Repentence and Conversion

When I came home from Japan, I was surprised by a prompting to do the Come Follow Me readings in Japanese, and then even more surprised to realize how much Japanese I learned reading the Book of Mormon for the challenge from President Nelson: the first chapter I read wasn't half as hard as I'd expected: I have to read it from a paper edition, which means no copy and paste into my dictionary, because it's not in the Gospel Library app (I assume there's some copyright issue; that's typically why stuff like this happens).

So, I'm cruising along, reading in Matthew 13: the Parable of the Sower. That explanation in the middle has always seemed odd to me: "lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."

And I noticed two things:

First, the Japanese makes the cause-effect relationship more apparent than the English: the people close their own eyes, they close their own ears, and their own hearts for the purpose that they won't have to repent.

And Second --wait. I didn't remember the word "repent" being in this passage. When I looked at the English, I realized that I don't remember that word being there because... it's not. In English, it says "lest... [they] should be converted, and I should heal them." But the Japanese word here is 悔い改める。I learned to recognize it as "repent" in my Book of Mormon reading, and that's what it says if you look it up in my dictionary. But it's a compound:

悔 -- repent/regret
改 -- reformation/change/modify/renew

I can see how it could have both meanings, and that's a whole new way of looking at conversion for me. I've always thought about repenting as a sort of "I'm sorry" process that we go through with the Lord, followed by change. But this word unifies those two aspects into a single concept, a single verb.

I wondered if there was anywhere else that the words repent and conversion were used interchangeably in Japanese. Surprisingly, there's not a lot of places in the New Testament where you find the word "conversion": only 8. In addition to looking at the Japanese, it would be really interesting to use Strong's Concordance to look at the Greek roots of these words, but I'm so slow at the Japanese that there's no way that I can do that tonight.

A Testimony of the Bible

Recently, there were some missionaries standing around with an investigator after church, teaching him a discussion. They were talking about the Bible. And, to my dismay, I realized that they were telling the gentleman that it's not as valuable, not as good as, not as important as, not as inspired as the Book of Mormon. I could feel the resistance rising in the man, as they told him that this amazing book of holy writ that he cherishes is... not that important.

I really can't blame the missionaries; they were teaching the same thing that I've heard in numerous Sunday School classes, sacrament meeting talks, and other conversations in the Church over the years: We believe the Bible to be the word of God -- but only as far as it's translated correctly... and it's not very correct: The Book of Mormon is the word of God. It's not an uncommon attitude to encounter in the various classes. Our missionaries are young; they teach investigators the things that we teach our children and our youth. There's a big problem with that in this instance:

This idea that the Bible is "less than" other modern(better) scripture is false doctrine.

Say it again: "We believe the Bible to be the word of God."

The Sabbath and Idolatry

There's lots of different things that get focused on when we start talking about the Sabbath day. There's obedience, and holiness, and things we should (or should not) be doing. Sometimes, we talk about certain verses. The Doctrine and Covenants tells us to bring our oblations -our offerings- that we may be unspotted from the world. But there are other, less familiar, passages as well:

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Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.
-Exodus 31:13, emphasis added

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I feel like, with the Sabbath so often being disregarded, it's easy to think of it as a relatively minor part of the covenant. To be obeyed when there's nothing pressing going on, when it works for you. But if the boss schedules, you... what're you going to do? Ya gotta eat, right?

The Lord is pretty serious about the Sabbath, though.
Sabbath breaking was a capital offense under the Law of Moses.

Stop. Look at that again.

The Lord  is very serious about the Sabbath.
He ordered death by stoning for Sabbath breaking.

The Sabbath is important. All the time-
-not just when there's no game on.

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Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that sould shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. 
-Exodus 31:14-15

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So, why the emphasis? What's so important about a day of rest?

A few years back, I discovered that they publish chronological versions of the Bible, and when my kids asked me to read them the Bible, we decided that's how we're going to do it: we're going to get the story, in order. It's amazing. I can't recommend it enough: putting the story in order makes things make so much more sense. Hero and I have been reading it for a couple of years now; he was pretty small when he made the request. We sometimes read just a few verses, occasionally it's been multiple chapters. And as we go along, passages that I have read in the traditional order, but had not context for, they are starting to come into focus. And sections that always bogged me down and defeated my efforts to read the whole thing cover to cover have been split up and become much more manageable, when read chronologically.

