Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome! Section 60 The missionary guilt scripture :D Section 60 starts with a tough scripture. God says He is not well pleased with people who will not open their mouths, because of fear of man, and if they are not more faithful, what they have shall be taken away. As primarily and introvert, I struggled to open my mouth every day of the mission :D. Some days I felt like I did a great job. Some days... yeah, I had talks at night with the man upstairs. Opening our mouths can be really difficult, and for some people it comes easier and for others it can be harder. God knows our challenges and our capabilities so I wouldn't worry too much about comparing yourself to others, but instead I would focus on asking what God wants you to do. I would also focus on having great faith so you can speak from the conviction of your personal experience, and I would encourage great love, because perfect love allows you to talk straight-forwardly with people even in hostile circumstances. In fact, ...

 Welcome to another fabulous week of Come Follow me D and C! These next two sections are awesome! D&C 58 The Way laid out in 3 verses. I see God hinting continually in these verses toward an order that the saints (and undoubtedly us today) cannot yet see but which exists and which is the plan and purpose and fulfillment of our own existence. Check out Vs 2, 3, 4 in Section 58. Remember you cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of God. There is a game we might best describe as incredibly shrewd that is being played out on earth, and for all we know, many earths, worlds without end, and even our most aggressive postulations on it falls short of what is actually happening. That is why it is so important that once we understand the nature of God and our relationship to him, that we might exercise absolute faith and trust and obedience to His order of things. This includes wading through much tribulation. Every now and then we get glimpses of what th...

 Here we go again! I'm not going to speak to it here, but the circumstances behind a lot of these sections are crazy!! check out the Follow Him podcast or H&S commentary for a taste of the details. Section 51 Back to equality in the last blog post , I made quick reference to the trying verse in 49:20, that it is not given that one man should possess above another. I wrote a couple notes to guide the discussion. here it comes up again so we can talk to it more. Notice that God does not mention equality in Section 49. In 51, He uses this phrase - wherefore let my servant... appoint unto this people their portions, every man equal according to his family, according to his circumstances and his wants and needs.' Notice that God's idea of equality is not equal things.  What does He mean exactly? H&S propose that if one has a large family, or runs a large business, they will need more resources. they suppose that a perfect society is what man needs and no more. There is ...

 Welcome again. These Sections are very important because they have to do with finding the truth Section 49 Stop desiring to know the truth in part vs 2 mentions that there are people who desire to know in part but not all. The truth is more beautiful and terrible than anyone I know cares to bear, but that is part of the burden of being a Christ-follower. He didn't die for your sins so that you could live in apathetic twilight. He died so that you would become like Him and the truth will make you free, even if it hurts for a bit. equality, poverty, and politics the next few verses are going to make a stir in sunday school. Lets not get distracted by the basics -socialism is evil. Communism is evil. Stop fornicating on Satan's kingdom and using God's scripture to justify it. -The united order/law of consecration are God's kingdom. While this has been successfully created in times past, there is no usable pattern we have today that makes this work. I believe this is a mix...

 Here we go again! Super Simple. Super Good Section 46 Rules for meetings. meetings are a big deal in the Book of Mormon. Many times, wicked groups exclude people from assemblies. God gives some important understanding on the purpose of meetings and who should be there. Spoiler alert, anyone seeking God earnestly should be there. check out vs 7 for next level understanding on these verses. Stop Consuming signs on your lusts In vs 8 and 9, God reminds us for what purpose gifts are given. God isn't trying to prove His existence, don't worry, He already knows He exists. He isn't here to entertain us or to service us or other things like that. He is here to change us. So if you ask, be ready to change. Heavenly gifts Heavenly gifts have come up in the past. They are a big deal and we don't talk about them enough in the gospel. The most interesting thing in this part is that God says that you can have all the gifts. Ask according to the spirit. Section 47 keep your records. ...

 Hey Everyone and welcome to a full blown apocalyptic section in the good old D&C! We struggle to deal with apocalyptic prophecy. There just isn't enough material, or it isn't written in the right way for us to pidgeon hole it in the way we want. This has led me to believe that God wants us to treat prophecy differently than we normally do. The last time we ran into this in Section 29, I wrote a few guidelines to help get more out of these sections. now, if you really do want the best view of future events (you should), the two books I would recommend are Cleon Skousen - prophecy and modern times (written BEFORE the physical reestablishment of the state of Israel, by the way)  Duane Crowther - Prophecy, Key to the Future (written later and more comprehensive) These can help us to get a rough map of the events upon which we can hang the spiritual meaning, the more sure word of prophecey. Section 45 Here are some themes of Section 45 vs 2 do not let death overtake you in...