Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome! This post will cover the next 3 weeks of psalms that we have scheduled. I may add to this as we go through the psalms Psalms Psalms, what is Psalms? This week we are going into the Psalms. I found the cfm intro helpful. Most importantly, the psalms are quoted all the time, to my understanding more than any other old testament book, by the Savior. They also hold many keys and insights of richer doctrine. Some of my favorite Psalms are  Psalm 23 - the shepherd's psalm Psalm 82 - also the psalm Christ quoted, speaking of God in the midst of Gods. psalm 50 - out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined Feel free to add your psalms to the comments below!

 Welcome! When will humanity understand Job? (and at what price?) Job is a strange book. many believe it is a parable and thought exercise in nature and that there was no original man named Job who had a similar story. members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have extra spice on taco in this debate because we we have God referencing Job to Joseph Smith in D&C 121. Was God referring to a man who existed once, or just using it in parable nature as well? There are a few lessons we can learn from Job. Most of them can be useful but miss the mark. Here are a few of these types of lessons. Apologies in advance to those who have identified themselves with one of these types of lessons through some hard trial. - whenever I'm down, I can remember that job was even more miserable and that should cheer me up. - a better variant on this is to think of all the blessings you do have and focus on those. -a slightly worse variant is to try and weigh blessings and trials in yo...

Welcome A strange book of mysterious meanings. Esther is one of those books that will probably be uncovered one day as a literary master piece because, similar to Isaiah, the way the book is written reflects the story itself. The book never explicitly mentions God. Yet God steers the talents and destiny of key figures to bring deliverance to the Jewish people. In this way, it is reflective of the idea that even when you don't see Him, God is always in the background surely putting his purposes at work in the lives of His children.  Ironic as it is that the Essenes did not include Esther in their scriptures, they had a sort of prayer that reflected this idea quite well. And when the sun is high in the heavens, Then is that you shall let into your ears the Holy Stream of Sound for it can only be heard in the silence. Think on the streams that are born in the desert after a sudden storm, and the roaring sound of the waters as they rush past. Truly, this is the voice of God, if you did...

 Welcome! The chapters of Ezra and Nehemiah are about restoring the temple and the walls of Jerusalem again, restoring the law, and protecting against the opposition that arises. Notes on Restoration The restoration of the temple came in a very strange way. Cyrus, a worldly ruler, is inspired by a prophecy about him to restore the temple. The people go out and by their little efforts work to restore those things which were lost.  An important principle is that the true restoration is done by God, and the work of kings, priests, and peoples is the work to be part of the restoration that is worked by God. Nehemiah's prayer I am saying this with almost no study beyond the face-value of reading the text, so feel free to put down what you know in the comments. Nehemiah reads much like a prayer to God for strength to accomplish what he has been missioned to do. He writes in the first person and throws in pleadings in the text ending in Chapter 13 with these words 30  Thus clean...

 This is where the party ends for the kingdom of Israel. Actually, the party ended a long time before this; these chapters are where the two kingdoms get physically kicked out of the venue.  No one ever wants the party to end, and no one wants a debbie-downer to crash the fun, but if you are on the wrong path, you need to start paying attention until you can get your feet back under you and make strait your way again. Some of the really wretched stuff In children's bible stories, the false religions and idolatries of the pagans are pretty toned down - you get the feeling that the worst part of following idols is missing the blessings of following Christ. As you get older, you may wonder why whole civilizations were destroyed for just not following God. These chapters give some bare hints of some of the insanely stuff that was going on. It is not even close to child appropriate. We are talking child sacrifices, sex worship, secret murders, and the like. Really really bad stuff....

 Welcome! They that be with US be more than they that be with them This is a famous verse from 2 Kings 6:16. I believe sometimes we take it out of context, especially in democratic countries. In democracies, we are taught to rely on the majority will of the people, that if we just get the majority, we can set things right. While I am a big fan of democratic institutions, this quote has nothing to do about being secure in your belief that you have gained an earthly majority. Remember the background to this was that the syrians had laid siege in samaria and Elisha's servant was looking out and thinking - how will we ever escape such a force? Elisha told him this phrase and then asked God to open his servants eyes to the heavenly host around them. This isn't a story of being in the majority. This is a story of being in the minority and understanding that when you are on God's side, you have fellow servants around you that far surpass the strength of any earthly force. The rest...

