#scripture study

[maddyrae00]

Bible study recently. Finn has started to join me again which makes my heart happy.

[icarianlibrary]

Me pulling out the scriptures when I get a random gut feeling that I should read my bible

[pressforwardsaints]

Scripture Study with a Living Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ

[destinie]

This is what I learned about faithfulness from the story of Joseph. I never truly understood the phrase "faithful over little" until I saw his story with new eyes.

[starfayy]

Whenever people ask me "What is evil then?" I always give a very objective answer:

Evil is like thermodynamics.

Coldness doesnt exist in itself, is just the absence of heat

Or like optical theory

Darkness doesnt exist in itself, is just absence of light

Evil is a rebellion against the good, good exist outside of evil but evil NEEDS the reference of what's good and sacred and true and holy and right to exist and act, like a parasite

There is no virus without a carrier

Therefore, evil is the absence of God. Evil wasn't meant to be here, like a disease is not meant to be in your organism forever.

[littleflowerfaith]

“Listen to me, my faithful children, and blossom like a rose growing by a stream of water.”

‭‭Sirach 39:13‬

[mindfulldsliving]

Daily Cross-Bearing: Living True Discipleship Today

Discipleship is a journey woven deeply into the fabric of Christian faith. It beckons us to follow in the footsteps of Christ, embodying His teachings day by day.

Understanding Discipleship: Taking Up Your Cross in 3 Nephi 12:30 and Matthew 16:24-26 When we consider the words of Jesus in 3 Nephi 12:30 and Matthew 16:24-26, we find a call that pierces the heart of true discipleship: “Take up your cross.” These teachings challenge us to weigh the essence of following Christ against the pull of worldly gain. Christ urges us to deny ourselves and embrace the…

[spiritualdirections]

St. Jerome, the model interpreter of Scripture

From  Scripturae Sacrae Affectus,Pope Francis' Apostolic Letter on St. Jerome:

‘Biblical passages are not always immediately accessible. As Isaiah said (29:11), even for those who know how to “read” – that is, those who have had a sufficient intellectual training – the sacred book appears “sealed”, hermetically closed to interpretation. A witness is needed to intervene and provide the key to its liberating message, which is Christ the Lord. He alone is able to break the seal and open the book (cf. Rev 5:1-10) and in this way unveil its wondrous outpouring of grace (Lk 4:17-21). Many, even among practising Christians, say openly that they are not able to read it (cf. Is 29:12), not because of illiteracy, but because they are unprepared for the biblical language, its modes of expression and its ancient cultural traditions. As a result the biblical text becomes indecipherable, as if it were written in an unknown alphabet and an esoteric tongue.

‘This shows the need for the mediation of an interpreter, who can exercise a “diaconal” function on behalf of the person who cannot understand the meaning of the prophetic message. Here we think of the deacon Philip, sent by the Lord to approach the chariot of the eunuch who was reading a passage from Isaiah (53:7-8), without being able to unlock its meaning. “Do you understand what you are reading?” asked Philip, and the eunuch replied: “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8:30-31).[32]

‘Jerome can serve as our guide because, like Philip (cf. Acts 8:35), he leads every reader to the mystery of Jesus, while responsibly and systematically providing the exegetical and cultural information needed for a correct and fruitful reading of the Scriptures.[33] In an integrated and skilful way he employed all the methodological resources available in his day – competence in the languages in which the word of God was handed down, careful analysis and examination of manuscripts, detailed archeological research, as well as knowledge of the history of interpretation – in order to point to a correct understanding of the inspired Scriptures.

‘This outstanding aspect of the activity of Saint Jerome is also of great importance for the Church in our own time. If, as Dei Verbum teaches, the Bible constitutes as it were “the soul of sacred theology”[34] and the spiritual support of the Christian life,[35] the interpretation of the Bible must necessarily be accompanied by specific skills."

[valiantamm]

Sunday thoughts for Tumblrstake 10/8/2023

Hello folks. Couldn't sleep last night so hard that it became this morning. But I took the opportunity to do a little bit of study along with some extra things this afternoon.

Since I think you can get a lot out of studying on your own terms instead of just listening to my conclusions, I decided I'd just like to share some of the stuff I've been reading and listening to today:

TW for racism, systemic issues, etc.

