Don't act so surprised

I have high hopes that someday I will resume posting other stuff on this blog besides the Hoffmann of the Month and the weekly Sunday School update. Today is not that day. Here's this week's BASOTRUSSL. In case you forgot, that's Blog About Something Only Tangentially Related to the Upcoming Sunday School Lesson.

Except this week, it's not so tangential. After corrupting your views of certain scripture passages the last few weeks by detailing my deliberate misreadings, I figured I'd go legit this time. In this week's Sunday School lesson, we cover the verses from which I made arguably my favorite scriptural insight that wasn't prompted by a question or comment from a teacher, manual, General Conference talk, mission companion, etc.

In the opening chapters of the Book of Helaman, there is great upheaval in the church and in the government, due to ongoing wars with the Lamanites, the rise of the Gadianton robbers, and the general tendency of the people to forget their God.

But as the wars come to an end and the robbers go into hiding, peace is established, and many are drawn to the church, in part because they notice the great prosperity of church members. Actually, "many" is kind of an understatement--"tens of thousands" are baptized over a period of just a couple of years (see Hel. 3:24-26). The church's growth is so staggering "that even the high priests and the teachers were themselves astonished beyond measure" (Hel. 3:25).

It's very interesting to me that the leaders of the church were surprised by the growth of the church. If anyone should've known that "the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name" (Hel. 3:27), if anyone should've known "that the gate of heaven is open unto all...who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ" (Hel. 3:28), it should've been them.

I know that those things are true. I know that the Lord always keeps his promises. And a big reason for this knowledge is that I regularly read the scriptures, which are full of accounts of and testimonies from people who were blessed because they exercised faith in God and obeyed His commandments.

If I were to break down my reason for doing these BASOTRUSSL posts, it would probably be something like Ensuring I'm Writing On A Consistent Basis (10%), Drawing Attention To Myself (40%), and Promoting Regular Scripture Study (50%). I've had times in my life when I've struggled with most of the "routine" things Mormons are encouraged to do (pray, pay tithing, regular temple attendance, etc.), but thankfully reading the scriptures has not been one of them. It's probably the biggest single reason for my testimony and my commitment to Christ and His church being as strong as it is (though I hope to make both much, much stronger). When you read these posts, I hope you notice when I make a clever comment or chuckle when I make a good joke, but mostly I hope they encourage you to read the scriptures more often. You may be "astonished beyond measure" at how much it blesses your life.