Come Follow Me with Sam

 Section 124 Quick fire verses vs. 5 - recurring theme from 121 vs 27 etc. - God asks the saints to again build a house to Him, reminiscent of the revelations in section 94, 97, etc. vs 47, 48 etc. - God gives blessings and cursings for following or not following His word. This is a great reminder for us to do as we said, and that the blessings are tied to us following them.

 Welcome! D&C 121 -123 are very rich. There is a lot going on in my life right now, so I don't have the time to do these sections justice. I'm going to give some pointers to help, and hopefully I can come back to this sometime and add to what there is to find. Section 121 section 121 starts out with soul cry. soul cry is a plea that goes beyond flesh and goes beyond emotion or feeling and comes straight from one eternal being to another eternal being. From a soul to a soul, so to speak. When this happens, the universe hears, and feels it. That is one of the reasons these next sections are so rich. By the way, I think everything we do, good or bad, happy or sad, is soul cry to God's ears. Here, God answers with a reminder that He knows what is happening, He is a God of Justice, a God of Mercy, and a God by which all things will flow according to His Order. <- keep this last part in mind for the rest of the section. He says something very interesting in part 3: For God...

 Welcome! Section 115 More temple building! Section 116 Super cool deepish-type doctrine. Anything Ante-Diluvian feels like it was part of the mysteries Section 117 Much like lessons in the Book of Mormon, sometimes it is time to move and time to move now Section 118 It is good for us to gather together and strengthen each other Section 119 Tithing is a law of Holiness and a law of Sanctification Section 120 Organization of the highest councils of the church

 Welcome! Section 111 check out verse 1 'I am not displeased with your coming this journey, notwithstanding your follies'. There is a lot to learn from this. There is also a lot of comfort that God says, just focus on Zion, the rest is going to be okay. Section 112 some other great verses in 2 and 3 - 'there have been some few things in thine heart and with thee with which I, the Lord was not well pleased'. Nevertheless, inasmuch as thou hast abased thyself thou shalt be exalted; therefore all thy sins are forgiven thee. Section 113 Section 113 is another Q&A which I just love! my favorite is vs 7 and 8. There is an important principle. There are many who worship God in their own way across the world. The plea here, from Isaiah is that those people embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ full enough to enter into the order of His priesthood and have the fulness of power to accomplish His work on the earth. The strength of Zion is the Priesthood, the power of God manifest...

 Welcome! This is the first temple dedication prayer of this dispensation!!!! there is a lot to learn here! Section 109 some quick-fire lessons Joseph Smith did a return and report, mentioning the commandments the saints and received and fulfilled saints were blessed with power ask that all who worship in this house be taught words of wisdom out of the best books, seek learning by study and by faith obtain every needful thing speedily repent and return to God when in transgression overcome enemies break the yoke from the necks of God's servants reaffirm the preciousness of souls reference to the blood of the saints crying as a witness to God reminder that kingdom was set up without hands sing hosanna to God and the Lamb (I want to go to that congregation for worship one day ;) Section 110 Section 110 is a recorded witness of one of the most sacred experiences in the Kirtland temple.

Welcome! the bulk of this week's reading is section 107, which talks of the priesthood and the organization of the priesthood. Section 106 As a thief in the night Of all the warnings we have received, the second coming will still overtake us as a theif in the night. I had the thought that we would be too preoccupied with the things of the world, or in other words, the new way of living will overtake our slower plans for changing to that new way.. God says "Therefore, gird up your loins, that you may be the children of light, and that day shall not overtake you as a thief. Section 107 Section 107 lays out a lot of priesthood stuff. There is some juicy stuff in here :D but I think I'm going to hold off on certain things. dm me if you want the after party :D S&S make the note that catholics look (or looked) at ministers as priests, very close to the hebrew levite model before Christs coming. They see the priests as a conduit 'because the people must draw near to God t...

