This world offers so many great choices that we should definitely lay aside and "seek for the things of a better." (D&C 23-26)

23:1

What does it mean to be condemned? To me, to be condemned is to be damned. Condemnation seems more severe than punishment. There is a hopelessness to being condemned. It’s like a final, severe punishment. How does it feel to be condemned? How many of us feel condemned to a certain, bleak future? I’m afraid that many of us do feel condemned in our mortal lives and in eternity. It could be that our life is tough and we have no hope for it ever getting better. It could be we feel like we are beyond God’s grace and that we are condemned to suffer for our transgressions forever. It feels bad to be condemned.

The truth is, because of Christ’s atonement, NONE of us are condemned. There is no certain, bleak future in store for any of us. The purpose of Christ’s suffering is that we all will have a happen ending to some degree. Our lives and our striving are never hopeless. There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. The only way that there isn’t that light is if we, after all is said and done, turn and run the opposite direction of that light.

In this chapter, God ensures that each person highlighted understands that they “art under no condemnation.” God makes this clear for Oliver, Hyrum, Samuel and Joseph Smith Sr. The Lord doesn’t assure Joseph Knight Sr. however. It could be that the first four were concerned and Joseph Knight wasn’t. We know that Joseph Knight was a faithful member until the end of his life. Maybe he just had less anxiety about condemnation than the others…

The Lord ends the first verse to Oliver Cowdery by saying, “But beware of pride, lest thou shouldst enter into temptation.” We know that Oliver struggled with these feelings as he compared his role with Joseph Smith’s. Oliver’s pride eventually led him away from the church. I think that the Lord was giving him a warning here that Oliver possibly could have paid more attention to.

24:1

This verse is a revelation to Joseph about four months after the church was organized. “Behold, thou wast called and chosen to write the Book of Mormon, and to my ministry; and I have lifted thee up out of thine afflictions, and have counseled thee, that thou hast been delivered from all thine enemies, and thou hast been delivered from the powers of Satan and from darkness!” It’s important to know that God can ‘lift us out of our afflictions.”

This doesn’t mean that the afflictions will disappear. Usually, it simply means that we will be strengthened by the Lord to overcome our afflictions. We must keep this in mind when we are facing a trial. The trial won’t disappear but our ability to overcome the trial will increase. We can be truly lifted up.

24:5-6

“And thou shalt continue in calling upon God in my name, and writing the things which shall be given thee by the Comforter, and expounding all scriptures unto the church. And it shall be given thee in the very moment what thou shalt speak and write, and they shall hear it, or I will send unto them a cursing instead of a blessing.” Clearly, when we are preaching or expounding on the scriptures, the Spirit can help us. The Spirit can give us words that will help open up the hearts of the people who listen. Those who are ready will hear the right words (given by the Spirit) and your words will be brought to the hearts of the people.

However, it will still be up to them to open their hearts to what you are saying. The promptings of the Holy Ghost will never be strong enough to invalidate the agency that the hearer has. If a person rejects plain truth, it will definitely have a long-term effect on their happiness and potential.

This is an area (trusting in the Spirit to give me words when I need them) where I have a lot of improvement. I just don’t trust my Spirit-reading ability to rely completely on the Spirit when I’m teaching a lesson or giving a talk. My process involves over-preparing and planning out each statement and question. One of these days, I’m just going to study the material so that it’s very clear to me and then just wing it in front of a group and see what happens.

24:8

“Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days.” One big purpose for afflictions is to build our patience in the Lord. We are being trained to have faith in affliction. We are training to be submissive in the face of an ongoing trial. It is our fallen nature to be impatient and frustrated when we are facing a chronic issue that doesn’t seem to be resolving. We want God to act according to our will and our preferred timing.

The fact that God isn’t marching to the beat of our drum is a fantastic way to develop patience. We are meant to “wait on the Lord.” We are meant to be longsuffering. We are meant to ask for our problems to be resolved and then submit to God’s timing. Our patience with God’s timing is a primary way that God builds meekness, submissiveness, and enduring faith in the face of ongoing problems.

24:9

Marci will tell you that I am kinda lazy when it comes to working a job but I seem to have endless energy when I’m doing something related to the gospel. As a missionary, I wanted to be out of the house, knocking on doors, from sunup to sundown. In our callings, I naturally strive to be valiant. But, ask me to put together some marketing for FotoFly, I procrastinate endlessly.

