Out of the Best Books

In his brand-new book, Learning to Listen, Elder Dale G. Renlund compares hearing the Holy Ghost to the delicate art of listening through a stethoscope. We are diving into Chapter 12: Feeling the Savior's Love.   In this chapter Elder Renlund draws from his career in cardiology and offers a prescription for the Latter-Day Saint who longs to better feel God's love. A patient's heart beats whether the cardiologist is listening or not— just as the Savior's love is constant--whether or not we feel it. But if the stethoscope is placed in the wrong spot, or the settings are off, the heartbeat is easy to miss.  So when we can't seem to feel God's love, it may be time to 'figuratively rotate the stethoscope,' to adjust the way we're listening until His love comes through loud and clear.   For more from Elder Renlund you can download Deseret Bookshelf+. Or find Learning to Listen at a Deseret Book store near you.

It’s common for many of us to unconsciously subscribe to a prosperity gospel. That if we follow with exactness God’s commands, we’ll receive a life void of strife. One where there is no unpleasantness or unmet expectations. Yet this is not taught anywhere in the gospel, and it’s actually an incorrect interpretation of what God’s love and mercy looks like.  This episode helps reframe what we might have misinterpreted or misunderstood about gospel doctrines. Camille Fronk Olson joins the interview and makes the claim that if we uncover these unfounded interpretations of the Gospel and learn truly what the Savior’s grace and love looks like, we’ll better come to see that disappointments and unwanted detours will lead us to a life better than what we could’ve ever imagined.  Camille is a professor emeritus of ancient scripture and former department chair at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. She is the author of But if Not: Finding God in Unmet Expectations and Unwanted Detours. You can download the audiobook now by heading to Deseret Bookshelf+

Many of us go through life with certain expectations—about relationships, about blessings, about what it means to live a faithful life. But life often doesn’t play out the way we planned. People we love make choices we wouldn’t choose. Pain enters in ways we didn’t anticipate. And we may start to wonder: If God loves us, why does such opposition exist?  In her new book, But If Not: Finding God in Unmet Expectations and Unwanted Detours, Camille Fronk Olson explores this tension between agency and expectation. This episode features chapter 5, "Agency vs. Expectations," where she offers a deeply compassionate look at how respecting others' agency doesn't mean surrendering our own—and how God's respect for our agency is a sign of His love, not His absence.  Listen to the entire audiobook by downloading Deseret Bookshelf+ in the app store today!

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we care deeply about agency. It’s part of our purpose. We believe we came to earth to choose—to grow, to become, and ultimately to return to God because that's where we want to be. But what happens when our choices bring suffering? Or when suffering finds us through no choice of our own? And what do we make of grace—not just as a backup plan for when we fall short, but as something more foundational?  In Original Grace, Adam Miller invites us to rethink the way we see grace—not as a response to sin, but as the starting point of our relationship with God. Rather than working within the traditional Christian framework of original sin, Miller asks: What if the Restoration is actually calling us to root everything in original grace?  This is Chapter 2 of Original Grace by Adam Miller. If you want to hear the entirety of his book, head to Deseret Bookshelf+ where you can find the audiobook and ebook. You can also find it at your local Deseret Book store or deseretbook.com.

As believers but also as people with natural man tendencies, we sometimes struggle to really know what God’s love feels like. We often wrestle with the question, does God love me? Am I loved? That’s a question we want to approach in this episode. It’s core to the human experience to want—and need—love. God promises us His love. So why does it sometimes feel like we don’t have it?   Wendy Ulrich joins the podcast to share her research on how we may not feel God's love at times because we, perhaps unknowingly, have built in some misconceptions about how God's love works based on our own human relationships and experiences. Wendy Ulrich is a psychologist whose book Let God Love You: Why We Don’t, How We Can has prompted this discussion. Read Wendy's book on Deseret Bookshelf+ or head to your local Deseret Book store for your copy today.

Theosis, or becoming like God, is the kind of weighty topic that may not come up every week in Sunday School, but has more to do with our daily devotion than you might think. Author Daniel Belnap gives biblical precedent for this belief and in the chapter we are opening to today, he connects that belief with the most basic gospel principles.  Professor Dan Belnap is an educator and author of many books including the new entry in the Let’s Talk About… series about the topic we are addressing today. If you want to download his book, head to Deseret Bookshelf+ where you can listen to Let's Talk About Becoming Like God and the rest of the Let's Talk About... series. Or head to deseretbook.com or your local Deseret Book store.

When President Nelson calls on us to stay on the covenant path, it is easy to think about a few steps along that journey, baptism, temple ordinances, marriage. But what is the end point of that lifelong path? Our celestial destination is one of the less understood points of LDS theology, and in this episode, a professor of ancient scripture helps put it into plain words that every member and curious believer can better understand the doctrine of becoming like God. Professor Daniel Belnap is an educator and author of many books including the new entry in the Let’s Talk About… series about the topic we are addressing today. If you want to download his book, head to Deseret Bookshelf+ where you can listen to Let's Talk About Becoming Like God and the rest of the Let's Talk About... series. Or head to deseretbook.com or your local Deseret Book store.

The need to feel seen and heard is something we can all relate to. It’s what gives us assurance, love, and even sometimes the endurance to keep going. It’s how the Savior ministered. And, it’s something Joseph Smith learned to do well.  A few examples of Joseph Smith’s abilities to notice others are captured by historian Matt Godfrey in his new book God Knows You: Getting Real About Spiritual Challenges. This episode is chapter 7 where you’ll hear about some of those examples from Joseph’s life. If you want to hear the entirety of this book, download Bookshelf+

Joseph Smith lamented in Doctrine and Covenants section 121 “Oh God where art thou?” It is a universal experience to have times where you feel like you can’t see God or He doesn’t see you. And it can make our experience at church complicated when it seems like everyone else talks about miraculous answers when you don’t feel like you can get any direction at all. Matt Godfrey is the author of a new book God Knows You: Getting Real About Spiritual Challenges and he joins us today to share some of his real experiences, and most of all remind us that God is there when we seek Him. Listen to or read to the ebook on Deseret Bookshelf+ or head to your local Deseret Book store to pick up your own copy today!

You’ve heard the phrase “you do you.” Now, author Terryl Givens points out that Latter-day Saint theology on Agency elevates our thinking to something like the phrase “you choose you.” This discussion is an invitation to consider deeply how we are empowered in Gods plan to make choices that make us very individual, move us forward in everyday life and over time, lift us to a higher version of ourselves. Terryl's book Agency: Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants illuminates the ways we choose and use God‘s great gift of agency. He is a senior research fellow at the Maxwell Institute and an accomplished author of many books. Terryl shares that at the center of this pursuit of agency is Christ's love. Download the Bookshelf+ app today where you can read the entirety of Terryl's book plus the rest of his catalog of books. Or head to deseretbook.com or your local Deseret Book today!