Am I Closer To Christ At Christmastime? The magic of Christmas is real for most people. It is made real for children by parents who build anticipation by decorating our homes, playing Christmas music, and telling stories of magical characters like Santa. As we grow older, we share good-will greetings and smiles with strangers. We […]

The Power of Ordinances Moroni 1-6 explains procedurally how the authority was given to the Nephite disciples and how it is used to perform ordinances in basic church operations. The fact that Moroni took the time to engrave these things on the plates as part of his final message should cause us to take special

Humility, Weakness, and Strength Today’s message will be short and hopefully sweet. My regular schedule was interrupted by an extra meeting. This past week, I watched Jordan B. Peterson host a discussion on the Gospels. He was surrounded by eight or nine intellectuals, theologians, and philosophers who discussed the meaning of John 1:1. It reads,

Faith To Know All Things The brother of Jared’s encounter with the Savior in the third chapter of Ether deserves more attention than I gave it in my last message. Many of us consider a personal vision or visitation of the Lord beyond our reach. However, I think it is more probable that most of

Faith, Seeing, and Knowing The Book of Ether contains a story of extreme faith. The brother of Jared’s faith opened the veil between heaven and earth, and he saw everything from beginning to end. He did not go to the Lord with the intention of being enlightened; he was simply trying to solve a problem.

Finding Hope In The Face of Sorrow During the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking about the doctrine of hope. The thoughts came as I contemplated the conditions we face in mortality. The state of the world is in chaos. Two extremes exist simultaneously: inconceivable wickedness, marked by the denial of objective reality,

Tying It All Together In preparing for today’s message, I inadvertently tapped on the wrong link in my scriptures and ended up in the last chapter of the Book of Revelation. When I started reading, the verses jumped out at me with several different but connected themes from the recent General Conference and Christ’s teachings

Fire and Light Throughout scripture, especially in the account of the Savior’s visit to the Book of Mormon people, the imagery of fire and light describes spiritual manifestations. In Joseph Smith’s first vision, “a pillar of light” appears exactly over his head, above the brightness of the sun. In the light are the Father and

The Dimensions of Jesus A few months ago, I watched a video that featured an Evangelical Protestant pastor who was in the process of reading the Book of Mormon. He was reading 3 Nephi about the destruction of the more wicked cities during the time that Jesus was crucified. He was puzzled that the loving

The Second Coming: How Close Are We? 3 Nephi 1-7 covers roughly the period between Christ’s birth and death. Many of the conditions that existed then exist now. The list includes: Religious skepticism and rejection of prophecy. Prosperity and pride. The rise of coalitions of power that exist behind the scenes who seek control and