Coming Closer

About Coming Closer

Coming Closer is a gospel-study podcast for anyone who loves to wonder. Written first to my grandchildren — and to anyone willing to listen in, the way we overhear Lehi teaching his sons — each episode chases a question through the scriptures: the history, the languages, the types and shadows, the details easy to read past. It isn't doctrine and I'm no authority; it's the joy of asking, being amazed, and leaving room for the truth as it's revealed. The hope of every episode is simple: to come a little closer to Jesus Christ. I'm James — let's get going.

Publisher

James

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

24 Jun 2026

Latest episode

21 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

18 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   21 Oct 2026

   From Disciple to Apostle: Nephi's Divine Commission to Testify

   From Disciple to Apostle: Nephi's Divine Commission to Testify At Sinai, Israel saw the thunder and the lightning and backed away: "Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us." (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/ex/20.19?lang=eng) It's the spectator's prayer, and we still pray it. Centuries later, a young man named Nephi listened, asked, moved forward in faith, and bore witness to his brother long before he saw any vision. Then on an exceedingly high mountain he was sent: "after ye have witnessed him ye shall bear record that it is the Son of God." (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/11.7?lang=eng) This episode follows Nephi from a disciple's witness to a special witness, and what it cost him to know what he saw. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: a talk to a room of statisticians at Red Bull's headquarters, and the professional observer; Moses's wish, "would God that all the Lord's people were prophets" (Numbers 11:29); Israel standing afar off while Moses drew near; Lehi, who trembled too but moved toward the fire; Nephi's softened heart and his first testimony, one sentence to his brother Sam (1 Nephi 2:16–17); listening, asking, moving forward in faith, and testifying; a disciple's witness and Elder Gérald Caussé's "The Gift of Testimony" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2026/10/14causse?lang=eng): "It need not be long, eloquent, or dramatic—it only needs to be true"; "Behold, what desirest thou?" and the commission on the mountain; apostolos, one who is sent; the special witness of the Twelve (D&C 107:23); the small plates as the commission written down (2 Nephi 25:26); the cost of knowing, "grieved because of the hardness of their hearts"; Enoch and Jeremiah, who couldn't stay silent; and the strength Nephi received to speak again, and the question he asked his brothers: "Have ye inquired of the Lord?" The closing thought: a coffee cup in a cartoon became a cocoa cup, a small, simple I know, and it led to a conversation about prophets and revelation. A witness doesn't have to jump off a cliff. This week, don't stay in the observer's chair. Tell someone what the Spirit has shown you, and trust the Lord for the strength to say it. Scriptures: Numbers 11:14–17, 26–29; D&C 84:23–24; Exodus 19:10–15; Exodus 20:18–21; 1 Nephi 1:5–8; 1 Nephi 2:16–18; 1 Nephi 3:7; 1 Nephi 4:6; 1 Nephi 10:17–19; 1 Nephi 10:22; Mosiah 18:9; 1 Nephi 11:1–7, 13–33; D&C 107:23; D&C 68:6; 1 Nephi 9:5; 2 Nephi 25:26; 1 Nephi 12:19; 1 Nephi 15:4–11; 1 Nephi 8:36–37; Moses 7:28–29, 41, 44; Jeremiah 20:9. Sources: Elder Gérald Caussé, "The Gift of Testimony," general conference, October 2026.

2. 

   14 Oct 2026

   If I Only Had a Heart: Iron Necks, Brass Brows, and the Way Back

   If I Only Had a Heart: Iron Necks, Brass Brows, and the Way Back The Tin Woodman had stood rusted solid in the forest for more than a year, and his first words to Dorothy were "Oil my neck, first." Isaiah described a people just like him: "Thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass." (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/isa/48.4?lang=eng) And he wasn't talking to strangers. He was talking to God's own people, the ones who had come up out of the waters of baptism. This episode follows how a faithful heart turns to brass a little at a time, and the one way back Isaiah offers: a trade of ashes for a crown. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: the waters of Judah and the words added in 1840, "or out of the waters of baptism" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/20.1?lang=eng) (1 Nephi 20:1); the ox that won't take the yoke, and the yoke that gives rest; four steps toward a brass brow: no longer leaning on God, taking His credit ("Mine idol hath done them"; "Behold, I knew them"), feeding the wrong appetite (Isaiah 55:2), and an ear that won't open; why a web of logic that leaves faith out ends with an iron-clad conclusion that excludes God; King Asa and the physicians (2 Chronicles 16:12); the callus that leaves us "past feeling"; the face set like a flint toward Jerusalem; Isaiah 61, read by Jesus at Nazareth, and "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/isa/61.3?lang=eng); pe'er and 'epher, the priest's headdress and the ashes, spelled with the same three letters; Ezekiel's mark on the foreheads of those who mourn (Ezekiel 9:4); and the forehead that finally sees His face (Revelation 22:4). The closing thought: the Tin Woodman, who believed he had no heart, was the one who wept over a beetle, and someone brought oil for his mourning. Listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost keeps our necks supple and our faces pointed toward God. And when you notice a place in you that has stopped feeling, don't polish the brass. Bow, take the ash, and let Him trade it for a crown. Scriptures: Isaiah 48:1–5 (1 Nephi 20:1–8); John 3:5; 1 Nephi 19:23–24; Matthew 11:29–30; 2 Chronicles 16:12; Hebrews 11:3; 1 Corinthians 2:14; 2 Nephi 9:28–29; Ether 12:6; Isaiah 55:2; Exodus 21:5–6; Ephesians 4:18–19; 1 Nephi 17:45; Alma 12:10–11; Isaiah 50:5–7; Luke 9:51; Isaiah 61:1–3, 10; Luke 4:16–21; 2 Samuel 13:19; Exodus 39:28–30; Matthew 5:4; Ezekiel 9:4; Ezekiel 36:26; Revelation 22:4. Sources: L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), chapters 5 and 6; FAIR, "Or out of the waters of baptism"; Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon.

