First Nephi 16:18

And it came to pass that as I, Nephi, went forth to slay food, behold, I did break my bow, which was made of fine steel; and after I did break my bow, behold, my brethren were angry with me because of the loss of my bow, for we did obtain no food.

Laman and Lemuel, ever the pessimistic murmurers, love to play the blame game. Their poor attitude is evidence of a classic lack of accountability. They are always the victims -- in their own minds. When we are victims, we are objects on which the outside world foists troubles and problems. God did not create us to be objects, but to the actors, not to be acted upon, but to act. With the right attitude, our problems do not make us victims, they make us heroes.

First Nephi 16:17

And after we had traveled for the space of many days, we did pitch our tents for the space of a time, that we might again rest ourselves and obtain food for our families.

In mortality, even when we are fully engaged in the work of the Lord, we have to give time for temporal needs. Our bodies get tired and need to be nourished. God knows all about our bodies, and He will not hold our mortality against us. After all, mortality is His gift to us.

First Nephi 16:16

And we did follow the directions of the ball, which led us in the more fertile parts of the wilderness.

Things go better when we follow the Holy Spirit. He will lead us to where we should go. And along the way we will find what we need to sustain us and empower us to keep going.

First Nephi 16:15

And it came to pass that we did travel for the space of many days, slaying food by the way, with our bows and our arrows and our stones and our slings.

The Lord did not provide an abundance or a surplus so Lehi's family could be comfortable and at ease. He provided from day to day. They had to learn faith that the morrow would take care of itself. "Give us this day our daily bread," says the Lord's prayer, not give us this week our allotment and to spare. The blessings we receive today are big enough for the challenges we face today. Each day is enough to focus on. We keep our faith day by day.

First Nephi 16:11

And it came to pass that we did gather together whatsoever things we should carry into the wilderness, and all the remainder of our provisions which the Lord had given unto us; and we did take seed of every kind that we might carry into the wilderness.

Nephi knew from where his blessings came. Though he had gathered the provisions, he testified they were gifts from God. No matter how hard we work, the results of our efforts are always gifts from God.

First Nephi 16:13

And it came to pass that we traveled for the space of four days, nearly a south-southeast direction, and we did pitch our tents again; and we did call the name of the place Shazer.

When a Hebrew faces God, he faces east. His covenant hand, therefore, is in the south. So south-southeast is the covenant direction towards God. The directions stated in Nephi's account of his travels are not just a set of compass coordinates. They tell us the direction of his heart. His heart is set on a covenant with God, and his face is always towards his Master. No matter which physical direction we may be headed, spiritually we always want to be going east, where the sun and the Son rise.

First Nephi 16:10

And it came to pass that as my father arose in the morning, and went forth to the tent door, to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness.

Lehi and his family are the recipients of a miracle in the form of a brass ball, which we learn later is called the Liahona. The Liahona is a tangible symbol of a spiritual truth for a group of Jews who live the Law of Moses, which is full of symbolic truths. The instruction manual that comes with the Liahona -- actually it is printed right on the ball -- informs Lehi that this tool will guide him and his family through the wilderness to the promised land. The spiritual truth symbolized by the Liahona is the power of the Holy Ghost. Just as the Liahona revealed to Lehi what he needed to know to take his family safely through the wilderness of the Arabian desert, the the Holy Ghost, who is no less a miracle than a shiny brass ball in the middle of the desert, will reveal to us how to take ourselves and our family through the wilderness of mortality. The Liahona landed Lehi in the Promised Land. The Holy Ghost will likewise land us in the promised land of the Celestial Kingdom.

First Nephi 16:5

And it came to pass that they did humble themselves before the Lord; insomuch that I had joy and great hopes of them, that they would walk in the paths of righteousness.

At this point Laman and Lemuel are not past feeling or redemption. But the more often they repent and then sin again, the harder they become and the less likely they are to repent again. Trifling with sin and repentance is spiritually lethal.

First Nephi 16:4

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did exhort my brethren, with all diligence, to keep the commandments of the Lord.

