Welcome Round 2!

 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 green eggs and ham? (growing up, I actually raised chickens that laid green eggs, so if you ask, I can deliver!)
Like Dr. Seuss's Sam, I love to explore and try new things. I love to help people try new things as well. Personality tests show that I am detail/data oriented, and like making juxtaposed connections, something that helps people around me learn to see in new ways.
I also have a fascination for complex adaptive systems. I work at a software firm to help them manage risk while streamlining processes. I also keep the ninja and velociraptor attacks at bay. (No incidents in 91,310,625,542 days, my personal best!)
My family also loves studying the scriptures. We all have our own way, so I may include notes from them as we go along.


What you can expect

Each week, I am going to post my thoughts about the Come Follow Me reading according to the Come Follow Me schedule. I have already created a first post on nearly all materials. This will now be my second posting. I will update some thoughts inline, and add some thoughts at the end of each post. Hopefully I have learned a lot in the last 4 years that I can share.

I seek out salient points, and bias my take towards those things you would not catch, nor think of. One of my goals in sharing this is to keep the scriptures fresh and help you think of it in new ways that are aligned with its core purpose.




Let's do this!


Like everything that is worth kicking off, here's your Two Steps Song to get into the right mood! Remember, the Book of Mormon comes with a promise ;). Anyone who believes in Christ can hope for a better world!



Additional notes on Promise, Thomas Bergerson: Think of how it was for Lehi to leave his homeland with his family. Think of the trepidation, the change, the hopes, and the seeking for guidance that Lehi's family partook of. In each step, God was guiding them to a better world. Think of their faith-filled journey as you listen to this song.

originally created 12/29/2019
updated 12/31/2023


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A gift for the Savior: a Christmas story

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...
Read more

Acts 22-28 - come follow me with Sam!

 Welcome! Une drole d'Eglise Paul shows how the jewish 'church', their ecclesiastical organization and understanding, is in chaos  - the chief priest, guardian of the law is he who violates the law - the different sects are squabbling amongst themselves, in one moment more eager to persecute paul, in the next moment more eager to prosecute their adversaries' contrary ideas - 40 of them straight up swore an oath to murder. This is deeply badness shizam. - they describe the 'quietness' they so desire and that paul is a 'pestilent fellow' interrupting their serenity. Throughout all of this, Paul is guided by the spirit what he must do.
Read more

Bonus! the Simple Gospel of the Way

Image
 Am I writing a Gnostic text? I definitely titled this blog post like one. Maybe we should turn it over to the scholars and ask how close I got. Or maybe I'll be able to ask the gnostics one day. I'd like to share something I am calling the Simple Gospel of the Way. I'm sure many of you have been taught the gospels, the plan of salvation, or something similar to map your vector relation with God. Here is an approach that I hope helps. 1. We are separated from God. (Hopefully no surprises here.) Everything we do is to get back to Him. We are trying to close the separation. We are trying to become One with Him. This is the most important singular concept I can think of. When we understand this, everything else falls into place.  1.1 This is not simply a separation of physical distance. This is a separation of spiritual distance. We are not like our Father, but every part of our being aches to be One with our Father and our Mother, our heavenly parents.  1.2 because the sepa...
Read more