3. 

   7 Oct 2026

   Graven Upon His Palms: The Marks Christ Chose to Keep

   Graven Upon His Palms: The Marks Christ Chose to Keep In ancient Babylon, a slave carried one name on his hand: his owner's. So when God told the exiles who thought He had forgotten them, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands," they would have heard something shocking. The Master was wearing the servant's name. This episode follows that mark from a Babylonian slave market and a papyrus on the Nile to the hands of the resurrected Christ, who could have risen without His wounds and chose to keep them. Then it asks a question about the names we wear. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: Zion's cry, "my Lord hath forgotten me," and God's answer, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/21.14-16?lang=eng) (1 Nephi 21:14–16); Ezekiel's tile and the builder's plan kept before Him; chaqaq, a word that means cut in, not written on; slaves marked with their owners' names in Babylon, and Tapmut, a slave on the Nile in 427 B.C. with "Of Meshullam" on her right hand; the servant who loved his master and chose the awl (Exodus 21:5–6), and the Son of Man who came to serve (Mark 10:45; Philippians 2:7); tefillin that unwind and a signet that can be plucked off, against an engraving that cannot; the marks Christ kept, shown in the upper room, to Thomas, one by one at Bountiful, to Joseph and Oliver, and in His plea as our Advocate (D&C 45:3–5); the helots of Sparta and the caps we pay to wear; and Tapmut's release, when on paper the slave became a daughter, as King Benjamin's people became "the children of Christ" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/5.7-12?lang=eng) with His name "written always in your hearts" (Mosiah 5:7–12). The closing thought: look again at the logos on your shirt. Each one stands for a relationship, with memories and stories behind it. Now look deeper. Whose name is on your heart? What experiences have you had with that person? And when you feel forgotten, remember His hands. Your name is already there, and He chose to keep it. Scriptures: 1 Nephi 21:14–16 (Isaiah 49:14–16); Ezekiel 4:1; Isaiah 44:5; Exodus 21:5–6; Mark 10:44–45; Philippians 2:7; Deuteronomy 6:4–8; Jeremiah 22:24; Luke 24:39; John 20:25–28; 3 Nephi 11:14–15; D&C 6:36–37; D&C 45:3–5, 51–52; Matthew 6:24; Mosiah 5:7–8, 12; Galatians 6:17. Sources: Muhammad A. Dandamaev, Slavery in Babylonia (Northern Illinois University Press, 1984); the manumission of Tapmut, Elephantine, 427 B.C., trans. H. L. Ginsberg in Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts; Frank Capra, Meet John Doe (1941); Myron of Priene, in Athenaeus, Deipnosophists 14.74.

4. 

   30 Sept 2026

   Carried on Their Shoulders: Kings Will Gather His Children

   Carried on Their Shoulders: Kings Will Gather His Children In 1945 a researcher named René Spitz compared babies in two nurseries. In one, the babies were fed, cleaned and medically cared for, but almost never held. In the other, their mothers carried them. You can guess which babies thrived. Long before Spitz, Isaiah promised scattered Israel that kings and queens would carry God's children home on their own shoulders, and Nephi copied that promise into his record and then said plainly who those kings would be. This episode follows the promise from ancient Israel to a Bucharest orphanage to the waters of baptism, and finds that it was written about us. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: Israel's cry that God had forgotten her, and His answer, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands" (1 Nephi 21:14–16); the promise that "kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/21.22-23?lang=eng) (1 Nephi 21:22–23), carrying God's children home the way the Good Shepherd carries His lost sheep (Luke 15:5); Nephi naming the kings, a mighty nation among the Gentiles (1 Nephi 22:6–7); what made an ancient king a king, and why the phone in your pocket gives you more reach than Solomon had; Spitz's two nurseries and the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, and why being carried is biology, not a metaphor; Dave Thomas and Steve Jobs, two adopted sons who never doubted whose they were; King Benjamin's promise that covenant makes us "the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/5.7?lang=eng) (Mosiah 5:7), and Paul's "Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15); and the kings who "lick up the dust," Isaiah's picture of power bent low in willing service. The closing thought: we are the kings Isaiah envisioned. We have been given the capacity to carry the children of Israel back to their covenant heritage, back to their covenant family. Not someday, when we're more ready, or richer, or more spiritual. Right now, with exactly what's already in our hands. Scriptures: 1 Nephi 21:14–16, 22–23; Luke 24:39; 3 Nephi 11:14–15; Luke 15:5; 1 Nephi 22:6–7; Mosiah 5:7; Galatians 3:27, 29; Romans 8:15. Sources: René A. Spitz, "Hospitalism," The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child (1945), via Katharina Rowold, Social History of Medicine (2019); Kathryn L. Humphreys et al., "Foster care leads to sustained cognitive gains following severe early deprivation," PNAS (2022); Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, "Our History and Dave's Story"; Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (Simon & Schuster, 2011).

