Ya know, I thought up until now that verse 6 refers only to the people under the reign of king Lamoni.  Evidently, it was everyone under the king of the entire Lamanite nation.  Amazing, amazing missionary work. Heh... Yeah... In reading the rest of the chapter, it pretty much names exactly the cities which were converted.  I guess...

Well.. I got to verse 3, when a concept which, for some reason, has been pounded into my spirit throughout pretty much my whole life, came ringing true and clear.  What is that concept, you ask? Don't assume to know anything about the effect you may have on others.  Sometimes you can tell, but sometimes you can't. Because of the honesty...

Confrontation and contention has always been an interesting thing for me.  For one, I hate it and I don't know how to deal with it.  I'm a passionate person in every sense of the word.  The moment I feel like I'm being attacked, it's everything I have to do to keep my head level and my blood from boiling.  Unfortunately, this ke...

The first thing that stood out to me this time around was the anger of Lamoni's father.  Try to place yourself in the situation Lamoni found himself in.  There are so many variables in the situation, it's hard to imagine exactly what was going on with the family undercurrents, but holy cow.  Lamoni's father drew his freaking sword an...

One thing that comes to mind while reading the first verses of this chapter is, "If I were a queen, and my servants brought me my unconscious husband, I'd immediately want to know who did it." - and Ammon did it.  That doesn't make much sense to me.  Obviously the times of the Book of Mormon were , uh, different, so that could e...

It's been awhile since I continued on in my quest to read and write about each and every chapter in the Book of Mormon, but, I'm still at it!  I'm gonna finish!  Here's Alma 18: The first thing I notice this time around is something I don't think I've ever noticed before. In order to feel badly about doing something, you have to at le...

The beginning of this chapter is one of my favorites.  I love verse 2 and 3. True friendship, at least in my case, is always born of spiritual origin.  The friends I've had that have lasted have always had a solid spiritual foundation.  And yes... Finding that old friends have kept the faith and increased in the knowledge of the Lo...

The main thing that stuck out in this chapter was obviously the destruction of Ammonihah.  As I've stated in a previous post, I find it so interesting that one of the judges of Ammonihah was the one who mentioned that "even if thou shalt declare this city shall be destroyed in one day, we shall not believe it."  It was as if the...

How in the world do you do what Alma and Amulek did in verse 2?  Honestly, I don't know.  Also, another perspective is - how in the world do you take what Alma and Amulek just said?  It'd have to be something like, "Yeah, we were just in Ammonihah, after you guys were thrown out, and we had to endure watching the kings and pries...

It's good to be back.  I feel like I really got a lot out of this chapter.  It could be simply because this chapter has a couple of verses which always seem to prick my heart.  Maybe, maybe not.  Anyway... It seems this chapter is all about love.  One of the verses found here is so poignant, it pricks my heart every time...

Okay..  I've never thought of this before, but, how convenient do you think it was for Samuel to climb up on a wall, built around a city most likely to keep people out?  Yeah, I don't think it could have been that easy.  How often do we find any reason at all to get out of doing what God wants us to do?  Well, God told Samuel he...

How in the world do you do what Alma and Amulek did in verse 2?  Honestly, I don't know.  Also, another perspective is - how in the world do you take what Alma and Amulek just said?  It'd have to be something like, "Yeah, we were just in Ammonihah, after you guys were thrown out, and we had to endure watching the kings and pries...

Ya know...  The first thing that hit me while beginning this chapter was this:  How in the world did Noah get selected to be king? I mean, really.  Verse 1 lets us know Zeniff had at least two sons.  Could his other son be that much worse than Noah was?  Burning a prophet of God at the stake?  C'mon...  I w...

Very interesting that the word "hate" is used in this context.  Very interesting, indeed.  I'm not quite sure what to make of it, but it's quite interesting there were no other words chosen.  I find it difficult to associate the word "hate" with God.  I've gotta ponder on that one for a bit. "Freedom&q...

The first thing that stood out to me this time around was the anger of Lamoni's father.  Try to place yourself in the situation Lamoni found himself in.  There are so many variables in the situation, it's hard to imagine exactly what was going on with the family undercurrents, but holy cow.  Lamoni's father drew his freaking sword an...

 If the fortifications that Moroni built in the beginning were enough to astonish the Lamanites to the point that they were afraid to fight, and then failed to kill even one Nephite, while they themselves were slain to the tune of over 1,000 - I can only imagine what the additional fortifications did...  Goes to show that a good Christian...

Interesting that the council invites the entire Nephite people in the land of Nephi to join in the discussion about how they should free themselves.  I wonder why they make a point to note that. Also, it's very cool that Mosiah received them with joy, although I can't find any reason that they should have done otherwise. This seems like a ...

 What a horrible, yet extremely personal and hopeful chapter.   The nature of it reminds me of the psalm of Nephi (2 nephi  4:15-end).  What horrible, horrible things were going on at the end, but it just amazes me, the strength of Mormon, and his constant prayers for Moroni - and his pleading to God for his soul to be brought b...

Me and my good friend Scott chatted for far too long today about a very interesting subject.  The subject was brought about by this article, which, in essence is just a conversation between an aethiestic professor and two of his students. In a nutshell, the professor makes the claim of God creating Satan, and thus creating evil, and thereby ...

Today is a good day!  So...  Beginning in verse 12, the main theme I'm getting here is the complete polarization between God and Satan.  Within the rules God has set (such as, "Satan can't kill people", and "Man has free agency", and "God won't save someone just because they're His offspring", and such.....

So... I just checked, and throughout all canonized scripture, know how many times the phrase "solemn mockery" is used?   Yup - you guessed it.  Once.  And it happens to refer to the baptizing of children.  For some reason, I think God dislikes this act a bit. Verse 14 seems kind of harsh, but if a person has nei...

With all that I've noticed about making covenants this time around, I can't help but notice that this chapter has some very interesting words. I really do wonder where the line is with covenants we make.  In the days of the Book of Mormon, people would rather die than lie or break a covenant.  This is made abundantly clear with the eali...

It's chapters like these that get me thinking about the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ and the "end of the world".  Reason is, is that this chapter happens just a few years before the 1st coming of Christ.  For some reason I analyze these chapters to death, and each time I do, I find more things that seem to parallel what may (or ma...

Ya know...  I sure would like to know what the politics of the time were back then.  Helaman's guard was able to single-handedly save the newly-appointed chief judge, by disguise, intellect, and ultimately a firm blade straight through the heart.  Yet, the account says nothing of telling anyone what was happening during the incident....

Trying to read this section of Mosiah as a whole concept, rather than nitpick each individual nugget of doctrine has given me a new appreciation for how stupid people can be. Seriously...  How could a person or people be so dense as to burn someone at the stake who, 3 days previous, had the power of God upon him to the degree that nobody wan...

Okay...  So this chapter wasn't brimming with the deep doctrines of the Gospel, but it did have a few nuggets. I would absolutely love to see some sort of diagram of exactly what the Nephites did to build up their cities.  I have so many ideas in my head of what it could have been, but to what extent that's true, I have no idea.  I...

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...

Reading through Alma 60 and 61, I can vividly imagine what it would be like to live in times like those.  I imagine the cry for freedom being heard through the streets, as neighbors and friends decide to take up arms in defense of our right to worship how we want, and for the protection of our families, traditions, and way of life.  Putti...

Hehe.... According to this verse, I guess even Lamanites can learn! "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith God has made us free!" Yeah... I think I'm gonna have that made into a poster, and hang it on my wall or something. The big message of this chapter, and the few preceeding it, for me, would have to be "Rely on The Lord for y...

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 ...