Be Permanently Firm in Our Foundation of Faith

I have found a lot of scriptures in the Apostle Paul's teachings in the New Testament that are clearer in Spanish than English. I've been meaning to post them, and in the mean time I've forgotten what they were. But here is one.

In Colossians 1:23 it says: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled>, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

I was left wondering what grounded and settled really meant. I think I understand grounded, but settled? The dictionary has lots of definitions of settled:
verb (used without object)
17. to decide, arrange, or agree (often followed by on or upon ): to settle on a plan of action.
18. to arrange matters in dispute; come to an agreement: to settle with a person.
19. to pay a bill; make a financial arrangement (often followed by up ).
20. to take up residence in a new country or place: Many Frenchmen settled along the Mississippi River following La Salle's explorations.
21. to come to rest, as from flight: A bird settled on a bough.

The Spanish scripture says:
23 Si en verdad permanecéis fundamentados y firmes en la fe, y sin moveros de la esperanza del evangelio que habéis oído, el cual se predica a toda criatura que está debajo del cielo; del cual yo, Pablo, fui hecho ministro.

Instead of grounded and settled, the words are fundamentados y firmes. Fundamentado is from the word for foundation. In other words our faith should be our foundation, and instead of settled, which can just refer to sitting on, the word in Spanish means firm. So instead of grounded and settled, it is firmly built upon or with a firm foundation of faith. I think the wording is much stronger and clearer in meaning.

The other word is continue - that we should continue grounded and settled. Continue doesn't have much more meaning than just to go on being that way. But the word in Spanish instead of continuar, which would be a literal translation of continue, it uses permaneceis, which means to remain and is from the same root word as permanent.

In other words, Paul is saying we need to remain permanently firm with faith as our foundation. What a great teaching when we can get the full meaning from it.

Consecration

This post actually has nothing to do with comparing the Spanish scriptures to the English. Recently I decided to focus my scripture study a little better. Up till now I have been sort of wandering around the scriptures to see what I found interesting when comparing English to Spanish.

But instead, I have set my study up thusly: Monday I study my lesson and prepare it. Tuesday I study the Gospel Doctrine Sunday School lesson. Wednesday I study the Relief Society lesson for the upcoming week if I know what it is. Thursday I study/read from Church magazines, comparing the Liahona to the Ensign, and Friday I pick a topic and study that. I've been doing it this way for one whole week, and although I know I should spend close to an hour every day on the topic portion of study and augment with the others, this works for my lazy self for now.

So today I decided to try to research a little some of the laws that we covenant to keep in the temple. I looked some words up in the Bible Dictionary, the Topical Guide and the Index. What I settled on for my focus was the word consecration. I love that word. I found it odd that there isn't a definition for it in the Bible dictionary, but in a regular dictionary it says, "Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred".

I don't want to put in detail what that means in conjunction with the temple, but it does help with understanding. I would and do love to have any and/or all of my life "associated with the sacred".

The scripture that hit me the most forcefully today was in 2 Nephi 2:2. Lehi is talking to his son, Jacob about the many afflictions he has had to suffer in his short life so far and says, Nevertheless, Jacob,.... thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain."

Because of our weaknesses, we sometimes have a hard time consecrating all of ourselves or our lives to the sacred, but Heavenly Father is ready always to consecrate even our very afflictions for our gain. He is most certainly a loving and kind Heavenly Father. He knows we will have many afflictions throughout our lives, but He never means for us to suffer. If we but turn to Him, he will make everything right. He will ease our burdens, cheer our hearts, and sanctify us through them. He will literally 'dedicate' our afflictions 'to a special or sacred purpose'

There is no part of our short sojourn on earth that has no eternal purpose, except the stupid things we chose to waste our time on. Everything we do and what we go through has been given us by our loving Father in Heaven who will make everything we have to go through work out to our great blessing. I love the hymn, God Moves in a Mysterious Way. The words say, "Ye fearful Saints fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread, are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head."

Revelation

I was studying about revelation this morning. I've never thought of myself as someone who receives constant REVELATION. I do receive answers to prayers, I do feel God's guidance, I feel the influence of the Holy Ghost and I know I have received some very sacred revelations of my own. But I had never taken that to mean that I am guided by constant revelations.

However, as I studied this morning, I came to realize that every answer to prayer, every whisper of the Spirit, and every new thought I receive as I study scriptures is in reality a revelation.

“The Holy Ghost is a revelator,” said Joseph Smith, and “no man can receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelations.” I received the Holy Ghost almost 60 years ago and I sure can't deny that He has guided me throughout my life. That guidance is real and constant revelation.

What led me to post about revelation on this blog was this scripture: Proverbs 29:18

In English it is "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

In Spanish, "Sin profecía el pueblo se desenfrena," actually means "without prophesy, the people break themselves loose, like people took off their own breaks and are now out of control.

I like that in Spanish it says 'prophesy', instead of 'vision', because we might not realize the scripture is not just talking about having a vision of the future or a vision of our purpose on earth. It is talking about prophesy - or revelation.

And I also think it adds to the meaning to say the people remove their breaks without prophesy. We need prophesy, or the spirit of revelation to help us keep the breaks on the things of the world, and keep us in the right path. Also, in Spanish it is a reflexive verb. It is something we are doing to ourselves. In English, it just says the people perish, but in Spanish it clearly says we break ourselves off. We are responsible to keep the revelation flowing in our own lives.