Today I was reading in Acts 1, along with Bruce R. McConkie's Doctrinal New Testament Commentary. He pointed out some things I would not have noticed. In Acts 1:2 we read, "Until the day in which he (the Lord) was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen." Elder McConkie points out that this is how the Church would be run after the resurrection of Christ. Christ would continue to give commandments through the Holy Ghost to his leaders on earth. When the Holy Ghost speaks, He speaks for Christ. When the apostles say that they felt words put in their hearts, it is the Holy Ghost putting those words in their hearts, but often what comes out of the mouth is "Thus saith the Lord..." We have no trouble when the Holy Ghost speaks as if He actually were Christ. We accept that because that is His role. There seems to be some confusion at times about when Christ does the same in place of His Father. There are times in the scriptures when Christ speaks as if He were the Father. And this confuses us. But if the three are so united in purpose that the Spirit can speak in place of Christ, then why would it not surprise us that Christ will also speak in place of the Father? Whether by my voice, or the voice of my servants, it is the same. Whether by my voice, or the voice of my Son, it is the same. Whether by my voice, or the voice of my Spirit, it is the same. Whether by my voice, or the voice of my Father, it is the same. Whether by my voice, or the voice of my Lord, it is the same. Whether by my voice, or the voice of my prophets, it is the same.

I was reading in Helaman 11 this morning and had a few thoughts. In verse 10, I believe that we see true repentance. The Nephites and Lamanites are being completely destroyed by famine which Nephi has requested of the Lord instead of war in order to bring humility to the people. In vs. 8-9 we see that the people are pleading with the judges to plead with Nephi to plead with God to call off the famine. They are remembering the Lord. And then when Nephi prays to the Lord, he shows the Lord that the people have truely repented by saying, "O Lord, behold this people repenteth; and they have swept away the band of Gadianton from amongst them insomuch that they have become extinct, and they have concealed their secret plans in the earth.

Now, I don't know how exactly these secret plans were kept. Maybe they were plates of metal, maybe they were objects, but it seems that when people want to show that they are truly over something, they bury it in the earth. This is odd because we've seen before that the absolutely best people, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, had also done this with their weapons of war, and even they were tempted to take up their arms again in defense of their families. Obviously burying your weapons of war or yours secrets plans is very symbolic, but they are still there. You can still have access to them if you really wanted to. Of course, burying is better than keeping it on your shelf in easy access. But why didn't anyone destroy these? As you'll see before the end of the chapter, someone has gone and dug them up and starts using them again. When we deal with temptation and sin in our lives...why do we sometimes symbolically bury the object of our temptation, but not destroy it? Do we secretly hope that one day it will be alright to dig it up? If we are truly repentant, or if we truly want to be truly repentant, why not completely destroy the object of temptation? Make it impossible for anyone to go back to it? Whatever these objects were, they could have been melted down. They could have been destroyed. Whatever our temptation is, it can be destroyed as well. It may require great sacrifice on our part, but it can be done. It may mean leaving friends and social connections, or decreased productivity, or anything, but it's worth it in the end if we are clean and able to enter the House of the Lord and eventually God's presence.