5. 

   23 Sept 2026

   The Witness That Can't Be Faked: Nephi, Isaiah, and the Law of Witnesses

   The Witness That Can't Be Faked: Nephi, Isaiah, and the Law of Witnesses Forty-eight percent of people now say they question almost everything they see online — because AI has learned to counterfeit the very evidence we used to trust most. Twenty-six hundred years before deepfakes, a prophet named Nephi ran into a version of the same problem: how do you prove something is true? His answer was an ancient legal rule most of us already lean on without knowing its name — and it's why he spent thirteen precious chapters of his own short, rationed record on someone else's words. This episode follows that decision all the way to the one kind of evidence the coming age of AI still can't counterfeit. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: an ancient legal rule most of us already trust without knowing its name — "at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the matter be established" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/deut/19.15?lang=eng) (Deuteronomy 19:15); why Nephi, one of scripture's most disciplined editors, hands over thirteen precious chapters of his own short record to someone else's words, because Isaiah is a corroborating witness, not an ornament (2 Nephi 11:2-3); Isaiah's own throne-vision credentials — the moment he can say, plainly, I stood in the room, I saw Him (Isaiah 6:1-5); one banner Isaiah uses twice in the very block Nephi quotes, first calling an army in as judgment, then calling the scattered home as mercy (Isaiah 5:26; 11:11-12); President Russell M. Nelson's 2018 warning about a day when the Spirit's constant witness would no longer be optional — spoken years before "deepfake" was a word most people knew; and the one witness a world of manufactured video and images still can't counterfeit, because it was never a picture to begin with. The closing thought: you were never meant to prove this to yourself with your eyes alone — that was never the tool for it, not in Nephi's day and not in ours. The witness promised twenty-six hundred years ago is the same one still on offer today. Scriptures: Deuteronomy 19:15; 2 Nephi 11:2–3; Isaiah 6:1–5; Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 11:11–12; Moroni 10:5. Sources: President Russell M. Nelson, "Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/04/revelation-for-the-church-revelation-for-our-lives?lang=eng), April 2018 General Conference; iProov, "The Great Trust Recession" report (2026).

6. 

   16 Sept 2026

   Rain No Rain: Isaiah 1-12, from Drought to "God Is My Salvation"

   Rain No Rain: Isaiah 1–12, from Drought to "God Is My Salvation" There is a song near the start of Isaiah — seven verses long — and in the last one, the composer stops and tells you, in plain words, exactly what it means. Most of us never read that far. Isaiah isn't a locked door; he's a dialect, and he wrote his own dictionary into the text. Follow one song all the way down and you'll find a Hebrew pun that only works out loud, a judgment that turns out to be a withdrawal rather than an invasion, and a "no rain" that becomes, twelve chapters later, water drawn from a well with joy. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: Nephi's own diagnosis for why Isaiah is hard — not vague, just a "manner of prophesying" nobody handed us the key to; the Song of the Vineyard sung whole, verse by verse, until Isaiah decodes his own symbol in plain words — "the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/isa/5.7?lang=eng); a Hebrew pun invisible in English — mishpat/mispach, tsedaqah/tse'aqah — where a single consonant separates justice from bloodshed; a three-step judgment that turns out to be almost entirely a withdrawal of protection, not an imported punishment; why "no rain" means a famine of the word of God, and the very next verse's turn toward an ensign lifted to the nations; how the reading block itself bookends drought with water drawn "with joy" from the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12); and Zenos's allegory in Jacob 5, which asks the same broken-hearted question Isaiah's vineyard owner asks — and answers it with mercy instead of a verdict. The closing thought: you were never too slow for Isaiah. The difficulty was real, but it was never a verdict on you — it was a dialect, and dialects are learned one song at a time. The God who wrote that first song is a farmer with dirt on His hands who loves you, builds the fence, plants the choicest vine, and when the harvest fails, tries again. He grieves before He judges, and grafts before He burns, and would always rather water than withhold. Scriptures: 2 Nephi 25:1, 4–8; Isaiah 5:1–7; 1 Nephi 19:23; Isaiah 5:5–6; Isaiah 55:10–11; Amos 8:11; Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 12:1–3; Jacob 5:7, 47; Matthew 21:33–43. Sources: Elder Bruce R. McConkie, "Ten Keys to Understanding Isaiah" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1973/10/ten-keys-to-understanding-isaiah?lang=eng), Ensign, October 1973.

7. 

