LDS Come Follow Me Book of Mormon January 29–February 4: “I Will Prepare the Way before You” 1 Nephi 16–22 February 5–11: “Free to Choose Liberty and Eternal Life, through the Great Mediator” 2 Nephi 1–2 Inclusive and love-centered come follow me insights. Follow the.fourth.option on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/the.fourth.option/ ================================================== Bookmarks: 0:00 Intro 0:29 Liz & Ryan Giles from The Fourth Option 2:26 Finding the Liahona 8:08 What the Liahona has to do with marrying a same-sex partner 15:08 Step-by-step revelation 20:32 How ..read more

LDS Come Follow Me Book of Mormon January 15–21: “Come and Partake of the Fruit” 1 Nephi 6–10 January 22–28 “Armed with Righteousness and with the Power of God” 1 Nephi 11–15 Inclusive and love-centered come follow me insights. ================================================ Bookmarks: 0:00 Intro 1:02 Going back to Jerusalem 2:23 What would Ishmael and his family be giving by leaving Jerusalem? 5:47 Laman and Lemuel and others “rebel” 10:52 What did Lehi see in his dream? 12:51 What does Lehi’s dream have to do with King Josiah, Deuteronomy, and Heavenly Mother? 19:46 A lesson for us about th ..read more

LDS Come Follow Me Jan 1-7: Another Testament of Jesus Christ; Introductory Pages of the Book of Mormon Jan 8-14: “I Will Go and Do”; 1 Nephi 1–5 The new year we are moving from the New Testament to the Book of Mormon as the focus of our Come Follow Me study. 1 Nephi provided some unexpected insights and lessons that I think are so applicable to us today. Bookmarks: 0:00 Intro 1:51 The focus of this podcast 6:26 Connection (not conversion) is our goal 11:09 Historicity of the Book of Mormon? 16:07 Helpful resources 20:25 1 Nephi 1 - Scripture or journal?22:36 Nephi goes against the prosperity ..read more

LDS Come Follow Me 2023 October 23–29 1 and 2 Timothy; Titus; Philemon “Be Thou an Example of the Believers” Paul has some beautiful teachings on faith and grace. We’ll discuss what it means to have “faith unfeigned” and the two keys Paul gives to avoid a “shipwreck of faith” (or we would say in modern terms, a “faith crisis”). Unfortunately, this letter to Timothy isn’t all good. Paul has some backwards views on women and their role in the church. (Actually, and I forgot to mention this in the podcast, this could potentially be easily explained by the fact that most biblical scholars don’t th ..read more

LDS Come Follow Me 2023 August 28-September 3 1 Corinthians 8–13 “Ye are the body of Christ” These chapters in 1 Corinthians contain some of my favorite teachings from Paul, particularly about the Body of Christ and Charity. We’ll also talk about the sacrament and how love is greater than knowledge. Bookmarks: 0:00 Intro 0:37 Love is greater than knowledge 1:12 When we think we know something, we know nothing 9:42 Seek the advantage of others, rather than your own  12:33 Paul’s personal bias is showing… 18:04 The Body of Christ 21:57 The most important lesson from the Body of Christ analo ..read more

LDS Come Follow Me 2023 August 21–27 1 Corinthians 1–7 “Be Perfectly Joined Together” Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians includes some powerful teachings about unity in diversity and a profound, but too often misunderstood truth, that we are the temple of God. Although I don’t believe this verse has anything to do with modesty or chastity, we’ll discuss those topics as well since they are bound to come up in YW and YM this weekend. We also take on another of the clobber passages found in Paul’s writings, including a discussion of Paul’s overall s3xual ethic ..read more

LDS Come Follow Me 2023 August 14–20 Romans 7–16 “Overcome Evil with Good” This week we continue our study of Romans, which means it’s all about grace. Paul promises that if God be for us no one can prevail against us, teaches that absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love, and that there is nothing unclean. ====================================================== Bookmarks: 0:00 Intro 0:28 Romans 1-6 quick summary 1:07 We are dead to the law and under grace 3:13 Grace is not God’s backup plan 5:53 What does it mean to suffer with Christ? 8:54 If God be for us… (God is always for us!) 1 ..read more

LDS Come Follow Me 2023 August 7–13 Romans 1–6 “The Power of God unto Salvation” Paul’s letter to the Romans is one of my favorite books in all of scripture. It’s bursting at the seams with talk of grace, faith, and the gospel (good news), which Paul calls ‘ the power of God unto salvation’. Romans 1 also includes a few verses that are too-often-weaponized against our LGBTQ+ siblings. We’ll discuss these as well.l ====================================================== Bookmarks: 0:00 Intro 1:28 How does Paul define the gospel? 3:45 What is “God’s righteousness?” 7:06 Does Romans 1:26-27 condem ..read more

LDS Come Follow Me 2023 July 31–August 6 Acts 22–28 “A Minister and a Witness” In these chapters we read Paul’s defense several times (given to different audiences). He testifies that he believes everything in the law and the prophets. But how do we reconcile that belief with what he teaches that goes AGAINST what is in the Hebrew Bible? Like circumcision, dietary laws, and spending time with Gentiles. I think we find the answer in Romans 14. We’ll also talk about Paul’s shipwreck and what lessons we can take for our own lives. Bookmarks 0:00 Intro 0:37 Paul narrowly avoids scourging by the Ro ..read more

LDS Come Follow Me 2023 July 17–23 Acts 10–15 “The Word of God Grew and Multiplied” In these chapters we read of some powerful visions had by Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, and Peter. These visions and the teaching of Cornelius by Peter lead to the official opening up of the gospel to the gentiles. Peter and Paul discuss the weighty matter of whether the gentile converts should be subject to circumcision, a significant part of their religion–a discussion which has powerful parallels for us today. Bookmarks: 0:00 Intro 0:32 Why it’s significant that Peter stayed with a tanner 2:47 Cornelius’ vis ..read more