 Welcome!! Section 102 Organization of the first high council Cool. No other notes at this time Section 103 more on chastening... This is going to be a bit of a theme for the next couple sections, and we got a flavor back in Section 95. This is speaking broadly to the church, or to a specific region of the church. keep this in mind for 105. Check out this verse a little later - > 7  And by  a hearkening  to observe all the words which I, the Lord their God, shall speak unto them, they shall never cease to prevail until the  b kingdoms  of the world are subdued under my feet, and the earth is  c given  unto the saints, to  d possess  it forever and ever. ...and maybe the reasons why God asked for 500 men. He got about 100 out of Kirtland and another 105 along the way for Zion's camp.  Then these people at sundry times complained quite a bit... This seems to me and indication of the general reason that God make the former declarati...

 Welcome! Section 98 All things shall be for your good read Abinadai to understand the constitution and leaders There are a few great keys of government that come from 98. First, the constitution is a world heritage. It is not just a western idea or an American idea, although the Americans certainly deserve the credit for being able to both articulate it and put it into practice. for all the variances in peoples and all the criticisms of the American system, this is the closest to God's law that any of us in the world have ever seen, and, using the same words He has used in the past for scripture, God says that anything more or less than this cometh evil ("as pertaining to law of man"). Note Gods words here "I the Lord God make you free, herefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free." This is a point that I think the founding generation at least understood intellectually, but that wasn't perpetuated generally or across time. The Americans hav...

 Welcome Welcome! Section 94 No comments for this section Section 95 Whom I Love and Chasten Chastening is a difficult thing for us to receive properly and to give properly. This came up during Helaman 15 when Samuel the prophet spoke about it. Without going too far into depth, here are some salient points we can learning about chastening - God chastens that our sins may be forgiven - "with chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance" - everyone needs chastening at some point Temple work God speaks directly about not building a temple as the reason for the chastening. This was a good reminder to me after covid to make a renewed effort to go to the temple. Now that we have to reserve a session, it feels more complicated and like I need to plan it out (yes, I'm a spoiled Utahn with temples anywhere I look :D) but if Joseph the Prophet was chastened for not building a temple, with all the sacrifice there, how much more should we be willing to go to the temple? I'...

 Welcome to Section 93! This is such a strange and a unique section, one of the more esoteric expounding of doctrine in the Doctrine and Covenants. Walking into this, there are a couple things to keep in mind. 1. It is really going to help understand this section by reading other sections about light, truth, and intelligence. 2. It is better to look at our current definitions of these concepts as approximations of what god means. For example, when God says 'the Word', it is not the same as what we think of as 'the Word',  God's truth is different from our truth, intelligence, light, etc. 3. extending point 3, in vs 19-20, God specifically says He is giving these teachings to you 'that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship'. The promise for learning this is that you can be glorified in Christ as Christ is in the Father. Section 93 Intro The first two verses are a simple introduction to the section guiding the reader to the purp...

 Welcome! we have the word of wisdom today! and other wonderful and wonderful things Section 89 Section 89 can be broken down into 3+1 parts - the intro (+1) then the forbiddens, the recommendeds, and the promises By way of commandment? I saw a recent facebook poll asking if the WoW was considered as a commandment or not by the users. Shockingly, for me, the majority of those answering the poll did not see it as a strict commandment. To their credit, we only seem to be interested in the forbiddens as commandment, and disregard more or less the rest of the revelation. On the other hand, this was accepted as commandment by the church in the 1800's and is a temple worthiness question. God says this is given for a principle with promise adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints who are or can be called saints. I think the above question is somewhat moot, because we should be striving to follow this whether commandment or not. We should be working to be better th...

Welcome! This week is section 88, one that is very long and very well known. I personally don’t believe the church is ready to understand Section 88 but that it is a continuation and fulfillment of that which was contained in Section 84. Maybe we need to lift that curse before we are ready for this Section. This is known as the Olive Leaf based on Joseph Smith calling that in a letter, “I send you, the ‘Olive Leaf’ which we have plucked from the tree of Paradise, the Lord’s message of peace to us.” Section 88   A foundation for understanding the rest of the text, but possibly not understandable without the rest of the text. Vs 5-13 is somewhat of a foundation of understanding for the rest of the text. Unfortunately (fortunately?) it talks of things in a way that is a little foreign to our common understanding. Here is a little trace through. Vs 5. Section 88 has already mentioned the celestial kingdom multiple times. It appears to me that the specific end goal of this ent...

