Who is Keeping You Out of Zion?

 I was reading the 1840 edition of the Book of Mormon this morning, near the end of 1 Nephi where he is explaining some Isaiah verses. (All scripture quotes are from the last chapter of 1 Nephi. No other references are given, because we don't all necessarily use the same version of this book.)

He wrote: "All that fight against Zion shall be destroyed."

That should give us pause.

If we are angry at each other - if we, in the stubbornness of our pride, are accusing others of being the reason we are not in Zion - if we are contentious and angry and will accuse, interrupt, and cut off those who are trying to explain their points of view  - if we are doing all this and more, WE are the ones fighting against Zion. WE are among those who will be destroyed.

Let that sink into your mind and heart.

 

1.  God . . . will not suffer that the wicked shall destroy the righteous.
2. He will preserve the righteous by his power, even if it so be that the fulness of his wrath must come.
3. The righteous be preserved, even unto the destruction of their enemies by fire.
4. All they who fight against Zion shall be cut off.
5. For the time speedily shall come that . . . all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake; 

 Versus the following:

Because of the righteousness of his people, Satan has no power . . . he hath no power over [their] hearts for they dwell in righteousness and the Holy One of Israel reigneth.

We should not be accusing others of doing that which we, ourselves, are doing. (When I first heard that people were essentially saying, "You are the reason we don't have Zion," my mind was blown. NO ONE is preventing YOU from having a Zion in your own mind and heart. How do you know that God has not already begun to establish a physical Zion, but you don't know about it because he won't tell you on account of you serving the devil instead of him?) 

 Have we learned nothing from the experiences of the LDS pioneers who were driven from their homes and suffered all manner of attack on their persons and homes, including the deaths of too many of them and the violation of women? Do we not comprehend how serious this path is that we have embarked on? Are we so oblivious to the power demons have over the hearts of people today that we think we won't be punished in a similar horrendous fashion if we continue in the pride of and contention in our hearts?

 Are you aware that the reason God sent Denver was not just to try to establish a people worthy of Zion, but to also warn us of our destruction if we refused to repent? Folks, this is not a game. We need to take this task of creating Zion seriously - and I suggest we begin by looking into our own hearts and, with God's help, ousting pride, fear, sacred cows, the need to always be right.

Whose side are we really on? God's side - or the Devil's? 

 

 

 

No place to be placed alone in the midst of the earth.

 Isaiah said (recorded in the Book of Mormon, and obviously the same in the Old Testament)

Wo unto them that join house to house, till there can be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

2 Nephi 15:8 (LDS version because that's what I have on my computer).

I knew that was true because I have lived in rented apartments and in a rented condo. You hear other people's music, bathroom fans (one place I lived had them horrendously loud; they should have replaced them in the whole complex), phone conversations, room conversations, quiet singing, and I even lived in one place where I got the "joy" 🙄 of hearing the people across the wall having sex (and they were NOT noisy doing it).

Today I was looking at comments under a video entitled, "Why Every House Built After 2010 Feels Off (But You Can’t Explain Why)" (I haven't watched it yet, but probably will at some point in time) and thought of that scripture while reading this comment under it a few minutes ago:

@davel7014
2 months ago
Open floor plan used to mean that one room flowed into another room, say, by an arch or other wide opening, but they were still separate rooms. Now, open floor plan is one big open room with everything in it. I hate it. No privacy, noisy and anyone who walks in the front door can see the kitchen, which can be a mess. Builders need to stop pushing this open floor plan design 

 

 Truly, Isaiah knew what he was talking about. Don't let anyone tell you that he was not really saying "there's no place to be alone".

 

 

To give proper credit, this is the video the comment was under:

 

 

Zion

 I don't believe Zion will be an intentional community. I don't believe a group of people (led by a "moses" or not) will buy or overtake a plot of land and build Zion. I believe it will happen naturally. I believe that people will become zionlike in their own minds and hearts, then in their families. I believe it will spread to friends. I believe God will physically move like-minded people together in small groups, and that none of them will be thinking, "We are creating Zion."

