Daily Thoughts

In the Book of Mormon I read about Columbus sailing across the ocean to the promised land, then more people following him, who scattered the native Americans. All this was prophesied by Nephi hundreds of years before it occurred. 1 Ne. 13: 10-14 "And it came to pass that I looked and beheld many waters; and they divided the Gentiles from the seed of my brethren. And it came to pass that the angel said unto me: Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed of thy brethren. And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land. And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters. And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten."

In the New Testament we read about how wrong it is to find fault with others when we often have worse faults ourselves. We need to cast the beam out of our own eyes before we can see clearly to help our brother remove the speck out of his eye. Luke 6:41-42 "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye."

Some scriptures with a thought booklet tell us how Jonah was called by the Lord to go preach to the city of Nineveh and call them to repentance. But instead of doing what the Lord asked him to do, he choose to run away. Do we sometimes do similar things? Do we turn down church callings with a list of excuses? Do we feel promptings to do certain things but never get around to doing them? If the Lord calls, we need to obey. Jonah 1:1-3 "Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord."
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