Flooding My Life with the Book of Mormon 2.0

2 Nephi 2:5 And men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil. And the law is given unto men. And by the law no flesh is justified; or, by the law men are cut off. Yea, by the temporal law they were cut off; and also, by the spiritual law they perish from that which is good, and become miserable forever. To be miserable is to be wretchedly unhappy. Those who reject God and His gospel and refuse to repent will be eternally unhappy. They will miss all the joy God has to offer. They will ultimately be dissatisfied with the life they have chosen, but they will have put themselves beyond God's help.

2 Nephi 2:3 Wherefore, thy soul shall be blessed, and thou shalt dwell safely with thy brother, Nephi; and thy days shall be spent in the service of thy God. Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer; for thou hast beheld that in the fulness of time he cometh to bring salvation unto men. Lehi knew his son had been redeemed because of a vision Jacob had while he was still young. The boy had been visited by Christ, and only a redeemed and sanctified person could receive such a visitation. Thus, Lehi was assured of Jacob's redemption and standing with God.  I am redeemed by Christ, not by my own efforts. I have to do my best, but only Christ can make it happen. My righteousness is always insufficient. Christ's infinite righteousness is always required.

2 Nephi 2:2 Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain. Having a testimony does not protect me from afflictions, but afflictions can be for my good. Faith makes the difference between growth and misery, drowning and walking on water.

2 Nephi 1:26 And ye have murmured because he hath been plain unto you. Ye say that he hath used sharpness; ye say that he hath been angry with you; but behold, his sharpness was the sharpness of the power of the word of God, which was in him; and that which ye call anger was the truth, according to that which is in God, which he could not restrain, manifesting boldly concerning your iniquities. When teaching those who need to repent, I should follow Nephi's example. I should be clear and straightforward about the commandments and laws of God, sharply focused on the behaviors and beliefs that need to be corrected. I must be assertive and not apologetic about the things I teach. When I teach the truth, I should not water it down or make excuses.  Most of all, though, I must speak from love. Those I teach may misinterpret my love and perceive my teaching as anger, piety, and self-righteousness, but if I give it in love and they accept it in the right spirit, such teaching can create a...

2 Nephi 1:23 Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust. To put on the armor of righteousness is to clothe myself in godliness, that is, to put on Christ. Thus, I take on His attributes, which I learn in Ephesians 6:13-17 include faith, righteousness, the law of the gospel, salvation, truth, and the Spirit The verbs in this verse are active. The armor of righteousness doesn't fall on us; we must pick it up and put it on. The chains don't shake themselves loose; we must shake them off. We don't float out of obscurity and darkness; we must exert our strength to arise. Action denotes choice, decision, and agency. God will help us, but we must begin our own effort, arising from righteous choices 

2 Nephi 1:15 But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love. I want the same confidence that Lehi had. I don't have to know that I will be exalted in the resurrection. Still, I want to know at least that I have been redeemed, that my repentance has been sufficient to allow Jesus to wash my garments in His blood. Hence, they are spotless and white, and I shall find myself in paradise and not spirit prison, that I will be a teacher of the gospel and not a prisoner who must still be taught.  I assume I will be in paradise, for I have received the ordinances and covenants that satisfy the performances of the law, but assuming is not enough. I believe my actions, at least here at the end, are sufficiently pleasing to God, but believing isn't enough. I want to know of my standing before God. If I am still not right before Him, I want to know what I can do better to please Him.   I cannot...

2 Nephi 1:10 But behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in unbelief, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord—having a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the world; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise—behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold, the judgments of him that is just shall rest upon them. This land of the Western Hemisphere was precious to the Nephites because it was a place to start over, free from the wickedness of apostate Israel, and build a society dedicated to God and looking forward to the coming of the Messiah.  This land is precious to us today because it is where the gospel could be restored, a...

2 Nephi 1:9 Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever. A pervasive theme in the Book of Mormon is the sure relationship between obedience and blessings. The Nephites were promised many times that if they would keep God's commandments, they would be blessed and prosper. It is a simple but powerful formula for a good life. Not a trouble-free life, but a good life.  And the Nephites proved the truth of the maxim over and over again. Every time they humbled themselves, repented, followed the prophet, exercised...

