Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Doctrine & Covenants 137-138 followHIM Favorites with Dr. Steven C. Harper

Episode Date: November 28, 2021

Hank, John and Dr. Steven C. Harper share their favorite thought from this week's Come, Follow Me lesson.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/episodesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive ProducersDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: MarketingLisa Spice: Client Relations, Show Notes/TranscriptsJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Rough Video EditorAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsKrystal Roberts: French TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-pianoPlease rate and review the podcast.

Hello everyone, welcome to Follow Him Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I'm the host of a podcast called Follow Him. And I am here with my wonderful co-host John by the way. Hello John. I hank. Everybody's favorite. And we're joined this week by the incredible and handsome and brilliant Dr. Stephen Harper. Hi Steve. Hey Hank. Yeah. Yeah. You are where we love having Steve Harper on the podcast. Don't we, John? If I can say his name right, we love having Steve Harper on the podcast.

I was preparing to be offended there. Thanks for clearing that up. Yeah, him too. I love that. I'm doing it. Steve, hop. Welcome to both of you. He's from Boston.

He's Steve Hapa. All Boston. He's Steve Hapa. Steve Hapa. Hey, there are sections this week for following favorites. Our Doctor and Covenants 137 and 138. You get to choose one thing. You guys both know the drill. John, let's start with you. 137, 138.

Hank, Steve, this just gets harder and harder to find because there's so many things, but there is one phrase in here that I just can't put enough exclamation points next to it. And that is verse 39, Joseph F. Smith sees a number of characters in the next life in the spirit world. And he mentions,

and our glorious mother Eve, and many of her faithful daughters, sadly, much of mainstream Christianity has kind of thrown Adam and Eve under the bus. And if it weren't for them, you know, all these problems are their fault and not seeing it the way that our restored theology does. Go look at Moses 5 verse 10-11. But this is our glorious Mother Eve. A phrase you will not find many places in Christianity. I don't think at all. And many of her faithful daughters,

here's a homework assignment. Go look up the daughters of Onita, O-N-I-T-A-H, and read about who they are, some of those faithful daughters and so many others. So I love that the restored gospel has given place to our mother Eve and called her glorious and look forward to that reunion. And I want to see what Jill's fifthsmith saw. That's my favorite. Oh, John, that's fantastic. Let's return her to a rightful place. The glorious mother Eve. That is, I mean, that's a great, that's a great

follow him favorite. I'm glad you have that as your favorite. My, my follow him favorite is going to be kind of just the, the idea of the two sections. 137 and 138 are both visions of the next life. And you may hear, especially those of you who are a little bit younger, you may hear the idea of living after you die is just a crazy idea that makes people feel good. No, it is not. These sections are a testimony that you will live and so will your family and friends will live after they die and not only will they live,

they are part of the same work you are. They are, we're all on the same team moving the gospel of redemption through the atonement forward. I got to just read one quick story. President Eiring said the day his mother died, of course, he was devastated and he said, we got home from the hospital and my father seemed upset. He went to his room and it didn't come out for a little while. And he said, but he came out and he looked different. So I asked him, you know what happened. And this is what President Eiring says. He said, my father had gone to his bedroom to ask his heavenly father. By the way, Henry Eiring Senior, when you talk brilliance, this man is a brilliant

man. So if the idea that only foolish, uneducated people believe in life after death, tell them, anybody who tells you that, tell them, yeah, should have won a Nobel Prize, right? Everybody knew it. Henry Irons Sr. That man had gone to his bedroom to ask his Heavenly Father to have someone greet Mildred, his wife and my mother. He said that he had been told in answer to his prayer that his mother had been there to meet his sweetheart. The President Irving said, I smiled at that. Grandma Irving was not very tall. I had a clear picture of her rushing through the crowd. Her shortlaves moving rapidly on her mission to meet my mother.

When I saw in my mind my grandmother rushing to my mother, I felt joy for them and a longing to bring my sweetheart and our children to such a reunion. And part of my fall in favor is my testimony that that is going to take place. You are going to be reunited with those you have lost. So that's why I love the idea of these two sections. So Dr. Harper, let's turn it over to you. Okay, very good. Did I tell you guys that my brother, Dr. Harper,

says that I have to be able to take someone's appendix out before I let people call me Dr. Harper? Yeah, those doctors say you're not a doctor. Yeah, I, brethren, this has never meant more to me than it does now. What you just said, Hank, and John, what you said a bit ago, very touchingly, because my father passed away earlier this year. And a long ago, my brother's older brother's passed away and so my follow me favorite is verse 57 of section 138, where Joseph Smith says,

I beheld that the faithful there's of this dispensation when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption through the sacrifice of the only begotten Son of God among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world, the spirits of the dead. That's poetry to me. Those are my people.

I feel like there will be a place for me when I get there, a meaningful work to be done. I feel like in the meantime, there's meaningful work for me to do here and now to cooperate with them and to bring to pass that redemption of the spirits of the dead and I'm deeply grateful for such a meaningful purposeful existence both here and here after and for the the wonderful and hereafter, and for the wonderful consolation, it provides me that the people I love most are with me still and engaged in the same work, and that I'll have an opportunity to be with them in that again.

I can't overstate how meaningful that verse has been to me throughout my life, especially right now. Man, that is it's a beautiful idea. And what's even more beautiful is it's true. It's true. It's true. We hope you all will join us on our full podcast. You're not going to want to miss this one. You're not going to want to miss any of them. But this one, especially, you're not going to want to miss this one. You can find follow him anywhere, you get your podcast, use your Google and thumb them, type it in, follow him podcast, you're going to find this.

You want to see these episodes. But we know that some of you can't do it, or just won't do it. So we hope you join us next time on follow him, favorites. Thank you.