7.6.16

Ponderize Alma 3:27


Book of Mormon, Book of Alma, chapter 3, verse 27 says: "For every man receiveth wages of him whom he listeth to obey, and this according to the words of the spirit of prophecy; therefore let it be according to the truth..."

If you are not familiar with the word, "ponderize" you should really see/hear to this talk.

Now that we know what ponderizing is and we have the verse of scripture, let's discuss and ponderize, shall we?

With what should we start-off?  "Receiveth wages"-- Who would pay you?  Your employer/he whom you obey.  Who do you obey: God or Satan?  Whoever it is, that's who is going to pay you: you are either going to receive Eternal Life or suffer with the devil and all those who follow him (ever thought of that before?  If you are sinning and following Satan you are laying your sleeping-bag next to Cain, Judas, and even Hitler--maybe that's enough to shake you out of your sleep; Hitler!  Sometimes we need to bring our thoughts back home--back to our own person/mind and deal with a subject that we can feel in our own chest or mind--most human beings have negative feelings towards Adolf Hitler and consequently consider him a bad guy and so to be compared to him might arouse a feeling that might make you shudder or squirm or vomit.  Then again, you might just disregard it altogether, just as you would with Satan or Cain or Judas, in which case, praying or reading scriptures or an angelic visit might be all that could wake you up!).

Are you following Christ or Hitler?  Whomever it is, is going to pay your wages: Christ will give you everything that The Father is giving Him, or Hitler/Satan/Judas/Cain will drag you down to be ruled-over by Cain in Outer Darkness.

The spirit of prophecy is telling you that whomever you choose to obey, by them you will be rewarded!  Every man, that is, chooses whom to obey with every choice he or she makes.  Every man will receive either a blessing or a damnation, depending on who was followed or chosen.

Next, "listeth"?  I thought it might give me more insight into the passage if I looked it up:

From Middle English liste, from Old English list ‎(“art, cleverness, cunning, experience, skill, craft”), from Proto-Germanic *listiz ‎(“craft, art”), from Proto-Indo-European *leys-, *leyǝs- ‎(“track, furrow, trace, trail”). Cognate with Scots list ‎(“art, skill, craft, cunning”), Saterland Frisian list ‎(“cunning, knowledge”), Dutch list ‎(“ruse, strategem, guile, artifice, sleight”), Low German list ‎(“wisdom, prudence, cunning, artifice”), German List ‎(“cunning, ruse, trick, guile, ploy”), Swedish list ‎(“cunning, art, trick, ruse, wile, guile, stealth”), Icelandic list ‎(“art”). Related to lore, lere, learn. (Wiktionary)

The wind blows where it goes in its experience of skill and cleverness (and cunningly gets to places it shouldn't otherwise go...).

It is also found in John 3:8:

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

In John, "listeth" seems to mean: must go or decrees, as in the wind blow where it is commanded to blow as the Spirit follows where it decrees or has been decreed to go.

Synthesizing the two conclusions: For every man receiveth wages of him whom he listeth (or goes according to his experience and skill or is commanded to go) to obey


Let it be according to the truth!

JPS