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

August 4-10 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...

July 28-August 3 Once in Nauvoo on a 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 love this work so much.” Another said,...

July 21-27 “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). 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: “succor the weak,...

July 14-20 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 7-13 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 H...

June 30-July 6 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 23-29 By November 1831, Joseph had received 65 revelations, and it was time to publish them. He told the brethren at the conference he convened that the contents of this book should “be “prized by this Conference to be worth to the Church the riches of the whole Earth.” In a world where men’s best ideas can never be more than puny and inadequate compared to the knowledge of God, these modern...

June 16-22 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 9-15 This week we will be talking about some of those early elders who had traveled a thousand miles to get to Western Missouri, had fulfilled a small mission, held a special conference, had dedicated the land of Zion and a temple site in Independence, Missouri, and now, they were turning around and making their way back the thousand miles to Kirtland. You can learn a lot in 2,000 miles of wa...

June 2-8 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, but...

May 26-June 1 I grew up on a beautiful spread of woods and meadows near Rolla, Missouri. We had about 230 acres with our house up on the south hill overlooking a beautiful valley. A small stream called Spring Creek ran through the bottomlands and a narrow gravel road led from our home to the access road of old Highway 66. The view was so peaceful and beautiful. One late afternoon I stood outside w...

May 19-25 When you read Doctrine and Covenants Sections 49 and 50, it helps to have the rest of the story. Why should you care about Leman Copley or the Shakers and what’s this talk about false spirits? We will have some fun and give you the context in this episode.

May 12-18 “We must remember that to every man [or woman] is given a gift by the Spirit of God. It is our right and responsibility to accept our gifts and to share them. God’s gifts and powers are available to all of us.” (Ashton, Marvin J., There are Many Gifts, General Conference, October 1987) Each of us has at least one spiritual gift. Some people have many, but the Prophet Joseph Smith had the...

May 5-11 The Second Coming is a topic of endless speculation for us, especially in light of the social unrest and wars and rumors of wars that mark our time. President Russell M. Nelson has spoken often of the Savior’s Second Coming in words like these from the October 2024 General Conference. “The best is yet to come, my dear brothers and sisters, because the Savior is coming again! The best is y...

April 28-May 4 We live in a time when the Church of Jesus Christ has been well established and we are used to talking in terms of large numbers, general conferences translated into scores of languages simultaneously, missionaries serving in diverse countries all over the world and the Kingdom of God on the earth organized unlike any worldly entity. We are used to thinking in terms of the First Pre...

April 21-27 Robert Matthews said, “Many have supposed that the translation of the Bible [what we call the JST] was only a sideline, a matter of personal, but passing interest to the Prophet Joseph.” We agree that too many misunderstand the importance of this work. How many in the Church understand what the JST is or use it regularly? But, as Matthews said, to neglect or ignore that is mistaken. “J...

April 14-20 This week we are studying that magnificent gift the Savior gave to us in the atonement and resurrection.

April 7-13 Parley Parker Pratt was 16 months younger than the Prophet Joseph and he was born about 140 miles east of Palmyra, New York. Parley was born curious about religion. He said to his father one day when he was 18 years old and they were laboring together in the forest: "Father, how is it there is so manifest a difference between the ancient and modern disciples of Jesus Christ and the...

March 31-April 6 By the time Section 29 of the Doctrine and Covenants was given, the fledgling 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 only had less...

March 24-30 In August of 1830, Newel Knight and his wife Sally visited Joseph and Emma in Harmony, Pennsylvania. Since neither woman had yet been confirmed, they agreed to perform the ordinance and have the sacrament together. Joseph set out to buy some wine for the occasion, when after he had traveled only a short distance, he was met by a heavenly messenger with a new instruction. The Church was...

March 17-23 After the sacred gathering of nearly four dozen Saints in the Whitmer Home in Fayette, New York on Tuesday, April 6, 1830, this tiny band was given the commission to take the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world. What an overwhelming task! How could so few bless so many? And yet, the Lord knew who He was calling and what various converts would do. One eager young man, twent...

March 10-16 When that group of 40 or more gathered in the 20 by 30-foot Whitmer cabin that April 6, 1830 to organize the “only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:30), they could not have entirely foreseen what lay ahead for this church that would, as the prophet Daniel said, “roll forth to fill the whole earth” (See Daniel 2: 31-45), but they did kno...

March 3-9 Martin Harris found himself in a tight spot when he agreed to put up the money to pay for the printing of the Book of Mormon. He began to have doubts and “stagger in confidence” at the amount of debt he was entering into, whose payback would depend entirely on sales of the Book of Mormon. He was a wealthy and respected farmer in Palmyra. He had repented of his sins and become one of the...

February 24-March 2 The Doctrine and Covenants is a book full of affirmations that individuals count—that each of us is important in the sight of God. Message after message is to individuals, some we have heard of like Oliver Cowdery or Hyrum Smith, and some to less familiar people like Leman Copley or Northrop Sweet, but then the Lord often adds this note: What I say unto one, I say unto all.  Bu...

February 17-23 I love the natural unfolding of the restoration. Much of what happens is a result of questions that come to the minds of Joseph and Oliver in the course of the translation of the record. The more carefully you study the translation and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the more you are amazed at the gift and power of God that was given to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery as the...