D&C 63: Come Follow Me with Sam

D&C 63 is pretty long and it seems to cover a lot of subjects. Hopefully you can glean some of these insights.

Section 63

Arbitrary actions?

Take a look at vs 3-5

3 Who willeth to take even them whom he will ^atake, and ^bpreserveth in life them whom he will preserve;

4 Who buildeth up at his own will and ^apleasure; and destroyeth when he pleases, and is able to ^bcast the soul down to hell.

5 Behold, I, the Lord, utter my voice, and it shall be ^aobeyed.

This sounds pretty arbitrary on first blush, and something with an old testament flare. What is God saying here? 

When I look at these verses, I think ' what is God helping the people understand?' Its not like God sits all the early saints in a room and gives them long lectures about the universe. In all these revelations, even the long ones, there is a very little space to communicate many great things. This is how I interpret them:

' Saints, realize that my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways but I hold all power in heaven and earth, and there are serious consequences for those who do not obey My voice in all things because every other path leads down to destruction, and there is no other path other than the one I have shown that leads from this fate. You do not understand these things yet, an so just know that everything is according to my will and power, and make great things come to pass, which you don't yet understand, and make terrible things come to pass, which you don't understand. Once again, these seem very arbitrary to you so I'm going to talk to where you are at and just tell you that I can and will do all these things and for now, you need to trust me and do as I say or else these things will come to pass for you.'

God finished up with this idea that when He utters his voice, it shall be obeyed, which ties in to the ancient ideas from old testament, new testament, and pagan traditions that a God is he who speaks and it happens as it is spoken.

Sign seeking... again

God has a lot to say about sign seeking in verses 7 -21. He ties this in with not living the righteous life, not unto salvation, particularly in relation to lust. If you aren't seeking signs 'for the good of men unto my glory', you might want to take a second look at what your purpose is.

H&S recounts a very strange experience where a sign seeker asked for a sign from joseph, whereupon he told the congregating that the man was an adulterer, and any man who seeks signs is adulterous. the Man confessed to this afterward. This is recorded in History of the Church Vol V

A nice guarantee?

Vs 47 reads 'He that is faithful and endureth shall overcome the world.' I read this as 'stick with the program and you will be okay', which I find comforting. The question remains of what price you will need to pay if you only passively stick with the program, but it's not a bad start to at least have this.

The wise and foolish virgins again

God brings up the parable of the wise virgins and the foolish virgins again. I had some thoughts reading this. I'm probably going to read into this a little too much, but see if these aren't good thoughts. The foolish virgins are necessarily bad, they just aren't that good. They have oil, but they aren't prepared for any hardship, for that starless night under the endless desert, as Terry Pratchett would put it, or the voyage to the habitation of God, as St Exupery might say. There is now power to endure, and the name of God is Eternal. Sometimes I think the foolish virgins will still get the reward, but they will undergo much greater hardship and suffering to get there, and worse, because their light doesn't shine in the dark of the night, the entire world is a little dimmer. They could have been a help but instead they were left in darkness themselves.

This is why (contrary to literally the last paragraph I wrote ? :D) it is not good enough to coast, or to say you have enough. You have to be actively working to seek the living God or things don't go as well. And by not go as well I mean 'pluck out the wicked and cast them into unquenchable fire' not go as well.

A more exceeding and eternal weight of glory

God ends with a few verses including this one

64 Remember that that which cometh from above is ^asacred, and must be ^bspoken with care, and by constraint of the Spirit; and in this there is no condemnation, and ye receive the Spirit ^cthrough prayer; wherefore, without this there remaineth condemnation.

In much the same way as before, he is telling the Saints that these things are sacred, and that they don't yet understand, but through the spirit, they can know, so they need to listen to that spirit if they want to avoid the condemnation.

He then ends with this 

66 These things remain to overcome through patience, that such may receive a more exceeding and eternal ^aweight of ^bglory, otherwise, a greater condemnation. Amen.