Nephi's Vision pt. 2

Today I finished Nephi's vision by reading 1 Nephi 13 - 14. I was struck by the thought of the great and abominable church which is the enemy of the saints and how there are truly only 2 churches and something occurred to me. Too often we get a little overzealous against this church because it is the enemy of the Lamb of God. However, this church comprises everyone who is not a member of the true church and it is a little unfair to lump everyone in together.

Then at almost the end of chapter 14 I had this thought. The church is like those that have caused the Bible to lose it's plain and precious truths. I searched for the exact quote but couldn't find it so you all get the approximation. :) Joseph Smith said that the plain and precious truths of the Bible that were lost are due to either mistranslations of the original text, misinterpretations of the text, or willful removal of the parts by those who serve the enemy. The great and abominable church is like that, there are those parts of the church that are misguided due to the missing plain and precious truths, there are those who misinterpret parts of the Bible and there are those parts of that church who serve the enemy. I think we need to be careful that we don't lump the first 2 elements in with the last when thinking about the great and abominable church. All of us who were not born into the church were at one point or another a part of this other church and look where they are now.

My brother Stuart posted a comment here yesterday and he said something that struck me. He said "The Lord never wants to live our life for us. He only wants us to live our life, and tell Him about it." He said this in regards to my remarking yesterday on how the angel was letting Nephi figure out on his own what the parts of the vision meant. But it really stayed with me yesterday and has given me a new outlook on prayer and what it can do for each of us. After all, Nephi's vision came about as a result of prayer. Each of us has it in us to be the next Nephi, the next Alma, the next Captain Moroni or the next Ruth. They all started as ordinary men and women who desired more. Each of those named men and woman all became greater than they were because they trusted in the Lord and involved Him in their life and He took their initial potential and magnified it a thousand fold. He is willing and even wants to do the same for each of us, if we will let him. Food for thought. Until tomorrow.