"And I, Jesus Christ, your Lord and your God, have spoken it.
These words are not of men nor of man, but of me; wherefore, you shall testify they are of me and not of man;
For it is my voice which speaketh them unto you; for they are given by my Spirit unto you, and by my power you can read them one to another; and save it were by my power you could not have them;
Wherefore, you can testify that you have heard my voice, and know my words."
Doctrine and Covenants 18:33-36
I like this idea that the scriptures are the word of Christ and speak to us just as loudly as hearing his voice in person. I think perhaps that is an area where we can improve. We think to ourselves or even say to others that if God himself came down in front of us and told us to do something that we of course would do it... so our excuse is that real life is a lot more uncertain. And hey, occasionally it is. I am not saying there is no uncertainty. There are mistranslations and surely not everything labeled as scripture in our world was truly inspired. Dealing with ambiguity is part of growing up and learning to think for ourselves, and part of the built-in challenge of this life: free agency. However, in terms of the scriptures, I wonder how much we really are uncertain, and how much we just don't want the responsibility. The scriptures are incredibly clear about a lot of things... do we really need God to come down and persuade us in person in order to understand his general guidelines and wishes? Probably not. In addition, God tells us here that his spirit and power accompany his words, so that is another thing that could help us. If they come from God, we should be able to feel that spirit and power helping us to understand and correctly interpret.
And on another level just how amazingly cool... to remember that this is God's voice to us. His message, his words. What could be cooler than access to the mind of God, even if it is only the limited amount of scripture that we have? A chance to listen to him, to learn from him, to get to know him better... we have those opportunities just as surely as Mary and Martha did in the New Testament. Today, let's remember what a great blessing the scriptures are, and take advantage of the opportunities that they give us to hear God's voice and know his words. :)
These words are not of men nor of man, but of me; wherefore, you shall testify they are of me and not of man;
For it is my voice which speaketh them unto you; for they are given by my Spirit unto you, and by my power you can read them one to another; and save it were by my power you could not have them;
Wherefore, you can testify that you have heard my voice, and know my words."
Doctrine and Covenants 18:33-36
I like this idea that the scriptures are the word of Christ and speak to us just as loudly as hearing his voice in person. I think perhaps that is an area where we can improve. We think to ourselves or even say to others that if God himself came down in front of us and told us to do something that we of course would do it... so our excuse is that real life is a lot more uncertain. And hey, occasionally it is. I am not saying there is no uncertainty. There are mistranslations and surely not everything labeled as scripture in our world was truly inspired. Dealing with ambiguity is part of growing up and learning to think for ourselves, and part of the built-in challenge of this life: free agency. However, in terms of the scriptures, I wonder how much we really are uncertain, and how much we just don't want the responsibility. The scriptures are incredibly clear about a lot of things... do we really need God to come down and persuade us in person in order to understand his general guidelines and wishes? Probably not. In addition, God tells us here that his spirit and power accompany his words, so that is another thing that could help us. If they come from God, we should be able to feel that spirit and power helping us to understand and correctly interpret.
And on another level just how amazingly cool... to remember that this is God's voice to us. His message, his words. What could be cooler than access to the mind of God, even if it is only the limited amount of scripture that we have? A chance to listen to him, to learn from him, to get to know him better... we have those opportunities just as surely as Mary and Martha did in the New Testament. Today, let's remember what a great blessing the scriptures are, and take advantage of the opportunities that they give us to hear God's voice and know his words. :)
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