January 12, 2025
Here is the best thing I heard (What?), saw (Eye.), and read (Read.) this week, as well as the best idea (💡) I developed.
What?
followHim Podcast – Doctrine and Covenants 1 – Dr. J. B. Haws:
- “I think it’s worth pausing on this because this word gives us a window into the way early saints thought about these revelations. To me, one of the great stories that brings this to clarity is something that Joseph Knight remembered about an interaction he had with Martin Harris.
“So as Joseph Knight’s remembering this, it’s March 1830, the Book of Mormon is hot off the press. Joseph Knight is watching Martin Harris having a conversation with Joseph Smith. Martin Harris, Joseph Knight says, is carrying several copies of this newly printed Book of Mormon and he’s panicked. He said, ‘No one’s going to buy them. There’s an intentional boycott. People are just going to reject this.’ And Martin, of course, he has a big stake in this. His farm is on the line and he’s panicked and he says to Joseph Smith, ‘No one’s going to buy these books. We’re in trouble.’ And then he says this great line. I think in today’s vernacular we would say, ‘I must have a revelation. I must have some inspiration.’ But he says, ‘I must have a commandment. I need a commandment.’
“What he meant was, ‘I need a revelation.’ Joseph Knight ties this to section 19. What Joseph Smith said was, ‘Pay heed to what you already have, the revelation you’ve already received.’ But I love that Martin Harris in this moment of need, he says, ‘I need a commandment. I must have a commandment.’ That’s his word for a revelation from the Lord. We see that all over the early Doctrine and Covenants, the early saints kind of language is that they think of these as commandments.
“I like to ask myself that question, how would I approach this book differently if I think in terms of commandments, these revelations are commandments. The Lord wants us to do something. These are messages of action. I love that title. I think it’s worth us keep in the back of my mind that another equivalent for the word revelation in these sections could be commandment.”
Eye.
Stay in the boat – President Jeffrey R. Holland | Church News on YouTube:
- “We were talking about people who have difficult lives or troubles that come. But we all do – everybody does. Don’t abandon the ship when the waves are a little high. That’s when you tie yourself in and get the life jacket on and you hold onto an oar and you don’t move. The worst thing you could do is to leave the protection of the boat you’re in – in this case, the gospel of Jesus Christ – and not assume that the first time there’s trouble, that God hates me or God doesn’t love me or He doesn’t answer my prayers. I want to be careful because I don’t want to insult anybody, but it’s foolish.
“Talk to the Savior about continuity, about His giving up. What if He’d have gotten halfway through His atoning sacrifice and said, ‘doesn’t look to me like anybody’s very appreciative here, I’m quitting’? Well, everyone of us would be in sorry soup if that’s what happened – thank heavens it wasn’t. And He said and did see it through to the end. And I think we sometimes pass over it in the New Testament account, but I think one of the great things that He said in those final seven phrases from the cross – one of the sweetest is when He said, ‘it is finished.’ And ‘Father unto thee I commend my spirit.’ Well, I’m grateful that He was able to finish it. I’m grateful that for my sake and yours and everybody we know, and our children and our children’s children, that He was able to see that through. Well, we’re supposed to see through a little difficult weather.”
Read.
“Prophets See around Corners” | Sheri Dew:
- “There is a crucial difference between prophets, seers, and revelators and the rest of us: They have priesthood keys that allow them to see things we do not yet see and understand things we do not yet understand. … A seer has the capacity to see the future and reveal truth, because the Lord does ‘nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.’
“This is why prophets have the ability to make us smarter than any other leaders or influencers on earth can. Prophets help us see dangers we cannot yet see and opportunities we cannot yet imagine.
“I have experienced this myself. In the October 1998 general conference, President Gordon B. Hinckley admonished members to get out of debt. His message touched me in a way that made me know I needed to act upon it. I had just purchased a home and taken out what, for me, was a big loan. But as I listened to President Hinckley, I had the clear impression that I should try to pay off the loan. My accountant told me I was crazy because the interest rate on my mortgage was so low that it was like borrowing ‘free money.’
“Nonetheless, the prophet had spoken, and I knew I should do what he said. It took some work, but in just a few years I managed to pay off my home loan. The relief I felt was instantaneous; however, I had no idea just how important this step would prove.
“Skip ahead to the fall of 2008 – which was exactly ten years after President Hinckley’s warning about debt. The U.S. economy was suddenly plunged into a deep recession. I was still the CEO of Deseret Book, and our sales plummeted overnight. It was as though someone had turned off the revenue spigot. I was worried sick about preserving the jobs of our employees and, frankly, about saving the company. For months I walked the floor at night, trying to figure out solutions to Deseret Book’s problems.
“But one evening as I drove home with what had become an all-too-familiar pit in my stomach, it dawned on me that despite all the pressure I was under, I hadn’t worried for a second about myself. I owned my home, and I owed no money – thanks to the prophet’s counsel ten years earlier. A prophet of God helped me see around a corner. He helped me take a smarter step than I would have taken if left to my own reasoning – not to mention the counsel of ‘experts.'” - I read this passage from “Prophets See around Corners” on the same day that I received a promotion and a raise for which I had been hoping. This timing was no coincidence. This raise will allow me, like Sheri Dew, to get out of debt much earlier than expected, even if the world calls me “crazy” for paying off my home loan early.
💡
It seems to me that holiness is the combination of consistently learning more (especially about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but really any type of learning) as well as consistently seeking and then obeying Heavenly Father’s will.
- I discuss this idea in greater detail in season 4 episode 15 of the General Conference Applied Podcast.
Additional Content
Next Newsletter (January 19, 2025 – Newsletter Subtitle)