Come Follow Me with Sam

Welcome!  Okay, check this quote out I have always thought in reading the Book of Mormon, "Woe to the generation that understands this book!"  To  our fathers, once the great persecutions ceased, the story of the Nephites and the Lamanites was something rather strange, unreal, and faraway—even to the point of being romantic. The last generation did not make much of the Book of Mormon. But now with every passing year this great and portentous story becomes more and more familiar and more frighteningly like our own. That is Hugh Nibley. The Book of Mormon is an incredible treasure, but it talks about things so great that it can be hard to understand if we don't use the spirit. Constantly. An Approach to the Book of Mormon One trick is that the Book of Mormon is  Really Complicated.  I was talking to a manager of a large financial organization once, and he asked about the Book of Mormon. I tried my best to give the context of the book within about a minute's time f...

  Welcome! Congratulations! You are especially invited to join me as we explore the Book of Mormon through the Come Follow Me program! Our journey here will be really fun, inciteful, spiritual, and if you listen closely, you'll even catch when I  accidentally  inevitably teach false doctrine! ;) Come Follow Me  has been running for 5 years now and it is really fun to see how members of the Church of Jesus Christ have studied and shared the scriptures together! I keep thinking about how to study and share too. Guess what conclusion I came to ;) I have a great friend who is always encouraging me to be better. In 2019, she encouraged me to share some of my personal studies because people may find it really helpful! So my greatest hope is that in sharing my thoughts with you as we go through the Book of Mormon can help you appreciate this most amazing volume of scripture, and that you can see with new eyes, and walk with new purpose. Who I am I am Sam. Would you like gre...

 Congratulations! You now have all 4 years of Come Follow Me for reference on my blog. I hope you have found some good insights What's next I will be continuing my Come Follow Me Blog in the future! I will be adding to my other blog posts as I read. You can stay tuned. You will see the older posts come to the front as I add new thoughts. Because blogger (and blogs in general) weren't made to update posts and put them to the front, it looks like I will be copying the old post into a new one. I have played around with polishing my blog up a big more. I have mixed feelings on this because while it would likely increase ability to apply and viewership, it would be a pretty big shift from Sam's raw thoughts to an actual process. I feel like polishing this would lose some of its authenticity. Let me know if you would prefer some changes and what those are in the comments below.

 Welcome! It is coming close to the end of the year! I thought about doing a deep dive of Revelations but 1. There are already many deep dives 2. Besides my own diligent reflections, there is nothing I have especially poignant to offer readers 3. There is not a lot of time anyway My brother has been teaching some seminary classes. He asked earlier from me and the rest of the family if we have any insights to give. I realized some things that I would like to share here. Revelation, as is done in Come Follow Me, can be nicely divided into 3 parts: the sanctification, the tribulation, and the final reward and feast of the Lamb (open to aliterary '-ation' conversion of that last one). 1. Rev 1-5 the Sanctification.  This is what everybody including me misses. God is showing us we should not be touching any other part of the book until we have got our hearts in the right place. We always skip this because we want the signs, and the supper, and we don't do what is necessary to ge...

 Welcome! Happy Christmas eve! No meetings today so I have some time to close this year's most remarkable journey through the new testament. We'll do the normal 3 highlights for John and Jude. Also, I'm a big fan of John so I'm going to just go through the first 1 John chapters here. 1. Chapter 1 speask to me most strongly of the joy of repentence. You get the feeling that John looks forward to repenting and casting off sins, and anyone who isn't casting off their sins is someone he is suspicious of truly being in the fellowship. 2.  Chapter 2:28 28  And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.    Chapter 2 are preparation steps that culminate in this outcome.   3.   Chapter 3:3 And every man that hath this  a hope  in him  b purifieth  himself, even as he is  c pure . This ties back to Chapter 1 but also speaks to the idea of hope in re...

originally published 12/17/2023 updated 12/20/2023 Hello, I'm going to interrupt my normal blog for a special Christmas project. Below is a story you can read to your children 7 days before Christmas, a little every day. In fact! If you have children of Reading age, they can participate!  Before you begin There are four parts, each with a symbol to let you know who should read the part, should you want your children to participate. ()The narrator (no symbol) - Suggestion that the mother of the family is the narrarator :The dear prophet, an angel - signified by a colon : - suggestion that the father of the family or an older child read these lines. The Mother can easily read these lines as well ~Hep, an angel - signified by a thingy ~ - suggestion that a daughter or daughters take turns reading these lines ^Yashub, an angel - singified by another thingy ^ - suggestion that a son or sons take turns reading these lines This story is meant to be started 12/18 and finished 12/24. Each d...

          Welcome! With my new calling in my unity, my normal time for writing my blog posts has been interrupted. I'm playing some catch-up today! James has the famous 1:5 verse. I won't comment on that (besides read and understand it :) and focus on the harder to find things Top 3 things to think about in 1 and 2 peter 1. 1p 2:1-6 1  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the  a strangers  scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2  a Elect  according to the  b foreknowledge  of God the Father, through  c sanctification  of the Spirit, unto  d obedience  and  e sprinkling  of the  f blood  of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 3  Blessed  be  the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant  a mercy  hath  b begotten  us again unto a  c lively   d hope  by ...