He Is Our Story

Jamie Forsyth

Welcome to He is Our Story. Where we connect scripture story to our story, and we find Christ in every chapter! This is an LDS scripture study channel that follows the Come Follow Me Curriculum from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Our aim is to build trust in the Lord's promise to show up in my story--and yours. We focus on how the Savior and His restored gospel provide added purpose and meaning to each of our stories. New episode posted each Wednesday.

Episodes

  1. Jul 13

    Come Follow Me-July 13-19, 2026-2 Kings 16-25

    Welcome my friends to another week at He is Our Story. I am so happy you have chosen to join with us this week.  I think I have studied more for this weekthan I have for any other week of He is Our Story.  This week is so vitally important formultiple reasons, and I had a hard time choosing where to focus our attention.   We had a lot of reading this week.  2 Kings16-25. And it is not super easy reading! At some points while I was reading this—I shouted out loud-my husband can verify that—I don’t understand what is going on! It’s a lot of history. It’s Assyria and Egypt and Israel and Judah. It’s a lot of names.  The names of the Kings of all these places and the cities in all those countries. It’s a lotof back and forth between the two kingdoms of Israel.  The southern kingdom of Judah and thenorthern kingdom of Israel.   At onepoint I was like—are they worshipping Jehovah or are they worshipping idols?  What is going on?  And to complicate matters a bit more there isanother account of this same time period in 2 Chronicles chapters 29-36.  So, if you want the full picture of what isgoing on it is helpful to read that!  So, today we are going to take things slow, and we are going to focus on answering 3 questions.  Why was the House of Israelscattered? How will the House of Israel be gathered? And maybe the most important question we will answer today is Why should we care about the scattering and gathering of Israel?   It’s time to open up your scriptures and get ready to get excited about what the Lord has in store for His kingdom, and more importantly the role we can play in helping Him do His work.

  2. Jul 7

    Come Follow Me -July 6-12, 2026-2 Kings 2-7

    Welcome, my friends to another episode of He isour Story.  This week we are moving into2 kings.  We are saying good bye toElijah and beginning to follow Elisha in his ministry.   I found an article this past week, written byMark A. Matthews.  He is an instructorwith the seminary and Institute program of the church. I attended a classtaught by him last year and he is a phenomenal teacher.  The title of the article intrigued me- “Howcan we tell if we are really following Jesus Christ today? I want you to think about how you would answerthat question.  Hit pause if you needto-but I want you to come up with an answer! President Nelson said, “one of the easiest ways toidentify a true follower of Jesus Christ, is how compassionately that persontreats other people.”  But he isreferring to looking at someone else and being able to determine if they are adisciple of Christ.  The question BrotherMatthews asked was how can we tell if we are following Christ today? How can weevaluate our own life and measure our discipleship?  In the article written by Brother Matthews, hebegins by admitting that whenever he reads the New Testament, he always putshimself into the narrative and wonders how he would have reacted to theteachings of the Savior.  I have wonderedthe same thing. You probably have too. Would I have been like Peter, James and John and left everything behindwhen I heard the Savior’s invitation to “Come follow me”?  Would I have been like Martha who recognizedthat time with Jesus was more important than any chore?  Would I have chosen to sit at his feet andlearn the better part? Would I have been like the Samaritan woman who met astranger at a well and after a conversation with Him, ran to bring others tohear His words that filled her like living water? Brother Matthews writes, “I have learned that this is not a question weneed to wonder about. The answer is simple. The Lord has revealed that thesimplest way to measure how well we follow Jesus Christ today is by how well wefollow His living prophets.” Friends, it is time to open upyour scriptures-we are going to explore this topic of following prophets today.And we are going to do it with the help of Elisha, an Old Testament prophetwhose life and example is a remarkable typifying of Jesus Christ.

  3. Jul 1

    Come Follow Me-June 29-July 5, 2026, 1 Kings 12-13, 17-22

    Welcome my friends to another week at He is our Story.  I am particularly excited about this week’sepisode. I hope the stories we study today will bring as much strength to yourlife as they have to been over the past few days!    Think about the last time your whole family gathered around the dinner table. Picture the faces, the laughter, the shared memories. Now, imagine a line being drawn rightdown the middle of that table. On one side, are those who share your deepestcore beliefs, while on the other side, are those who you love fiercely, but whohave chosen to walk a completely different path.  The complexities that accompany a shift like that can besome of the heaviest burdens a Latter-day Saint family can carry. It’s the acheof strained relationships, broken hearts and broken traditions.  It’s the prayer we whisper to heaven-Howdid we get here, and how do we stay together when we no longer pray, believe,or worship together?  If your home or your heart feels divided today becauseloved ones have stepped away from the faith, you are not alone. And not surprisingly,this same story is told in the pages of the Old Testament.  At first glance, the breaking up of the tribes of Israelcould be a history lesson about political rebellion—the tragic moment thetwelve tribes of Israel fractured into two separate kingdoms. But if we lookcloser, we see this is so much more than that.  This is family history.  Our family history.  This is the story of a covenant familysplitting apart.  As in all things we can find guidance by looking to the Lords’prophet. And this week we’re going to look at the prophet Elijah. He walkedright into the middle of this deep spiritual divide. From his life, we are going to extract some really practical strategies on how to survive the drought of a home that feels divided,  how tolisten for the still, small voice when disagreements arise, and how to trust God with the people we love most.  So, grab your scriptures. Let’s talk about howto find peace, assurance and unwavering hope even when our story includesdivision.

