This week my desire for this post is to combine modern and ancient scripture. There have been two main things that I have spent time studying this week. One, a vision recorded by Lehi in the Book of Mormon; and the other, a worldwide devotional given by President Russell M. Nelson to the Young Single Adults of the world. I found a message that was both insightful and beneficial in both accounts. But I wish to begin by sharing a short quote from the worldwide devotional and then tying it to the events of Lehi and his family surrounding his incredible vision. The quote it as follows:
"Now, if you are serious about rising up as a true millennial, I urge you to study the lives and teachings of these 16 prophets of God. That study will change your life."President Nelson, following this recommendation continues to talk about principles that he has learned from various prophets of these latter-days. But I love the principle and the promise that he teaches here: that if we study the lives and the teachings of the men and women that are chosen of God to lead and guide us, we will experience mighty changes in our lives that will mold us into the people that God wants us to become. This is an eternal principle that I noticed as well in my study of Lehi's vision, and specifically the events surrounding it.
Long before the birth of Christ prophets knew of him, his life, and his sacred mission to save mankind. One such prophet, that I mentioned previously, was Lehi, who lived 600 years before the birth of Christ. Lehi, after taking his family into the wilderness at the command of the Lord, is granted a vision of the Tree of Life. In this vision he saw multitudes of people, including members of his own family, make choices that either gave them greater light and knowledge or lead them into mists of darkness and forbidden paths. Lehi's vision took place in a dream and, as all dreams have the tendency of being, was difficult to convey to others. This is evident by Nephi's desire to understand and see what his father saw. He didn't comprehend fully from another's experience the magnitude of the vision; so he sought to learn and experience for himself. We read about his experience in 1 Nephi 11:1
"For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot."Nephi pondered and applied the teachings of his father, and by so doing gained great treasures of knowledge and understandings about the Savior and himself. We can gain that same understanding about the Savior and our own lives as we study. But that study isn't limited to ancient scriptures. President Nelson promises us those same blessings and the same life changing knowledge of who the Savior is as we learn of the modern prophets and apostles that the Lord has chosen in these last days.
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