This chapter, to me, is all about following the Spirit. Verses 3 and 5 are among the most potent in all of scripture. "Feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do." "...the Holy Ghost ... will show unto you all things what ye should do." Doesn't get any clear...

All the other times I've read this chapter, it's been mostly about the whole baptism thing.  Now, I don't discredit the sermon given about Christ being baptised, and the necessity for our being baptized to make it to heaven... ...But this time, something else struck me. Ya know...  I love having chats with people about the Gospel.&nbs...

The beginning verses of this scripture were the ones of focus today. For the past 2 chapters (or more), the Lord has been chastising the Gentiles, should they fall into the pride cycle and not repent. The beginning 2 verses of this chapter basically says, "even though the Gentiles were bad, don't get on your high-horse, thinking you're any...

I know a lot of the posts this year have been on the spiritual topic, but, I write about the events of my life, and so I guess this is what ya get. Today was awesome. If you've read my previous posts, you'll know that today I sang in the choir, gave a talk in sacrament meeting, and taught the 15-16 year old doctrine class. It was wonderful. ...

Wow...  What a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and of the prophets who wrote it. This whole chapter is a rebuke against people who don't accept the Book of Mormon.  Reading chapters like this strengthens my testimony concerning the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  I mean, what are the chances, if the Book of Mormon were false,...

Well....  From the first eight verses of this chapter, I could write pages.  The first verse itself is a great testament to the veracity of Jacob 4:13, which states that the Holy Ghost "speaketh the truth and lieth not". Because we all can be under the influence of the Holy Ghost (and worthy members have the opportunity to ha...

Imagine for a moment you had no idea about the atonement of Christ. Now imagine you sitting there and listening to what I have to say. And the first thing you hear are the words, "God demands perfection for salvation." Not sure about you, but for me, that creates a sort of sinking feeling inside...  I put "perfection an...

About a week ago, I began thinking I needed another project.  I really was getting to thinking about how I spend my time, and how I can better use the time I have. Nothing popped out at me, until yesterday. Yesterday, I got a call from one of the people in my ward, and he asked me if I would teach the 15-16 year olds in their gospel doctri...

In the beginning of this chapter, I didn't realize that the book to which the verses were referring was the Book of Mormon. I guess this chapter answers the question, "What is in the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon?".  The answer is quite simply found in verse 10:  "...for behold, they reveal all things from the foun...

Ya know, I sure am glad that Nephi wrote verse 22 of this chapter.  In all of scripture, this is the only chapter which uses the word "flaxen" to describe the way Satan tempts us. Flax is a fiber from a plant which is used to make linen.  Linen isn't known for its strength. Satan indeed does "lead us" with very ent...

I just finished reading Alma 7 and, once again, am in a state of mind which makes it hard to actually get any spiritual nourishment from it.  I'm not entirely sure what's going on with me now-a-days, but I don't really like it all that much. Anyway...  Here goes with what I got from the chapter (it being among the best chapters in the ...

First and foremost, I want to thank you all for your support.  It really has been an incredible journey, and there are so many people who have showed support for this little dream of mine, straight from the beginning. That said, the road in front of me is surely going to be one full of suprises, twists, and turns. For those of you who ar...

 So, I've been asked about headphones recently by a lot of friends.  So much so, that I thought I'd write down a few words, more regarding what you should not buy, rather than what you should.  This is simply due to the enormous amount of generally good, and wildly varying headphones out there. As most of you know, I'm an audio eng...

So, in Gospel Doctrine, from time to time, we talk about praying, and how we're supposed to pray all the time, and then we get the comments that it's impossible to "pray" all the time, and then someone else says that we need to be praying "always" in our hearts.  That's true, and verse 1 of this chapter is Jesus' commandmen...

Lately, I've been getting a lot of feedback concerning lost entries from I Love My Journal.  Occasionally, I would even lose one myself. The session timer for ILoveMyJournal.com is set to 2 hours, which means that you can stay logged in to the stie for 2 hours without being logged out due to inactivity. I initially thought was long enough,...

