Making the Right Decision 5-2020

From: B S TURNER Owner
bturner12@centurylink.net


Making the Right Decision 5-2020

Making the Right Decision

Making the right decisions are critical during our lifetime….we have all made mistakes. Some go far beyond the “I shouldn’t have added that much hot sauce to my chili” level of mistake.

The ones that we need to be most concerned about are the decisions that impact us spiritually – now many of these are tied to physical actions.

I want to take us to Mosiah 11 in the Book of Mormon. Here we see that Mosiah was telling the people the story of Alma. When we get to the verses 94- 105 we see that the Holy Spirit was with Alma in his teaching and preaching the word of God in so much that there began to be churches across the face of the land

11:97 And it came to pass that King Mosiah granted unto Alma, that he might establish churches throughout all the land of Zarahemla; and gave him power to ordain priests and teachers over every church.

As you read on you can see that there was a structure established…and that structure was but for one reason.

11:100 And thus, notwithstanding there being many churches they were all one church; yea, even the church of God:
11:101 For there was nothing preached in all the churches except it were repentance and faith in God

While there are many churches there is still only one God that we need to focus our time and energy on….let that sink in for a moment when you envision the current church landscape.

And the purpose or let’s say the message is still the same as it is through all of the scriptures….repent and have faith in one God.

And while the people had this desire and this reason for joining the body we see that the Lord blessed and prospered the people in the land as they embraced those two basic concepts. Now here is where the problem starts…..

11:105 Now it came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of King Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers.

This became the beginning of the end – they did all those things that we have read about before and I am sure many of us are wondering how “they” could do that after knowing and being so close to the truth and the freedom!! (There is a type and shadow here if you stop and see where we are as a people as it relates to the principles of the Gospel)

Not to long into the story we see that some come along and start to flatter many away and they began to commit sins.

When this began to happen those that were preaching an anti-Christ message were delivered to the Leadership of the church or in this case Alma as he was the High Priest and Judge so they could be dealt with in a way that would be in line with the law.

Alma had never encountered such a thing before – so he took them to the King….he surly would have the answer and then all of this would be taken care of right?

Well the King said…Alma this is your baby so deal with it (my words by the way)

What did Alma do? He did what he should have done the moment this was brought before him

11:120 And now the spirit of Alma was again troubled; and he went and inquired of the Lord what he should do concerning this matter, for he feared that he should do wrong in the sight of God.

The next fourteen verses outlines what Alma did when he went before the Lord….First, Alma was comforted by God in acknowledging the fact that his faith brought many to the waters of baptism and God even commended Alma for bringing this matter to him.

The counsel was so profound that Alma wrote the words of guidance down…. Mosiah 11:142

And it came to pass when Alma had heard these words, he wrote them down, that he might have them, and that he might judge the people of that church, according to the commandments of God.

What we see here is that Alma had some understanding as to the best way to guide the Church. But, when a real problem arose he leaned on his own knowledge and when that wasn’t enough he went to what he thought would be the “higher power”, the King. Finally when that didn’t work out he went to God.

I see myself in these words….do you see yourself? How about the Restoration? How many times in our lives or in the Church have we tried to move things along, make decisions and dictate direction all based on our understanding? Justifying to ourselves that this is what the Lord would have us do…Only to have them fail and we become disillusioned…..and then we become broken, separated from each other.

The guidance is given and if followed look at what happens….

Mosiah 11:147,148 And they began again to have peace and to prosper exceedingly in the affairs of the church; walking circumspectly before God; receiving many, and baptizing many.

And now all these things did Alma and his fellow laborers do, who were over the church; walking in all diligence, teaching the word of God in all things, suffering all manner of afflictions; being persecuted by all those who did not belong to the church of God.

What will you do differently so that your life and the Church can become whole again?

Brian Turner