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

September 16-22 In this book of 2 Corinthians we come nearest to the inner feelings of Paul than in any other of his writings. As one writer said, here Paul reveals his “joy and depression, anxiety and hope, trust and resentment, anger and love.” We see his human qualities. Some writers have suggested that one of the best words to describe 2 Corinthians is that it is a defense. What would Paul hav...

This mortal experience was never meant to be easy—it was meant to be a school—but a school full of joy and wonderful learning.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians:  We are troubled on every side (have you ever felt that way?), yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” (See 2 Corinthians 4: 8-9) Paul sounds like he is...

September 2-8 In 1 Corinthians, Paul is addressing early converts to the Church who brought with them baggage and false ideas from their previous beliefs. To make matters even more difficult, they were far away from any central administration of the Church and so old ideas, firmly entrenched in their minds could clash with the gospel. Among these new converts were polytheistic Gentiles who had onc...

August 26-September 1 This week’s readings include some of the most important teachings in all the scriptures.  You’re familiar with them:  Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so tha...

August 19-25 Corinth was the powerful, bustling, and wicked trade center of the Roman province of Achaia. When Paul wrote what we call 1 Corinthians, to the members there, it wasn’t his first letter to them. That one is lost to us in time, but this second letter, that we call first, was motivated in part, by the concerns of a woman named Chloe and her household, who had written him. We’ll tell you...

 August 12-18 The Apostle Paul begins in this week’s readings with a bulls-eye on the struggles we have in this mortal experience and then tells us how to free ourselves from this bondage.

 July 22-28 Why does Joseph Smith directly compare himself to Paul? What did he see in Paul’s experience that made him feel that the two held so much in common?

July 15-21 Preaching the gospel had been restricted during Christ ministry, with few exceptions, to the House and children of Israel.  In a series of days on the beautiful coast of the Mediterranean Sea—all that would change.  It reminds us of a very special day in June of 1978—a day never to be forgotten.

July 8-14 What is this surprise in the nature of Paul that he can go from “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of Christ” one day and be a submissive disciple of Christ the next? Of course he had this stupendous vision on the road to Damascus, but is there something more we can learn about the life of Paul, itself, that can give us clues to his energy and passion?

July 1-7 For many people, one of the most enigmatic and mysterious parts of the life of Christ, comes after His resurrection when He spent forty days teaching the Apostles. What was the instruction that He gave them and is there some way to learn more? Do any sources give us a window into that teaching?

June 24-30 We’ve all been studying the life and mortal mission of Jesus Christ for the past six months.  Don’t you agree that you feel closer to the Savior now than you did at the beginning of your studies?  This week’s lesson has some surprises and is the culmination of the Savior’s perfect ministry.  How would you have felt if you had come to the tomb early that Sunday morning aft...

June 17-23 After his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, another kind of agony was about to begin for Jesus who was already exhausted with the weight He had borne. Before the night was finished, He would be betrayed, falsely charged, scourged, spit upon and maligned in a trial that was utterly illegal. Why illegal? And who is the only mortal on record that Jesus refused to speak to? We will tell yo...

June 10-16 Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, “That first Easter sequence of Atonement and Resurrection constitutes the most consequential moment, the most generous gift, the most excruciating pain, and the most majestic manifestation of pure love ever to be demonstrated in the history of this world. Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, suffered, died, and rose from death in order that He could...

June 3-9 Did you know that the preparation for the Last Supper began with a miracle?  It’s subtle, and most readers of the account will not see it—but when you understand the culture and the setting of the time, it’s obvious and it’s amazing.

May 27-June 2 We have two questions for you:  1) Which chapter in the New Testament did Joseph Smith make the most changes to? It’s Matthew 24 where Christ during his last week on earth told his apostles just what to expect before He would return. Here’s the next question: 2)  Do we have any precedent in the Gospel or in history where a people were preparing for the coming of the Lord; t...

May 20-26 Jesus once told Mary at Cana that “Mine hour hath not yet come,” but now as we start this lesson that has changed as we take you to the beginning of the last week of His mortal life. Now he will say, “Mine hour hath come,” a statement that will break His followers hearts and have implications for every one of us.

May 13-19 Many questions were posed to the Savior during His mortal ministry.  If you had the chance to ask Him one question, in person, what would that question be? In this week’s lesson we have a very powerful question asked of the Lord face to face in his ministry and it’s worth all of us pondering about this specific question.

May 6-12 Have you ever given a party, invited many people, and no one came? In this week’s chapters, we’ll explore a parable about a great feast and how, when invited, many people found shoddy excuses not to attend. As we hear this story, it seems so strange that anyone would find any reason to miss a marvelous feast put on by the Lord, but he is talking to us. Are we, knowingly or unknowingly, re...

April 29-May 5 Have you ever wondered why John the Beloved included the story of the woman taken in adultery in his record?  Surely he had hundreds of stories he could have chosen to complete his testimony—why this particular story?  We’re going to explore at least three things about this tender encounter that you

April 22-28 The Lord often requires us to do things that we think sound impossible. Forgive seventy times seven? This does not mean 490 times, but boundless forgiveness, that we travel with forgiveness for those who have wronged us. Forgiveness is not always easy, especially when we have been deeply hurt or wronged or if we live in a situation where we are poorly treated continually, but the Lord’...

April 15-21 We love Easter as the most important celebration of the year because it is Jesus Christ’s atonement and resurrection that answers every uncertainty, loosens every bond and supplies every hope for our mortal experience. More people saw the resurrected Jesus than we sometimes realize, including John Murdock, an early convert to The Church of Jesus Christ in Kirtland. He described what Je...

April 1-14 In Jesus’s teachings, the land of Israel itself becomes his visual aid. That is nowhere more evident than in the teachings he gives in Caesarea Philippi about the rock on which His Church will be built. Learn about that this week as well as the profound answer the Pharisees got who were seeking a sign.

March 25-31 Not all of the moments and sayings in the life of Jesus can we read as a sequence of events. We have stories and sayings that we can’t always connect. But in today’s study we can see things in sequence, which adds meaning to the story. This includes the feeding of the 5,000, the rescue of the apostles while they are struggling against great winds on the Sea of Galilee, and the Bread of...

March 18-24 Jesus taught in parables both to reveal and conceal truths. There is more in even apparently simple statements than immediately meets the eye in what Jesus taught. What for instance does it mean, “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father”?

March 11-17 This episode of the Come Follow Me podcast relates many stories that you probably haven’t heard into the calling of an apostle and what today’s apostles say about their own special witness of Jesus Christ. You will also come to know, by tradition, how each of the Twelve that Christ called eventually died.