Come Follow Me with Sam

Welcome!  My yoke is easy and my burden is light I've thought about this phrase as I'm sure many of you have. I feel it is true at the same time that I'm not sure what it means. If anyone has faced their shadow, they know that the burden of integrating it is no small feat. If anyone understands what the Savior atoned for them, they do not describe that as easy or light. the word 'easy' comes from the Greek 'chrestos' which, you will notice, is extremely close character-wise to Christos or Christ. Chrestos can also mean good, loving, kind, or goodness. In the French Louis Segond, this is translated  as'doux' or soft. The word 'light' means little weight without much nuance as far as I can tell. Christ said just before this that those who are heavy laden should come to Him to find rest. The best I understand this verse, Christ is saying 'take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is is a loving kind goodness of the kind that fills the soul with the...

 Welcome! Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? It's nice to have a nice house in a nice neighborhood in a nice community that is always nice to each other. I don't think Jesus would live there though. I think he would live in the poorer part of town, and do what he could to serve there. That means that our nicest christian communities may be farther from following the example of Jesus Christ than they think. I'm not saying we can't have nice communities, nice houses, and nice neighborhoods. Everyone needs a place to rest from the storm, and I personally have been blessed by associating with others in nice houses. You also need to make sure that you and your family are, relatively speaking, safe. But there is a real danger if your neighborhood is all just nice with no one in trouble. You may want to consider moving to a place where you can be of more use. The woman who touched the garment The chosen does a lot to bring this story out The harvest truly is pl...

 Welcome! The Forgotten Centurion In the contemporary western sphere, our power structures are much less rigid than in Roman times. The romans were in a sense a civilization of order incarnate. They aren't known for world bending inventions or philosophies (although they did have inventions and they did build philosophy), but their ability to standardize, expand, and apply their order to the world was what set them apart. Where kings and princes either burned their way through or else trusted to the sole ability of leaders, the romans systematized. In their armies, they believed that the training and flexibility of the division would overcome the failings of a given leader, in their economic system, they connect roads, cities, and ports, and regulated trade throughout the mediterranean. In their political hierarchy, they locked in a tax base rather than building a slave empire (not saying there weren't slaves, just saying that they were more focused on ruling people than master...