WEBVTT
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Welcome to followHIM Favorites.
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This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week's lesson.
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John, we are in our fourth lesson of Isaiah, and I have a story for you.
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I was reading Isaiah 55.
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The Lord says, my ways are not your ways.
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My thoughts are not your thoughts.
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The heavens, they're higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways.
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I mean, that's like, do you see the distance between the stars and the earth?
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It's kind of like my brain and your brain.
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You're going to have to trust me.
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I see things you can't see.
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Oftentimes, terrible things happen or what seemingly terrible things happen, and we think, oh no, all is lost.
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Well, something happened way back in the 1800s, John.
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It has to do with the Salt Lake Temple, which has had construction going on for the last five years.
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Kind of fits.
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It's 1857.
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Now, you know the days of 47, that's when the pioneers come into the Salt Lake Valley.
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It's July 24th, 1857, 10 years to the day.
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They're having an anniversary celebration.
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When news comes, imagine this, John, on that day that the United States Army,
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a third of the United States Army is coming to Utah to take care of these Mormons.
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That's what they call them, right?
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These Mormons at the time.
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That's a long ways for the army to go, to stop the Mormons, whatever they're doing out there, it must be awful.
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Incidentally, John, this is one of the reasons that the Civil War goes on so long.
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It's because when the Civil War starts, a third of the United States Army is out in Utah taking care of people
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who aren't doing anything wrong.
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Brigham Young, they had been building the temple, the Salt Lake Temple.
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It's 10 years into this process, and he says, we need to cover everything we've built.
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Here comes this army.
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So they cover the temple foundation.
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They completely cover it, which had to be heartbreaking.
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You've dug it all out, you've got all of this rock in there ready to go, and you're going to cover it up,
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and it's going to take a huge amount of work to uncover it one day.
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Welcome to followHIM Favorites.
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This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week's lesson.
00:00:07.796 --> 00:00:11.036
John, we are in our fourth lesson of Isaiah, and I have a story for you.
00:00:11.196 --> 00:00:12.886
I was reading Isaiah 55.
00:00:13.016 --> 00:00:15.076
The Lord says, my ways are not your ways.
00:00:15.156 --> 00:00:16.537
My thoughts are not your thoughts.
00:00:17.057 --> 00:00:20.817
The heavens, they're higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways.
00:00:20.857 --> 00:00:25.077
I mean, that's like, do you see the distance between the stars and the earth?
00:00:25.257 --> 00:00:26.877
It's kind of like my brain and your brain.
00:00:27.217 --> 00:00:28.437
You're going to have to trust me.
00:00:29.137 --> 00:00:30.617
I see things you can't see.
00:00:31.037 --> 00:00:37.397
Oftentimes, terrible things happen or what seemingly terrible things happen, and we think, oh no, all is lost.
00:00:38.177 --> 00:00:40.817
Well, something happened way back in the 1800s, John.
00:00:40.837 --> 00:00:45.698
It has to do with the Salt Lake Temple, which has had construction going on for the last five years.
00:00:46.178 --> 00:00:46.678
Kind of fits.
00:00:47.038 --> 00:00:48.118
It's 1857.
00:00:48.558 --> 00:00:52.738
Now, you know the days of 47, that's when the pioneers come into the Salt Lake Valley.
00:00:53.238 --> 00:00:57.658
It's July 24th, 1857, 10 years to the day.
00:00:58.158 --> 00:01:00.178
They're having an anniversary celebration.
00:01:00.638 --> 00:01:07.118
When news comes, imagine this, John, on that day that the United States Army,
00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:14.679
a third of the United States Army is coming to Utah to take care of these Mormons.
00:01:14.699 --> 00:01:15.659
That's what they call them, right?
00:01:15.699 --> 00:01:16.859
These Mormons at the time.
00:01:17.339 --> 00:01:22.319
That's a long ways for the army to go, to stop the Mormons, whatever they're doing out there, it must be awful.
00:01:22.499 --> 00:01:26.559
Incidentally, John, this is one of the reasons that the Civil War goes on so long.
00:01:27.019 --> 00:01:33.640
It's because when the Civil War starts, a third of the United States Army is out in Utah taking care of people
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who aren't doing anything wrong.
00:01:35.540 --> 00:01:38.940
Brigham Young, they had been building the temple, the Salt Lake Temple.
