D&C 49-50: Come Follow Me with Sam

 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 of both people and process that we lack.

 - While the world enjoys greater material riches than ever before, and poor people in developed countries have a worse chance of being too fat than being too emaciated, the world still lies in sin. This is not the end, it is just progress (and in some areas regress). We need to continually work to share honesty, work, opportunity, and abundance with the world. In terms of the purely material, we have the best track record today than all time. In terms of spiritual, we may be winning that too but we have a LONG way to go and someone could argue its sixes.

An interesting note from H&S.

H&S made the interesting note, in light of God's word that the 'Lamanites shall blossom as the rose', that the native Americans circa 1916 have more riches than their fathers, and that everyone thought that they would diminish, but they were actually a growing population (which they have continued to do). What are your thoughts on this?

Section 50

Section 50 is crazy, and extremely important. While my understanding is that this section is referring to actual spirits manifesting, the same information goes for weeding out ideas.

We are today in a psychological war where many different factions are trying to persuade us that they may attend their various ends, some for good, many just for power or riches, and many for downright evil. This may be the most important section to understand during this years study.

Teach by the Spirit, Learn by the spirit.

This whole section comes down to one thing - teach by the spirit, learn by the spirit. You are able to further the kingdom to the extent that the spirit is there. If it isn't there, you are missing it. the verses are very clear on this manner. If you don't have the spirit, you don't have the kingdom.

Some cool promises

If you are purified and cleansed from sin, you can ask whatever you want according to the spirit. Cool stuff.

Not with accusation or boasting.

God says that when you find something untrue, you proclaim that it is not of God. This was to spirits directly, so don't yell at your sunday school teacher when he teaches false doctrine. but that is what you do. Get back to home base. state what you know, and what you feel. You need to do it in a way that doesn't fall into other traps, like doing it with anger, or pride, or boastfulness. You just do it, and let the spirit guide. This can take a lot of courage and a lot of love, and some faith, and so it may be a good idea to nurture these so that you can stand up when you need and do what you need to do.