   9 Sept 2026

   The Plates and the People: Preserving a Record to Preserve a Remnant

   The Plates and the People: Preserving a Record to Preserve a Remnant There is a page in the Book of Mormon that almost nobody reads, and it is the only one that says, in its own words, what the book is for. It promises the record will be kept "that they might not be destroyed" — and that half came true; you are holding the proof. So here is the question: and the people? Were they preserved too? Follow it backwards and you find three men, centuries apart, working the same errand — each of them writing for the people destroying him. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: the title page's two paragraphs and the different jobs they do — the famous clause turns out to be a shipping label, and the purpose is in the half we skip: "that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever"; who the book is actually addressed to, and why that is not us first; why the purpose clause is an identity document rather than a message — a lineage nobody told you about, promises made before you were born; the lost 116 pages as the preservation plan visibly running, with Nephi keeping a second record "which purpose I know not" and Mormon including it centuries later admitting "I do not know all things"; Enos praying for the people trying to destroy his own, admitting it took "many long strugglings"; Mormon addressing his life's work to the remnant exterminating his nation; Moroni — hunted, alone, refusing to deny Christ — calling those men "my brethren, the Lamanites" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/moro/1.4?lang=eng); and four men in 1830 who walked into a Missouri winter to finally carry it to the addressee. The closing thought: not one of them ever saw it work. Enos died without meeting a Lamanite who had read a word of it. Mormon assembled the book knowing his nation was finished. Moroni buried it alone, with no evidence anyone would dig it up. Four men crossed fifteen hundred miles of winter and were turned back. Every single one of them was right anyway — and the proof is the object sitting on your nightstand. The record was never the point. The plates were preserved to preserve a people, and the people are preserved to know Christ. Scriptures: Title Page; 1 Nephi 9:5; 2 Nephi 25:21; Words of Mormon 1:6–7; Enos 1:2–4, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20; Jacob 7:27; Mormon 5:2, 12; Moroni 1:1–4; Moroni 8:16; Genesis 32:24–30; D&C 10:38–46; D&C 32:1–3. Sources: President Russell M. Nelson, "Hope of Israel" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/broadcasts/worldwide-devotional-for-young-adults/2018/06/hope-of-israel?lang=eng), June 2018; "A Mission to the Lamanites," Revelations in Context; Joseph Smith on the title page, History of the Church 1:71.

8. 

   2 Sept 2026

   Fear Not What Man Can Do: Why One Group Knelt and the Other Looked Around

   Fear Not What Man Can Do: Why One Group Knelt and the Other Looked Around Mormon wrote "I fear not what man can do" from inside a war he knew would end his nation — and two verses later says how: "I am filled with charity." Part three of three. We go back to the two groups at the tree in Lehi's dream and ask what was underneath both — not what they did, but why they could. It turns on a distinction the Bible Dictionary opens by warning you about, and on a harder question: does it count if you do the right thing for the wrong reason? Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: the three words Nephi adds that change what the rod is for — the word of God "which led to" the tree, making it a path, not a handrail; three ways to hold that rod — fear, comfortable routine, love — and why nobody preaches the middle one; what went wrong for the clinging group, ashamed "because of those that were scoffing at them"; the Bible Dictionary's fear entry, which opens by warning that two very different things share the word; Adam hiding in the garden as the same engine that walks a group from the tree; the turn: both groups were afraid, in different directions, and falling on your face is a posture of fear too; Isaiah's clause about a fear "taught by the precept of men," giving routine and shame one root; the hardest passage in scripture on doing good for bad reasons, and who Mormon is actually describing there; Alma's answer that a desire is enough to start; and Moroni 7:48 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/moro/7.48?lang=eng) as a chain in order — filled with His love, become His sons and daughters, be like Him, and therefore see Him as He is. The closing thought: Mormon raises the hardest objection in scripture about doing good for bad reasons — and forty verses later tells you what to do. It is not stop. He never tells the man with the wrong motive to quit; he tells him what to pray for. I have had long stretches of reading because it was routine and my heart was elsewhere, and stretches of holding on because I was afraid of letting go. The instruction was never stop reading. It was: ask to be given a different reason. Fear is enough to bring you; it is not enough to hold you. He receives people whose grip is fear, or habit, or almost nothing at all — and He does not leave them that way. Scriptures: 1 Nephi 8:20, 24–30; 1 Nephi 11:21–25; 1 Nephi 15:27; 1 Samuel 16:7; Genesis 3:10; Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10; Isaiah 29:13; Hebrews 12:28; 1 John 4:18; Alma 32:27–28; Alma 34:32–34; Moroni 7:6–11, 48; Moroni 8:16–17; Moroni 9:1–5; Mormon 5:2. Sources: Bible Dictionary, "Fear" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bd/fear?lang=eng).

9. 

