FAMILY EVENING OF MONDAY SEPTEMBER 7

Hélaman:13 to 16 «Glad tidings of great Joy »

The situation has worsened among the Nephites and, a Lamanite, Samuel becomes God ‘s instrument to preach repentance and faith to the wayward Nephites about 6 years before Jesus coming on earth ….At first Samuel is rejected but he comes back, climbing on a wall, preaches repentance, narrowly escapes death ,then disappears , never to be seen again… With what effect?

See Helaman 16:12. The situation worsened , the Nephites turned a blind eye upon the things of the Lord And however Samuel delivered « a message of great joy » but the people had to reset their heart on God and that’s what they refused: a change of heart. It’s a heart issue See Helaman 13 verses 3,4,5 repeated 3 times.

Samuel mentions 5 things the Nephites love or do their treasure :

1) They love their riches, not God Helaman13:21, their riches will become slippery repeated 3 times chapter13: 31,33,35

2) They don’t remember Heleman13:22

3) They have no gratitude

4) They live in pride

5) They reject prophets Helaman 13:24 to 26

Samuel tells them to set their heart on a new treasure and shares what he knows :

1) Know God. He reclaims people and tries every language to do it

2) Know the conditions of repentance

3) Know the coming of Christ

4) Know the Signs

5) Believe: God is here. Believe upon His name

To sum up : the purpose is to persuade the Nephites to listen, to feel and to live again …

A Few believed : see Helaman 16 1,5...and see what happened to them Helaman 16:15…

We can learn so many things from Samuel:

1) God chooses prophets not simply from the so-called «chosen» population: Samuel is a Lamanite

2) Samuel comes back after being rejected. Who is willing to do so?

3) He follows his heart with no plan Helaman13:3

4) He was willing to do the unexpected

5) He spoke clearly of the coming of Christ

6) He gave the most detailed prophecies in the Book of Mormon : we’ll see in 3 Nephi

7) When Jesus visits the Nephites Jesus mentions Samuel and checks if Samuel’s words are recorded and preserved 3 Nephi chapter 23:9,10,11

8) Samuel didn’seek fame and fortune, and once he had done what God required of him, he immediately left

The Nephites wanted to be justified instead of being reprimanded or corrected Helaman 13;27,28 And in fact they did cast out the very people who could save them.

Prophets comfort us, enlighten us, foresee the future and must warn us…

Just because something isn’t in our experience, doesn’t mean that it won’t happen... If someone had told us on the first of january what 2020 would look like, we wouldn’t have believed him or them and however the pandemic has disrupted our lives, has disconnected us from others, shuttered businesses, caused the death of many, cancelled all events and travels and thrown shadow over the whole world …

Gerald Hansen in a talk named « How can we avoid the same fate as the Nephites says «Mormon’s point in the Book of Mormon is to show the goodness of God and the foolishness of humankind. As he depicts this foolishness and unmasks the fundamental problems of the Nephite society in the book of Helaman, it becomes increasingly easy to see how we are repeating the same mistakes today « (book of mormon central.org)

The apostle Todd Christofferson explains that «divine chastening» has at least 3 purposes:

1) persuade us to repent

2) Refine and sanctify us

3) “At times to redirect our course in life to what the Lord knows is a better path”

(general conference April 2011 «As many as I love I rebuke and chasten»)

Shall we become and remain “the most believing part”? Helaman 16:15 It’s my prayer we can do it with all my heart. (EC)