By the time section 29 of the Doctrine of Covenants was given. The Fletchling Church was just over five months old.

Rumors and false claims were circulating faster than convert numbers.

What a strategic time for the adversary of all righteousness to attack the young flock,

and scatter them as fast as he could to try to stop this little

flock from growing.

The church had only less than a hundred members. Can we even imagine this? Most who are listening

to this podcast are from a ward or branch that is bigger than that. My own elders' quorum here

in Alpine, Utah, has 175 members.

But as we have said in the past, out of small things precedeth that which is great,

the Lord knows how to work with small numbers. Welcome, dear friends, to Meridian Magazine's

Come Follow Me podcast. We are Scott and Maureen Proctor, and this

week's lesson covers Section 29 of the Doctrine and Covenants, and is entitled, Jesus Christ will

gather his people. In our day and time, we hear the word gather, and we immediately think

President Russell M. Nelson. He has been focused

on studying the gathering of Israel for his entire ministry. The topic has intrigued him. He said,

I have studied the gathering, prayed about it, feasted upon every related scripture,

and asked the Lord to increase my understanding. What a pattern President

Nelson has shown us for our own daily devotions, to study, to pray about, to feast upon, and

then ask the Lord to increase our own understanding. This is the pattern I also see in the prophet

Joseph. Think of the young church, barely 24 weeks old, and new converts are coming into the fold

from all kinds of traditions, teachings, and in most cases, false ideas about the Gospel and the Scriptures.

Do you know the pattern of the prophet Joseph's personal daily devotions?

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