   26 Aug 2026

   Fell Down in Worship or Fell Away in Shame: Two Groups at the Tree, and Only One Stayed

   Fell Down in Worship or Fell Away in Shame: Two Groups at the Tree, and Only One Stayed Two groups in Lehi's dream take hold of the same iron rod. Both press through the same mist of darkness. Both reach the tree. Both eat the fruit. Only one is still there at the end of the chapter — and the difference between them is three words long, sitting in a verse Nephi was actively cutting down for space. He kept those three words anyway. Companion to last week's episode: that one asked how to stay connected to Christ; this one asks why some do and some don't. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: everything the two groups share — same rod, same mist, same tree, and (the part most of us misread) both partaking; what the fruit actually is — "the love of God… the most desirable above all things" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/11.22?lang=eng); the first difference, in the hands — clinging versus continually holding fast, with Elder Bednar's reading of it as "occasional bursts… irregular dipping"; the three words themselves, and why it matters that Nephi kept them while abridging his father's account; what falling down at that tree means, confirmed by his vision of many who "fall down at his feet and worship him"; why tasted is no putdown — Lehi uses it of himself, and Alma calls tasting real and good — so this group knew the joy firsthand and walked away anyway; the outward turn both Lehi and the clinging group make, toward opposite objects; what the great and spacious building represents; and what does hold a person at the tree, once arriving, holding, partaking, and tasting real joy all turn out not to. The closing thought: when something sacred comes — an answer to a prayer, a quiet moment in the temple, an unexpected confirmation — what do you do in the next ten seconds? Do you kneel first, or take it standing up and then look around to see who noticed? I know which I'd like to be true about me. I'm not always sure it is. But the tree in that dream is Christ, the fruit is His love, and going to your knees in front of Him isn't the price of the fruit — it's what makes you want to keep it. Scriptures: 1 Nephi 8:11–12, 24–26, 28–30, 33; 1 Nephi 11:22, 24, 35–36; Alma 32:35. Sources: David A. Bednar, A Reservoir of Living Water (https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/david-a-bednar/reservoir-living-water/), BYU, Feb 2007; Lynn G. Robbins, Which Way Do You Face? (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2014/10/which-way-do-you-face?lang=eng), Oct 2014; David A. Bednar, But We Heeded Them Not (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/04/14bednar?lang=eng), Apr 2022. 1

10. 

    19 Aug 2026

    The Tree and the Vine: What a Pumpkin Patch Taught Me About Staying Connected to Christ

    The Tree and the Vine: What a Pumpkin Patch Taught Me About Staying Connected to Christ Two of scripture's most famous pictures of Christ — the tree of life in Lehi's dream, and the true vine Christ describes the night before Gethsemane — turn out to be the same truth told in two stages. But neither image explains what actually breaks the connection once you've already received the fruit. A backyard pumpkin patch answered that for me — and it wasn't a pest, a storm, or an enemy that finally tore my vine loose. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: Lehi's dream of the tree of life and its fruit, the love of God (1 Nephi 8); Christ's true vine discourse the night before Gethsemane, and the word He repeats eight times — abide (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/john/15.5?lang=eng) (John 15); the two images as the same truth in two stages — receive, then abide; my own pumpkin trellis, and the summer a pumpkin's weight tore the vine loose; why that reshaped how I picture disconnection from Christ — not an enemy prying you loose, but the weight of a good, full life; the first group at Lehi's tree, who aren't attacked either — just ashamed, and they wander off; Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' heavy arms against Amalek (Exodus 17:10–13 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/ex/17.10-13?lang=eng)) — family, friends, a bishop willing to sit with you an hour; and what's flowing through the vine — the Messiah "full of grace and truth," traced from Lehi back to God's self-naming at Sinai. The closing thought: I think about that broken vine more often than I'd like to admit — usually while working in the garden, or carrying a heavy load myself. I know what it's like to feel connected to the grace of Christ, and what it's like to lose that connection under the weight of an otherwise good life. I'm grateful for family and others who've helped carry that weight when I couldn't manage alone. This week: take stock of what's gotten heavy, and ask honestly whether you've been trying to hold it up by yourself. What breaks the connection is rarely an enemy — it's usually just the weight of your own life. Scriptures: 1 Nephi 8:10–12, 24–28, 30; 1 Nephi 11:21–22; John 15:1–16; 2 Nephi 2:6; Alma 9:26; Exodus 17:10–13; Exodus 34:6. Sources: David A. Bednar, The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2012/04/the-atonement-and-the-journey-of-mortality?lang=eng), Ensign, April 2012; Russell M. Nelson, Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2017/04/drawing-the-power-of-jesus-christ-into-our-lives?lang=eng), April 2017 General Conference.

11. 

    12 Aug 2026

    Come to Rest, Go Forth Armed with Power: What a House Dedicated to God Is Actually For

