Day 54 When Learning Becomes Foolishness: Seek God's Counsel

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. We are into day 54, still working through 2 Nephi chapter 9.

I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am. I got a big old smile on my face. The ohs and the woes are all over inside of here.

I am enjoying this today on your 360, because some of the thoughts are just going all over and I have to just follow what I feel like I should share inside of savory salt. Here we go, verse 28 for today. By the way, it's an 'O' – that's a different 'O'.

It's an 'O' like 'oh, oh, oh dear, oh dear.' This one's an 'O' – that 'oh dear' – but that's okay. Here we go: O, that cunning plan of the evil one! O, the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men!

When they are learned, they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God. For they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves. Wherefore their wisdom is foolishness, and it profiteth them not, and they shall perish.

Oh my goodness, this is 'dun-dun-dun' is what this one is, right? Now, before you just look at it and go, oh my goodness, Jacob's just saying, don't be learned. That's just dangerous to be learned.

Don't worry, verse 29 comes to the backside of that. But this gives an interesting perspective into what we are focusing on when we do learn. Are we learning through the Spirit?

Are we learning through the counsel of God? And through the Spirit of God? Rejecting or leaving behind the Spirit of God in order to find your testimony of the workings of God, it's just out of alignment.

It's not going to work. I can remember on my mission, I had two mission presidents, and my second mission president, President Harlan Clark, I remember him talking one day about making sure that as missionaries, we didn't go into arguments with people and we didn't get into, 'Well, yeah, but this is over here. Well, yeah, but this verse is over here.' And he said something really interesting that I think I better understand a little bit today, but I think I still have some understanding to sink into it a little bit.

But this is what President Clark shared with us. He said, if you ever get caught arguing about spiritual matters, stop the argument and back up to your understanding and their understanding of who God is. Because he said, if you can't come to an understanding of who God is in the first place, the rest of the arguments are simply going to be out of alignment.

And I think about that, and that's so interesting to me because we can argue this doctrine over here, or we can say, 'Oh, I read this about the Book of Mormon over there, and this is what they claim about the Book of Mormon over here,' or, 'The Bible, or it can't be true because of this.' And it's really interesting to me because if you don't have a foundational understanding of a Father in Heaven — and maybe not even understanding, maybe I should even say belief — if you don't have a foundational belief in a Father in Heaven that has a plan for your eternal happiness and has provided a Savior for your eternal happiness, the rest of the argument falls apart, whatever it is. And I think what Jacob is saying here is, make sure that as you study and learn, that you do so through the Spirit of God, and that you continue to seek the counsel of God in your life in all areas that you study and learn. I love that because the Lord can amplify and magnify our efforts.

We've already talked about that in this podcast. And if he can amplify and magnify our efforts, why wouldn't I want to include him in every other aspect of the studies of my life? It's all 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.