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

Jeremiah was foreordained for the tough prophetic job he was called to do. The Lord said, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). We often point to those verses as a reminder that the Bible does refer to a pre-mortal existence, but something else strikes us additionally here.

It is as if ...

Isn’t it amazing that Isaiah’s prophecies date back more than 2,700 years and they are so completely applicable today! No wonder the Lord Jesus Christ commanded the Nephites and the Lamanites:

1 And now, behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah.

2 For surely he spake as touching all things conc...

Welcome to Meridian Magazine's Come Follow Me podcast. We are Scot and Maurine Proctor, and we are grateful to be with you today. We'll be studying Isaiah chapters 50 through 57. in a lesson entitled, “He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” We are so excited to be able to talk about this material. It's not often in the course of the curriculum of the church, over the years that we've had five different weeks...

Welcome to Meridian Magazine’s Come Follow Me Podcast where today we’re studying Isaiah chapters 40-49 where we are talking about the kind of help God is to His people. We have with us Dr. Kerry Muhlestein who is a professor of Ancient Scripture and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Brigham Young University. He holds a PhD in Egyptology from UCLA, directs BYU's Egypt Excavation Project, has taught at the BYU Jerus...

I love that in our reading we get to study parts of Isaiah 29 this week where the Lord speaks with this language:

14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. (Isaiah 29:14)

I a...

I learned a lot of lessons, proverbs, axioms, and helpful sayings when I was young. We used to pass around Chinese proverbs like, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” My parents used to say that when I was faced with a huge school assignment, like a semester paper I had to write, and I was feeling overwhelmed. You've all heard that one. Here's another one. “He who asks is a fool for five minu...

We know that faith is a power stronger than electricity or lightning or the flooding of many waters. It is the first great governing principle which has power, dominion, and authority over all things.  So, of course we seek how to develop it in ourselves. In Lectures on Faith, Joseph Smith teaches us: “Three things are necessary for any rational and intelligent being to exercise faith in God unto life and salvation....

Maurine and I have been blessed to attend many temple dedications all over the world. There is nothing so joyful as seeing the Saints gather to see these beautiful Houses of the Lord dedicated and made available for the work of the dead and the living. No matter where we are or what language is spoken, the unifying feeling comes from the music that is sung both outside and inside the temple and the Spirit that follows. “High ...

When we lead our tours to the Holy Land, we will inevitably pull out some humor from the Biblical sources, attempting to create memories of laughter in remote parts of the tour. Our Bible jokes are many and varied and of a quality that only a dad could appreciate. “Who is the great tennis player of the Bible? Of course, everyone knows it’s Joseph, because he served in Pharoah’s courts! And who was the great comedi...

As a scholar said, “Once it happened that the crafty was taken in his own trap, the falsely condemned were saved, and the worthy were rewarded. It is not always so.” Perhaps [the] story [in Esther which we study today] has endured because it has given the comfort of hope to other oppressed people” [and demonstrates God in the details of our lives.] Although God is not expressly mentioned in the book of Esther, the...

I’ve tried to contemplate the feelings of our ancient brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, who, after 371 years of having a glorious temple, watched as the temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and his forces, and those who survived the destructions were taken captive to Babylon in 586 BC. The temple was the holiest place for them, a place where they drew near unto God, a place where they offered sacrifices and renewed their c...