"Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light?
Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand—-ye shall lie down in sorrow."
2 Nephi 7:10-11
The first verse asks a question, and the answer is "no one." I think it is meant to be rhetorical. And if we look at our lives closely, I think that we'll find it is true. When we're doing what we should, we never walk in darkness. Bad things still happen, darkness still comes, but it doesn't have power to take us over, to become part of us. We still have light to walk by and we can see enough to be able to cope. The next verse goes on to talk about sparks and walking in the light of "your" fire... which brings to mind the "strange fire" of the old testament. The point here, I think, is that the light we need, the light that will show us the way... it is God's light. The light we are supposed to set on a hill, the light that should emanate from us... not our own light, but his. And it isn't that we aren't allowed any personal style. I think that God loves our individuality and personalities. It is only that if we are building a Zion people, we can't all be tour guides for our personal Suzanne-lands and John-lands and Tonya-lands. Cool theme parks, perhaps, but our job is to lead people to Christ... to Zion. And that is our destination as well. If we lead people to us, they might gorge themselves on cotton candy and have a great old time, but they won't get to where they need to go, and they won't be happy in that lasting, eternal-type way. :) So, today... let's remember to broadcast God's station. Shine *his* light. And let's look forward to the day when we all meet at our final destination. :)
Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand—-ye shall lie down in sorrow."
2 Nephi 7:10-11
The first verse asks a question, and the answer is "no one." I think it is meant to be rhetorical. And if we look at our lives closely, I think that we'll find it is true. When we're doing what we should, we never walk in darkness. Bad things still happen, darkness still comes, but it doesn't have power to take us over, to become part of us. We still have light to walk by and we can see enough to be able to cope. The next verse goes on to talk about sparks and walking in the light of "your" fire... which brings to mind the "strange fire" of the old testament. The point here, I think, is that the light we need, the light that will show us the way... it is God's light. The light we are supposed to set on a hill, the light that should emanate from us... not our own light, but his. And it isn't that we aren't allowed any personal style. I think that God loves our individuality and personalities. It is only that if we are building a Zion people, we can't all be tour guides for our personal Suzanne-lands and John-lands and Tonya-lands. Cool theme parks, perhaps, but our job is to lead people to Christ... to Zion. And that is our destination as well. If we lead people to us, they might gorge themselves on cotton candy and have a great old time, but they won't get to where they need to go, and they won't be happy in that lasting, eternal-type way. :) So, today... let's remember to broadcast God's station. Shine *his* light. And let's look forward to the day when we all meet at our final destination. :)
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