I teach the 14 & 15-year-olds in Sunday School and last week, we were talking about Alma, Amulek, and Ammonihah (pretty standard story, most people know it).
I had one of those "ah-ha" moments. You know, the ones where you read something that was put there just for you, and couldn't have been there before, because you would have read it and remembered it?
Amulek has just gotten up and is speaking to the people. He tells them he's rich, they all know him, and they all respect him, and then he starts talking about his conversion story, and this is where it hit me. Amulek says, " I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know."
Wow.
He KNEW. Not just wondered. Not just heard and dismissed. No, Amulek KNEW that the gospel was true or that a certain part was true. But he rationalized it away. He tried to tell himself he didn't know.
And then, this is another part I found interesting. Just in the next chapter, Zeezrom tempts Amulek with money. He (Zeezrom) tells Amulek that if he will deny the existence of God, Zeezrom will give Amulek money. And Amulek, because he knows exactly the person that Zeezrom is, says, "Believest thou that there is no God? I say unto you, Nay, thou knowest that there is a God, but thou lovest that lucre more than him."
Zeezrom is just like Amulek. He knows, but he would not know. Something keeps him from knowing, and its his love of something else.
Amulek was the perfect person to confront Zeezrom about his, because who knows better than trying to deny something that they KNOW?
Most of the sins I commit, happen because I know, but I would not know. It's too hard to keep that one, I say, or this one really doesn't matter. I don't have to keep this one to be a good person. Other people do it.
**funny story for the day: We were eating pizza at my parents' house and my mom said, "Rachelle, you have some pizza sauce on your face."
It wasn't pizza sauce. It was a big lovely zit.
Thanks mom.
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