Today was spent with my good friend, and brother, Ryan (and his family, who happens to love my family!) We spent the day moving all sorts of large items from our home into the storage space we're renting.  From the kitchen table and chairs, to the couch downstairs, to the hutches - we made two trips full of items, with our mini-van and Dad'...

Hmm....  I'm kind of tired right now, but I figured I needed to read some scriptures... This time around, I realize how being under the rule of a tyrant would be absolutely horrible.  In this case, Alma was under the rule of one (or more) of the Amulonites - which were his wicked peers when they were the king's priests.  Talk about...

Some very interesting things to me when I ask her "Hmm.... What should I write about today?" She suggests that I write about my undying love for her. Well... If that isn't obvious, I'm obviously not myself. Anyway.... Tonight we went on a date, and it was a good date. We were with Scott and Alison (and Steve, who never showed up..... poop-on...

I was goofing around with The Gimp and noticed it had a couple save as html options. I played around with them and settled on using the colorxhtml one. This is how I took this image and turned it into a cool text html thingy. Before: After: The process goes like this: Open the image. Make sure the image is in the cor...

Ya know...  I think this little line from this chapter (verse 5) which, I believe could apply to anyone, anywhere, and would be a great little line to post on your wall, and look at every day. "And now there was nothing in all the land to hinder the people from prospering continually, except they should fall into transgression" ...

I'm always pleased and grateful that the Spirit comes so quickly when I read the Book of Mormon.  Sometimes I forget how much I love how the Spirit of God makes me feel and think and act. Anyway...  Great chapter this was.... Of all of the stories in the Book of Mormon, I think I like the one of the 2000 Stripling Warriors the best.&n...

So Jeff Petersen is a guy with whom I've been friends for years.  I hadn't seen him in probably as long.  We went to BYU together, were roommates, and had summer jobs in California together.  We got along very well... But then we each got married, he moved to Missouri, and that was that...    ...until two days ago. ...

Okay... I forgot that Alma had 63 chapters. This chapter has always just kind of made me raise an eyebrow while reading it.  I must say, I felt the Spirit while reading it, and I know it's true, but I wonder why it was written. Why did Mormon dedicate half a chapter to people "going northward"?  And what about the ships?&nbs...

 Not too much to write about on this one.  I guess I could try to memorize all the relationships mentioned.  hehe. Genealogy must have been pretty important back then (pretty important now-a-days, too), because they mentioned that it would be possible for us to have the history of the entire world up to that time.  Interesting...

Man...  Amalickiah... I'm more and more convinced that this guy is the epitome of evil in the flesh. I wonder what would have happened with the entire history of the Nephites had Captain Moroni caught Amalickiah, when he was chasing him and his armies last chapter. I really believe that had he been caught (and appropriately dealt with), much...

The MOST ridiculous trial bike video I've ever seen. More than half of what this guy does shouldn't be possible. A-freaking-mazing. http://www.flixxy.com/inspired-bicycles.htm...

Beginning this chapter, another testament to the correlation between peace and keeping God's commandments is apparent.  Giving "strict" heed to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel undoubtedly brings peace. Now, on a totally different note, I wonder where Korihor came from?  It just says that he came into the land.  Was ...

Wow....  Ya know those news stories about that sickness being spread by people in swimming pools this summer?  Well... I've got one thing to say about em': BELIEVE THEM.  THEY'RE TRUE. I'm just getting over a sickness that pretty much was a worst case scenario of what they explain as a parasite called "cryptosporidium", w...

I'm not in the mood to write much, but since it's a goal, I'll keep it. One thing I noticed and had a question about was why Nephi, Sariah, and Sam didn't know where to go in Lehi's dream.  Verse 14 lays it out quite plainly. The first thing that came to mind was Lehi was the leader of the family.  He was the director and it was his d...

Ya know... I think these chapters are meant to teach us how frail the hearts of men are.  Okay... Here's a good question..  How long did it take the Nephites to go from "seeing the sign of the birth of Jesus Christ" (this is *Christ* we're talking about here.  *The Messiah*.  How long did it take them from seeing that ...