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I have always loved reading about the miracles Christ performed during his ministry. In some ways, miracles are the great equalizer. They are performed for powerful centurions and lowly Canaanite women. The stories of Christ’s miracles are primarily stories of all kinds of people approaching Christ in their absolute brokenness, soul-crushing desperation, and outlandish hope, and finding Christ’s personalized and overflowing love for them there.

The Gospel Doctrine Lesson #8 focuses on a section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5. The objective as stated in the manual is “[t]o encourage class members to come unto Christ by applying the principles he taught in the Sermon on the Mount.”

Objective To comment on the story that opens NT Gospel Doctrine Lesson 9, in which Elder William Bradford counseled about a “higher law of recognition.” He stated: “Recognition from on high is silent. It is carefully and quietly recorded there. Let them feel the joy and gain the treasure in their heart and soul that come from silent, selfless service.” Commentary There’s been a tension in my personal life between a desire for recognition, and a desire to be so pure-hearted t

The Gospel Doctrine lesson #10 focuses on some of Christ’s acts of mercy which expand the old, Mosaic Law to all people. The goal of the lesson from the manual is “to help class members understand that as we take the Savior’s yoke upon us and do his will, we will find the peace and joy that he has promised.”

Gospel Doctrine Lesson #11 discusses the parables taught by Jesus in Matthew 13. The objective as stated in the manual is “to help class members develop ‘ears to hear’ so they can understand how Jesus’ parables apply to them.”

Somewhere in the symbol of bread is lodged the great contradiction of Christian discipleship. Bread is the “staff of life” — the staple of every day’s subsistence. It evokes simplicity and accessibility, the one food found on the tables of both rich and poor, the “daily” necessity (Prov 30:8). And yet, it can only be made by the strain of many months’ “sweat” and “labor” (Gen 3:19, Moses 5:1). We all know the story of the little red hen! When cultivated in Biblical times, gr

The objective of the Gospel Doctrine Lesson #13 manual is “to strengthen class members’ testimonies that Jesus is the Christ and that the priesthood keys bestowed on the Mount of Transfiguration have been restored.”

Jesus’ statement in Matthew comes just after He tells the parable of the “lost sheep.” In this parable, Jesus emphasizes how important it is to search for one lamb missing from the fold, even if 99 are safe. For a moment, let’s consider that the “ninety and nine” are those children who are already in our care– whether they be our own children or others we are responsible for. With this in mind, the “wandering one” would be those children outside of that circle.

One of U.S. history’s little-known legacies is that of the women who kept and tended lighthouses from the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. The first female lighthouse keeper (known) in the country was Hannah Thomas, who watched over the Gurnet Point Light Station in Massachusetts from 1776 to 1786.

Before preparing to write about this Sunday School lesson, I came home from work and my almost two-year-old daughter was unhappy to see me. When I tried to feed her a bottle she rolled on the floor crying and screaming until her dad (& very favorite person) picked her up and fed it to her. When I tried reading her a book, she grabbed it out of my hands and threw it on the floor. When I tried with another book, she did it again.

Gathering Of Tribes is a nonprofit organization founded to support Native American and First Nations Latter-day Saints in the US and Canada by working collaboratively with the Church to nurture faith in Christ, support family history work, and celebrate cultural identity. The impetus of the LDS Women Project was to refute the idea that being a Latter-day Saint woman had to look one certain way, and to demonstrate that our diversity is our strength. Gathering Tribes exemplifi

I’d like to consider the story of the widow’s offering (see Mark 12:41-44) on several different levels: SpatialJesus is described as being “over against the treasury” (Mark 12:41). Mark sometimes uses this kind of “stage direction” to make a theological point; in this instance, the point would be that Jesus was opposed to the temple. This might sound strange to Latter-day Saints, but the point isn’t that Jesus was “against” the temple, in general, but rather that he was agai

The first two parables are brief but pointed: A shepherd leaves his 99 sheep for the sake of the one that is lost. He carries it home and celebrates with his family and friends. In the next parable, a woman searches for her lost coin, likewise rejoicing when it is found. In comparing repentant sinners to a coin and a sheep, Jesus demonstrates their worth in concrete, measurable terms.

There are people reading this who have dreams that have not been realized, expectations that haven’t been met. Others have experienced divorce, miscarriages, infertility, infidelity, homelessness, and job loss. Some of us have buried lovers, buried children, buried parents, buried sisters. When we find ourselves in these moments, we often ask, Why? Why does suffering happen? Why is sorrow in my life? What did I do? Why is God doing these things to me?

By way of preamble, I want to say that I believe that the atonement of Jesus Christ is basically the universal law that makes all things, both physical and spiritual, possible. I believe that it binds atoms together with a physical force. I believe that it is the power that will enable our body and spirit to reconstitute as resurrected beings. It is the law of light and the moral law of the universe that allows sins to be remitted.