Hank Smith: 00:00 Hello, my friends. My name is Hank Smith and welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where we take our Come Follow Me lesson and we break it down into just our favorite pieces. We have–our guest this week is Dr. Susan Black. She’s an incredible historian, incredible mind to the church. She’s gonna join us for followHIM Favorites. So here we go. John, let’s start with you. The sections are 94, 95, 96, and 97 of the Doctrine and Covenants. What’s your followHIM favorite?

John Bytheway: 00:27 Oh, I just love section 95 verse one. It almost sounds kind of counterintuitive or wait, that doesn’t make sense: “Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love, I also chasten”. And chasten means, what would you say, Hank? What does chasten mean?

Hank Smith: 00:44 Chasten–I’m gonna teach. It’s gonna be a little difficult.

John Bytheway: 00:45 You’ll get trials difficult.

Hank Smith: 00:47 You’re gonna get trials and difficulties. Yep.

John Bytheway: 00:49 It says like, wait a minute, you just said you loved me. No, but “…whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement, I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation,” comma, the last five words: “and I have loved you”. And this is a very interesting way of understanding how God loves us. That when he loves us, he will also chasten us. I remember somebody saying once, I know the Lord won’t give me anything I can’t handle, but I just wish he didn’t trust me so much, you know, because ’cause I get so close to– I don’t know if I can handle this, but the Lord has a purpose and he’s gonna help us. He’s gonna prepare a way for our deliverance. It says. And so even when we have trials, we can know. I know the Lord loves me, so I guess I’m going to learn something wonderful from this. And that’s a great verse to help us through our chastening.

Hank Smith: 01:45 It is. And I bet every teenager listening has rolled their eyes when their parents have said, listen, if I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t be doing this, right? If I didn’t love you, I would just not even care. But because I love you, you’re in trouble. Right? I’m gonna do some correcting. My followHIM favorite. We’re gonna give Susan the last word. So, my followHIM favorite comes from section 97, verse eight. The Lord is talking about, he says, those, whose hearts are honest, and are broken, their spirits are contrite. And then he mentions that are “willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice”. That’s an interesting thing there. He doesn’t just finish with willing to observe their covenants. Because I’m definitely willing to do that by sacrifice. Meaning keeping your covenants should probably cause you a little bit of difficulty, a little bit of pain, right?

  02:34 You’re willing to keep your covenants by sacrifice. So when the time comes that you have got to keep your covenants, and it’s gonna be hard, right? Maybe in front of a group of peers, you’re gonna have some friends who are gonna say something and now you got to keep your covenants. And yes, it might cost you a little bit of social credit, right? To say something. But remember, the Lord just doesn’t expect you to keep your covenants. He expects us to keep our covenants by sacrifice. And that he’s gonna remember–he says he’ll remember those sacrifices. Over in verse 28: “…I will bless her with blessings”. But sometimes keeping your covenants causes a little bit of like, oh, I don’t know if I’m willing to sacrifice my popularity. I don’t know if I’m willing to sacrifice my fill in the blank, right? This thing that’s important to me. The Lord, the Lord has high expectations for us. Susan, any comments on those? And what’s your followHIM favorite?

Dr. Susan Easto…: 03:32 Well, my followHIM Favorite, I go to Doctrine and Covenants section 94. And the introduction, you get three men called to serve on a committee. And the three men are called to serve on a building committee. But guess what? They don’t have talents to be on a building committee. You don’t find any of them saying, yes, I’ve hauled brick. I’ve done this. I know how to miter windows. But what I think is so interesting is that all three men, one’s a shoemaker, two are farmers, and all three accept the calling. And, if you follow them through, as they fulfill that calling, the Lord blesses them and gives them talents that they didn’t really know they had. And, years later, you can find them building their own houses, you know, helping to build even the Kirtland temple. So the takeaway I get from this is when the Lord calls you to do something, accept and watch how the Lord can bless you to fulfill that calling.

Hank Smith: 04:41 Wow. Yeah. I’ve seen that before too. But mostly when John was called as the Bishop, I said, well, he’s not prepared. He does not have the gifts for that.

Dr. Susan Easto…: 04:49 <laugh>.

John Bytheway: 04:50 That’s what I said.

Hank Smith: 04:52 And here you are. You became an incredible bishop. Right?

John Bytheway: 04:56 I don’t know about that.

Hank Smith: 04:57 You did. You became an incredible bishop.

John Bytheway: 04:58 I became a bishop.

Hank Smith: 04:59 And I remember once being called as the finance clerk. And that’s not my, that is not where I am. You guys know I’m a teacher. But I figured it out and I got some blessings and I can tell you a little bit more about the finance side of the church now because I accepted that calling. So, I think you’re right on there, Susan. Accept those callings, even though you’re thinking I’m not the right person for this. Right? Well, we hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts. But if not, come back and join us next week for followHIM Favorites.