Tuesday, March 15, 2011

84 blog posts collected as a Book of Mormon commentary

Blogging by nature is a fragmentary way of writing, which reflects the line-upon-line way that we learn, here a little, there a little. But there is also something to be said for arranging one’s accumulated knowledge into order in some way. That makes it possible to find the holes in one’s knowledge and then learn even better things. That is why I’ve decided to set my Book of Mormon blog posts into order as they would fall in the Book of Mormon. I figure it will be useful not just for me, but for you as well. It is comfortable to go in chronological order. It makes a nice little online book of commentary. For you dear readers who are late-comers to this blog, this will help catch you up some. (And if anyone is interested in me publishing this as an ebook—and I mean “interested” in the sense that you would buy it—then I will do it.) (I have already collected some of my blog posts focused on the four gospels of the New Testament, polished them up and published them as an ebook at Lulu.com titled Why Did Jesus Do That?: Probing the Puzzling Incidents and His Oddest Sayings in the Gospels, which is available for sale for $2.99.)(Yeees, this is self-promotion, but if I didn't tell you it exists, how would you know?)(Okay, I declare this post has far too many consecutive sets of parentheses and the grammar police will be kicking down my door any minute now..) So without further ado--drum roll please--we begin!

1 Nephi, 2 Nephi

Some Musing on the Availability and Prevalence of Records and Other Sacred Things

Motivation to keep sacred records: external versus internal

Varying reactions to angelic reassurance

Success from failure

Fresh Lessons from Nephi Getting the Brass Plates

Complaining in 1 Nephi

Revisiting the story of Nephi bursting his bands

When Nephi is tied up on the ship

From the Greatest Sorrow to the Arms of God’s Love: the Valleys and Peaks of Lehi’s Experience

The fundamental purpose of 1 Nephi 20 (Isaiah 48)

1 Nephi 21 (Isaiah 49) The Lord can gather Israel with both hands tied behind His back

Isaiah and Nephi testify of the future redemptive work for the dead (1 Nephi 21)

Jacob on Being Subject to Christ

What Monster Need We Fear?

Nephi Elaborates on Isaiah’s Words about the Precepts of Men

Persecution: what goes around, comes around

Remembering the ancients’ travails

Nephi’s vision of Christ’s baptism

Jacob

Have you been planted in good or bad ground?

What we can learn from Jacob’s account of Sherem the anti-Christ

Mosiah

When you haven’t heard from someone for a while

House Hunting and Zeniff’s Over-zealousness

In which I notice the dangers of Zeniff's over-zealousness and how different it is from actual zeal

King Noah’s priorities

Focus on family leads to the overthrow of King Noah

A story about escape from slavery

The four sons of Mosiah and their long tail symptoms of escaping apostasy

King Mosiah let them go

Alma

Alma 1 Comparison between fruits of priestcraft and fruits of true faithfulness; also the church’s defense against persecution

Lessons from the Amlici Threat

From Humble Poverty to Proud Prosperity: Lessons from Alma 4

Birth and Rebirth

Observations on Alma 14 and the results of Alma and Amulek’s preaching in Ammonihah

The function of the gold limnah and the silver onti in the Nephite currency system

Alma as a type of Christ in the healing of Zeerom

Ammon’s Wait

What shall I do?

Alma 19: Spiritual gifts manifested in Lamanite conversion

Ammon, Lamoni, and Lamoni’s Father: Unexpected Obstacles Can Further Missionary Work

What Natural Man Is There That Knoweth These Things?

“O That I Were an Angel!”: A Look at the Wish of Alma’s Heart

For those times when the world's wickedness pains your soul

Alma’s advice to his son Helaman reveals his own character

There has to be backstory to Captain Moroni’s meteoric rise

Beware of Anger

Lessons from the battle in Alma 43

Fine Point on Surrender, Lehonti (and Co.) and Their Aversion to War?

The covenant of peace realigned Lamanite loyalties

Captain Moroni's Title of Liberty Priorities

Why were wives and children at the bottom of Captain Moroni's Title of Liberty?

Captain Moroni's perfect understanding

Lessons from the Morianton-Lehi land war

What sacred gifts might we be refusing?

Hard Things First


Battle Strategy – Distraction & Fatigue

Captain Moroni’s righteous army


Captain Moroni’s Psychological Warfare in Alma 54


Lessons from Alma 55: changed loyalties, impulse control, causes of carelessness, and winey Lamanites

A type of Christ: Captain Moroni freeing the prisoners of the city of Gid

Helaman’s insight into helping others keep covenants

What must we do to become like the stripling warriors?

Importance of frequent provisioning

Follow the Brethren and Never Fall

Helaman on Maintaining Possessions

Book of Mormon war chapters help us defend against pornography

Helaman

Remembering and building a foundation on Christ: the message behind Nephi and Lehi's mission to the Lamanites

Lessons from the determination of Samuel the Lamanite and the range of response he received

3 Nephi

Destruction as massive object lesson, witness of change as prelude to Christ’s visitation

Care for the One

3 Nephi 18, 20: Jesus teaches different lessons through the sacrament

Pray IN your families

Unspeakable words

How be it that ye have not written this thing?

Why Christ wanted Malachi 3 in the Book of Mormon

Three Types of Scattering and the Scatter-Gather Cycle

Mormon

Forbidden to Preach


Ether

Ether 3 and the Eye of Faith

When the storms push you to your goal

Spiritual lessons from stories of poisonous serpents

Ether’s prophecies in Ether 13

Topical

Examples of Good Fatherhood in the Book of Mormon

How are we to understand the word “astonished” in the scriptures?

There’s more to covenants than meets the eye

One of the Best Scriptural Phrases for the Little Life Challenges

2 comments:

Jocelyn Christensen said...

I could sit and read you all day...parenthesis included!

Michaela Stephens said...

Jocelyn, you are so kind. My goal is to edify and benefit my readers. I can't ever take credit for the things I learn, but I'm always the one responsible for any errors.