A few days ago I was reading in the book of Ether about when the Brother of Jared saw the Lord. It's one of my favorite stories, as I think it is for many. But something stuck out in particular to me this time when I read that he had faith no longer because he knew. Of course, it would seem natural that seeing the Lord would make it so that a person would know. Seeing is believing? That's probably why I hadn't thought too much about this in particular before. But I have thought about that seeing is believing thing before. We know our eyes can trick us. We know there are people who see things that aren't really there. And we know that some people who have seen things, such as Laman and Lemuel who saw an angel (or two?), and did not believe--let alone "know." How is that?
We know they didn't have faith, but seeing is believing right? Well, they couldn't "know" because this is a different layer or meaning of knowing than book knowledge. At institute awhile ago, a few months ago, the teacher gave a lesson that addressed this layers/meanings of knowing. The way it worked for me to understand was to consider the two verbs in French for "to know": savoir and connaitre. To know things and to know people, or to know more internly.
The brother of Jared at this point came to know his Savior at this point in a completely internal way. (Turn your sick mind off, that's not what I mean.) As the scriptures say, to know Him is to be like Him. The Lord wouldn't have trusted BofJ to see Him and say BofJ knew Him if BofJared hadn't been striving to be like Him--having faith. That is why faith absolutely is not faith without works. Faith is inseparable from works because it's part of the process of becoming like the Savior --the way that we can know Him, in the connaitre way.
Sometimes I'll write about my job, sometimes about my faith, sometimes about my hobbies, talents, miscellaneous interests. You'll see.
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