2.31 It is Plain and Precious to Me

In Matthew 5.13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends.

Great to have you with me. Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Welcome back as we've been continuing our reading here of Doctrine and Covenants sections three through five.

We're going to shift into our Book of Mormon readings for this week. So hopefully you have enjoyed Doctrine and Covenants sections three through five, some power verses inside of there. And we slide over into our readings of First Nephi, Lenten N.

So hopefully that gives you a little bit of a guideline as to at least where we're going to be inside of Savory Salt over the next couple of days. First Nephi chapters 13 and 14 are going to be quite interesting as Nephi is going to have a vision that for him is future events For us it kind of straddles mostly past events with a little bit of a sprinkling of some future events as well And I wanted to actually grab one of our verses today and take a look at what I believe is kind of straddling both. A little bit of the past for us as well as a little bit of the future for us.

Nephi's vision for him is going to see, he's going to see his people, although he's also going to see the Gentiles, he's going to see the Bible, he's going to see plain and precious truths that are removed from these writings. One challenge I'd love for you to take over 1 Nephi 13 and 14 is to pay attention to how many times plain and precious truths are mentioned here by Nephi in his writing. It's quite interesting to see what, one, is plain and precious to him, and two, the pieces that seem to be removed from the records that he's referencing.

One of the blessings for us with the Book of Mormon, if you think about the subtitle of it, is that it's another testament of Jesus Christ. And I think that that is perhaps one of the most, for us, forgotten, plain and precious truths. The Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ.

Let's take a look at our verse for today and then continue that thought. First, Nephi, chapter 13, verse 42. It is the last verse in that chapter.

And here a little glance at the past and a little glance at the future It says And the time cometh that he shall manifest himself unto all nations both unto the Jews and also unto the Gentiles And after he has manifested himself unto the Jews and also unto the Gentiles then he shall manifest himself unto the Gentiles and also unto the Jews And the last shall be first and the first shall be last Now, did you catch the shift there that happens? First, we have the Lord coming to the Jews, and then he's going to go to the Gentiles. And we may understand that nod just a little bit here through the biblical references of his visitation with the Jews and a bit of his Book of Mormon reference here with his visit to the Gentiles or those that had left Jerusalem.

And then we have this waiting for the day when Jesus is going to show himself Again, to the Gentiles and then ultimately again to the Jews. Now, one of the reasons I picked this one for our verse today is because I've seen and heard kind of the argument out there of if this was such a miraculous event, if Jesus Christ actually came and died and was resurrected, why are there not more accounts about it? And yet, while asking that very question, many people reject the Book of Mormon's testimony, the multiple testimonies of Jesus Christ.

And so I love this one here as a reminder for us the plain and precious truth that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ The Bible has testimonies that Christ was real that he died that he was resurrected The Book of Mormon supplements those testimonies and adds its own myriad of testimonies that Jesus Christ was real, that he died, and that he was resurrected for us. My friends, I love the plain and precious truths of the gospel. Jesus Christ is real.

He lives. He guides this church today through a living prophet. These are plain and precious truths that we can hold dear in our lives because it means for us that Jesus Christ is our Savior and the Savior of the world.

Thank you for joining us today. We are going to be talking about the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of the world. It means that we have a plan and a reason to continue to live and fulfill our purposes and ultimately become like our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ.

I love this reminder. It's a great one. It is plain, it is precious, and it's one that my testimony is founded on.

That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave into the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt. For more information visit www.fema.org