 Welcome! It looks like, based on my notes, this is just going to be about Section 87, the war chapter Section 85 No comment at this time Section 86 No comment at this time Section 87 Section 87 is remarkable in the accuracy of its prediction of the events of the civil war, especially since in 1832, many thought the crisis was blown over. S&S comment that Orson Pratt kept a copy of the revelation with him and shortly after Abraham Lincoln was elected, he procured it to citizens in Omaha Nebraska. "It created a great sensation... A great many persons came forward and examined the book from which the revelation was read to see the date, to satisfy themselves that it was not a thing of recent manufacture." Here are some other comments by S&S "The American Civil War was only the beginning of a series of conflicts, each leading up to the world-war of 1914. This is all the more remarkable, because since the middle of the 19th century, the peace movement in the world as...

Its another D&C mega chapter! This one is best known for its emphasis on the priesthood. There are a lot of treasures in here. There is also a building pattern. God teaches a short history of the priesthood, and uses it to show the meaning of the priesthood, and the blessings of the priesthood, then to how we fall short of those blessings, then what we can do to receive those blessings, then to how he will strengthen us to be able to accomplish this task. There is more after this, but I didn't get that far this time around. The last treasures in D&C 84 are up to you to find ;) until I can come back and add more.  Also, the treasures are always up to you to find anyway :D. I am just acting in my best capacity as a guide but the gospel isn't something that is transmitted through teaching, it is something that is manifested by the spirit, and only God can give that. Section 84 Short History of the Priesthood Check out this history of the priesthood in vs 6-17. We can learn...

Welcome! In one sense, this week is some reruns of last week with new color. 81 is very similar to 79, 82 is similar to 78. Enjoy :) Section 81 This section was very much like section 79 to me. It was short but filled with such power because it contains the core of the gospel in plainness in a real experience. It is unfortunately hard for me to articulate the meaning of these sections; it is better just to read them after praying with all your heart to feel the love of God and the vision he has for you in His kingdom...  but if I was to take a stab at this one, I would say that God is telling Federick G Williams that he is in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time, and all he needs to do is be the best that he can be, and do follow God's commandments exactly, and that if he makes every situation as 'good' (as in righteous, filled with light, well-doing towards others), he gets the gold and all is accepted before Him, the God of the universe Section 82 Section 82 b...

 Welcome! This week is a really exciting amalgam of sections! Okay, so there's nothing that exciting ,but I feel that this week, each section has a little gem to take with you. Section 77 Section 77 is a Q&A of the meaning of certain parts of revelations. I plan on diving deeper into the actual content when the new testament rolls around. For now, I felt like S&S had some really important insights. listen to these passages "The prophetic part of it is mostly regarded [by the world] as an unsolvable riddle.... the reason for this confusion is that modern interpreters have lost the key to the book... That book was written to show that the Church would conquer paganism, but that it would itself be driven into exile and remain in absolute obscurity for 1260 'days' - prophetic years... "But this Revelation (Section 77) is not a complete interpretation of the book. It is a key.  A key is a very small part of the house. It unlocks the door through which an entran...

 Welcome! This is probably the most well-known section in all of D&C! We get fixated on the three kingdoms and how its different from the normal Christian ideas of heaven and hell, but I would encourage you to focus on what this means. Here are a few beginnings you could think about: 1. We can see that our actions on earth are much more closely tied with our state in heaven. 2. We can see that God will help us go as far as we are willing, and bless us as much as He can within those parameters. 3. We can see that there is much we do not yet know, but that it has its order and plan and we can learn faith through this understanding Section 76 My favorite part of the section 7  And to them will I  a reveal  all  b mysteries , yea, all the hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and for ages to come, will I make known unto them the good pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom. 8  Yea, even the wonders of  a eternity ...