"And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.
And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?
And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born."
I pondered on how not only was Paul chosen, he was placed in such a way to be a free born Roman citizen. This would bring him to places to preach the gospel that he never would have lived to see. It is no accident where any of us are placed.
Today's Favorite Verse: 2 Nephi 17:11-12
"Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depths, or in the heights above.
But Ahaz said: I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord."
I pondered on how even though Ahaz appears to have been invited by the Lord to ask for a sign, Ahez realizes he should not tempt the Lord. So I pondered on why he said that? What would I have done if given such an invitation by the Lord? I came up blank. If I was speaking to the Lord then there wouldn't be any sign I would want. Why would I want him to prove at that point who he was? That must be why Ahez didn't want to tempt the Lord because it would show a lack of faith on his part. Then I saw in the next verses the Lord tells him what the sign is, it is the sign of his birth. He is inviting us to know who he is.
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign - Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
(2 Nephi 17:14)
Today's Favorite Verse: Zechariah 14:6-7
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light."
I realized something new in this chapter. The sign of the Savior's second coming is just like the sign of his birth was in the America's. I was just randomly thinking about this event the other day and wondered if a living prophet would tell us these things like Samuel the Lamanite did in his day. Now I know it's already in the scriptures.
"And behold, this will I give unto you for a sign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day.
Therefore, there shall be one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there were no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign; for ye shall know of the rising of the sun and also of its setting; therefore they shall know of a surety that there shall be two days and a night; nevertheless the night shall not be darkened; and it shall be the night before he is born."
(Helaman 14:3-4)
This was when it was fulfilled.
"For they knew that the prophets had testified of these things for many years, and that the sign which had been given was already at hand; and they began to fear because of their iniquity and their unbelief.
And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day. And it came to pass that the sun did rise in the morning again, according to its proper order; and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be born, because of the sign which had been given.
And it had come to pass, yea, all things, every whit, according to the words of the prophets.
(3 Nephi 1:18-20
Today's Favorite Verse: Isaiah 7:14
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
Today is my birthday so I pondered on the timing of each child of God's birth. The most important of which was Jesus Christ birth. Each an every person that has or will lived on this earth was selected to live at a specific time and for a specific purpose. What must it have been like for Jesus to know the role he would play, and how we all counted on him to do it perfectly. I have so much love for my Savior and all he has done for me. I hope is some small way I can be what I need to be for others that cross my path in life.
Today's Favorite Verse: Ecclesiastes 6:3
"If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he."
I pondered on what it means to have no burial. The footnote didn't answer it for me. I could think of two things. One, was the burial of baptism by immersion. If one was never baptized you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. The other reason to never be buried would be that I never died, or was immortal. So if I never died and did no good, then it would have been better to never been born for it profited me nothing.
