Flooding My Life with the Book of Mormon 2.0

1 Nephi 22:12 Wherefore, he will bring them again out of captivity, and they shall be gathered together to the lands of their inheritance; and they shall be brought out of obscurity and out of darkness; and they shall know that the Lord is their Savior and their Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel. What is true for the restoration of the Jews to the faith of the Messiah is true for me. I must be brought out of the captivity of my sins, liberated from my guilt, rescued from my dark ignorance, and thrust into the light of God's glory. Christ will do this for me as I repent and submit myself to Him. The Mighty One of Israel will save and redeem me.  Bring, brought, and gathered are used in this verse to indicate that God is working on behalf of His people. God empowers me to do His work, and without His power, I could not do what needs to be done.

1 Nephi 22:7 And it meaneth that the time cometh that after all the house of Israel have been scattered and confounded, that the Lord God will raise up a mighty nation among the Gentiles, yea, even upon the face of this land; and by them shall our seed be scattered The United States of America is a creation of God. This nation is part of God's plan for restoring the fullness of the Gospel. What God has raised up, let no man put down. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a worldwide church, but we must cherish and protect the United States with its inspired Constitution. Without it, there would be no restoration and no worldwide church.

1 Nephi 22:5 And since they have been led away, these things have been prophesied concerning them, and also concerning all those who shall hereafter be scattered and be confounded, because of the Holy One of Israel; for against him will they harden their hearts; wherefore, they shall be scattered among all nations and shall be hated of all men. Israel is everywhere among us. They are so thoroughly intermixed and assimilated that they are indistinguishable from the non-Israelites among whom they live. The responsibility of the tribe of Ephraim, as the head of the other tribes, is to gather scattered Israel. The restored Church has been gathering Ephraim to enable them to gather the rest. President Nelson increased the emphasis we have in gathering Israel. We are no longer simply gathering Ephraim; we are now gathering the rest of Israel. The last to be gathered will probably be the Jews. Note that the great and abominable church is also scattered among all nations.  The great and ab...

1 Nephi 21:26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine; and all flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. One of the names of God is Mighty. He is power personified. Everything He does, He does with power. Further, He is the most powerful of all beings and forces in the universe. Nothing and no one has more power than God. All other things and beings derive their power from Him. What is more marvelous about His power is, that He uses it to bless me. Everything He does is calculated for my benefit. It is wonderful to contemplate that the most powerful, mighty Being in the universe is on my side. 

1 Nephi 21:24 For shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives delivered? Christ is my Advocate, Redeemer, and Deliverer. He also contends for me as my Champion. He has already defeated Satan and has set my rescue in motion. Though Satan may appear as a powerful adversary, even as a mighty hunter, he is no match for Christ. Because I sin, I am rightfully the devil's prey. He should own me, lock, stock, and barrel. But because Christ is mightier than Satan, He can snatch me from my captor and deliver me to the safety of the Father's arms.

1 Nephi 21:18 Lift up thine eyes round about and behold; all these gather themselves together, and they shall come to thee. And as I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on even as a bride. My trials and afflictions, faithfully endured, will be my garments and adornments in the world to come. They will be beautiful jewels, like ribbons and medals of honor, to testify to my faithfulness to the Lord in this life. Rather than shun them and hate them, I rejoice in the knowledge that God trusts me with them. He believes in me as I believe in Him. 

1 Nephi 21:9 That thou mayest say to the prisoners: Go forth; to them that sit in darkness: Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. The atonement of Christ frees me from the confinement of sin and guilt and brings me into God's light. I may think I am free when I break away from the strait and narrow path of my covenants, but I soon find that my newfound liberty is also confining. My satisfactions are temporary, and my happiness is fleeting.  Poor choices become addictions from which I can hardly break free. The road of sin is even narrower than the path of righteousness, and rather than leading upward, it leads downward.  I rob myself of peace and settle instead for carnal gratification, which must constantly be fed, consuming all my time and attention.  I eventually figure out that true freedom is in Christ. He frees me from fear ("be not afraid"), worry ("take no thought, i.e., concern, for tomorrow"), tur...

1 Nephi 20:16 Come ye near unto me; I have not spoken in secret; from the beginning, from the time that it was declared have I spoken; and the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me. God communicates with me most often through His Spirit, the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost not only bears testimony to me but gives me instructions and directions. Once I started listening to the Holy Ghost regularly and asking for instructions, He has directed me to do many things that I would not have considered on my own.

