Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome! Luke ends with zingers Luke puts some zingers at the end of these chapters. Lets explore them Chapter 12 51  Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: 52  For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.  These are especially good verses to dive into after President Nelson's talk on being a peacemaker in the the April 2023 general conference session. Later in the year we are going to read this verse in John.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Here are some basic principles to follow 1. The peace we are seeking for is not the peace of the world - it is something beyond what we are used to. 2. Whoever we contend with, remember Christ died for them. He also suffered for everything you did that intentionally or unintentionally hurt them. 3. When we speak the words of Christ, they will divide. When ...

 Welcome The mysteries of John 7 So I feel like we get a good look at the heart and nature of our relationship with Jesus in this chapter. I feel like a line-by-line may even be appropriate. We've got some different players here. Christ Himself, the perfect Man and Guide The disciples of Christ, with willing hearts but not yet purified and hopelessly distant from keeping up the general crowd Those who came to oppose Christ, but are turned by his words Those who oppose Christ and aren't going to change The disciples want Christ to show himself to the world Christ responds that His time is not yet come (His ultimate sacrifice of a broken heart and contrite spirit is not here yet) but that their time is 'alway ready' (they are the ones in need of judgement (in the Hebrew sense) change, to show good works of a broken heart and contrite spirit. In other words, your life is always on the judgement block whereas Christ knows the times and the seasons of what he needs to do, so...

 Welcome! Christ's words have an intrinsic mystery to them because they upend the world order we are used to. The first shall be last? The least of these shall rule? He who is like a child will be greatest? Meekness will rule the Earth? They make no sense from our earthly perspective and yet as we study Christ, we can see hints coming out. Christ certainly meant them; He overcame all things by them, and rules heaven and earth today by them. From our part, sometimes we put these things into a safe little 'cultural box', a place where culturally we outwardly express these things as admirable but in private we believe only in power. And its not much of a surprise because its true that if you are weak in this world, you will get steamrolled by just about everyone. So there is much more to these words than simply being a pushover, and there is much more than the culturally appropriate box we sell as part of our christianity. I've been watching a Chinese live action series ad...

 Welcome! This weeks readings are much about expanding the view of small to large, showing a greater vision or correcting and offtrack vision. Christ helps Peter understand the keys of the kingdom, corrects the pharisees, brings the disciples to the mount of transfiguration, talks of salting the earth and much more. We can get trapped in our small visions of what we want to do, but Christ helps us gain the greater things.

If you have already been over the easter basics, try studying Moses 7. Start at vs 23

 Welcome! Quickfire - In Mark 6, many who knew Jesus as the carpenter's son couldn't get over their preconceived notion of Him. I think we can learn about how we perspect the world from this. -39  ¶  a Search  the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which  b testify  of me. 40  And ye will not come to me, that ye might have  a life . -At the end of John, Jesus says that He basically won't need to accuse anyone there for not following him; Moses, whom they profess, will do it for them. He is basically saying that they aren't even following Moses. Worth thinking about

 Welcome! Its parable time Hot takes on verses 57  And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without  a honour , save in his own country, and in his own house. This innocuous verse reveals a strange side of humanity where we get comfortable putting each other in a box (survival technique?) and whenever someone tries to move out of that box, we try to convince them to crawl back in. Strange but sad.