Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome! When will humanity understand Job? (and at what price?) Job is a strange book. many believe it is a parable and thought exercise in nature and that there was no original man named Job who had a similar story. members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have extra spice on taco in this debate because we we have God referencing Job to Joseph Smith in D&C 121. Was God referring to a man who existed once, or just using it in parable nature as well? There are a few lessons we can learn from Job. Most of them can be useful but miss the mark. Here are a few of these types of lessons. Apologies in advance to those who have identified themselves with one of these types of lessons through some hard trial. - whenever I'm down, I can remember that job was even more miserable and that should cheer me up. - a better variant on this is to think of all the blessings you do have and focus on those. -a slightly worse variant is to try and weigh blessings and trials in yo...

Welcome A strange book of mysterious meanings. Esther is one of those books that will probably be uncovered one day as a literary master piece because, similar to Isaiah, the way the book is written reflects the story itself. The book never explicitly mentions God. Yet God steers the talents and destiny of key figures to bring deliverance to the Jewish people. In this way, it is reflective of the idea that even when you don't see Him, God is always in the background surely putting his purposes at work in the lives of His children.  Ironic as it is that the Essenes did not include Esther in their scriptures, they had a sort of prayer that reflected this idea quite well. And when the sun is high in the heavens, Then is that you shall let into your ears the Holy Stream of Sound for it can only be heard in the silence. Think on the streams that are born in the desert after a sudden storm, and the roaring sound of the waters as they rush past. Truly, this is the voice of God, if you did...

 Welcome! The chapters of Ezra and Nehemiah are about restoring the temple and the walls of Jerusalem again, restoring the law, and protecting against the opposition that arises. Notes on Restoration The restoration of the temple came in a very strange way. Cyrus, a worldly ruler, is inspired by a prophecy about him to restore the temple. The people go out and by their little efforts work to restore those things which were lost.  An important principle is that the true restoration is done by God, and the work of kings, priests, and peoples is the work to be part of the restoration that is worked by God. Nehemiah's prayer I am saying this with almost no study beyond the face-value of reading the text, so feel free to put down what you know in the comments. Nehemiah reads much like a prayer to God for strength to accomplish what he has been missioned to do. He writes in the first person and throws in pleadings in the text ending in Chapter 13 with these words 30  Thus clean...

 This is where the party ends for the kingdom of Israel. Actually, the party ended a long time before this; these chapters are where the two kingdoms get physically kicked out of the venue.  No one ever wants the party to end, and no one wants a debbie-downer to crash the fun, but if you are on the wrong path, you need to start paying attention until you can get your feet back under you and make strait your way again. Some of the really wretched stuff In children's bible stories, the false religions and idolatries of the pagans are pretty toned down - you get the feeling that the worst part of following idols is missing the blessings of following Christ. As you get older, you may wonder why whole civilizations were destroyed for just not following God. These chapters give some bare hints of some of the insanely stuff that was going on. It is not even close to child appropriate. We are talking child sacrifices, sex worship, secret murders, and the like. Really really bad stuff....

 Welcome! They that be with US be more than they that be with them This is a famous verse from 2 Kings 6:16. I believe sometimes we take it out of context, especially in democratic countries. In democracies, we are taught to rely on the majority will of the people, that if we just get the majority, we can set things right. While I am a big fan of democratic institutions, this quote has nothing to do about being secure in your belief that you have gained an earthly majority. Remember the background to this was that the syrians had laid siege in samaria and Elisha's servant was looking out and thinking - how will we ever escape such a force? Elisha told him this phrase and then asked God to open his servants eyes to the heavenly host around them. This isn't a story of being in the majority. This is a story of being in the minority and understanding that when you are on God's side, you have fellow servants around you that far surpass the strength of any earthly force. The rest...