The One With the Challenge

I have been at a church youth conference all weekend with about 300 young men and women aged 14-18. I have had way too much sun and way too little sleep. But wow! Talk about some amazing kids. By the way, I’m not kidding about the sun. It is currently 91 degrees here at 5:00 p.m., and can’t lie… I am not a good warm-weather girl.
So I am a little tired. But I needed to do a Sunday post for you. I have been thinking a lot today about one particular thing: The Book of Mormon. There is much to love about the Book of Mormon. It has beautiful scripture stories. Since I was a child, my imagination has been captivated from the very beginning of the book, where a father receives a vision from God that his city is about to be destroyed, and he takes his young family and tents and provisions, and flees the city. As the story of the people that lived on the American continent centuries ago, the book is compelling and exciting.

More and more every day I realize, however, that every word in the book has one purpose only. That is to testify of Jesus Christ, and to celebrate and glorify his atoning sacrifice for each one of us. It is interesting how as I study the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I begin to realize that it is the one thing without which nothing else matters.

So…The Book of Mormon. If you are not Mormon, you have likely never read the book. Maybe you have never given it a second thought, or maybe you have heard that it is false…wicked, or controversial. But here is the amazing thing about the Book of Mormon: you don’t have to judge the book by what you have heard. It comes with a promise, that if you sincerely read the book with an open mind and real intent, then you can pray to know if it is true, and you will receive an answer!

Listen to these words from the introduction of this amazing book: “We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost.”

There is a scripture in the Book of Mormon that tells the story of Alma, a missionary teaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He explains in the most beautiful language what it means to be the people of Jesus Christ, and then he issues a powerful challenge: “Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?” I love that.

Now, may I take one step further back, and issue this challenge: What have you against reading the Book of Mormon? If it is true…and I tell you that it is…how can you stand not to know that for yourself? How can you afford not to know the truth of something that means happiness for you and for your family? You can get one online at this website. OR, I myself have several of these books sitting right here. You need only ask, and I will send one to you. A free Book of Mormon…from a genuine Mormon. Now that is a giveaway you shouldn’t miss.