Helaman 13

(November 15, 2015)

                I love how that language at the end of this chapter demonstrates how the difference between Heaven and Hell may, in the end, boil down to nothing more than perception.  After all, one piece of news brought glad tidings to the righteous and condemnation to the wicked.  What if we were placed in a position where our eternity was to be spent in serving others?  For those who were filled with charity, it would be an eternity of joy and bliss.  For those who were unrighteous, it would be an eternity of slavery.  The events would be the same, but our approach to those events could be very different and make a substantial difference in our happiness.

                The second thought was on the unrighteousness of the city of Gideon.  Throughout the Book of Mormon, prior to this point, the city of Gideon was one of the strongest bastions of the Gospel.  But by this point it has gone astray and become wicked.  This should be a profound lesson for all of us – there is never a point where we have become so righteous that we can escape the need to continually work to give our wills over to the Lord.  Once we stop our efforts to serve Him, we will fall away (however righteous we might have been in the past).