Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome Welcome! Section 94 No comments for this section Section 95 Whom I Love and Chasten Chastening is a difficult thing for us to receive properly and to give properly. This came up during Helaman 15 when Samuel the prophet spoke about it. Without going too far into depth, here are some salient points we can learning about chastening - God chastens that our sins may be forgiven - "with chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance" - everyone needs chastening at some point Temple work God speaks directly about not building a temple as the reason for the chastening. This was a good reminder to me after covid to make a renewed effort to go to the temple. Now that we have to reserve a session, it feels more complicated and like I need to plan it out (yes, I'm a spoiled Utahn with temples anywhere I look :D) but if Joseph the Prophet was chastened for not building a temple, with all the sacrifice there, how much more should we be willing to go to the temple? I'...

 Welcome to Section 93! This is such a strange and a unique section, one of the more esoteric expounding of doctrine in the Doctrine and Covenants. Walking into this, there are a couple things to keep in mind. 1. It is really going to help understand this section by reading other sections about light, truth, and intelligence. 2. It is better to look at our current definitions of these concepts as approximations of what god means. For example, when God says 'the Word', it is not the same as what we think of as 'the Word',  God's truth is different from our truth, intelligence, light, etc. 3. extending point 3, in vs 19-20, God specifically says He is giving these teachings to you 'that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship'. The promise for learning this is that you can be glorified in Christ as Christ is in the Father. Section 93 Intro The first two verses are a simple introduction to the section guiding the reader to the purp...

 Welcome! we have the word of wisdom today! and other wonderful and wonderful things Section 89 Section 89 can be broken down into 3+1 parts - the intro (+1) then the forbiddens, the recommendeds, and the promises By way of commandment? I saw a recent facebook poll asking if the WoW was considered as a commandment or not by the users. Shockingly, for me, the majority of those answering the poll did not see it as a strict commandment. To their credit, we only seem to be interested in the forbiddens as commandment, and disregard more or less the rest of the revelation. On the other hand, this was accepted as commandment by the church in the 1800's and is a temple worthiness question. God says this is given for a principle with promise adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints who are or can be called saints. I think the above question is somewhat moot, because we should be striving to follow this whether commandment or not. We should be working to be better th...

Welcome! This week is section 88, one that is very long and very well known. I personally don’t believe the church is ready to understand Section 88 but that it is a continuation and fulfillment of that which was contained in Section 84. Maybe we need to lift that curse before we are ready for this Section. This is known as the Olive Leaf based on Joseph Smith calling that in a letter, “I send you, the ‘Olive Leaf’ which we have plucked from the tree of Paradise, the Lord’s message of peace to us.” Section 88   A foundation for understanding the rest of the text, but possibly not understandable without the rest of the text. Vs 5-13 is somewhat of a foundation of understanding for the rest of the text. Unfortunately (fortunately?) it talks of things in a way that is a little foreign to our common understanding. Here is a little trace through. Vs 5. Section 88 has already mentioned the celestial kingdom multiple times. It appears to me that the specific end goal of this ent...

 Welcome! It looks like, based on my notes, this is just going to be about Section 87, the war chapter Section 85 No comment at this time Section 86 No comment at this time Section 87 Section 87 is remarkable in the accuracy of its prediction of the events of the civil war, especially since in 1832, many thought the crisis was blown over. S&S comment that Orson Pratt kept a copy of the revelation with him and shortly after Abraham Lincoln was elected, he procured it to citizens in Omaha Nebraska. "It created a great sensation... A great many persons came forward and examined the book from which the revelation was read to see the date, to satisfy themselves that it was not a thing of recent manufacture." Here are some other comments by S&S "The American Civil War was only the beginning of a series of conflicts, each leading up to the world-war of 1914. This is all the more remarkable, because since the middle of the 19th century, the peace movement in the world as...

Its another D&C mega chapter! This one is best known for its emphasis on the priesthood. There are a lot of treasures in here. There is also a building pattern. God teaches a short history of the priesthood, and uses it to show the meaning of the priesthood, and the blessings of the priesthood, then to how we fall short of those blessings, then what we can do to receive those blessings, then to how he will strengthen us to be able to accomplish this task. There is more after this, but I didn't get that far this time around. The last treasures in D&C 84 are up to you to find ;) until I can come back and add more.  Also, the treasures are always up to you to find anyway :D. I am just acting in my best capacity as a guide but the gospel isn't something that is transmitted through teaching, it is something that is manifested by the spirit, and only God can give that. Section 84 Short History of the Priesthood Check out this history of the priesthood in vs 6-17. We can learn...