He Is Our Story

The reading this week reminded me of that famous opening line from Charles Dicken’s a tale of two cities- “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times!” We begin with David. Where last week we focused on the David that said things like “the battle is the Lords”, and “Let no man’s heart fail because of him”, this week we see what can happen to the best of men or women when their focus drifts from submitting to the will of the one and only true and living God, to submitting to the appetites of

Why do we get scared when things do not go the way we anticipated or when life begins   to looktoo hard or the trial too long or the relationship too complicated?  What prevents us from turning our story overto God?  Sister Camille Johnson proposed an answer to this question;“Perhaps it is because the natural manor woman in us is resistant to turning things completely overto the Lord and trusting Him entirely.Maybe that is why we choose to stick with the narrative we have written for ourselves, a

This week we are studying Samuel as Israel’s prophet and Saul as Israel’s first King. We are going to look at some of their best days and some of their worst days! And I want you to keep Rosie's words in your mind.Let’s be completely honest for a minute: if you are sitting in a season right now where you feel like life is completely "cooking" you, it can feel incredibly lonely. Maybe you've been taken down by a sudden financial strain, maybe you are quietly battling with mental

I can see myself, really see myself in Naomi’sstory.   I know what it is like to feelso bitter you feel like a different person-a shadow of your former self.—I knowwhat it is like to feel like Naomi must have felt when she told Ruth to “Go andglean”, to be willing to have just enough faith to act on a prompting—(read theOld Testament)even though you are filled with doubts.  I know what it is like to begin to see theLord’s loving kindness, His Hesed, again. To have my eyes opened to theblessings

In his conference talk , "Follow the Prophet, he Knows the Way, Elder Michael John U. Teh says, “When my parents joined theChurch, little did they know that they were embracing yet another set of values and traditions-even the gospel culture, based on the plan of salvation, God’s commandments, and the words of the living prophets.  Over time, as our family strived to fully embrace the gospel, my parents discovered that some of our well-loved traditions were not consistent with gospel culture.

We live in a day full of all different kinds of “blast zones”. There is no shortage of people willing to share with you their opinions about what is or is not “safe.” However, there is only one person on earth right now who has been given the power and authority to point out all the various “blast zones” of our day—and point us in the direction of safety. His name is Dallin H. Oaks. This week we are studying the Book of Joshua. This is a new beginning for the Israelites. A new land, a new set of

We read about wilderness times often in scripture.We have been following Moses and the ancient Israelites and their journey inthe wilderness.   The Book of Mormon prophet Lehi and his familyspent some considerable time in the wilderness. The saints of the early restoration did their fair share of traveling inthe wilderness, even Jesus Christ had His time in the wilderness.  The wilderness symbolically represents aplace of testing, preparation and refinement. The wilderness also happens to be where

The book of Numbers teaches us about theimportance of our focus-and the consequences that come when our focus shiftssolely to our trials instead of staying where it should be, which is, ofcourse, on God! In Hebrew the title for Numbers is Bamidbar-whichmeans “in the wilderness”.  We all havewilderness times.  In reality most ofmortality is lived in the wilderness.  Weget some reprieve when we visit holy places like the temple or the mountains,or even when we experience holy times making memories