    Come to Rest, Go Forth with Power: What a House Dedicated to God Is Actually For Long before Solomon's temple, Israel dragged the ark into battle like a weapon — and lost everything. A generation later, a different king asked a better question: not how do I use this power, but where does it belong? Centuries later that same question reached a small temple in Ohio — and a week after the prayer was offered, the very person it was addressed to walked in and quoted it back, word for word. It ends in Nauvoo, where an ancient king's grammar finally became history — a house where power comes to rest, so it can send you out carrying it. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: Israel dragging the ark into battle like a weapon and losing everything — Ichabod, "the glory is departed" (1 Samuel 4); David's oath to find the Lord a resting place, fulfilled by Solomon; Solomon's dedicatory prayer, offered as king rather than prophet, and the quiet answer he still received (1 Kings 9:1–9 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/1-kgs/9.1-9?lang=eng)); Kirtland's own dedicatory prayer, received by revelation, and the resurrected Christ appearing a week later to say the very words Solomon only hoped for; Elijah's sealing keys — authority kingship could never reach; the one verb Solomon's prayer never uses that Kirtland's does — go forth… armed with thy power — and how Nauvoo turned that verb into history: six thousand endowed in sixty days, Brigham Young delaying his departure to keep serving the line; and the shape underneath it all — power once localized in one ark, one man, one day a year, finally distributed into an entire endowed people, Moses' own ancient wish starting to come true. The closing thought: Solomon's whole prayer was never for himself alone — every line was for "thy people," a whole covenant nation. That's not where a private question gets a private answer; it's where a whole family gets bound together. I don't walk into the temple as if I'm doing the important work. I go to find rest — then to be sent out carrying it. This week: notice the difference between arriving needing something and arriving to rest, and what you carry out afterward. Scriptures: 1 Samuel 4; 1 Kings 8:6, 29–30, 39; 1 Kings 9:1–9; Psalm 132:4–8; D&C 109:22, 77–79; D&C 110:1–10, 13–16; D&C 124:29–30; Numbers 11:29. Sources: Brigham Young, journal entry, Jan. 1846 (History of the Church 7:567), in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, ch. 41; Sarah DeArmon Pea Rich, autobiography, quoted in Elder Richard G. Scott, Temple Worship: The Source of Strength and Power in Times of Need (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2009/05/temple-worship-the-source-of-strength-and-power-in-times-of-need?lang=eng), Ensign, May 2009.

12. 

    5 Aug 2026

    They Didn't Love the Stuff: Who Do You Work For?

    They Didn't Love the Stuff: Who Do You Work For? A retired federal judge once told me his whole career didn't really matter — "not in the long run." Coming from a man who spent decades deciding cases that shaped real lives, that should sound like false humility. It isn't. This episode chases down what he actually meant: the real Greek behind "the love of money is the root of all evil" (it's not what you think), two men who stood in the very same pulpit for opposite reasons, and a parable that finally answers the question underneath every job you've ever had — not what you do, but who you're doing it for. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: why Nephi's warning that "the laborer in Zion shall labor for Zion" was never actually a warning against getting paid (2 Nephi 26:29–31 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/26.29-31?lang=eng)); what "the love of money is the root of all evil" actually says in the Greek — not "the" root of "all" evil, but a root of all kinds of evils, from a word that literally means "silver-love"; the ancient word for silver itself, traced back to a root meaning "the shining thing," so greed turns out to be love of the gleam, not the metal; two men who stood in the same Book of Mormon pulpit for opposite reasons — one building a following on popularity and money, the other laboring with his own hands so "the preacher was no better than the hearer"; and the Parable of the Talents, where a "talent" turns out to be a literal weight of silver, and the real test was never what you were given, but whether you can hand it back without flinching. The closing thought: I've told my own sons something like this before — the wage isn't as important as the work. I always thought of that as practical fathering advice. Now I think I was accidentally teaching them a truth I hadn't fully learned myself: the job was never going to be the thing that mattered. What you do with it is. So this week I'm sitting with one honest question, and I'd invite you to sit with it too: who do you work for — yourself, or God? Scriptures: 2 Nephi 26:29–31; Luke 10:7; 1 Timothy 6:10; Luke 16:13–14; Alma 1:3–6, 9, 15–16, 26–27; Mosiah 18:24–26; Matthew 25:14–30; Moses 7:18. %

13. 

    29 Jul 2026

    A Bible! A Bible!: Why 'We Have Enough' Is the Wrong Answer

    A Bible! A Bible!: Why "We Have Enough" Is the Wrong Answer Picture someone who has read the Bible their whole life — underlined it, memorized whole chapters, would defend it to their last breath. Now picture that same person looking you in the eye and saying: "That's it. God is done talking. We have enough." That should sound impossible — a devoted lover of God's word, limiting God's word. But it happens more than you'd think. This episode walks that strange sentence through a wilderness of bread and a cave full of shadows, and lands on why the God who never stops speaking still wants to speak to you today. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: why the cry "we have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible" is self-refuting — the very book being used to close the door on revelation is itself the product of centuries of it (2 Nephi 29:6 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/29.6?lang=eng)); the honest, sincere case for a closed canon, and why "add not unto his words" forbids corrupting a given text, not God speaking again; why God speaking to "more nations than one" was always the plan, not a last resort — other sheep not of this fold, two sticks becoming one, God's own law of multiple witnesses; the manna Israel could not hoard overnight, and what it means that man lives "by every word that proceedeth" — present tense, still coming — until Christ says plainly, "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/john/6.35?lang=eng)); and Plato's cave, and the strange discovery that in Second Nephi twenty-nine, God calls the satisfied person the fool, not the one who dares to turn toward the light. The closing thought: not long ago someone showed me a completely new way to approach my work, and almost as an experiment I applied that same new approach to something I already loved — my own scripture study. The results surprised me. I started making connections I'd never seen before, and I couldn't just keep it to myself — which is, in a very real way, how this podcast began. I don't know everything that comes next. But I know the voice that spoke through prophets of old hasn't gone silent. It reached me, specifically, this year. And if it can reach me, at my stage of life, on an ordinary day, it can reach you too. Scriptures: 2 Nephi 29:3, 6–12; 28:29–30; Proverbs 30:5–6; Deuteronomy 4:2; John 10:16; 3 Nephi 16:1–3; Exodus 16:18–20; Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:3–4; John 6:35; John 5:39–40; Articles of Faith 1:8–9.