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It's 10 years into this process, and he says, we need to cover everything we've built.
00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:45.600
Here comes this army.
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So they cover the temple foundation.
00:01:48.520 --> 00:01:50.440
They completely cover it, which had to be heartbreaking.
00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:55.240
You've dug it all out, you've got all of this rock in there ready to go, and you're going to cover it up,
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and it's going to take a huge amount of work to uncover it one day.
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Maybe you never even will.
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You don't know if you're ever going to be able to uncover all this work that you've done.
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I'm getting this from a devotional by President Kevin Worthen when he was president of BYU.
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This is from his 2020 devotional.
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And he was my boss at one point.
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I don't think he has any idea who I am.
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He's a great man, President Worthen.
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And this is where I get this story from.
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When the army arrived the following year, Temple Square looked like a freshly plowed field.
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There was no visible evidence of the temple's construction.
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So the army ended up not harming the property.
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They marched through where they were in Salt Lake and went out down 30 miles south near Utah Lake.
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Even during the years that when the army was sitting in Utah, the architect's office was busy planning the shape
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of all these stones they would need for the temple.
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Then the American Civil War starts in 1861 and the army heads back out east.
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When they're gone, the Latter-day Saints uncovered the foundation.
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Here's something interesting, John.
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When they examined the newly uncovered foundation, they became aware that it was defective.
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They noticed large cracks and concluded that what they had been doing, which was the small stones held together
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with mortar, could not carry the massive weight of the temple.
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So on January 1st of 1862, Brigham Young said, we have to remove the entire foundation and replace it with one
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entirely made of granite and the footings would need to be 16 feet thick.
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Brigham Young says, "I want to see the temple built in a manner that it will endure through the millennium."
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I bet he'd be pretty happy with what we're about to unveil.
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Now, here's what President Worthen says.
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Now, I'm certain that Johnston's army was not a welcome site in 1857.
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John, I'm sure that the saints were scared.
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I'm sure they thought this is a disaster.
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All this work.
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Especially what had happened to them earlier when they were in the United States thought, oh, this is awful.
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When this danger is gone, they find out that it actually became a blessing to them because perhaps they would
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have never known about the cracks in the foundation if their work had not been interrupted.
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Stopped.
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John, when the Lord says, "My ways are not your ways," perhaps he's saying, you're going to have to trust me.
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What looks awful now may end up being a blessing later.
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Hank, that reminds me of that recurring skit they used to have on a show called Hee Haw.
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"Oh, that's bad.
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No, that's good."
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And they just go back and forth and something that you think is bad is good.
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And my uncle died.
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Oh, Roy, I'm sorry.
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Oh, that's bad.
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No, that's good.
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Well, why?
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Because he left me $50,000.
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Oh, that's good.
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No, that's bad.
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Well, why?
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Because the government took half of it.
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Oh, that's bad.
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No, that's good.
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Oh, why?
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Because I had just enough to buy an airplane I wanted.
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Oh, that's good.
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No, that's bad.
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I was doing a loop-de-loop and I fell out.
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Oh, that's bad.
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No, that's good.
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Because there was a haystack down below.
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Oh, that's good.
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No, that's bad.
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Because there was an upside down pitchfork in the haystack pointed at me, oh, that's bad.
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No, that's good.
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Why?
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Because I missed the pitchfork.
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Oh, that's good.
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No, that's bad because I missed the haystack too.
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And they just go back and forth.
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They just go back and forth forever.
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And that's a perfect example.
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What a blessing they discovered that foundation was cracked so they could do it right.
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Yep.
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So if you're going through something really difficult right now, and it is really difficult, like there's no way
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around it, it's a difficult thing.
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Just maybe, maybe stay with the Lord and you'll find out that he had a bigger plan in mind,
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bigger plan in mind.
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I remember, John, when you had your kitchen pretty much burn your house to the ground, you said,
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"I had to go live with my in- laws."
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That's bad.
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Well, we hope you'll join us on our full podcast of followHIM.
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We are with Dr.
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Ezra Gwilliam this week.
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He is from BYU, Idaho, and he gives us some impressive insights in these chapters, things I had never seen before.
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So join us over there and then come back here next week.
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We'll do another followHIM Favorites.
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Love my in-laws.