It sound like Joseph and I were cut from the same cloth in this way. “And in temporal labors thou shalt not have strength, for this is not thy calling. Attend to thy calling and thou shalt have wherewith to magnify thine office, and to expound all scriptures.” It would be good if I was good at both but, if I had to choose, I’d choose having strength in our spiritual efforts.

24:11

Whenever we do something well, we should give the credit to God. We wouldn’t be able to accomplish much of anything without the strength of God. “In me he shall have glory, and not of himself, whether in weakness or in strength, whether in bonds or free.” None of our effort should be expended in an effort to receiving the glory personally. This is what Lucifer wanted in the premortal realm. He was motivated to saving everyone as long as he received the glory.

This is sometimes hard to do. The natural man wants the credit. The natural man wants respect and adoration from others. It’s hard to do things for the glory of God when, what you’re doing, will make you look really good. It’s hard to keep your motivations pure - at least for me. I would be a more sincere, better man if I would simply give credit to God for the opportunities he’s given me to accomplish some cool things.

24:18

How many of us a relying on God day in and day out? Probably not many. We may be a bunch of self-starters and ambitious over-achievers. We may get up early and work out and study and pray so that we are ready to tackle the day and make things happen. This type of living can lead to industrious, self-reliant people.

Being self-reliant is good right? The church even offers a series of classes that fall into the category of self-reliance. What could possibly be wrong with being self-reliant? Well, if we see ourselves as completely self-reliant, there are some problems. We can become prideful and forget God.

We all naturally do this when we are extremely self-reliant. I think this is part of why Jesus wanted Oliver to not worry about clothes, shoes or money on his mission. “And thou shalt take no purse nor scrip, neither staves, neither two coats, for the church shall give unto thee in the very hour what thou needest for food and for raiment, and for shoes and for money, and for scrip.”

God wanted Oliver to be completely reliant on God and others. He wanted him to look upward and outward constantly. God didn’t want Oliver looking inward for solutions to even basic needs of food and clothing. Jesus asked the same thing from the apostles during his mortal ministry. It is a healthy thing for men to focused outward and not think about themselves so much. It was very good for me, on my mission, to be this way. I wasn’t thinking about my career or my love life or even how I was going to pay my bills. I was completely reliant on others for my day to day needs. I was 100% focused on the people we were teaching. This is obviously a good thing.

25:7-8, 26:1

With scripture study, it’s important we put the effort in to learn the gospel. However, we shouldn’t be completely self-reliant about being able to remember precisely what the scriptures day or expect to invent the most clever, incredible lessons and messages. We should rely more on the Spirit to give us what we should say. The Lord told Emma this very thing. “And thou shalt be ordained under his hand to expound scriptures, and to exhort the church, according as it shall be given thee by my Spirit.” It’s good to see that the Lord wanted Emma teaching and exhorting the church members. She was an elect lady.

“For he shall lay his hands upon thee, and thou shalt receive the Holy Ghost, and thy time shall be given to writing, and to learning much.” I feel like Emma I guess. I love to learn and writing about what I’m thinking. There’s some blessings to studying the scriptures and then writing your thoughts. Kind of like I’m doing right now. :)

A similar message was given directly to Joseph Smith and Oliver. “Behold, I say unto you that you shall let your time be devoted to the studying of the scriptures, and to preaching.” None of us can study the scriptures too much!

25:10

One thing that I’m noticing as I’m going through the scriptures and categorizing their messages is that “keeping perspective” is one of the largest categories. There are a LOT of scriptures about perspective. “And verily I say unto thee that thou shalt lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better.” This world is so distracting and appealing! There is so much beauty. There is such engaging entertainment! There are amazing houses and boats and planes and clothes and it would be nice to have all of them.

There are a solid ten things that I can do today, off the top of my head, that would be enjoyable and not productive. Whether it’s watching TV or napping for a few hours or reading about current events or napping for a few hours or eating potato chips or heading to a movie or I could just nap.

I could spend this time that I’m writing this on building a new business. I could be attempting to build my social standing. I could be finding new hobbies or ways to leisurely spend my days. I could be working out and building big muscles. I could be simply looking in the mirror and admiring my amazing physique. There are so many other activities I could be doing rather than studying the scriptures. These other activities would benefit my mortal life. I might enjoy my time in this place even more.

That’s not the point of this place. I understand that this place is meant to be a temptation-filled, trial presenting, incredibly distracting place where we can be refined and proven. We cannot be overcome by the temptations and distractions of this very temporary place we are visiting. We’ve got to set those things aside and “seek for the things of the better.”