After writing last week’s Thought and reviewing it I realized it was written after the manner I had of preparing lessons for the adult classes I taught during the five years after I retired from the Church Education System. The only difference was that I was the only one adding points of discussion to the words of the scriptures rather than being aided by the students in the class. There is little wonder this memory came to me since those were years of great teaching enjoyment where I was often gifted with spiritual insights and understandings.
Now that I have had my little trip down a fond memory lane I will resume my searching and commenting on the teachings of the great Lamanite Prophet Samuel.
And now when ye talk, ye say: If our days had been in the days of our fathers of old, we would not have slain the prophets; we would not have stoned them, and cast them out.
Behold ye are worse than they; for as the Lord liveth, if a prophet come among you and declareth unto you the word of the Lord, which testifieth of your sins and iniquities, ye are angry with him, and cast him out and seek all manner of ways to destroy him; yea, you will say that he is a false prophet, and that he is a sinner, and of the devil, because he testifieth that your deeds are evil.
But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet.
Yea, ye will lift him up, and ye will give unto him of your substance; ye will give unto him of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will clothe him with costly apparel; and because he speaketh flattering words unto you, and he saith that all is well, then ye will not find fault with him.
O ye wicked and ye perverse generation; ye hardened and ye stiffnecked people, how long will ye suppose that the Lord will suffer you? Yea, how long will ye suffer yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides? Yea, how long will ye choose darkness rather than light?
Yea, behold, the anger of the Lord is already kindled against you; behold, he hath cursed the land because of your iniquity.
And behold, the time cometh that he curseth your riches, that they become slippery, that ye cannot hold them; and in the days of your poverty ye cannot retain them.
And in the days of your poverty ye shall cry unto the Lord; and in vain shall ye cry, for your desolation is already come upon you, and your destruction is made sure; and then shall ye weep and howl in that day, saith the Lord of Hosts. And then shall ye lament, and say:
O that I had repented, and had not killed the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out. Yea, in that day ye shall say: O that we had remembered the Lord our God in the day that he gave us our riches, and then they would not have become slippery that we should lose them; for behold, our riches are gone from us.
Behold, we lay a tool here and on the morrow it is gone; and behold, our swords are taken from us in the day we have sought them for battle.
Yea, we have hid up our treasures and they have slipped away from us, because of the curse of the land.
O that we had repented in the day that the word of the Lord came unto us; for behold the land is cursed, and all things are become slippery, and we cannot hold them.
Behold, we are surrounded by demons, yea, we are encircled about by the angels of him who hath sought to destroy our souls. Behold, our iniquities are great. O Lord, canst thou not turn away thine anger from us? And this shall be your language in those days.
But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.
O ye people of the land, that ye would hear my words! And I pray that the anger of the Lord be turned away from you, and that ye would repent and be saved. (Helaman 13: 25-39)
I have included this lengthy passage from Samuel’s teachings because it is probably one of the most complete outlines of the tendencies of the natural man found in scripture. I am sure if we were in a classroom setting the students in attendance would be able to point out all of the natural man attributes which stand as a barrier to our progress, but since I don’t have that privilege during this technological period of my teaching life I will try to identify them.
The natural man has a tendency to judge themselves wiser and more intelligent than their ancestors, therefore they would not fall into the same traps as their forefathers.
The natural man has a tendency to find it hard to be reprimanded even though the counsel given may be an accurate description of their failings, while being very willing to hear any words whether true or false about how wonderful they are.
The natural man has a tendency to honor as mentors and make anyone a hero who will praise and accept their carnal tendencies.
The natural man has a tendency to follow blind guides and choose to walk in the darkness of the world rather than the light of Christ.
The natural man has a tendency to remain in his wickedness as long as he continues to prosper.
The natural man has a tendency to temporarily turn to a divine source when their riches and security are threatened.
The natural man who is humbled unto change may well find he had delayed too long in turning to repentance.
The prophets of God will never cease to pray and will continue to admonish natural men to repent and be saved.
During the four score years of my life the pattern of temporary repentance of the one or the many has been a pattern I have often seen repeated. May we be wise lest the Lord is driven to cause us to be humble is my sincere prayer.
(To be continued)
THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY
EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY
❣️THINK + PLAN + PREPARE + DO ➡️ GENTLENESS + KINDNESS + CARING + GENEROSITY ➡️ HUGS + PEACE + JOY + LOVE ➡️ INTEGRITY + FAITH + HOPE + CHARITY❣️ = 💞THE GOOD LIFE💞
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment