dawnandthinking

[dawnandthinking]

Take No Prisoners: Book of Mormon Edition

My testimony is not what it used to be, and i figure the only way to settle it is to take Moroni’s challenge with a vengeance.  I’m going to read the Book of Mormon in one month and pray to know if it is true.  

To help me in this endeavor is my good friend, through the leveraging of technology, who gets to debit me $10 every week if I don’t follow through with my commitment.  Nothing like financial pain to get me to do the right thing.

I’ll be blogging my experience at the end of each week.

[dawnandthinking]

This Week in the Ponderverse

Studied Enos 1:1-11.

I’m in a phase of life now where I’m really not sure if God is there and if he’s listening to me when I pray.  I read Enos’ story looking for inspiration on how to have a similar experience where I can hear the voice of the Lord. 

From Enos’ example I see the importance of finding places of quiet, pondering on an idea, and praying diligently.  I’ve thought more than once that i just need to get down on my knees and pray until heaven answers.  All night if i have to.  

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Contemplating the Ponderverse

It’s hard studying scripture.  I find myself spacing out often and not getting much out of it.  I’m trying to change the way I approach my study by starting each day with reading the same verse or set of verses for a week (my “ponderverse”.  This way I can start to see a little further than the surface level and it gives me time to let the message sink in.  

This week’s ponderverse is Enos 1:1-11.  I’m feeling very isolated from God, and I want more than anything for him to speak to me and for me to recognize his voice.  Enos has always been a story that has resonated with me so I see no better fit for what to ponder on this week.  If I can receive an answer like Enos’, then any effort needed to get there will be well worth it.  

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But his hand is stretched out still.

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Your choice.

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"Behold, who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of man, who shall die, and of the son of man, who shall be made like unto grass?"

2 Nephi 8:12

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"Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard."

-2 Nephi 4:16

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"But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things."

-2 Nephi 2:24

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"O that ye would awake, awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound..."

2 Nephi 1:13

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“And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things.”

1 Nephi 18:3

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"And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them..."

1 Nephi 17:3

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"And I said unto them: have ye inquired of the Lord?"

1 Nephi 15:8

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… and as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord…

1 Nephi 11:1