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“Since we cannot ‘live by [the words which] proceedeth forth from the mouth of God’ unless we know what they are, it is imperative that we study them. This the Lord has directed us to do.
“As the Jews disputed with Jesus because he said that God was his Father, he pointedly responded: ‘Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.’ (John 5:39.)
“In the Lord’s preface to his Book of Commandments, he said: ‘Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled.’ (D&C 1:37.)
“We are under divine instruction to ‘teach the principles of [the] gospel, which are in the Bible and the Book of Mormon.’ (D&C 42:12.) This we cannot do unless we know what they are.” (Marion G. Romney in CR, Apr. 1973, p. 117.)
Wherefore it came to pass that my father, Lehi, as he went forth prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people. (1 Nephi 1:5)
It is noteworthy that Lehi's answer to prayer came after he prayed even with all his heart, in behalf of his people. Enos received an answer to his prayer because of his diligence and humility. This is a good example of a tiny pearl of truth often found in the Book of Mormon. One secret to getting your prayers answered is to pray, even with all your heart.
His descent was a marvel of condescension, of humility, and even humiliation.
He was born in the mere outskirts of Jerusalem, in a tiny village called Bethlehem, in abject poverty.
He grew up in Nazareth, a ramshackle village of perhaps fifty families.
He went to the lowest point on earth for his baptism, in the Jordan River, which meanders to the Dead Sea, some twelve hundred feet below sea level.
A fishing village was the headquarters for his labors in Galilee.
His associates were the poor and the meek, not the prestigious officials of the Roman and Jewish hierarchies.
He knew hunger and thirst, arduous walks, and fatigue, all incurred in his efforts to reach the faltering and needy around him.
He left the Last Supper, having been totally rejected by officialdom, who were conspiring to be rid of him, and walked through the gate of garbage and refuse, leading to the city dump. As the off scouring of all things, he walked up the valley of Kidron, a deep and barren valley of tombs, to Gethsemane...
He was crucified outside the city walls by the side of a road where his disgrace would be apparent to every traveler. He endured the most debasing form of torture and death: crucifixion.
While his horrified family watched from a distance, he was removed from the cross by a stranger. Then, denied the customary anointing of his body, he was dressed in the bare minimum of burial clothes and entombed.
The culmination of his descent below all things was Gethsemane and then the cross. He deliberately plunged into the consequences of the worst forms of human sin and ungodliness. Having committed no wrong and having fulfilled his mission to the letter, he yet chose to suffer as if he were guilty of the most despicable of mortal deeds. In doing so, he exposed himself to the agony of satanic buffetings. In the hardest of hard ways, these pangs descended upon him, entering his soul and enveloping him. And having "suffered for us in the flesh"(1 Peter 4:1), his bowels (in Hebrew the word translated here as bowels means 'center self') were filled with compassion.
Because of this he knows how to succor, to heal, to comfort his people in their afflictions (see Alma 7:11)...
Finally, he succumbed, saying "It is finished"(John 19:30). He had become in the complete sense, the Messiah, 'the anointed one' (in Greek, Christos)...And though the world knew it not, he had now been anointed in a bloody sweat, compounded by scourging and completed by crucifixion...
Within three days he emerged from the tomb, triumphant over death; his own and ours.
Forth from the infinite glory and power of the throne of God to be born to mortality in the manger-cradle in Bethlehem, came [our Lord] thenceforth to be called son of Mary, Son of man, son of God, Jesus the Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father. God incarnate, he came not to royal courts, not to the palace of the rich, not to the home of earthly honor nor of vaunted learning of the wise and powerful, but to the humility of a lowly cottage of a village carpenter, to the home of one of us common folk.
He descended below all things that he might rise to take even captivity captive, --
"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:55)
Manhood found him out with the poor, the downtrodden, the oppressed, the sick, the afflicted of the earth in body and spirit, teaching his truth to their peace, their comfort, their eternal salvation and exaltation, their everlasting happiness.
The fisherman and the common folk heard, loved, and followed; the high and powerful turned their backs, scorning, deriding, reviling; they walked not after him.
He chose the foolish things to confound the wise; the weak to confound the mighty. He blessed the poor in spirit, promised comfort to them that mourn. He blessed them that hungered and thirsted for righteousness and them that are merciful. He declared the peacemakers should be called the children of God; the pure in heart should see God. He blessed the persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs would be the kingdom of God. He blessed the meek to inherit the earth.