Instagram/TikTok posts: (all from James Jones of Beyond the Block): On "thinking celestial"... What the Black Menaces teach us about idolatry "The sin next to murder" Mormon Stories Podcast Praying the gay away as a Mormon teen Stacey Harkey on “leaving” the Mormon Church

Dialogue Journal Truth and Reconciliation: Reflections on the Fortieth Anniversary of the LDS Church’s Lifting the Priesthood and Temple Restrictions for Black Mormons of African Descent (much less scary a read than the length of this title would lead you to believe) ---

My messy summary

Deuteronomy 5:9-10, KJV (italicized for emphasis)

9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto [idols], nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, 10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

I always felt uncomfortable about this verse. Mentions of God as a jealous god feel harsh to me and others with a generally universalist perspective on salvation -- we have a desire for others to be able to be happy now and in the eternities.

Even further bothering me has been the generational guilt that is implied here -- a curse upon someone, their children, and their children's children. But today I see it not as a curse but an explanation of how familial trauma and societal inequality persist.

In the Truth and Reconciliation article I shared, our author brings up that the church might try modeling a truth and reconciliation intiative similar to the one which was used in the country of South Africa after the abolishment of Apartheid.

Obviously, a truth and reconciliation initiative is more complicated when those needing to ask for forgiveness may not have been guilty of the transgressions themselves but may be the present-day representatives of those persons, policies, and institutions responsible for the wrongs. Nevertheless, it seems that they must take the risk of responsibility if true healing is ever to take place.

As modern-day generations, it falls on us -- particularly us in positions of privelige and power, but also to anyone who feels "called to the work" -- to right the wrongs of the past. We may bear no personal blame for the events of the past, but without our own efforts, inequality and unkindness will persist.

I hope I (and you!) can believe and remember this quote from Nelson Mandela:

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

[churchsideblog]

Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.

1 Thessalonians 5:14–15

[heathersdesk]

Confession Time:

I don't like Come Follow Me and never have. And I haven't been able to articulate why until I tried to buckle down and start with the Book of Mormon this year.

The first paragraph of the first section for 1 Nephi 1-5 ends with this sentence:

"Overall, there is power in this imperfect family’s examples of faith."

I was rocked by that a little bit the first time I read it.

I thought to myself, "Wow. Are we really going to confront the hero worship and unhealthy worldviews our community has internalized about this book because of the way the negative behaviors of the characters are never challenged or confronted for what they are? That many of the details are included because they're cautionary tales about what NOT to do, but you'd never know that based on how the material is presented and talked about by our people at large because the conversation is driven by the needless compulsion to focus on the same tired perspectives of faith promotion that the subjects sometimes don't deserve?"

*reads the section, which is full of the same "I will go and do" about Nephi that they always do, without once confronting the conflicts, doubts, and struggles of anyone but Nephi in any serious way, some of which are exacerbated (if not cause) by Nephi being insufferable and self-righteous to everyone around him*

Nephi is an unreliable narrator, y'all. You're not supposed to believe everything he says, thinks, and does. Especially when he's younger. His view of the people around him and their motivations lack depth because he was totally unconcerned with their feelings and struggles. He was bad at helping and honoring people in their darkest moments, having nothing better to offer them for support than glib and shallow assertions that they would be struggling less if they were more like him. An attitude he learned from his father's blatant and unapologetic favoritism.

Nephi is not an example of what to do when there is conflict in your family. And it takes him until "O wretched man that I am" to realize he's not the most important man in every room. His disrespect for other people in his leadership is the reason they want nothing to do with him, and it takes him a lifetime of chasing people away from God to realize he's not as good of a person as he thinks he is. He has failed people from his need to be seen as being better than he is, better than everyone else is at loving God and knowing what that means. And this becomes a cultural artifact, a baked-in foregone conclusion in the minds of his people that ends up shaping their self-perceptions until it destroys them. His personal failures, viewed for their long-term ramifications and consequences, is part of what this book is supposed to be about.

But sure. Let's do "I will go and do" again, without pondering in any serious way if Nephi's interpretation of his interaction with the Holy Ghost might be lacking in credibility because the alternative is to say something closer to "We really botched this job and killing Laban was not a forgone conclusion or a necessary evil that I can acquit myself of because God said it was okay."

Maybe we don't have to believe that. Maybe we can examine how our culture in the modern church has perpetuated this same logical fallacy with vigilante violence, justified by appeals to this exact story.

Point being, never read the story of Nephi without keeping it firmly fixed in your mind that he's going to regret and repent of most of this later. That cross reference to 2 Nephi 4 is probably the most important thing you can have in your margins every time he says or does something totally uncalled for. 🖖

[maddyrae00]

Finn used to join me for bible study every day. I miss when he used to join me

[holdonendure]

Do You Only Read The New Testament?

[pressforwardsaints]

Emma Hale Smith; the sacrament; authority in the Church (D&C sections 25, 27–28)

[brenda-walsh-ministries]

Today's Daily Scripture Picture: Spiritual Needs Psalm 107:9 – “For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things.”