Four Stories about Repentance plus My Own Thoughts

Enos was a guy who had grown up in a religious family but he hadn’t thought much about it.  He attributes his father to what he does know.  When he finally started to feel that “hunger” to know, he took the opportunity to pray in private while out hunting.  He says he prayed all day.  And when night came he was still praying. He doesn’t specify what exactly he was praying for or about but he heard a voice that gave him a sense of Divine forgiveness and his “guilt was swept away.”  He asked the Divine a question, “How is it done?”  This is truly the essence of repentance stories.  How is it done?  What does it feel like?  When is it over?

God’s answer to Enos was: “And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole.”

This answer is very similar to the kinds of things Christ said when he healed a person.  Repentance is a process that makes a broken, damaged, corrupted person whole.

Lamoni was what we would call an indigenous man who was a minor king since his father was still alive and reigning in a different part of the land.  He believed in “the Great Spirit” which is a common belief in native peoples of America.  He was taught about Christ and he believed what he heard completely.  However, his culture valued prowess in war and he had recently killed some servants who had lost his sheep to plundering villagers.  So his past actions conflicted with the new value system and he was worried about the repercussions.  In this story Lamoni falls to the ground and remains unconscious for a period of 48 hours during which he experiences the Divine and is taught the truth.  Wouldn’t that be wonderful if we could all have a personal experience with the Divine?  The only reason I can think of why Lamoni got this when most people don’t get it is that he was a king and had the ability to influence many people by virtue of the leadership position he held. The kind of Divine manifestation Lamoni had is not the major takeaway.  What is instructive is that his unmitigated faith led to a complete change in his character.  He went from a leader who routinely punished small offenses by death to a leader who had “no desire to do evil” and was willing to bury all his weapons of war in the ground and give up his life before committing another murder.  That commitment was tested and he and his people did experience a war where they refused to fight.  Who do you know that has made a commitment to shun evil and been true to that commitment when their life was in jeopardy?

The third story is about a man named Alma.  He grew up in a religious climate and chose to fight it.  “He was a man of many words, and did speak much flattery to the people; therefore he led many of the people to do after the manner of his iniquities.” The fire of rebellion gained strength especially when it got social approval from other people. His father was understandably concerned and began to pray for him. In a Divine manifestation much like that which Saul/Paul had in the New Testament, an angel stops Alma in his tracks.  He describes his repentance process, “I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit…Nevertheless, after wading through much tribulation, repenting nigh unto death, the Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning, and I am born of God.

“My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more.”  The great passion with which he attacked the religion is redirected to a passionate testimony of how God frees the soul from the bondage of sin and leads it into the marvelous light of truth.

In the fourth story, Ammon talks about the great anger that motivated his actions before he went through the repentance process.  He was a friend of Alma in the third story and witnessed Lamoni’s change of heart in the second story.  He explains how God’s justice should have resulted in eternal despair for himself and his friends. Instead Ammon took the mercy offered him to repent and change his ways. His anger was dissipated. His life took on new meaning. In addition, the same process that he took personally, he also witnessed in the people of Lamoni who he says “were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction; but behold, he has brought them into his everlasting light, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love. For behold, they had rather sacrifice their lives than even to take the life of their enemy; and they have buried their weapons of war deep in the earth, because of their love towards their brethren.” (Alma 26:15, 32)

