Meridian Magazine--Come Follow Me Latter-day Saint Podcast

November 1-7 As the Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel continued to unfold in the early 1840’s, one revealed doctrine thrilled the Latter-day Saints beyond imagination. Yes, there were some references to this doctrine in the Holy Bible, but no Christian denomination at that time understood it, and none practiced it. When the Prophet Joseph first made public this amazing truth on Saturday, Au...

October 25-31 What happened during the nearly two years that elapsed between the reception of Section 123 and Section 124 of the Doctrine and Covenants? As it turns out, plenty. We’ll talk about that in this episode.

October 18-24 So, here’s a question: In the midst of all the challenges, trials, privations and difficulties the Saints experienced in Missouri, how is it that when the Church really needed the leadership of the Prophet Joseph, God allowed him to be put in an obscure and remote Jail, ironically called Liberty? Why would God do that? This is the Kingdom of God on the earth. Isn’t the God of the Uni...

October 11-17 I stand in Far West, a rather obscure place in northern Missouri, and as far as I can see, where once there was a bustling community of Latter-day Saints with homes, shops and a school, there are only empty fields. What happened to the people who once were here and why is only silence left behind? How could it possibly be that a sitting governor could order an extermination order on...

October 4-10 As you begin this week’s reading assignment, and you don’t skip over the headnotes in Section 111, you realize this revelation was given in Salem, Massachusetts. Isn’t the central leadership of the Church in Kirtland, Ohio? What is the First Presidency doing in Salem nearly 650 miles to the east and a whopping 1,500 miles from Western Missouri? Isn’t this the same city of the famous S...

September 27-October 3 The building of the Kirtland temple marked a pivotal moment in the history of the earth, a time yearned for for centuries, when this key part of the covenant would be restored to the earth. The Lord said, "I gave unto you a commandment, that you should build an house, in the which house I design to endow those whom I have chosen, with power from on high" (Sec. 95:8).” That p...

September 20-26 If you do a cursory reading of Section 107 of the Doctrine and Covenants, you might think this is just a revelation of priesthood quorums and councils, more like a manual or a handbook. Don’t be deceived! Yes, there are tremendous organizing aids and guidance for all the quorums and councils of the Church, but there are hidden gems and mysteries throughout this amazing section and...

September 13–19 The material we talk about today gives us specifics about a dramatic, heart-rending series of events from the 19th century, but is also so relevant for our times, as if the story was written just for us. It simply could not be more to the point.

September 6-12 How would it feel to move a thousand miles by foot and wagon, taking all your belongings you could carry—with a mission to gather to a specific place and build a community and society called Zion. You’ve barely been introduced to the concept of Zion—a people of one heart, striving with all their might to stay close to God and live the commandments He has given them. You’ve gathered...

August 30-September 5 How important are temples to the Lord? When Joseph Smith was on his first mission to Missouri in the summer of 1831, only 17 months after the Church was organized, on August 3, 1831, he received a revelation about a temple to be built in Independence in Jackson County. (D&C 57:3). Then, on December 27, 1832 in Section 88 (v. 119), the Lord revealed that a temple was to be...

August 23-29 In this marvelous book of scripture, the Doctrine and Covenants, we learn things that we can know from no other source, including in rich measure the doctrine of pre-mortality, that we lived with Heavenly Parents, before this world was. In this week’s lesson we will explore the purpose of mortality and this, one of the least known doctrines in the world of religion, the reality of a p...

August 16-22 In Section 89, the Lord gave Joseph Smith the Word of Wisdom, which we often take to be a list of do’s and don’ts about how to care for our bodies, but there is more deep doctrine there then we often see, and we will share some of those ah-ha’s and surprises with you in this episode, two of which you may have never considered before.

August 9-15 Maurine, I used to look forward to the tail end of our Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts in Missouri because my Dad, a brilliant and world-renowned geologist and geological engineer, and Darrell Ownby, part of our family and a world-class ceramic engineer, and Nord Gale, a celebrated, favorite professor and brilliant microbiologist and Harold Romero, also a brilliant physicist, would s...

