Sunday, January 20, 2013

Jesus Christ as the Center of our Lives

I love the Book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon is another testament of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  It serves as a record of the people here in the Americas before, during, and after the time of Christ and as a sort of companion to the Bible.
There is one chapter that I have become very fond of.  Alma, one of the leaders of Christ's church, is talking with his son Helaman.  Alma had a bit of a rough start and he talks with his son about his past and how through Christ, Alma was able to turn his life around.
During his youth, Alma and his friends fought against the church, trying to lead the people to do bad things.  One day, Alma and his friends were visited by an angel who told them that what they were doing was wrong and they needed to turn their lives around.  Alma was then unconscious for three days.  During this period, he felt incredible guilt for the terrible things he had done.  At the end of the third day, Alma remembered that his father who was the leader of the church at this time had taught him about Jesus Christ and that He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world.  With this thought, he cried within himself for Christ to have mercy on him so he could be released from such guilt and pain.  He was instantly released from his pains and he felt such great joy and love for his Savior.
In this chapter, Alma is recounting this experience to his son Helaman.  He uses a technique called chiasmus, where something he said will be repeated or rephrased at another point in the chapter.  It works like this:
A         
   B        
      C        
      C'       
   B'       
A'        

The pattern can extend as long as you like.  The letters that are prime show that the statement makes the same point, but it might be rephrased.  Because statement C is in the middle, it becomes the main and most important point.  Now, in this chapter, Alma recounts the pain and anguish he experienced because of his sins.  In the middle of the chapter, he mentions that he turned to Christ, who relieved him of his pain.  After that point, Alma describes his joys and desire to then serve the Lord and bring people to repentance.  Christ is literally at the center of this chapter, just as he should be in our lives.  There is hope for everyone!  There's isn't a place that you can go where the light of the Atonement isn't able to reach you and help you out.  The Savior loves you very much.  Turn to the Savior and be rid of your guilt and pain.  As the nursery rhyme goes:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the King's horses
And all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

But, as my BYU Book of Mormon professor added:

But the King can.
And the King will.




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