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

June 20-26

We are amazed as we go through the Old Testament how applicable these lessons are today. You'd think that a book that is thousands of years old would not have that kind of application, but we have been blown away. These chapters break your heart as we learn more about David, his love for the Lord and the events that lead to his downfall. How can someone so faithful and true turn from God so deliberately? We will discuss this today. 

We have with us today a special guest, Mark Matthews. Together we discuss Israel’s desire for a king and Saul’s rise to the position, and how he loses his way. We also discuss the story of David facing Goliath and how it can represent much more than we often think about.

June 6–12

May 30-June 5

We’ve just spent 35 days in the Middle East leading three tours in the Holy Land, Egypt and Jordan. Of course, you cannot go to these places and lead a spiritual tour without constantly referring to the Old Testament. On this particular journey with all these amazing people, the thing that struck me over and over again was this: When John the Beloved quoted Jesus Christ in chapter 5, verse 39 where He said: “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” Jesus was sending the people to the Old Testament to find Him. When Lehi opened the Plates of Brass for the first time and searched them from the beginning (see 1 Nephi 5:10) and then he “was filled with the Spirit, and began to prophesy concerning his seed (see 1 Nephi 5:17) he was immersed in the Old Testament. When Nephi says, “For my soul delighteth in the scriptures and my heart pondereth them…” he was talking about the Old Testament. When Ammon, Aaron, Omner and Himni converted seven cities of the Lamanites and brought untold thousands to the Savior, they were using only the Old Testament in their teaching! What a treasure we have in the Old Testament!

May 23-29

The story of the Abrahamic covenant is your family story. Kerry Muhlestein says, “We don’t often think of it in that manner.” But our grandfather Abraham grew up in a turbulent time, where “his own father was steeped in idolatry. He saw his immediate family involved in horrible practices, including human sacrifice, but he knew there was a better way. Records had come down from his forefathers and foremothers, from Adam and Eve, Seth and Enoch, and Abraham reached for the heavens hoping to join his answers in the covenant. “Then one starry night, God came to him, putting His hand over him, opening his eyes, and pouring out the power and blessings of the covenant upon him, welcoming Abraham and Sarah into the community of God and those who were bound to him. They had sought God and now they had found him.” These are the covenants offered to you.

May 16-22

Scot and Maurine Proctor are joined by Kerry Muhlestein, an Egyptologist, professor at Brigham Young University and author of many books including most recently God Will Prevail, and Let’s Talk about the Book of Abraham. Readers often skip chapters in Deuteronomy, but we’ll tell you why it is one of most important books in the Old Testament to understand the covenant. 

Deuteronomy also contains in Chapter 6, some of the most oft-repeated verses. We get a clear sense here of what the covenant blessings are and a sense of what happens when covenant makers turn away and the Spirit withdraws. 

Why was it so seductive to the Children of Israel to turn to other gods? What was the appeal?

May 9-15

Scot and Maurine Proctor are joined today by John Hilton lll, who is a professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University, an author and humanitarian. In our lesson today, the Children of Israel are in the thick of the wilderness journey, and if hunger and thirst, were not enough to bear, now there are fiery, flying serpents to contend with, and a powerful, spiritual solution which few of the people are willing to do. Why won’t they do this simple thing?

The Children of Israel have also come to the promised land, and while it is indeed a land flowing with milk and honey, ten of the spies who have gone in to take a look, come back into camp terrified. They feel like grasshoppers among giants in this new land, and, therefore, anyone over twenty, except Joshua and Caleb, will wander and die in this wilderness rather than having the abundance the Lord was willing to offer them, if they had just trusted Him.

May 2-8

Elder Tad R. Callister joins Scot and Maurine Proctor today. He was in the Presidency of the First Quorum of Seventy and is the author of a number of books including The Blueprint of Christ’s Church; A Case for the Book of Mormon; America’s Choice: A Nation Under God or Without God?  We talk together about what it means to be holy and what the Lord is asking of us. We note how the Savior’s atonement is the thread that binds all of the events of the Old Testament together.

The Tabernacle in the Wilderness was in the very center of Israel’s camp. What does that mean and how did Joseph Smith reveal a divine pattern for temples that is similar to the Tabernacle?

April 25-May 1

Scot and Maurine Proctor are joined in the podcast today by Kerry Muhlestein, BYU professor, Egyptologist, author of God Will Prevail and many other books. He is passionate about teaching people to understand the Old Testament and appreciate its ground-breaking content. The Lord offers the Children of Israel to see Him, but they are fearful. After all they have seen of God’s miracles, why would they molten a golden calf to worship? What corrupts them so quickly?

April 18-24

Egyptologist, BYU professor, and author Kerry Muhlestein joins Scot and Maurine Proctor today to talk about the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai, and the remarkable visions, thunderings and lightenings that happen on that holy mountain. The Lord said, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings and brought you unto myself.” God’s intent is to make His people a “peculiar treasure” and a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” First, however, they must know what God will expect of them to be offered these good gifts.