He speaks to all of us who suffer for his sake, bidding us to come to him:
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)
So, to now and hereafter while time flows on, the Author of our being and of our salvation speaks. His words are the assurance of the lowly and humble; the hope of the mighty and great.
God help us...to know the divine virtue of the spiritual ointment which, to ease our wounded souls, his Son gave us as his mortality was speeding to its end. It was in the Upper Chamber the night before he poured out his life blood on the cross, so overcoming the world, and Atoning Sacrifice for the Fall of Adam and for your sins and for mine, that he bestowed this priceless heritage upon his disciples grouped around him, upon all men then and since living, and upon those thereafter to be born:
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)
President Harold B. Lee told how he prepared when he was asked to give an Easter radio address a few days after becoming a member of the Twelve. He said:
"During the days which followed, I locked myself in one of the rooms over in the Church Office building, and there I read the story of the life of the Savior. As I read the events of his life, and particularly the events leading up to and of the crucifixion, and then of the resurrection, I discovered that something was happening to me.
"I was not just reading a story; it seemed actually as though I was living the events; and I was reading them with a reality the like of which I had never before experienced. And when, on the Sunday night following, after I had delivered my brief talk and then declared, simply, 'As one of the humblest among you, I, too, know that these things are true, that Jesus died and was resurrected for the sins of the world,' I was speaking from a full heart, because I had come to know that week, with a certainty which I never before had known." (CR, Apr 1952)
What must we do to have an experience like Elder Lee?
Prepare ourselves spiritually.
Take the time and find the environment in which we can lose ourselves in scripture study.
We need periods of peaceful meditation.
We cannot always do this on a daily basis, but we need to find a quiet time and place where we can read, study, and ponder for a few minutes.
Joseph Smith once said: "The things of God are of deep import; and... careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them." (TPJS, p. 137)
Please make a commitment to find quiet time to study and ponder the remarkable life of the Master. Prayer is part of studying and pondering. I promise you, if you do those things, you will receive a similar experience like Elder Lee.
"On the morning of September 22nd, after Joseph had returned from the hill, he placed the article (Nephite interpreters) of which he spoke into my hands, and, upon examination, I found that it consisted of two smooth three cornered diamonds set in glass, and the glasses were set in silver bows, which were connected with each other in much the same way as old fashioned spectacles."
The photo is an artist's rendition which proves very intriguing.
A God is born--how glorious is the day; how wondrous are the works which the great Creator hath wrought among us!
A God is born--angels attend; divine proclamations go forth like rolling claps of heavenly thunder; and celestial choirs sing praises to his blessed name.
A God is born--and the word is carried to the edges of eternity, that all men on all the worlds of his creating may now know that there is One who can work out the infinite and eternal atonement; there is One who can now bring to pass immortality and eternal life for all the works which his hands have made.
Well might we ask: ... Who is he? What is the source from whence he sprang, and who are the parents who gave him life? How can a tabernacle of clay be created for the great Creator?
We answer: He is the Firstborn of the Father, the noblest and greatest spirit being of all the endless host that bear the image of the divine Elohim. He is our Elder Brother, and like us needed to gain a mortal body, to die and to rise again in glorious immortality--all to fill the full measure of his creation.
He is the Lord Jehovah who dwelt among us as the Lord Jesus. He is the Eternal One, the Great I AM ... The Only Begotten, the Only Begotten in the flesh, the only person ever born of mortal woman who had an immortal Father!
The Immortal God was his Father, and the mortal Mary was his mother. And it was in consequence of this birth--a birth in which mortality and immortality joined hands--that he was able to perform his atoning mission and put into operation the great and eternal plan of redemption...
The scriptures say only that Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem... When they arrived all of the rooms were filled... And we cannot think other than that there was a divine providence in this. The great God, the Father of us all, intended that his Only Begotten Son should be born in the lowest of circumstances and subject to the most demeaning of surroundings.
There amid the lowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep; there where the calm of the night was filled with the sounds of braying asses and yelping dogs; there where the stench of urine and the stink of dung fouled the nostrils of delicate souls--there in a stable the Son of God was born. There the King of Heaven was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger... His birth, demeaning and low and seemingly insignificant, was but a harbinger of his death. He was born in a stable and he died on a cross...
We testify that God was born some two thousands years ago and that if we follow the course he charted for us and for all men, we will have peace and joy in this life and be inheritors of eternal life in the world to come.
