D&C 58-59: Come Follow Me with Sam

 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 this means, the good and the bad. It is up to us to hold on to what we know, and to move forward in faith on all good things.

The Way laid out (again) in eight verses (also, 'Get off your duffs!')

check out verses 26-33. It is a great and terrible thing to be an 'agent unto themselves'. In those verses, God says at the same time that if you are always trying to do the right thing, you have nothing to worry about, but if you resist this, what you eventually do with be of no help to you.

In the church, it seems like we really struggle with this. We are always waiting for leaders to tell us what to do and don't act of our own volition as we should. 

On the other hand, I know that sometimes I have tried what I thought to be right and metaphorically face-planted. And it has hurt a lot, a lot more than I hope to be hurt again. Is this because I did not obey the commandments? Is this because I had doubts? Did I simply not engage in a cause that was good enough?

In the first place, there is no one so good that they followed God perfectly, so we all come short of the glory of God. We are going to mess up a few times. But I think there is a much greater reason that we have these experiences when trying our best. I think we came down here to be tried and tested, and if we never had any opposition, we wouldn't be getting what we came down here for. To be sure, once you embark on something, you always listen for what God wants to tell you so you can change your direction, but there is also the fact that if you aren't face-planting a couple times in your life, you may not be doing what you came down here to do. Remember that God shared these verses after He explained to them the great tribulation and designs which they did not yet see. In life, we are them, and they are us, and we are all stumbling towards the kingdom of God, doing our best to seek the highest in us. When we fall, it means we are doing something that means something. We get up again, we check our direction, and we keep moving forward.

One last commentary on The Way

now check out vs 41-43. This feels like personal instructions for what kind of person we should be to be okay on this journey that God has outlined in the previous verses. God says that in place of seeking to excel, learn to be meek, and repent of your sins; confess and forsake them. In Section 50, we talked about being firm, not with accusation or boasting. We discussed meekness in the Book of Mormon on Christ's Ministry, albeit briefly.

In summary of everything here, you act as an agent, you take the heaviest load you can carry, you look single-mindedly to God, you trust His design, you bear the tribulation placed upon you, and you pursue your path with powerful meekness and continual repentance.

This is The Way.

D&C 59

Stand with your feet on Zion :)

That is it for this week. Hope to see you soon! :D


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