The repentance process is one of change from dark to light, a shift from bondage to freedom, a shift from despair to purpose.  In the traditional sense, it implies a wrong action on the part of the repentant person.  In my opinion, repentance is a generic process that neutralizes the wrong actions of anyone whether I did them or someone did them to me. If I feel any bitterness or bondage, and I’m willing to face it and work through it, the atonement of Jesus Christ can and does dissipate my anger and hurt.  Allen Bergin described the process of repentance as a person who came “before the Lord in mighty prayer and confessed fully and frankly exactly what they had done, step-by-step, intention by intention, they began to realize more deeply how they had betrayed the Lord who loves them; how they had violated their own ideals as followers of the Savior; and how they had betrayed, in many cases, sacred covenants. This self-examination is like psychotherapy in that the process of spiritual reform requires overcoming defenses and accepting painful self-awareness. It is an exercise in honesty, guided by the spirit of truth. This is not an easy thing to achieve.”  I have noticed in my personal introspection that my desire for evil often is tied to an injury I received. In my repentance, I have experienced the bondage of sin break under the light of truth and the desire for evil shift to a desire for goodness.  I want to emphasize that walking through the gall of bitterness is often a part of the repentance process. On the other side of this proximity to “death” is the matchless bounty of God’s love. The fear of “death” is real but if you understand that what is dying is the corrupted part of yourself, then you can walk with confidence the path that burns it out of you. I testify that the result of repentance is wholeness. If you run away from repentance you may end up in an addiction which is a flawed attempt to assuage guilt and pain without resolving it.  There are a hundred ways to run but only one way to be free.  Ultimately a personal experience with the Divine is essential.  I believe faith in Jesus Christ and participation in the nuanced repentance process is the only way to experience lasting peace in this life.

Watch a video about the repentance process here

Additional Scriptures on Repentance

• Matthew 9:10–13; Luke 13:3; Ezekiel 18:30 (repent or perish)
• Alma 7:21 (no unclean thing can dwell in God’s presence)
• 2 Corinthians 7:9–10 (godly sorrow)
• Mosiah 4:10–12 (steps to repentance)
• Isaiah 1:18; Mosiah 26:28–32 (repentance brings forgiveness)
• D&C 58:42 (sins remembered no more)
• 2 Nephi 9:23 (repentance necessary to salvation)
• 2 Nephi 2:21 (repent while in the flesh)
• D&C 19:15–20 (the Lord has commanded us to repent so we will not have to suffer as He did)

If you liked this post you might also like What It Takes to Turn Around

Credit:
Allen Bergin, Psychology and Repentance. BYU Speeches. 1994.
Image used with permission

You Know It's Love When...

What all kinds of love have in common 

From 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; 

This story was written by a family member and read by Laura Schlessinger on her radio show:

“When I was growing up, I used to wish my parents would divorce, and we would go live with my dad.  My mother was manic depressive schizophrenic, so she was not mentally capable of raising my brothers and sisters (six in all)….My father played both mother and father.  He would go to work, come home, fix dinner, clean the house and then play with us.  I never heard him complain about his life.  She was extremely hard to live with and unrelenting because of her disease.  She had very few good days (as we called them) but my father always treated her with love and respect.  Everyone who know our situation said he was a saint.

“I once asked my father why he didn’t leave her because of all the pain she caused all of us.  He expressed the following: that she, before her illness, was an amazing woman whom he loved dearly.  When she was at her worst he thought very hard about leaving (this was about 1961), but decided he couldn’t because we would all be put in foster care and no one would take care of her.  He said he put his trust in God to help out on the bad days.  It was truly for better or for worse….

“My mother in the last few years of her life had mellowed more and had more better days than bad.  They lived in an assisted living facility for the last two years of their lives.  The nurses told us they had never seen a more loving couple than my parents.  When the nurses woke them up each morning, they were cuddled together.  My mother worried about my dad as much as he worried about her.  They were married 55 years until they both passed away within two months of each other.”

charity envieth not; 

You cannot make someone love you, make them change, or control what others say and do.  Envy can come into play when you see something someone else has that you want.  Envy is also when you want someone to do something different or love you differently.  Loving relationships are full of contentment and approval.

~

charity vaunteth not itself, 

Some kinds of love have strings attached.  If there is an expectation of appreciation, admiration or attention, the kind or loving action is being used to elevate the giver.  It is also not loving to expect a loving action in return.  Love should not be used to buy, manipulate or form friendships or alliances.

Real love doesn’t debase the self either.  If the love given to others means neglecting yourself, the gift is not good.  Love comes from the overflow of good things not from emotional poverty.