We're about halfway through the book; it's exciting: I now think of it as being halfway through the story. Having a strong narrative to attach the sermons and prophecies to makes a huge difference in how I'm understanding and retain things, and in the connections that I'm able to make as I read it. So. The Northern and Southern Kingdoms have long since split, and the North has fallen into serious apostasy.

It started with Jeroboam. He's always, "Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin". What a way to be remembered! He introduced idolatry in the Northern Kingdom; taught them to chase after false gods - wood and stone, made by their own hands, gods that don't think or breathe. Gods with no power.  And they refused to return to the Lord, on the whole, until they were destroyed. We read about the brief reprieve, under Hezekiah, who was contemporary with Isaiah (and just a little bit prior to Lehi -- about the same distance in time as we are from Joseph Smith right now). But if you look in the Chronology, in the Bible Dictionary, right under Hezekiah it says, "End of the Northern kingdom".

So, right before Isaiah there was a much less well-known prophet, Hosea. He, like Isaiah, was sent to a people who would not listen. Like Isaiah, Hosea's marriage was made at the instruction of the Lord, and his family was a sign to the people.

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And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land had committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord. 
-Hosea 1:2

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So Hosea does it; he marries a woman named Diblaim, and she bears him three children: Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah, and Lo-ammi.


When the Law of Moses was given, the Lord told them that if they would keep the commandments, they would be the beneficiaries of a host of blessings. Rain in "due season", plenty to eat, protection from enemies -even when the other nations are vastly stronger.

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Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. 
If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; ... I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. ... And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. 
And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
-Leveticus 26:2-13

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So there's this inverse connection between idolatry and sabbath worship: they don't seem to ever coexist. To the degree that you do the one, you don't do the other. If you obey the first of the Ten Commandments, if you have no other gods, then you will keep the Sabbath. They are linked. But Israel in the Northern kingdom turned to idolatry under Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. And now as Hosea is sent to them, their day of grace is nearly done, and destruction awaits them, foreshadowed in his children's prophetic names:


Jezreel: once the capital, after the fall of the kingdom it was never important again.
Lo-ruhamah: the name means "not having obtained mercy".
Lo-ammi: the name means "not my people". 

And then there's this amazing imagery, thoughout the book of Hosea, of Christ as the bridegroom -- and His church, the daughter of Israel, as an unfaithful whore of a wife, gone chasing after every sin imaginable, consorting with every other fake and useless god, turning away from the husband who sacrificed His very body for her.

But He loves her anyway.
He wants her back.

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And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the Lord. 
Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her... For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name... And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord. 
-Hosea 2: 13-20

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There's this contrast between the richly deserved destruction, brought on by idolatry: betrayal so profound that it is compared, not just to adultery, but to whoredom. To deliberate, repeated, gross unfaithfulness in the holiest of relationships. And in contrast to the abominations of the people, there's this amazing steadiness, this depth of love, of mercy. The Lord knows exactly what his bride has done... and He wants her anyway.

That's Hosea. Hosea taught me what a terrible betrayal it is to put something -anything- before the Lord. And he taught me how, however often, the Lord is not just willing but anxious to have us back. Hosea's whole book is about how much the Lord loves His people. And Hosea's themes come back in later writers. You see it in the book of Isaiah, and tonight we found it reading in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah follows Isaiah, this time among Judah, in the Southern Kingdom. His prophecies cover a good chunk of time, including the reign of Zedekiah, the same king we're familiar with from Lehi's exodus from Jerusalem. Jeremiah picks up Hosea's theme:

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Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of his increase... The priests said not, Where is the Lord? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. ... Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. 
Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
-Jeremiah 2:3-12

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In chapter 3, Jeremiah talks about how Judah had her sister's example as a cautionary tale: Israel turned to idolatry and was destroyed, but Judah has only given lipservice to the lesson; she plays at observing the forms, but the Lord is not at the center of her affections. And it's bringing disaster upon her.

And then Jeremiah offers the people the cure:

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And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein...
-Jeremiah 17:24

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The cure for the ills brought on by idolatry, the suffering that comes from allowing anything to come before the Lord in our lives and our hearts, is to shore up our Sabbaths. It is both a barometer, offering us a clue to how we are doing, and also an immunization, offering protection against the evils of the day.

Is your faith wavering? Keep the Sabbath.
Do you need blessings? Keep the Sabbath.
Have you strayed from what you know? Keep the Sabbath.

Keep the Sabbath. It's a starting place. A place to catch your balance and draw strength to face the rest of the week. Keep the Sabbath; attend your meetings and learn how to try a little harder to stand a little taller. It's firm ground from which to begin the long climb to the heights that He, in His mercy and love, invites us: to approach Him, to be joint-heirs with Him.

