He Did Deliver Me From Bondage

My sweet friend Noelle gave me the most amazing book for my birthday. I need to tell you how much I love it and its power to change hearts. It's not a book to read unless you're ready to do some serious soul-searching, but I have had so many moments of pondering and praying while reading it. It is so very enlightening. It is a book patterned spiritually after the 12 step addiction program. Immediately you think....then it's not for me because I don't have an addiction problem. It applies to any behavior that keeps us from coming to Christ. Maybe it's perfectionism or self-doubt, emotional eating, falsely judging, anything that holds us back from who we are capable of being.

It's called "He Did Deliver Me From Bondage" by Colleen Harrison. Noelle gave me a journal with it because you are supposed to follow assignments to read particular scriptures or write down your thoughts and feelings about what she talks about. It's taking me a while because I am absolutely absorbing each chapter, writing in my journal, reading, pondering, reading again. I have so much underlined.

I wanted to share this book with you because it is, like I said, heart changing. Let me share a little excerpt from it about humility. I thought I understood the purpose of life before. I think I understand it more fully now.

"We are here on earth for the very purpose of either breaking or softening our hearts in order that they might be turned to God and godliness. We can either resist the laws of God, in which case our hearts will inevitably be broken, or we can try with all our hearts to live the law and gradually realize that no matter how hard we try, we can't do it perfectly. Only after truly internalizing the fact of my own nothingness and powerlessness without God, can I hope to be endowed with the power of God. Meanwhile, whether we come to a broken heart by sinning, being sinned against or struggling futilely to perfect ourselves, we must all come to a place where we are humble enough to acknowledge that without Him we are nothing and can never answer the 'ends of the law' ourselves."

Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered. (2 Nephi 2:7)

"All of us must someday receive His coming into our own lives. We can either wait for that day when all will come to know His reality as He appears in the skies surrounded by legions of angels, or we can believe and study, search and hunger for a personal spiritual experience that would endow us with a sure knowledge of his living reality long before He comes to the world as a whole."

"Thus we all must follow a path into the depths of humility."

One thing this book has taught me is that scriptures have more meaning if we look up the definition of words. For instance, one of the assignments in the book is this:

"Read Mosiah 4:8 -- Salvation means to save or preserve something precious. Christ's atonement is His testimony to us of how precious we are to Him and to the Father. Keep track today of some of the little ways, the positive coincidences, the tiny blessings that demonstrate your preciousness." (italics added for emphasis)

How precious is that? :) Thanks Noelle, for a great, great book.