1 Nephi 20:10 For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. We all get to experience the furnace of affliction and the refiner's fire, but God does not choose us all. Just because we suffer does not qualify us to be God's chosen people.  It is only when I allow the fire to work properly in my life that God chooses me. Only when I am truly refined will I come into God's presence.  On the other hand, I can simply burn to a cinder, leaving nothing redeemable in the ashes of my afflictions except bitterness and anger. God doesn't choose bitter, angry people. He chooses the brilliant, priceless nuggets that He can pull from the ashes to make up His jewels.  I don't get to choose the furnace in which I am fired, but I get to choose the resulting product.  God will choose me when I choose Him over the empty coals of a blasted life. When I want what God wants, He can do marvelous things with me. The hotter the fire, the faster and more t...

1 Nephi 20:5 And I have even from the beginning declared to thee; before it came to pass I showed them thee; and I showed them for fear lest thou shouldst say—Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image hath commanded them. People must sometimes work hard to create their idols. Images of stone require expert carving with hammers and chisels. They can take a long time to take a recognizable shape, and the carving process makes quite a mess. Statues of metal require intense heat and a great deal of hammering to form them.  Idols do not just pop into existence and grab people by the collar and haul them in. They must be carefully and painstakingly fashioned. Idols do not come about by accident, but only through careful planning, persistence, and practiced workmanship. No wonder they are so hard to cast away when the true God invites people to worship Him. My idols have been years in the making. Some I inherited, others have been transmitted to me through my cult...

1 Nephi 20:1 Hearken and hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel , and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, or out of the waters of baptism, who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, yet they swear not in truth nor in righteousness. The ancient Hebrews identified with the name of Israel. The name was a unifying characteristic. When God wanted to call His people together, He could simply call for Israel, and every Israelite knew they were included. King Benjamin gave his righteous people a new name by which they should be called, namely, Jesus Christ. We likewise take upon us the name of Christ through baptism, the sacrament, and in the temple. This is the name by which we should be known.  We keep our individual names, just as the Israelites and Benjamin's people kept their individual names. But when God calls for Christians, we should recognize that name and know that we are included. 

1 Nephi 19:17 Yea, and all the earth shall see the salvation of the Lord, saith the prophet; every nation, kindred, tongue and people shall be blessed. To "see the salvation of the Lord" is to witness and experience it. After the gathering of Israel, in the Millennium, when the wicked have been destroyed, and only the righteous are left to inhabit the earth, all will indeed experience the saving power of Christ and His atonement, for only those who are willing to accept Christ will be left alive. Not everyone must be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at least not at first, but all must be willing to accept Christ as their Savior and the rightful Ruler of the earth.

1 Nephi 19:16 Yea, then will he remember the isles of the sea; yea, and all the people who are of the house of Israel, will I gather in, saith the Lord, according to the words of the prophet Zenos, from the four quarters of the earth. From the isles of the sea and the four quarters of the earth--no matter how lost I am and how far away I have drifted, Christ can find me and lead me back to God. There is no place I can hide, no isle I can escape to, no corner of the earth so remote that Christ cannot find me if I am willing to be found. No sin is so deep and so dark that Jesus cannot penetrate the darkness and shine His light and lift me up. 

1 Nephi 19:15 Nevertheless, when that day cometh, saith the prophet, that they no more turn aside their hearts against the Holy One of Israel, then will he remember the covenants which he made to their fathers. God never forgets anything. He has all knowledge. "Remember" in this context means to bring the covenants to the forefront and act on them. As long as Israel has been a stranger to the Lord, the covenants have been dormant. The Lord has not kept His side of the covenant because His people have not kept their side. But as soon as Israel starts to honor the covenant, God will honor it as well. I am guilty daily of turning my heart from God and Christ. But I have hope that the day will come when I am fully converted, justified, and sanctified, and will no more turn my heart away even for a second. I will be reborn as a new creature who is completely and everlastingly at peace with God. Such is the power of Christ's atonement. 

1 Nephi 19:10 And the God of our fathers, who were led out of Egypt, out of bondage, and also were preserved in the wilderness by him, yea, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yieldeth himself, according to the words of the angel, as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum, and to be buried in a sepulchre, according to the words of Zenos, which he spake concerning the three days of darkness, which should be a sign given of his death unto those who should inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel. Make no mistake, Christ died. When Jesus's body was removed from the cross and laid in a sepulchre, He was as surely and completely physically dead as any mortal man can be. Enemies and friends alike witnessed His death and were quite certain that Jesus was dead.  The assurance of Christ's death was important for tw...