Day 32 The Lord Keeps His Promises

In Matthew 5.13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth, and in the same sentence offers a warning that savorless salt is good for nothing. Join me in an attempt to be savory salt as I share each day one verse of scripture and one small thought. Perhaps this small daily emphasis can lead to greater savor in your life and ultimately you and I can be savory salt.

Hello, my friends and family, wherever you're listening from. Thank you for joining me and know that I'm cheering for your every success. Welcome to day 32.

We move on to the second half of chapter 18 here. If you're reading along on the 365-day journey, you're going to be in 1 Nephi 18, verses 12-25. You're going to finish the chapter here.

Just divide that one in two, a little bit of half on the yesterday episode and the other half on today's episode. Before we get to the verse we're going to read today, I need to share with you a quick story about this part of the Book of Mormon. Nephi and his family are going to reach the Promised Land here And if you read the introduction to the Book of Mormon You know that that promised land is alluding to somewhere in the Americas somewhere on the American continent somewhere is where we believe the people of the Book of Mormon the Nephites and the Lamanites and the other ites and ites gathered together and had their civilization There was a time where I had a friend interested in the Book of Mormon and he was asking a lot of questions.

I used to teach history in high school and he was a history teacher with me. He was asking a lot of historical questions about the Book of Mormon and its location and where was it and where we thought it was and those types of things. And I said, gosh, you know, I can just get you a copy and you can read it.

And he's like, well, what is that? I said, well, it's talking about the history of these people and the Americas. He said, wait a second, you have a book that talks about the ancient Americans, you know, the Native Americans?

I said, well, yeah, the Book of Mormon does that. And in my mind, I thought, you know, he's going to read this and somewhere he'll, you know, kind of feel the spirit or maybe have a spiritual moment and be interested in knowing more about the Book of Mormon. And so I got him a copy of the Book of Mormon and then nothing.

We didn't talk about it for several weeks and I was a little nervous to bring it up. I finally just said, hey, you know, I'm going to read it. I interested how your reading of the Book of Mormon going And he said oh yeah it going pretty good I guess It an interesting book to read and whatnot but I got a question for you Al And I said yeah no problem What up He said well when do they get to America And I said oh okay well where are you at And he said I about halfway through the Book of Alma which is right like halfway through the Book of Mormon itself And I had to laugh because he missed this part here What we assume if you read the Book of Mormon several times or if you familiar with the Book of Mormon what Nephi refers to as the promised land And is exactly what we say is the promised land, right?

That's the land where we believe that Nephi landed and the civilization began and it was on the American continent somewhere. He had never connected that because he had no clue that the promised land was alluding to this. So, first moral of the story there is to not give the Book of Mormon to someone for historical reasons.

If you're going to give the Book of Mormon, give it to them for the spiritual reasons that the Book of Mormon was established. Second, the reason I tell you that story, hope you got a little chuckle out of that one. The reason I tell you that story is today's verse is verse 23, and it makes it very clear what's going on now that Nephi and his people have arrived.

Here's the verse. My friends I gotta tell you today message is the Lord keeps his promises You keep the commandments he keeps his promises And we going to see this several times throughout the Book of Mormon This concept of the promised land is made very clear throughout the Book of Mormon Keep the commandments and be blessed Don keep the commandments and deal with the consequences thereof This is the point at which Nephi and his brothers are going to begin their civilizations. And it begins right here, verse 23, in the promised land.

Today's message, the Lord keeps his promises to the faithful. Make covenants with the Lord, he'll make covenants with you and your life will be better for That's all I have for today, my friends. Remember that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

Keep it small, keep it simple, and always seek to be savory salt. I'll be here tomorrow. I hope you are too. We'll see you next time.