I believe Nephi when he said he saw many small groups of people all over the planet, "armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory." (1 Nephi, chapter III, page 24 in the 1840 reprint of the Book of Mormon I have). I believe they may not even realize they are armed with righteousness, nor that they are armed with the power of God. I believe they may just think they are ordinary people. I believe these groups are "zion" even though they are not the official Zion built in the western hemisphere (likely "in the tops of the mountains" as recorded by Isaiah), with the temple that the Covenant Christians are waiting for the command to build. (See Denver Snuffer's most recent conference talk if you haven't heard of Covenant Christians.)

I believe God is working among all peoples, among all nations, quietly and diligently. I believe there may already be such groups of people as Nephi saw. I believe there will be more. And I think it possible that most of these groups will be unknown to most of the world (except to local people).

I think it's wrong and prideful to attempt to buy a piece of land for the express purpose of creating a Zion. All attempts I know, from two or three hundred years ago until today, have failed.

May we be humble and teachable before God, willing to do God's will even if it is as simple as learning not to be critical of others, and allowing people the freedom to be who they genuinely are, with out complaining that they are "trammeling on my rights" while being blissfully unaware that the truth is that we are trammeling on their rights.

May God bless all of us on this planet to be humble enough and teachable enough that not one of us is a danger to another person on the planet. 

Trammel - to deprive of freedom of action

Gethsemane - Forgiveness - Repentance

This morning, I read the Gethsemane chapter in Come, Let Us Adore Him in preparation for my personal celebration of Easter (the Resurrection) tomorrow. I don't know how anyone can read it and not be sobbing by the fourth page in.

For this post, I just wanted to share a few quotes from this chapter, which is an apostolic eyewitness of Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection as seen by Denver Snuffer. All emphases are mine.

To enter into the kingdom of heaven, all [people] must lay down their sins. But this they cannot do when they claim the right to restitution for any offense from their brother [meaning all other humans]. All claims must be set aside, the greater and more difficult being the righteous claim against another for their deliberate offense. Yet in asking for justice for yourself, you always require justice be answered in turn for all of your offenses. A [person] will not be given mercy if he is not merciful. (pp 228-9)

Denver talks about paired waves of torment our Lord suffered, the first being the suffering for those who harmed others (the perpetrators) and the second being the suffering for those who have been harmed by others (the victims), then he writes the following:

The greater difficulty in these paired waves of torment was always overcoming the suffering of the victim. With these waves, the Lord learned to overcome the victims' resentments, to forgive, and to heal both body and spirit. This was more difficult than overcoming the struggles arising from the one who committed the evil . . . The victim . . . always feels it is their right to hold resentment, to judge their persecutor and to withhold peace and love for their fellowmen. (pp 220-1)

In the final wave, the most brutal, most evil, most heinous sins men inflict upon one another were felt by Him as a victim of the worst men can do. He knew how it felt to wrongly suffer death. He knew what it was like to be a mother holding a child in her arms as they are both killed by those who delight in their suffering. He knew how it was for ambitious men to rid themselves of a rival by conspiracy and murder. He knew what it was to have virtue robbed from the innocent [this would include the rape of toddlers and children]. He knew betrayal, treachery, and abuse in all its worst degrading horror. There was no cruelty, no offense, no evil that mankind has suffered or will suffer that was not put upon Him.

He knew what is it like for men to satisfy their ambition by clothing their hypocrisy in religious garb. He also felt what it was like to be the victim of religious oppression by those who pretend to practice virtue while oppressing others. He knew the hearts of those who would kill Him. Before confronting their condemnation of Him in the flesh, He suffered their torment of mind when they recognized He was the Lord, and then found peace for what they would do by rejecting Him. In this extremity there was madness itself as He mirrored the evil which would destroy Him, and learned how to come to peace with the Father after killing the Son of God, and to love all those involved without restraint and without pretense, even before they did these terrible deeds. . . .

As a result of what the Lord suffered, there is no condition - physical, spiritual or mental that he does not fully understand. He knows how to teach, comfort, succor and direct any who come to Him seeking forgiveness and peace. (pp 222-3)

I share the above in the hopes that it gives comfort to some, and that it helps someone who is struggling to forgive a person or people who have caused them harm, no matter how terrible that harm.

P.S. You can forgive without putting yourself in danger, and without ever having to contact or talk to a person who is dangerous to you.