Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Post 43z: Each of the THE HOLY SCRIPTURES Are Gifts From God Which Lead Us Back To Him. In Each Case These Sacred Gifts Were Made Available at Great Personal Sacrifice by Believers Who Did God's Will in Providing Them.

To Access This Blog's Index, Please Scroll Down To the Fifth Paragraph From the End of This Post!



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TODAY'S THEME


The Empty Tomb -by Clark Kelley Price
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, An Example:
(From an Authorized King James Version of the New Testament) Luke 24:1 NOW upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
6 He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
7 Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
8 And they remembered his words,
9 And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.
10 It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.
11 And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.
12 Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
13 ¶ And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
20 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
22 Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
23 And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
24 And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.
25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.*
28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.
29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? (emphasis added)
*I must share with each of you good readers of this blog post a special line of reasoning of mine pursuant to my having read verse 27 above while typing this blog post entry. Please scroll back up right now and read that verse again and then return quickly back here. Thank you!

I thought of the boy Jesus as he must have often read scriptures from what was the Hebrew version of the Old Testament, (which I usually read in English and you, in whichever language you happen to use) which he must have begun reading at a fairly young age; scriptures which actually contained many prophecies about himself!

No doubt, his dear mother had, in his childhood, begun teaching  him the truth that the actual father of his earthly body was God, Our Eternal Father, and not Joseph, his step-father, yet various verses of scripture lead us to believe he loved and obeyed his step-father, Joseph.

Jesus surely must have early on in his young life begun realizing that the many prophecies of the Redeemer and Saviour of the World he found in the Scriptures he was reading (Remember Verse 27, in which the just Resurrected Jesus Christ in that scripture reviewed all of the scriptures with His two disciples who needed to be reminded of them by him), would eventually be applied to Him personally!

My sudden realization that Jesus had learned as a boy about the truth regarding who he really was and the responsibility that comes with that caused tears to begin trickling down my cheeks. No ordinary boy could ever have such realizations as he did about who he really was! What a sacred life Jesus lived as a boy, yet I'm sure he was a very typical boy in many ways!

I'm positive the prayers Jesus offered after that sacred realization had first come upon him were much more intense and eventually, much more interactive with his Heavenly Father, than the prayers other boys his age were offering. After all, his Heavenly Father, to whom his mother and very good step-father taught him to pray, was his real father in a miraculous yet very factual way!

I must now insert one of my most favorite paintings of our Savior. In it he as a Twelve Year Old is shown teaching Learned Ones in the House of the Lord! (The Temple in Jerusalem). Surely it was the sacred writing of the Scriptures which inspired this great artist to paint this masterpiece!

Christ in the Temple -by Heinrich Hofmann
Dear Readers,  please click on the link just below to read in verses 41 through 50 the Apostle Luke's account of the twelve year old Jesus' experience in the temple pictured above. You will have the entire chapter on the screen. Please scroll down to begin reading at verse 41.

Luke 2:41-50

 OTHER SCRIPTURES

The Bible and the Book of Mormon -by Greg K. Olsen
In the Latter-Days the Lord Has Provided Us With Additional Books of Scripture, the First of Which was: the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ:
Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 3:12 (The Words of Father Lehi):Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins shall write (the Book of Mormon); and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; (the Bible) and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days, and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord. (clarification and emphasis added)
Mormon Messages: The Blessing of Scripture!


William Tyndale
As we just learned from the video, William Tyndale personally translated the Holy Bible into the English language so that ordinary men and women and their children of his day could increase their faith and overall spirituality by accessing its sacred words in their own language. One estimation (from Wikipedia) suggests the New Testament in the King James version is 83% Tyndale's and the Old Testament 76%. Despite the great  importance of his accomplishment Government and Church authorities condemned his actions and had him executed.

Also, The Book of Mormon Was translated and published through much Personal Sacrifice on the Part of Its Inspired Translator, Joseph Smith, Jr. The Prophet Joseph and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a drunken and unjustifiably angry mob who were incited by a Newspaper editor and other prominent persons who wanted that killing to take place.

The Angel Moroni Appears to Seventeen Year Old Joseph Smith -by Tom Lovell
Joseph Smith History 1:33 He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people. (emphasis added)
The following revelation which became scripture, was received by the Prophet Joseph Smith from the Lord on March 20, 1839. 
Doctrine and Covenants 121:7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.
I hope that each of you blog readers will agree with me when I say that I am sure the Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke those two sacred scriptural verses (just above in blue) to the Prophet Joseph Smith, would tell us that the scriptural message given just above applies also to the great and good man William Tyndale who was willing to have his life taken rather than to giving up his project of translating the Bible into the English Language (I am assuming that someone here on earth has vicariously performed the necessary ordinances for William Tyndale in an L.D.S. Temple along with his having accepted the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ when it was taught him in the World of Spirits after his assassination.)
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This Blog is not owned by or affiliated with the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the Mormon or LDS Church). The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the position of the Church.


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TO ACCESS NEIL BIRCH'S BLOG INDEX: To Either Read the Full Index Item Which Refers To This Blog Post, (Or To Search The Index For Any Other Blog Post You Desire To Access), After You Have Read All of This Paragraph, Please Scroll Back Up And Click on the Following: A Translation of the Holy Bible in the English Language (the language of the Common Man in England) was Provided, (According to Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints In a Mormon Messages Video,) by an Englishman, William Tyndale Who Was Executed near Brussells, Belgium on October 6, 1536 for Having Made that Translation!  -Post 43z. When The Picture of Our Savior, Jesus Christ Sitting Next To a Little Boy Comes Onto Your Screen, Please Scroll Down In The Index To Your Target Item Or Use the Alphabetical Scrolling Device (When It Has Been Installed).

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Neil Birch