Thursday, November 3, 2011

REAL INTENT



MORONI 10:4
 
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost
I have been attending a Book of Mormon Study Group, and last night was our 2nd meeting. Our teacher is a former bishop of the ward. He has a wealth of knowledge and experiences and tid bits and he is a really good teacher. I love how the class is organizing, we seem to be following the "Book of Mormon Timeline" that is featured in the Oct issue of the Ensign.We are starting with the history of the Jaredites, along with other info pertaining to Joseph Smith and the translating of the plates. So last evening, our teacher started the class by reading a list of names that included Jesus Christ,and his original 12 apostles, the Nephite 12, and Moroni just to name a few, and the list ended with Eve. So after reading this long list, he looked us, and then he said this was a list of the known names of beings who visited and assisted Joseph Smith while he was translating the Book of Mormon. There was complete silence, and then someone asked him if it was true. He said that all of the information concerning this can be found in books,talks,etc, he had a list if we wanted it. I was impressed, because I have a very short history with the Book of Mormon.

I thought about this a lot during the class, and I got the impression that we/I had better take this class seriously. Our teacher warned us last week that the class was serious business.
It's all coming back to me now, and it usually does. During my investigation of the Church, the missionaries would come over and endeavor teach the Book of Mormon to me and my husband. It was hard for me because I found it to be foreign. I did my best, but I was not a good pupil, I wouldn't read my lessons and my husband would hog the conversation.I did believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and I found it credible that he would be chosen to restore the Gospel. My patriarchal blessing promised that I would learn to love the Book of Mormon as well as I love the Bible. Its true, I do and now I want to learn of it.        
Moroni warns us in Moroni 10:4 that we should pursue this with real intent, having a sincere heart and most of all faith in Jesus Christ.

As I was sitting in that class, it occurred to me that everyone in the class will be held accountable for how we conduct ourselves, how we prepare ourselves. We must study our book of Mormon and try to come to as many classes fully prepared to participate.
Ezra 7:  10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.

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