For my first time through the book of mormon the goal is to highlight anything that depicts how God deals with his children.
In the first four chapters of 1st Nephi I was actually surprised at how much highlighting I did. It was a little difficult for me to differentiate between what I was really looking for and any other mention of God. The good thing was that this helped me focus. I kept having to determine what phrases meant. Mostly I tried to forgo the parts that mentioned the nature of God and did my best to really stick with anything that mentions an actual connection between God and His children on earth.
Nephi starts with the mention of his father, Lehi, receiving revelation to move away from Jerusalem with his family. It is obvious from the beginning that God has a personal relationship with His prophets, being persistent about communicating directly with Lehi and Nephi from the beginning. It is also reiterated a number of times that God is going to destroy Jerusalem because of their wickedness and that the righteous will prosper and "receive much strength of the Lord." (1 Ne. 4:31)
One insight I got was in 1 Nephi 4:13: "Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief." It occurred to me then that even God has to occasionally choose between two evils.
In the first four chapters of 1st Nephi I was actually surprised at how much highlighting I did. It was a little difficult for me to differentiate between what I was really looking for and any other mention of God. The good thing was that this helped me focus. I kept having to determine what phrases meant. Mostly I tried to forgo the parts that mentioned the nature of God and did my best to really stick with anything that mentions an actual connection between God and His children on earth.
Nephi starts with the mention of his father, Lehi, receiving revelation to move away from Jerusalem with his family. It is obvious from the beginning that God has a personal relationship with His prophets, being persistent about communicating directly with Lehi and Nephi from the beginning. It is also reiterated a number of times that God is going to destroy Jerusalem because of their wickedness and that the righteous will prosper and "receive much strength of the Lord." (1 Ne. 4:31)
One insight I got was in 1 Nephi 4:13: "Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief." It occurred to me then that even God has to occasionally choose between two evils.
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