Thankfully the Lord exhorts us with all diligence and does not give up on us, though we may look as hopeless to Him as Laman and Lemuel look to us.

First Nephi 16:2

And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth; and the righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.

Simply put, the truth is hard for the guilty who don't want to hear it. Those who love the truth, however, welcome it even when -- no, especially when -- it informs them of changes they need to make.

First Nephi 15:35

And there is a place prepared, yea, even that awful hell of which I have spoken, and the devil is the preparator of it; wherefore the final state of the souls of men is to dwell in the kingdom of God, or to be cast out because of that justice of which I have spoken.

Mormons reject the notion of a binary judgment of heaven or hell. Rather, they believe in degrees of glory, which people attain to based on their quality of faith. We cannot escape the statements of the Book of Mormon, however, that at least some of God's children will find themselves in a place without glory. If hell is the place prepared by Satan, then it cannot be one of the three kingdoms of glory, which are prepared by God. So therefore it must be outer darkness where only justice reigns, and mercy does not reach at all. Satan's kingdom is not the place for ordinary sinners who were born in darkness or have lost their way. Recall that Nephi is speaking here to his brothers, who have seen an angel and who do not sin ignorantly. It is such as these, who have known light but have deliberately chosen darknes,s who will find themselves in a darkness that has no end.

First Nephi 15:34

 But behold, I say unto you, the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy.

Christ has paid for all sins and is ready and willing to make our garments white by his blood. Nothing stands in his way of redeeming every one of us except one thing: our agency. If we remain filthy, it is by our own choice.

First Nephi 15:32

And it came to pass that I said unto them that it was a representation of things both temporal and spiritual; for the day should come that they must be judged of their works, yea, even the works which were done by the temporal body in their days of probation.

What we do in this life matters. Make no mistake, we cannot earn our way into heaven, but we can disqualify ourselves. Christ's atonement can wipe away our sins, heal our wounds, right our wrongs, dissolve our failures, strengthen our weaknesses, and enable us through grace to come to him. He cannot make us, however, what we do not want to be. He cannot manufacture faith if we do not choose to believe. He cannot repent for us, he cannot be baptized for us, and he cannot force us to receive the Holy Ghost. If we do not do the basics of gospel living, the atonement will have no effect in our lives.

First Nephi 15:24

And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.

Having earlier taught us how to receive personal revelation, Nephi now provides guidelines for how to avoid personal apostasy.

1. Listen to and obey the word of God, which is the personal revelation we receive as the answer to our inquiry. We must respond and do what the Lord tells us to do when we ask him for instructions.
2. Do not get distracted by contradictory ideas or the persuasions of others. When those moments come, as they inevitably do, when we start to wonder if the answer we got was real, do not doubt. Remember. If it was true then, it is true now. Stay focused.
3. Know that temptations and fiery darts will come. The Apostle Paul taught us to hold tight to our shield of faith to protect us from the fiery darts. Hold the shield high and with a firm grasp. Trust it. No weapon has been formed by man or Satan that can overpower God.
4. Keep our eyes open and our feet on the path. As a skydiving instructors tells all of his first-time students, "After you jump from the plane and are hurtling at 120 miles per hour through the air, if everything around you seems black and you cannot see the ground, open your eyes!" And avoid the temptation to take a few steps down other attractive paths just to see if maybe they are better than the path God has set you on. They are not. Stay the course. See rule #2 above.

The result: We will not get lost.

First Nephi 15:21

And it came to pass that they did speak unto me again, saying: What meaneth this thing which our father saw in a dream? What meaneth the tree which he saw?

Nephi scolded his brothers for not inquiring of the Lord for answers, and then he answered their question. And they still refuse to inquire for themselves. They are content to be taught by Nephi. They are losing out on the great source of knowledge, even personal revelation. They prefer to be spoon fed rather than do the work to learn for themselves. We all need teachers to get us started on the path to knowledge. At some point, however, the Lord expects us to turn to the Holy Ghost for the deeper knowledge we need. The ministrations of inspired teachers and even the scriptures themselves can take us only so far down the path to discipleship. We eventually must learn directly from the Master.

