D&C 77-80: Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome! This week is a really exciting amalgam of sections!

Okay, so there's nothing that exciting ,but I feel that this week, each section has a little gem to take with you.

Section 77

Section 77 is a Q&A of the meaning of certain parts of revelations. I plan on diving deeper into the actual content when the new testament rolls around. For now, I felt like S&S had some really important insights. listen to these passages

"The prophetic part of it is mostly regarded [by the world] as an unsolvable riddle.... the reason for this confusion is that modern interpreters have lost the key to the book... That book was written to show that the Church would conquer paganism, but that it would itself be driven into exile and remain in absolute obscurity for 1260 'days' - prophetic years...

"But this Revelation (Section 77) is not a complete interpretation of the book. It is a key. A key is a very small part of the house. It unlocks the door through which an entrance may be gained, but after the key has been turned, the searcher for treasure must find it for himself."

Section 78

What struck me in Section 78 was the call again to the law of consecration. God says " For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things; for if you will that I give unto you a place in the celestial world, you must prepare yourselves by doing the things which I have commanded you and required of you."

I have already railed against the false promises of socialism and communism. The only thing those do-gooders have to show for their authoritarian abandonment of the humanity of mankind is the piles of bodies and wrecked economies they leave behind. I was walking to a Venezuelan last week who eye witnessed the terrible oppression they received from an illegitimate tyranny that unloaded onto its ignorant citizenry its own flavor of the horrors mentioned above. This is not the way we want to go.

Here is the deal though. We are still, as a society, very far from heaven. If we want to get to heaven, we need to learn this principle one way or another; that the cry of our brother or sister is the cry of our own souls and we are here to help. There's no buts around it. We need to figure this out if we ever dare to dream of heaven.

Section 79

I like section 79 because it is a path on the way to happiness. Do the will of the lord, attend the Comforter's presence, let the truth flow from that experience, and be faithful in these things. If you get that down, you can finally let your heart be glad.

Section 80

This Section reminds me of Elder Bednar's talk 'Called to Serve' . Here God says 'look, preach the gospel where ever you go and you literally can't mess up. just "declare the things which ye have heard, and verily believe, and know to be true."'

This is the best missionary sermon I've ever hear. Even better than hymn 242.

Salutes, my friends and see you next week.