The Body of Christ Analogy

Paul devotes more than one epistle to the idea of the church as the “body of Christ”. He teaches, “There is one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”  Eph 4:5-6  Each person becomes a “member” of the body at baptism.  “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many are one body: so also is Christ.  For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free.” 1 Cor 12:12-13  

The “body of Christ” has a purpose.  It organizes or “equips the saints for the work of the ministry.”  Within the work of ministering, each member has a calling.  This calling could be notable like apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher many of whom travel around giving guidance. Eph 4:11  Or it could be seemingly insignificant like deacons and teachers who “should be appointed to watch over the church to be standing ministers unto the church.”  D&C 84:111 No assignment is too small to be noticed and more than once Paul questions whether the body can really function if every member does the same job.  1 Cor 12:16-17

When all the members contribute by doing their part in the Church, everyone is “edified together.” D&C 84:110  The saints receive instruction in the “knowledge of the Son of God” Eph 4:13, comfort (when “one member suffer[s] all the members suffer with it - 1 Cor 12:26), and protection Eph 4:15.

“And if any man among you be strong in the Spirit, let him take with him, him that is weak, that he may be edified in all meekness, that he may become strong also.”  D&C 84:106

What it Takes to Turn Around

In this post:  Paul's mission - changing course in midstream - turning from dark to light

Let’s talk about change.  Paul started out preparing for life as a Pharisee, the spiritual leader of the Jewish faith at that time.  He zealously enforced Jewish laws and customs.  Then one day, an angel appeared to him and told him that he needed to change direction.  His mission was to now spread a message in opposition to the Jewish laws and customs he had been defending.  Paul is an example of courage and humility because he changed direction in front of all the people who knew him.  

Paul describes his God-given mission to King Agrippa … "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." Acts 26:18

I’d like to spend this post looking at Paul’s mission in depth.

What does it take to open someone’s eyes? 

I have offered advice and been ignored.

I have led group discussions which were lively, given a challenge question, and come back next week to follow up and no one had taken the challenge.

I have spoon-fed the tastiest morsels and seen the baby spit them out.

Lots of people knew Paul and they may have been reluctant to believe him and listen to his message.

The right question and a desire to know the answer causes eyes to open and ears to listen.

How does someone turn from darkness to light?

Sometimes a passerby has a lantern

Sometimes a new idea throws light on an old problem

But always turning from darkness to light is a choice

It requires swimming against the current

shaking off the chains of old habits

washing off layers of grime and avoiding dirty places

Source:  Flickr

How does someone escape the power of Satan?

Satan tries to prevent us from choosing

He tells us lies and we believe them - “Satan seeketh to turn their hearts away from the truth, that they become blinded and understand not the things which are prepared for them.” (D&C 78:10)

He makes us fear the very thing that would set us free — honesty

He tries to keep us from accepting responsibility for our mistakes

But he can’t keep us from choosing to leave his sphere of influence

There is no Earthly hell where God will not come and rescue us if we ask for His help.

Nehemiah 1:9-10
 ”But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

10  Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand."

How did Paul show the people that they might receive forgiveness?

I think Paul’s strongest case is made when he showed that God gave his own Son for us, so why wouldn’t he give us forgiveness when we turn to Him.  (Romans 8:31-32)

And what does it mean to be sanctified by faith?

Paul uses the example of Abraham in Romans 4:16-22.  Abraham placed his faith in the promise that he would be a father of many nations even though he and Sara had never had children.  His actions show that he was “fully persuaded” especially when he obediently took Isaac up to the top of the mountain.  His faith gave him the strength to be obedient even when obedience defied logic.  The sanctification came as he trusted God time after time with his life, his wife and his possessions.

"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:” 

Deut 30:19

It's ok to change especially if you realize that your mission is taking you somewhere other than what you had planned.  Happiness is living your God-given mission.

Challenge:  Choose to leave Satan's influence by repenting of one sin today.

A Song about Turning