  4. Jun 17

    Come Follow Me-June 15-21-1 Samuel 17-18, 24-26, 2 Samuel 5-7

    Why do we get scared when things do not go the way we anticipated or when life begins   to looktoo hard or the trial too long or the relationship too complicated?  What prevents us from turning our story overto God?  Sister Camille Johnson proposed an answer to this question; “Perhaps it is because the natural manor woman in us is resistant to turning things completely overto the Lord and trusting Him entirely.Maybe that is why we choose to stick with the narrative we have written for ourselves, a comfortable version of our story unedited by the Master Author. We don’t want to ask a question and get an answer that doesn’t fit neatly into thestory we are writing for ourselves.” I don’t know what kind of daydreamsDavid had during all those long days tending sheep-but I am fairly certain fighting a giant of a warrior, becoming an outcast while hiding for his life, and becoming King of Israel was not the story he was writing for himself.  President Ezra Taft Benson said, “"Men and women who turntheir lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their intellect, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends,and pour out peace." We see each of those promises fulfilled in thelife of David-and that should give us great hope that we can see each of those promises fulfilled in our lives as well.  So, if the key to letting God be the author of ourstory is turning our lives over to him, then it seems appropriate that we should spend some time learning what turning our lives over to Him looks like in a life.  Are there lessons we canlearn from David?  Is there a pattern wecan follow? Are there steps we can take?

  5. May 27

    Come Follow Me-May 25-31, 2026-What is Gospel Culture?

    In his conference talk , "Follow the Prophet, he Knows the Way, Elder Michael John U. Teh says, “When my parents joined theChurch, little did they know that they were embracing yet another set of values and traditions-even the gospel culture, based on the plan of salvation, God’s commandments, and the words of the living prophets.  Over time, as our family strived to fully embrace the gospel, my parents discovered that some of our well-loved traditions were not consistent with gospel culture.  It became apparent to them that they neededto make a choice.” When I think of gospel culture, I generally thinkabout things like green jello and carrots, funeral potatoes, or family pictures in BYU shirts (my family is guilty of that one).  I had never thought about a gospel culture based on the plan of salvation, God’s commandments, and the words of livingprophets.  An example of this could be not drinking coffee due to our observance of the Word of Wisdom or not shopping on Sunday due to how we feel about observing the Sabbath day.  The definition of culture is: The shared way of life of a groupof people. It encompasses the collective beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, arts, and knowledge that are learned, shared, and passed down from generation to generation.   As the children of Israel enter the promised land, they are going to encounter some different cultures.  The people that already inhabit the land have a very different belief system.  Theirvalues and behaviors are distinct and, at times, contrary to the commandments of God.  The Israelites will need to makea choice. I can hear Joshua’s words echoing in their ears, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”   Will they keeptheir covenant and adhere to the commandments of Jehovah, or will they follow the enticing culture of the world around them and eventually choose to break their covenant with God? This is the same choice each of us must make every day—Willwe follow our Savior, or will we follow the world?

  6. May 13

    Come Follow Me May 10-16, 2026-A Call To Remember

    We read about wilderness times often in scripture.We have been following Moses and the ancient Israelites and their journey inthe wilderness.   The Book of Mormon prophet Lehi and his familyspent some considerable time in the wilderness. The saints of the early restoration did their fair share of traveling inthe wilderness, even Jesus Christ had His time in the wilderness.  The wilderness symbolically represents aplace of testing, preparation and refinement. The wilderness also happens to be where God manifests Himself to Hischildren.  One of my favorite quotesabout the early saints coming across the plains is from Francis Webster a memberof the Martin Handcart Company.  “We suffered beyond anything you can imagine,and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor ofthat company utter a word of criticism? Not one of that company everapostatized or left the Church because every one of us came through with theabsolute knowledge that God lives, for we became acquainted with Him in ourextremities.  The price we paid to becomeacquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I wasprivileged to come in the Martin handcart company.”   What price are we willing to pay to become acquaintedwith God?  How will we let the wilderness times in our lives shape ourstories? For us the wilderness might not look like an extended period of time travelingin a desert or across the plains.  For us,it may be that feeling we get at 2:00 AM when the house is quiet and ourworries are loud.  Maybe our wildernessis the exhausting cycle of a job that feels empty, or without a lot of future.  Maybe it's the silence of a house that usedto be full, or the noise of doubts that are wearing you down. If you feel likeyou’re wandering in the wilderness, I want you to hear this clearly: You arein very good company. God didn't lead Moses or the Pioneers into the desert tolose them; He led them there because that is where they would find Him.  He led them there so that the only voice theycould hear would be His.  The wildernessbecame the best place to forge a covenant relationship with them.

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Welcome to He is Our Story. Where we connect scripture story to our story, and we find Christ in every chapter! This is an LDS scripture study channel that follows the Come Follow Me Curriculum from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Our aim is to build trust in the Lord's promise to show up in my story--and yours. We focus on how the Savior and His restored gospel provide added purpose and meaning to each of our stories. New episode posted each Wednesday.

You Might Also Like