August 2-8 How distressingly human it is that some people want to build Zion and want an inheritance in Zion, but don’t want to keep the very laws that create Zion. That’s like saying, I want to live in the Lord’s kingdom, but I want to do it my way. That’s what was happening to some people who went to build Zion in Missouri, and that is the context behind one of the sections of the Doctrine and C...

July 26-August 1 We were just in Nauvoo a few days ago leading a tour. On Sunday morning we attended Church with all the missionaries serving there. It was a beautiful sight to see! They were full of joy, enthusiasm, radiance, happiness and just plain excitement for being there. We talked to a number of the senior couples for a few minutes. “Oh, this is our seventh mission,” one sister said. “We l...

July 19-25 “Peter may have given the best description of the Savior’s mortal ministry in five words when he referred to Jesus, “who went about doing good” (M. Russell Ballard, Precious Gifts). You want to know what to do with your life? There it is, simply put. If we are to be like him, we go about doing good. In Doctrine and Covenants Section 81, we are given the same charge with more detail: “su...

July 12-18 In the last two podcasts we have talked about the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible and the tremendous blessings that came to the Prophet Joseph and to Sidney Rigdon as they carefully studied, pondered and meticulously prayed over the Bible. One of the great blessings that came was The Vision of the Three Degrees of Glory. In this week’s lesson we get a micro-specific peek into the...

July 5-11 Though Joseph Smith received many visions and revelations, one of these was so sweeping, so mind-expanding, so glorious that the early Saints simply called it “the Vision.” It not only clarifies who we are and why we’re here and where we’re going but demonstrated yet again what a powerful and loving Father we have in God. He is the ultimately successful parent and the vast majority of Hi...

June 28-July 4 Joseph Smith was tasked by the Lord to do something rather unique for a backwoods, upstate New York farmer now living in Northern Ohio. The Prophet Nephi had seen a vision some two thousand four hundred years before that many of the plain and precious things which were in the Bible had been taken out by the great and abominable Church, and because those plain and precious things wer...

June 21-27 It was November 1831, and Joseph Smith and others have convened a conference where the major task was to publish the revelations that had come to Joseph Smith in a new book of scripture that they would call the Book of Commandments and we would now call, with its additions, the Doctrine and Covenants. Joseph Smith, of course, had published the Book of Mormon, but publishing his own reve...

June 14-20 Many years ago, I read Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo: the unabridged version which is 1,463 pages long. Next to the scriptures, it was the greatest reading experience of any book I have ever had. I became so close to the characters, Jean Valjean, Monsieur Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel—the Bishop of Digne (‘deen’), Fantine, Cosette, Gavroche, Marius, Javert and many others that I wep...

June 7-13 Why is it that a sign from the Lord does not necessarily convince people to join the Church? In fact, could it be true that a sign may not even bolster faith that much? Could it actually be, instead, that a faith based on signs alone may be a weak one? We’ll explore this apparent contradiction in this episode.

May 31-June 6 Sometimes we project our modern-day experiences on those early days in the Church and we can’t figure out why somebody did something the way they did it, or why didn’t so-and-so talk to the Prophet Joseph about this or that. We really cannot do this. In our studies this week we will be talking about some of those early elders who had traveled a thousand miles to get to Western Missou...

May 24-30 Can you imagine living in a world where people did not hurt each other or become angry or divided ? Can you imagine families with total harmony and marriages with no contention? Can you imagine a world where everyone watched out for each other and people were there to help you when you needed it? Can you imagine a place so pure that God could be there? It may sound too good to imagine, b...

In these sections we’ve read this week, it’s clear that the Lord entrusts individuals with specific stewardships and it’s not always just land. It can be a mission to perform, books to write, places to go, people to teach, an assignment to fulfill—but these are all sacred stewardships, given by the Lord with the expectation that we will fulfill them faithfully and wholeheartedly.