14. 

    22 Jul 2026

    Strait, Not Straight: The Narrow Gate You Enter by Letting Go

    Strait, Not Straight: The Narrow Gate You Enter by Letting Go Everyone knows "the straight and narrow path" — except that's not what the scripture says. The word is strait: narrow, tight, constricted — a different word from a different language that only sounds the same. And the difference is the whole doctrine: the gate to life was never a line to walk without wobbling. It's a tight passage you fit through only by letting go of what won't fit — told through a slot canyon and a sea-strait's pilot, landing on the mercy hidden in the hard saying: the gate is narrow so the gift can be total. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: the four-century-old mix-up between strait and straight — two unrelated words, one from Latin strictus (drawn tight), one from Old English (to stretch) — settled for good by the Greek stenos in (Matthew 7:13–14 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/matt/7.13-14?lang=eng)); why the strait gate is a covenant and not a contest — repentance and baptism — and why a rich young ruler and a camel at the eye of a needle both illustrate the same rule: you cannot bring baggage through it; what we actually have to give away — not just the sins but the desire to sin — following the father of king Lamoni's prayer, "I will give away all my sins to know thee" (Alma 22:18 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/22.18?lang=eng)); the two hands of discipleship — letting go of the pack, gripping the iron rod — and the sea-strait's pilot who turns prayer into something startlingly practical: handing over the wheel; and why a loving God would make the way narrow at all — not gatekeeping but a qualifier, ensuring whoever arrives empty-handed can actually hold, and enjoy, everything that is given. The closing thought: I keep coming back to a day in a slot canyon in Utah's San Rafael Swell, where my kids and I had to stop, slip the packs off our backs, and turn sideways to fit through the narrows — one of the best days we ever had together. That's what the strait gate is actually like: not a grim trudge to be endured, but a passage narrow enough to ask you to set something down, and narrow enough to guide you home. The strait gate is narrow so the gift can be total. Only the empty-handed can be given everything. So this week: find one piece of pack you're still carrying, and set it down. Scriptures: Matthew 7:13–14; 19:24; Luke 13:24; 2 Nephi 31:17–20; 32:5; Mosiah 5:2; Alma 22:18; 1 Nephi 8:30; D&C 84:38.

15. 

    15 Jul 2026

    A House for Whom: The God Who Builds for You Instead

    A House for Whom: The God Who Builds for You Instead David, finally at rest in his palace of cedar, looks at the ark of God still under a tent and decides to build the Lord a house. God's answer turns the whole thing around: you will not build me a house — I will build you one. What follows is one of the great reversals in all of scripture — a dynasty instead of a temple, a "no" that turns out to be a commission, a covenant that survives its own apparent ruin, and a Son of David who is at once the eternal King and the true Temple. It lands where every temple worker eventually lands: I am not building God a house — God is building me into one. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: David at rest in cedar while the ark still dwells "within curtains," and the good, generous impulse to build God a house (2 Samuel 7 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/2-sam/7.5-16?lang=eng)); what David and the prophet Nathan did wrong — nothing — and the word that came that very night to enlarge a good idea into an everlasting covenant; the one Hebrew word bayit — palace, temple, and dynasty in a single breath — and how God plays all three against each other; Isaiah's clay and potter, where the maker, not the made, sets the terms (Isaiah 45:9 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/isa/45.9?lang=eng)); whether David was being punished — the man of war who wins the rest, and Solomon, the man of rest (from shalom) who builds in it; Psalm 89, the covenant in ruins, and the hesed — loyal covenant love — it refuses to let go of; and the Son of David who fills the unending throne and turns out to be "the temple of his body," the non-grasping King who received the crown rather than seized it. The closing thought: When I work in the temple I catch myself thinking I'm the one doing the work — and it is work. But Second Samuel seven has it exactly the other way around. I am not building God a house; God is building me into one. "Ye are the temple of God," Paul says. The work there gets done with or without me — but by showing up, I put myself where God can build me into the same covenant He gave David, the one where the Lord does the building. Every time I walk in, I'm the one being built. So this week: go and receive rather than perform — just once — and let Him do the building. Scriptures: 1 Samuel 24:4–6; 2 Samuel 7:1–2, 5–16; 1 Chronicles 22:8–10; Psalm 89:3–4, 34–39, 49; Isaiah 45:9; 9:6–7; Luke 1:32–33; Hebrews 1:5; John 2:19–21; Philippians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:16.

16. 

