Read: 3 Nephi 9-10
Mark: 3 Nephi 9:13-15
"An atonement was made. Ever and always it offers amnesty from transgression and from death if we will but repent. Repentance is the escape clause in it all. Repentance is the key with which we can unlock the prison from inside. We hold that key within our hands...Humbly I lay claim upon the atonement of Christ. I find no shame in kneeling down in worship of our Father and His Son." --President Boyd K. Packer
To ponder:
What can the Lord do for you when you repent?
You know it is never good, when a verse starts out: Wo, wo, wo! :)
ReplyDeleteI also was thinking about how hard it must have been for the Lord to destroy and burn so many of his children as well as their lands. I can't even imagine the deep sadness He must have felt.
I also have thought a lot today about what it means to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I don't believe that this means that we must be sad or downtrodden, I think it means that we must be humble, teachable and repentant, and always striving to do a little bit better each day.
My last thought is that these people had been warned and we have been warned as well. We must listen and learn!
Patti, your thoughts you put in your second paragraph make me think of parents who have to call the cops on their kids or institutionalize them or send them away to military school, etc. Sometimes Heavenly Father has to bring destruction to his children who are hurting the rest of his kids. If you have a son who punches all the rest of your kids, you gotta protect the other kids! It all goes back to mercy not robbing justice.
DeleteI love the mercy and love in Christ's words when he speaks to those who were righteous. I especially loved, in chapter 10 there at the beginning, his reference to being a hen who gathers her chickens under her wings. I say this because I remember a story I heard in seminary one year where my teacher explained that prairie hens would gather their chickens under their wings if there were signs of trouble and would protect them from danger. The story continued that there had been a fire and all that was left of the mother hens were just burnt piles. Yet underneath, their chicks were saved. This has always stuck with me. Christ gave his life for us, just as the hens did for their chicks. He gave us a way to LIVE. What can we make of that atonement? What can we make of our eternal lives? Every day I read I learn more and more about humility and love. I'm trying hard to be humble, patient, meek, and kind. Sometimes I'm not so good at it! But that's what repentance is for. I love holding that KEY to my prison. I CAN get out! What a wonderful quote for today. :)
ReplyDelete