Keep the Sabbath; He is Lord of the Sabbath, and His plan is a plan of happiness, but unfaithfulness leads to misery every. single. time.

No wonder the Sabbath is a delight! 

LDSconf: The Women's Session

Put yourself in a place where you can feel God's love for you.
-Sharon Eubank


We need to continually deepen our knowledge of and obedience to our Heavenly Father.
-Neill F. Marriott


The Savior repairs the breach, or distance, between us and our Heavenly Father.
-Neill F. Marriott
"...the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound."
-Isaiah 30:26

"Thinking small about yourself does not serve us well; instead, it holds us back."
-Joy D. Jones
If you look at the scriptural uses of the word "meek" there is *never* any any justification for thinking small about ourselves: thinking ourselves small is NOT meekness. Meekness is turning to God, leaning on God, bringing Him our troubles, and realizing that our gifts and successes are from and through Him.


"God is your Father. He loves you!"
-Joy D. Jones
The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
-Romans 8:16

The path of discipleship in the gospel of Jesus Christ is the path of joy. It is the path of safety and peace.

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Psalm 16: Joy and Hope in Christ

This Psalm has a number of uncommon words that I first had to decipher, so I had to start by learning about these trickier words and phrases. Once I had figured out what all the words mean, then the Psalm became beautiful and very comforting to me.

From verse 2:

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Lord, thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee.

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I started out looking this up in Strong's Concordance, but it wasn't there, and I'm not sure what that's all about, but the next thing that I did was to look at the collection of parallel translations at the Blue Letter Bible site. The NIV rendering is pretty representative of the collection, and I made note of it in the margins of my Bible:

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You are my Lord, apart from you I have no good thing.

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The other idea that was repeated several times among the various translations is this, from the New King James:

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You are my Lord, my goodness is nothing apart from You.

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I love this sense that everything good comes from Christ, and that without Him there is nothing good either from us or for us, both individually (verse 2) and collectively as His saints (verse 3).  David  then follows this idea up with a declaration of the importance and benefits of fidelity, as well as his intention to be true to the Lord.

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Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take their names into my lips.
-Psalm 16:4

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I was recently reading in Hosea where loathsomeness of chasing other gods brought home through the comparison to a bride who willfully turns to prostitution and whoredom, abandoning a loving husband, though Isaiah assures us that the Bridegroom is anxious to take his bride back when she strays. The vivid imagery from Hosea and Isaiah makes David's declaration of fidelity all the more poignant. The more that I ponder this idea that straying from our covenants to God is offensive to Him in much the same way that straying from the marriage covenant is offensive to a faithful spouse, the more powerful the imagery of faithfulness in the covenant is. Having observed the devastation when marriage covenants are not upheld strictly, the comparative consequence of straying from our covenants to God, while not always immediately obvious, is sobering. David continues with the Psalm, with verses 5 and 6 referencing the security of knowing that the Lord is caring for and providing for His people, in the same way that a faithful husband provides for his wife:

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The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

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The "portion of mine inheritance" here references the way that the promised land was divided up by lot when the Israelites. John Taylor referenced these verses several times in addresses to the Saints in his day, always in appreciation for the beautiful lands and homes that the Lord had given them. In many translations of the Bible, this is rendered as property lines given for an inheritance. I have looked around our part of the world many times and thought how lovely it is here, and how blessed I am to enjoy the land the the Lord has given to me. David echoed the same theme as President Taylor in his expression of gratitude and reliance on the Lord:

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I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer they Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt sew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.  
-Psalm 16:8-11

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I don't know when this was written, if it was before or after David murdered Uriah the Hittite, but I love the confidence that he expresses here: he's not going to be abandoned; and the Lord will not have to tolerate corruption: David anticipates being clean. I'm kind of guessing this is after that incident, given the strength of the imagery that David is drawing on: to me this looks like someone who has had a long look at the ugliness of their own actions, and is extremely grateful to be snatched from hell by the grace of our Savior. This opportunity for complete redemption is something that every prophet has emphasized. One of my favorite examples comes from Isaiah:

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Come no, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be a scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
-Isaiah 1:18

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The standards are high: the Lord cannot look on any sin with the least degree of allowance. But His mercy and grace are up to the task: nothing is too hard for Him; He is able to redeem us, to cleanse us, and to bring us home.

No wonder David ends his Psalm with an expression of confidence and joy.

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