Come Follow Me with Sam

Welcome!  My yoke is easy and my burden is light I've thought about this phrase as I'm sure many of you have. I feel it is true at the same time that I'm not sure what it means. If anyone has faced their shadow, they know that the burden of integrating it is no small feat. If anyone understands what the Savior atoned for them, they do not describe that as easy or light. the word 'easy' comes from the Greek 'chrestos' which, you will notice, is extremely close character-wise to Christos or Christ. Chrestos can also mean good, loving, kind, or goodness. In the French Louis Segond, this is translated  as'doux' or soft. The word 'light' means little weight without much nuance as far as I can tell. Christ said just before this that those who are heavy laden should come to Him to find rest. The best I understand this verse, Christ is saying 'take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is is a loving kind goodness of the kind that fills the soul with the...

 Welcome! Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? It's nice to have a nice house in a nice neighborhood in a nice community that is always nice to each other. I don't think Jesus would live there though. I think he would live in the poorer part of town, and do what he could to serve there. That means that our nicest christian communities may be farther from following the example of Jesus Christ than they think. I'm not saying we can't have nice communities, nice houses, and nice neighborhoods. Everyone needs a place to rest from the storm, and I personally have been blessed by associating with others in nice houses. You also need to make sure that you and your family are, relatively speaking, safe. But there is a real danger if your neighborhood is all just nice with no one in trouble. You may want to consider moving to a place where you can be of more use. The woman who touched the garment The chosen does a lot to bring this story out The harvest truly is pl...

 Welcome! The Forgotten Centurion In the contemporary western sphere, our power structures are much less rigid than in Roman times. The romans were in a sense a civilization of order incarnate. They aren't known for world bending inventions or philosophies (although they did have inventions and they did build philosophy), but their ability to standardize, expand, and apply their order to the world was what set them apart. Where kings and princes either burned their way through or else trusted to the sole ability of leaders, the romans systematized. In their armies, they believed that the training and flexibility of the division would overcome the failings of a given leader, in their economic system, they connect roads, cities, and ports, and regulated trade throughout the mediterranean. In their political hierarchy, they locked in a tax base rather than building a slave empire (not saying there weren't slaves, just saying that they were more focused on ruling people than master...

 Welcome! There is so much in Matthew 6 and 7. I will not do these chapters even close to justice with what I put down. Feel free to send comments on your thoughts. Matthew 6 The whole direction of this chapter is to get you to look to heaven and God rather than the earth. See these key verses; this is where the other verses are driving 19  ¶  Lay not up for yourselves  a treasures  upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves  b break through  and steal: 20  But lay up for yourselves  a treasures  in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor  b steal : 21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. and later 33  a But   b seek  ye first the  c kingdom  of God, and his  d righteousness ; and all these  e things  shall be  f added  unto you. Check out The Lord's Prayer. Where is He going with th...

 Welcome! Hot takes on these chapters Matthew 5 the beatitudes - We have trouble taking these for more than simple moralistic sayings. To overcome this, the first is to remember that all of these sayings have the implicit 'who come unto me' in them - these are promises to those who understand the gospel. The second part is to realize that Christ is truly talking about the Kingdom of Heaven here, whether that be on earth or in heaven proper - what we value today in babylon is of no value in this world Christ is describing. Third, we need to understand that these words were uttered by the master of earth and sky, of death and life, of ultimate suffering and ineffable joy. When we have born our burden and suffered in like manner as appropriate for us, we get these sayings. But that is the price. persecution - Christ helps us understand how we become stronger from persecution 11  Blessed are ye, when  men  shall  a revile  you, and persecute  you,  ...

 Welcome! Hot takes on miracles and stories Wine in Cana - the elements obey Christ not only in substance, but also in what we would call time - the wine was aged. overthrowing the tables of the money changers - As Tolkien would describe it, an elf-lord was revealed in his  wrath. Both the reaction of Christ and the despoiling of the sacred things by the money changers have significant lessons Destroy this temple, and I will raise it in 3 days - Christ was teaching the disciples things they weren't ready for, but could key in later due to later events. Nicodemus - look at these verses to learn the lesson 11  a Verily , verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and  b testify  that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12  If I have told you earthly things, and ye  a believe not , how shall ye believe, if I tell you  of  heavenly things? This verse 17  For God  a sent  not his Son into the world to  b con...

 Welcome! short thoughts for this one Jesus' temptations note with all of Jesus' temptations, Satan is constantly trying to get Jesus off focus from heaven, and toward anything earthly. Christ responds every time by bringing the focus back to heaven, particularly, to God the Father's will. 1. Turn these stones to bread -> bread is not the important thing, the important thing is the Word of God.\ 2. Angels will do whatever you want, so do it -> I do the will of God, not tempt Him 3. Take all the riches of the earth -> I will only worship God

 Welcome The ministry of John the Baptist Couple points struck me. First, Christ always sends messengers before the message to prepare the way, and help the hearts of the people. Second, John had a pretty diverse audience attending. Look at the people he was talking to. Third, and this is going to come up many times, there was so much impact of this happening. Finally, when a movement happens, there is a dividing point and a time of choosing. More on this later. Epic Baptism in a funny coincidence, Audiomachine created a song, sol invuctus, or sun god, that is both near-perfectly choreographed with the Church of Jesus Christ's baptism clip, and also contains the same main musical phrase as the 'baptism' song in the children songbook. you can listen to the links here or play a fan-made version from the first link This is probably what the angels were listening to when it happened :P fan link Sol Invictus LDS New Testament videos baptism LDS Songbook children's song

 Welcome! John 1 is a masterpiece worthy to be part of the gospels. John is thought to be talking mainly with the believers of the new church. So imagine you have a bunch of people full of faith, across many backgrounds, that were doing every which weird rites yesterday and now they are looking to you to know what they should do today to worship God. You have got to teach something in depth enough that the spirit can plant it deep in their hearts, yet simple enough that they don't get confused and fall back on false traditions. Welcome to John 1 The Word The beginning of John is much discussed because of its mysterious nature. We could try to figure this out for a long time. Unfortunately I don't have any amazing resources to point you to on this one. Here are the basics to ponder  - the ancients wanted to breathe as the Gods, or to speak as the Gods - The unique characteristic was that what the Gods spoke was justified of itself (needed no other justification, also justified ...

Welcome! The Christmas story There are many stories of Christmas. There are many lessons to learn from the birth of the savior. Here is what I think is the most important part of the Christmas story in a couple verses. Think about this as you read these chapters 27  And because he said unto them that Christ was the  a God , the Father of all things, and said that he should take upon him the  b image  of man, and it should be the  c image  after which man was created in the beginning; or in other words, he said that man was created after the image of  d God , and that God should come down among the children of men, and take upon him flesh and blood, and go forth upon the face of the earth 1  And now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand that  a God  himself shall  b come  down among the children of men, and shall  c redeem  his people. 2  And because he   a dwelleth   in   b...