 Welcome! There are 2 quotes I would like to highlight And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that  a Ahab  said unto him,  Art  thou he that troubleth Israel? Above is the last code of the great mystery of who a prophet is. and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O  Lord , take away my life; for I  am  not better than my fathers. This is a middling code of the mystery of Godliness. It is a strange God we worship who is not our divine butler, as all the idols are, but is that He is, such that we come to serve Him, not the other way around. For us, living in the way God asks us to id better than any other reward we could be offered. This can be very hard sometimes, even for he who held the sealing keys. Can we say that we too are better than our fathers in this regard? Do we deserve some better fate them them, or some special treatment for whatever reason? Or under Christ, whatever may, come is a good strugg...

 Welcome! Who is better than David? David was about the best Israel had to offer, and he still fell like anyone can. There is a profound and humbling lesson here that there is only one really good Person, and the rest of us are trying our best to emulate Him, and even though many people do good everyday, no one is good enough to say that in other circumstances, they wouldn't have ended up like David. I don't mean that specifically to the Bathsheba situation, I mean it generally to the temptation situation. There are plenty of examples of men and women who were tempted by lust resisted, who had the choice to cover their sins but didn't, and who may have wished someone in their lives was dead but never took to arrange it so. So I'm not saying that David's condemnation was out of place, however tragic that may be. I'm saying that each of us has a breaking point. Each of us has our own weakness to which we could fall. So in that sense, who can say that they are bett...

Welcome!  Why Can't Israel pass on righteousness to even one generation!? Israel really struggled during this entire time, and it seems virtually every time, with transmitting the true teaching, or the righteous way of living to the next generation. Even the very best, whom you would think would be the top of Israel in doing this, all failed out. Eli was some sort of elevated priest. He failed out. Samuel was the prophet that ended apostasy in Israel. He failed out. Saul was the one chosen out of all Israel to be king and even prophesied by the gift of God. He failed out.  What's up with that? What was going on? Why did this keep happening? What institutions (ideas to emulate, not the organizational sense) keep us from doing this today and are they really what we think they are? Compare and Contrast Samuel vs. Eli I was sent an interesting article recently about a church leader who was wrestling with the apostasy of half his family or more. He obviously did not like the oh-so-...

 Welcome! What is the story of Ruth? Legit question here, what should I write about Ruth? (update 6/12: Thoughts from a reader, based on what she studied) Genealogies in the ancient world served to communicate connectedness and identity. Sometimes a genealogy may associate a person to someone well-known in their past. Here, the genealogy indicates how the famous king David descended from these very unusual roots. The point is not that he descended from a Moabite woman, but that he descended from a line in which there was faithfulness, in contras to the tenor of the judges period. Samuel Samuel I love the prophet Samuel, not only because we share the same name. Samuel was the last judge and probably the one we have the most detail on.  He also came in a time when 'The word of the Lord was precious and there was no open vision) Samuel means either 'name of God', or 'God hears'. At this time, Israel was in a minor apostasy. But this was not brought on because God did n...

 Welcome! The (first) Reign of Judges The time of judges was a strange disruption of government to the patterns of the time. While this isn't a western type democracy as we see it today by any means, it  seems much more egalitarian than the other forms of government at the general inhabitants disposal of the time. This is also a very unique time in Israel's history. I already talked about how assuming that the ante-diluvian and the Israelites under Moses following the same type of church structure misses the mark. We can do the same thing when we think about periods of the nation of Israel. First was the period in the desert, then there was the reign of judges, then there was the reign of kings, then the split kingdoms, then the diaspora, the regathering, occupation under the Greeks and roman, and finally the Christian era.  The way that the Israelites operated under the Reign of Judges seems to be resilient against general apostasy (somewhat more decentralized) but not e...

 Welcome! Before this weeks reading, it would be good to check out Come Follow Me's explanatory note of the histories There are some rough stories coming up. It is important to understand that this is a different place and a different time recorded by different people in a different way. Rather than passing judgement on who the Israelites were and were not, it is better to seek understanding of what this work means. How to play very dicey games The story of this week is the people of Israel playing on the edge of a knife. God gave them them land of Israel and told them to inhabit it. The people knew the Israelites were coming and were preserved miraculously, but the groups described chose to defy the armies of Israel. Joshua's people were surrounded everywhere by enemies and all they had were God's promise/covenant/command to possess the land and follow in His footsteps. It is at these times that you need to be exactly obedient to the voice of God and hearken very closely....

