Joyful Wells | Sharing Cups of Water

I’m convinced God's word is superior to anything else at changing hearts and minds and drawing a people close to Him. Many other modalities will  bless your life to varying degrees but will eventually come up wanting. God wants to fill the clefts of your heart Himself. As a case in point, Alma was sick at heart knowing that some of his people separated themselves from God’s congregation and followed a path that led to iniquity. He decided to go on a rescue mission to help these people.  Before departing, the account discusses Alma’s stratagem: “Now preaching the truth was more effective to lead the people to do what’s right — indeed, it had greater effect on the minds of the people than the sword or anything else available — therefore Alma thought teaching God’s word was their best alternative. […] Now the Zoramites were previously part of the Nephites; so God’s word had been preached to them. But they had fallen into great errors, since they failed to carefully keep God’s com...

I consider this the most important post I've written thus far. Most scholars believe Lehi was born between 660-640 BC. These birth dates are based on the information and clues we get from 1 Nephi that: (1) Lehi lived in Jerusalem his whole life (2) he lived there during the first year of king Zedekiah's reign around 600 BC (3) he was already married at that time with at least four kids (some of whom were old enough to be married) and (4) after eight or so years of traveling in the wilderness he and Sariah were considered "old".  For the sake of argument, let's say Lehi was born at the earliest accepted date, around 640 BC. This means by the time king Zedekiah began his reign around 600 BC, Lehi was about 40 years old. Again, for the sake of argument, these dates are give-or-take a couple years.  If Lehi was born around 640 BC, this also means that he grew up during king Josiah's reign, which was from 640-609 BC ( 2 Kings 7:5-12 ). For those who need a quick re...