The Gospel According to Jeffrey

adapted from a discourse given in the Lafayette 3rd Ward, Lafayette Indiana Stake, 29 June 2014 A couple of nights ago, I was sitting on my couch, computer in my lap, preparing my talk for today, and I saw that I had a new email. Surprise! Like that’s a big deal, right? It probably happens hundreds of times during the average preparation for a talk, but for some reason, this one caught my eye. It was advertising a “smart” device. Now of course, pretty much all of us have smart devices. We have smart computers and smart phones and smart TVs and smart cars and smart thermostats; the list goes on and on. But again, this one really caught my eye, because I couldn’t help but wonder what on earth would be the purpose of a smart basketball . Seriously, I’m wondering, by a show of hands, does anyone own a smart basketball? Anyone? Even my bishop, who is CEO of the local YMCA, doesn’t own one of these! But you know, it’s only $250, which is only like ten times the price of a pretty ...

As any knowledgeable Latter-day Saint knows, the title page of the Book of Mormon is a translation of the last page of the unsealed portion of the golden plates, written by the hand of Moroni, presumably right before hiding up said plates unto the Lord. I’ve read it many times, but as with any good scripture reading, I noticed something new, last night. In the first paragraph of Moroni’s inspired explanation, he states that the Book of Mormon is “To come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof,” which “interpretation thereof [comes] by the gift of God.” I’d like to focus, right now, on the word “interpretation” and what it means to us as Latter-day Saints. I suspect that this word was chosen very specifically, that this prophecy might have a dual fulfillment: not only in Joseph Smith Jr’s life, but also in the life of every person on this planet. When we speak of the Book of Mormon, we often speak of it being “translated.” Indeed, even the title page of ...

As many of my closer readers know, I suffered a trial of my faith, about 16 months ago. That was when my son Daniel came too early, my perfectly formed little boy born dead. While Daniel’s death itself did not cause me to doubt my testimony of the Lord and His gospel, the events surrounding this horrible experience had a particularly negative impact on that sure knowledge. In February 2007, I was literally able to call down the powers of Heaven by the authority of the Holy Priesthood. In June 2010, I am still unable to do this, at least to the extent that I did at that time. Yesterday morning, I was praying for help in returning to that point. I don’t expect it to happen in an instant; I have to learn and grow, to “work out [my] salvation” as Paul instructed the Philippians (Phil. 2:13). To this end, I asked Heavenly Father what I needed to do and was blessed with one of the greatest revelations I’ve had in a while. In 2010, the First Presidency has started a kind of “back to basic...

For the last couple of mornings, I’ve been studying Lesson 3 of the Gospel Principles manual. (Yes, I know; I’m behind. So what? I read almost the whole thing, last summer.) But before I tell you about that, I’ll have to explain something else: the way I study the scriptures. The first time I read the Old Testament all the way through was in Seminary . I was determined to get through the entire volume during the course of the school year, and I did—though partly because I couldn’t attend much of Seminary, I’m not sure I got much out of it. Then, during the summer between high school and college, I did the same with the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church —with similar results. During my freshman year at IU , I took a full-year Institute class on the New Testament . This marked a turning point in the way I studied scripture: my professor, Brother Robert Marrott, was a student of Hugh Nibley and acted like it. He taught me how to get the most out of the scriptures, how to actuall...