The BOM.com

What does The Book of Mormon Teach?

The spirit has been telling me to make this blog for a while now. In this month's issue of the Ensign I saw an article about "small and simple blogs". I decided it was time to follow my prompting and create a small and simple blog (especially after coming up with the awesome title "The BOM.com")!

The Book of Mormon is my favorite book. I try to read it every day. It always lifts me up, inspires me, and intrigues me. I have read it many times and always seem to learn something new every time I study it.

My goal here is to write a post once a week highlighting a teaching from The Book of Mormon. I am not a scholar and I do not claim to know everything about the book but I do know that it is the word of God. My obvious intent is to inspire people and to hopefully educate people who are curious about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as people who are curious about what The Book of Mormon is all about.

So I guess if this is my first post I have to teach something...

My little girl just woke up so I'll have to make this one brief. 

 23 For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we  know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

Reference: The Second Book of Nephi, Chapter two, Verse twenty three (2 Nep 2:23)

Wow! This one little verse teaches so much. Nephi is the first character introduced in The Book of Mormon. His father is a prophet in Jerusalem around the time of Jeremiah. The Lord warns his father Lehi to take their family out of Jerusalem before Babylon invades and destroys Jerusalem as they knew it. Lehi's family is led by the Lord out of Jerusalem and by boat to the promise land (somewhere on the american continent). After Lehi dies Nephi becomes the primary ruler and teacher of his people. He becomes the new prophet. The Nephites, as they are called, build a temple like the one built by Solomon in their homeland and worship God. 

In this verse Nephi is teaching his people. Nephi addresses the reason he is keeping his record. To convince his children and his people to believe in Jesus Christ and God the Father. This verse stresses the importance of keeping records, whether it be prophets writing down the word of God like they have since the beginning of time or individuals keeping a journal with their testimony in it so their children can read it later and know that their parents believed in God. It teaches the importance of sharing these things with "our brethren" or in other words the importance of doing missionary work and spreading Christ's gospel. It teaches that we are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ or that through Christ we can be brought back into the presence of the Father. It stresses the importance of the doctrine that only though the grace of Christ can we be saved. It also stresses the importance of doing all that we can do to follow the Savior.

What a beautiful verse. I hope that someday my kids can look back on my journal and perhaps this blog and know that their dad believes in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.