 Welcome! pull up your deut and lets get slicing! The evolution narrative vs the dispensation narrative Bottom line up front: The chapters and verses you are about to read emphasize that that which is taught to us today is that which was taught to the Israelites in the dispensation of Moses; it's the same gospel. The same first commandment, the same prophecies of Christ, the same heed to prophets and the commandments of God and anyone looking with the spirit could be told these things. Some days it seems like academics are hard-welded to studying the scriptures as though the central figure, God, doesn't actually exist. Like studying McDonalds but ignoring burgers. You might explore why people keep coming to this place, develop theories on what motivates them, what comforts, they may be trying to obtain, or what past traditions led to them to think of McDonalds as a daily Mecca. the people who actually go to McDonald's would probably give these people a good shake (pu...

 Welcome! There are a lot of cool stories in the reading this week! check out the first 3 minutes of this The Chosen episode for an interesting insight into the brass serpent. You have permssion to watch the rest too, I did :D The thanksgiving way vs the way of complaining We always have the choice to open up or to close down. God has given us the thanksgiving way to keep us always open to the greater things. The devil is always trying to get us to close down, to disconnect, and distance. This is what happens when you become cynical, then you become trapped because you see the problem as outside of you and not part of the flow and that can lead to bad places. For Israel, it literally led them away from the promised land and back into the desert. Moses' whoopsie Moses forgot to praise God for the water delivered to the Israelites. This is a poignant lesson because it seems to easy to fall into the same thing for me. How do you adequately recognize God in your life? Can any of us do ...

 Welcome! The great secret of the temple Understanding the Tabernacle requires a different mode of thought than the world. The world wants to treat the mysteries like a giant treasure hunt, a labyrinth of clues that leads you to ultimate power, enlightenment, presence, whatever you want to call it, and that the secret of the temple is these hidden clues and symbols that you collect like Pokémon cards until you you've caught them all and you are ready. Its not exactly wrong, because there is a great treasure and there is a map and there are symbols and secrets to understand. But for the most part, its actually bypassing the whole point of the temple experience, past and present. All the secrets you need to know to understand the temple are in fact hiding in plain sight, but the key to unlocking their knowledge requires a lifetime of work. The temple is a miniature representation of the cosmos, and the temple ceremonies past and present are the story of eternity packaged in a way tha...

  Welcome! No post this week! Look at  the last post  here if you missed it. Have a great study! 

 Welcome! The summum bonum of Exodus. Exodus 20 is in a way the summit point of the entire book. This is where God offers to the people of Israel everything, even to come back into his presence. It was also a fulfilling moment of the promis of Abraham that through this people the whole earth would be blessed. This had deep ties to the priesthood. I talked about this year during our reading in Section 84 , check it out to understand better the connection. In Chapter 19, God, through Moses, warns that this cannot be taken lightly. To approach the presence of God when not ready is to risk one's life. This can be very intimidating to those who understand it, but it misses the point. God wants us and is preparing us for this moment, and is hastening the day that we can do this. It is up to us to be part of this hastening ourselves, so that God can 'quicken' us, so that we can endure His presence. In the temple ceremony, where we ritually enact this, it is not a process to test ...

Welcome! Exodus as a Liberation Chiasm As we are about to reach a pivotal point in the book of Exodus I think it is a good time to point out that the book of Exodus is the story of the liberation of the Israelites from terrible bondage. It first tells the story of physical liberation from the hands of the Egyptians, then it tells the story of spiritual liberation from the traditions of the Egyptians. Chapters 14-17 help to emphasize the point that while the Lord has made His people physically free, They are not yet spiritually free. Once in the desert, they are angry with Moses enough to stone him. Knowing only bondage, they expect a God who will take care of them in soft bondage of having an easy life with all their needs provided for rather than the Egyptians who took care of them in a harder bondage of work. God does not want them to be in bondage at all, soft or hard. He wants them to be free. at this point they are free physically to go where ever they want. Unfortunately they fin...

  True worship i'd like to focus on the strange events that happen after Moses gets called.  You would think that if God calls someone to do something, He would just bulldoze all the obstacles away but that is not what happens. It is the same experience with Nephi and with Joseph smith as well. Its like every opportunity is a growth opportunity for God's servants. Here Moses goes down to Egypt, and all the Israelites recognize him and worship God and everything is going just great, and then he goes to Pharaoh and tells him what's what... And then Pharaoh basically says 'scram, and you know what, I'm going to make the Israelite work harder just because you thought you could do this before pharaoh'. So what's up with that? God's ways are not man's ways. Even (especially) on God's mission, we are given the refinement worthy of Godliness. The wickeder the world, the more glorious the mission. Ten plagues as the creation backwards The ten plagues have...