that starts tomorrow). It will be nice to hang here, get into a routine, only to mess it up again.
This week my pondering has continued along the same lines as last week. As I go back and review, what I posted last week, I realize that it went a completely different direction that I had intended it to go. I hope it was what someone needed.
To continue: Ether 12:19-21
"And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad."
"And behold, we have seen in this record that one of these was the brother of Jared; for so great was his faith in God, that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared, because of his word which he had spoken unto him, which word he had obtained by faith."
"And after the brother of Jared had beheld the finger of the Lord, because of the promise which the brother of Jared had obtained by faith, the Lord could not withhold anything from his sight; wherefore he showed him all things, for he could no longer be kept without the veil."
If you remember correctly, we were talking about faith last week. This whole chapter talks about faith. As I reflect upon the experiences I shared last week, I have to think that my zone leaders were probably studying this part of the Book of Mormon when they met with us as a zone/district. This is some pretty powerful stuff. It does inspire one to have more faith, stronger faith, exceedingly strong faith, doesn't it?
But what if I don't? What if I am not that strong yet, does that make me a bad person? NOPE! It just means we have things to keep working on. We all do. Perfection is a journey. As Elder Holland has reminded us, it is an eventual destination that we most likely will not obtain in mortality. The idea is that we just keep working on it.
That being said, what do we learn.
"...truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith,..."
In the strength of their faith, they saw the potential outcome of themselves, their families, the human race. Because of faith they were able to discern these things. It was because of their exceedingly strong faith that they were able to see them with their physical eyes. Just because our faith is not yet exceedingly strong does not mean that we do not have faith.
"...that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared,..."
If you go and read the account of Jared we learn that in his "eye of faith", he believed that God had a body, he just hadn't seen His body. Now he had. That is crazy in and of itself.
But what about me. I, like Jared, have faith to kneel in prayer. I am sure we all do. What I learn from this is that when I go to my Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ in faith, even if I don't see them they are there. They are touching the events of our lives. Their hand is in our lives. We may not see them physically, but we can see that light that results from their hands in our lives. That is faith.
I know that they hear and answer prayer. I know they are real. I know they act according to our faith. The more I exercise that faith, the less there is that is held back from me. Line upon line, precept upon precept.
Our week -
It has been busy. As I said, it was a short weekend last week. I missed out on our weekly zoom session. Some of us were able to have a mini discussion over dinner. I hope that we are able to do the same this week. If you are not going to be with us for dinner, you are welcome to call in.
Any who, I was flying during our normal meeting time. I spent the week back in the "Windy City". It was not so windy and actually kind of nice. Spring was in the air.
On the home front - The Queen held down the fort. It was just a normal week of work. It is always hard to come back to the grind after a week of vacation. She was a little frustrated due to technology glitches in the beginning, but it all worked out.
The Professor enjoyed a week of ups and downs. Life is moving forward, but there is so much craziness in her work place that it is hard not to get emotionally and physically involved. I love seeing how the whispering of the Spirit plays out in her craziness.
There was some good news from Tall Man and Ehl-Bo, it sounds like school shared some financial aide early in the game. Come fall, they should have plenty to cover school and books.
Haven't heard much from Puddin and Lady Hawkins this week. We hope to catch up with them this weekend, hopefully today.
SnackPack has been in and out this week from what I understand. He came up early in the week to support a couple of friends, then down, and back again to support the old alumni polo team. Sounds like he had an amazing day of adventure.
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