2 Nephi 1:7 Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever. Essential to living the gospel to its fullest is political and social liberty. We must be free to choose. To be denied the right or opportunity to choose the true path is tyranny.  On the other hand, to be forced into the covenant path is also tyranny. Neither situation is acceptable to God.  In either case, God cannot hold us accountable if we cannot freely choose to follow Him. We see examples of both kinds of tyranny in the world today. The Muslim extremists want to force everyone to join their religion, while communist regimes deny God and refuse...

2 Nephi 1:3 And he also spake unto them concerning the land of promise, which they had obtained—how merciful the Lord had been in warning us that we should flee out of the land of Jerusalem. An example of God's mercy was His warning to Lehi to flee. His mercies are always just enough to have a positive effect without violating agency. He did not forcibly change the hearts of the Jews to accept Lehi's preaching. He did not force Lehi to leave his home. He merely gave Lehi a warning that his life was in danger. He left it up to Lehi to decide to heed the warning, decide what to pack, and when to leave. Lehi retained his agency to obey, just as the Jews retained their agency to rebel. God's mercy was giving Lehi the opportunity to escape and save himself and his family.

1 Nephi 22:31 Wherefore, ye need not suppose that I and my father are the only ones that have testified, and also taught them. Wherefore, if ye shall be obedient to the commandments, and endure to the end, ye shall be saved at the last day. And thus it is. Amen. Enduring obedience is a key to salvation. Note that we are not expected to be perfectly obedient from day one. We are saved at the last day. We have our whole lives and then some to learn obedience, and we have Christ to atone for our sins and mistakes along the way.

1 Nephi 22:25 And he gathereth his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture. Christ is the Good Shepherd who builds the fold and guards the flock. We can find many folds in the world, but only one is the true fold of the True Shepherd. It is important that Christ numbers His sheep, for He does not want to lose a single one. He knows every one of us, and He knows when even the least among us goes astray. One lost sheep is just as important to the Good Shepherd as the ninety and nine that are safe in the fold. 

1 Nephi 22:23 For the time speedily shall come that all churches which are built up to get gain, and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are built up to become popular in the eyes of the world, and those who seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the world, and to do all manner of iniquity; yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake; they are those who must be brought low in the dust; they are those who must be consumed as stubble; and this is according to the words of the prophet. Pride is a strong motivator for the natural man. It is one of the three temptations Satan used to try to destroy the Savior in the wilderness after His baptism. Popularity--what others think of us--is a temptation few can resist. The great and abominable church uses popularity like currency. If we look at social media influencers today, we see how fame and popularity are the ultimate goal for those con...

1 Nephi 22:17 Wherefore, he will preserve the righteous by his power, even if it so be that the fulness of his wrath must come, and the righteous be preserved, even unto the destruction of their enemies by fire. Wherefore, the righteous need not fear; for thus saith the prophet, they shall be saved, even if it so be as by fire. The only way the righteous will survive the destructions of the Second Coming will be by God's direct power. When fire burns up the wicked all around them, God will put His hand over His Saints to protect them. Their preservation will be starkly obvious.  Yet, surviving the calamities of the Second Coming is not really important in the eternal scheme of things. Those who are saved will yet eventually die. What's important is that those who are saved are preserved so they may do the Lord's work in their mortal bodies. Physical salvation will be an invitation, indeed a calling, to work the rest of their natural lives for the Lord. God will need mortal ...

1 Nephi 22:15 For behold, saith the prophet, the time cometh speedily that Satan shall have no more power over the hearts of the children of men; for the day soon cometh that all the proud and they who do wickedly shall be as stubble; and the day cometh that they must be burned. Isaiah lumps together two groups in his warning of impending destruction: the proud and the wicked. The wicked are those who intentionally and deliberately disobey God's commandments. The proud, on the other hand, may not murder and steal, but they set themselves above God. If they do good, it is only to gratify their own pride rather than to do God's will. The proud leave many things undone, such as helping the poor and lifting the oppressed. They are so self-consumed with their own desires that they fail to see others' needs. Or if they see the need, they judge the needy as having created their own mess. God will have to destroy both the wicked and the proud to get their attention.