    8 Jul 2026

    Give Away All My Sins

    Give Away All My Sins Where is your kingdom — not the one on a map, but the one in your heart? Four kings in the scriptures answered that question with their lives. Saul says "I have sinned" — twice — and still loses everything. A Lamanite king gives his whole kingdom away, praying "I will give away all my sins to know thee." King Benjamin keeps his throne and belongs wholly to God. And David sins worse than any of them and is kept — though at a cost that reaches past this life. Together they reveal that the surrender God asks for was never the crown. It was the self. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: the one question underneath all four kings — where is your kingdom?; Saul, who said the right words but kept himself, and the worldly sorrow that "worketh death" (2 Corinthians 7:10); the unnamed father of Lamoni, who moves from offering "half of the kingdom" out of fear to "I will give away all my sins to know thee" out of love (Alma 22:18 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/22.18?lang=eng)) — the rich young ruler with the ending rewritten; King Benjamin, who keeps his throne and holds it as pure stewardship, "also of the dust" (Mosiah 2); and David — the graver sinner truly forgiven, who fell from his exaltation over Uriah's blood yet was still named "beloved" and "a man after mine own heart" (Acts 13:22 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/acts/13.22?lang=eng)); and what all four reveal — the crown was never the variable; self vs. God on the throne of the heart is. The closing thought: Saul's tragedy is that he said all the right words — "I have sinned" — with a quiet condition attached: and let me keep what I'm holding. The other three let go, each in a different way: one gave the kingdom away, one kept it as God's steward, one broke before the Lord. Each of them got himself off the throne of his own heart. The question was never where your crown is. It's who is sitting on the throne inside you. Scriptures: 1 Samuel 15:22–23, 30; 16:14; Alma 20:23; 22:15, 18; 24:17–19; Matthew 19:21–22; 2 Corinthians 7:10; Mosiah 2:16–18, 26; 2 Samuel 12:13, 24–25; Psalm 51:11, 17; D&C 132:39; 42:18; Acts 2:34; 13:22; 2 Samuel 7:15; Mark 8:36.

17. 

    1 Jul 2026

    The Righteous King Problem

    The Righteous King Problem President Oaks argued in April 2021 that the U.S. Constitution is divinely inspired because it protects moral agency — the freedom God requires His children to have so they can be accountable before Him. But if God values agency enough to inspire a founding document to protect it, what does His own government look like? Has He ever governed a people directly? And why hasn't He just made Himself our King already? Six questions follow that thread through ancient Israel under the Judges, through Nephite constitutional theory in Mosiah 29, and into the Millennium — one principle traced across three thousand years, landing on what it asks of us today. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: why President Oaks calls the Constitution divinely inspired, and how D&C 101:77–80 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/101.77?lang=eng) hangs it all on agency — the therefore of verses 78–79; the two centuries Israel lived with no king but God, and Gideon refusing a crown ("the Lord shall rule over you," Judges 8:23); the day Israel demanded a king "like all the nations," and God's verdict that they had rejected Him, not Samuel (1 Samuel 8:7); Mosiah's "righteous king problem" — a righteous king is the best government, but "because all men are not just" you build a system of judges instead (Mosiah 29:13, 16); the Millennium, where Christ reigns as the one ruler who never abuses power and Satan is bound by the people's own righteousness (1 Nephi 22:26 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/22.26?lang=eng)); and what all of it asks of us as citizens and covenant-keepers today. The closing thought: John Adams told the Massachusetts Militia in 1798 that "our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people… wholly inadequate to the government of any other." One of the men who built the document knew its limits. A structure can protect agency; it cannot produce the people who use it well. The righteous king problem isn't really about kings — it's about whether the people are ready for a king worth having. Scriptures: D&C 101:77–80; 121:39, 41–42; Judges 2:16–17; 8:22–23; 1 Samuel 8:7, 11–18; Moses 7:18; Mosiah 29:13, 16, 28–32, 31; Articles of Faith 1:10; D&C 45:59; 1 Nephi 22:24, 26; D&C 88:111–113. Talk: President Dallin H. Oaks, Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/04/51oaks?lang=eng), April 2021 General Conference.

18. 

    24 Jun 2026

    What Nephi Never Wrote

    What Nephi Never Wrote In October of 1830, the Lord cited Nephi's eight-year wilderness journey as the founding model for missionary preaching — yet 1 Nephi records those eight years in a single sentence, with no preaching and almost no other people mentioned. Why point to a chapter Nephi never wrote? This episode follows the answer across the Arabian Peninsula, through the ruins of an ancient civilization with three suggestive names carved in stone, and into the story of who met the infant Christ. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines. Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed. I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed. What we cover: the Lord citing a chapter Nephi never wrote (D&C 33:8 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/33.8?lang=eng)); why Nephi didn't record those years; the inhabited peninsula and Nahom (1 Nephi 16:34 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/16.34?lang=eng)); the Lihyanite names carved in stone; the Magi connection and the 600-year Messianic countdown; and what it means to become "even as Nephi." The closing thought: There are seasons that feel like eight years in the wilderness — stretches that compress to a single sentence in hindsight. Nephi wrote what mattered to him spiritually; the Lord remembered what mattered to him eternally. He was not unaware of those silent years — and He remembers yours, too. Scriptures: D&C 33:7–11; 1 Nephi 17:4; 9:2–4; 16:23, 34; 10:4. Sources: George Potter & Richard Wellington, Lehi in the Wilderness; Lynn & Hope Hilton, Discovering Lehi; George Potter & Kathryn Kidd, The Wise Men of Bountiful; Brent Landau, Revelation of the Magi; Spencer Kraus, "One Drop of Salvation from the House of Majesty," Interpreter (2024).

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