First Nephi 15:11

Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.

If we want to receive revelation from God, here is the user manual for contacting him and getting answers. The steps are simple to understand, although not always easy to execute perfectly:

1. Soften our heart and prepare it to receive an answer. Be open to the answer that will come and be prepared to change in response to it.
2. Ask. The key, of course, is to know what to ask for. We need the Holy Ghost to teach us what to pray for. 
3. Have faith -- faith in Christ that he is our advocate, faith in the Father that he hears and answers, faith that he loves us and wants to answer us, faith that he always gives good gifts to his children.
4. Believe that an answer will come. While we choose to believe, we cannot set boundaries on the Lord and how he works with us. Belief therefore requires patience and a determination to stay the course with our inquiry.  See step #1 above.
5. Keep the commandments. To be sure, we do not buy answers with our good works. The mercy and grace of the atonement are always at the heart of anything we merit from God. Nevertheless, while we wait for an answer, we must continue to refine our character and strive for discipleship to demonstrate our trustworthiness to the Lord.

The result: God will make known to us what we need to come unto him.

First Nephi 15:10

Behold, I said unto them: How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts?

We are commanded to ask God for knowledge. If we do not go to God for knowledge, we are not keeping one of his most fundamental commandments. Now, God does not give futile or capricious commandments. He does not command us to ask him for knowledge if he does not intend to respond. Therefore, we can approach him with confidence that he will honor our request. We may not get the answer we want or expect, but God will always answer. It is the character of a loving Father to want to communicate with his children.

First Nephi 15:9

And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.

Nephi's brothers foolishly assumed that they would get no answer, so they did not bother to ask. One of the most oft-repeated verses in scripture is "Ask, and he shall receive." God has great things in store for us. How do we know we will not get an answer if we do not ask?

First Nephi 15:8

And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?

The key to learning is inquiring. The Lord will not tell us about what we do not ask. The modern-day dispensation of the gospel began with an earnest question by a young boy, which he took to the Lord. Joseph Smith could not possibly have imagined the path on which his simple question would set him. I am grateful that he was wise enough as a teenager to understand the law of asking.

First Nephi 15:6

And it came to pass that after I had received strength I spake unto my brethren, desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations.

God can strengthen us to deal with and overcome our afflictions. We may have to pause a moment and let him work in us. We are still mortal. But if we turn our afflictions over to the Lord, he will help us carry them.

First Nephi 15:5

And it came to pass that I was overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine afflictions were great above all, because of the destruction of my people, for I had beheld their fall.

We are afflicted and pained when those we love suffer. A parent's heart breaks when a child goes astray, and they seriously grieve. The atonement of Christ can eventually heals our grief, even a sorrow as deep as for the loss of a loved one, be it temporal or spiritual.

First Nephi 15:3

For he truly spake many great things unto them, which were hard to be understood, save a man should inquire of the Lord; and they being hard in their hearts, therefore they did not look unto the Lord as they ought.

The Spirit of man, or the natural man, does not understand the things of the spirit. If we are going to learn things of God, we must ask for the spirit of God.

First Nephi 14:11

And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.

The great and abominable church is a-political. It is not restricted to communists or fascists or royalists. It ignores national and cultural boundaries. It spans religions and creeds. It is everything except the truth, and it takes many forms. It is virtually invisible because it is everywhere.

First Nephi 14:10

And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.

There's no neutral territory. Since the true church was restored, people have a choice. If they do not choose the truth, they choose the lie by default. If they do not choose light, they remain in darkness. There is no shadow, no gray, no half truth.

First Nephi 14:4

For behold, this is according to the captivity of the devil, and also according to the justice of God, upon all those who will work wickedness and abomination before him.

Those who choose Satan will eventually get their desire and will become one of his captive minions. Those who want Satan to rule will have the opportunity to experience his rule forever.