Day 120 Abinadi: Beware Blinded Eyes and Hardened Hearts

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. Are you ready?

I feel like doing one of those microphone things with the guy like, "Let's get ready to rumble!" Because are you ready for Abinadi? If not, buckle in. I hope you're ready for it.

Abinadi starts today. We are on Day 120 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon. And today we get to be introduced and blessed to get the testimony recorded of Abinadi, an incredible missionary, prophet, preacher.

Crazy, crazy. Just his testimony of the gospel is so exciting to me. And I am always amazed at how brave he was to stand up alone.

So let's dive into Abinadi here. He is a hero of mine, and I am so excited to talk about some of his teachings. Your reading today is Mosiah chapter 11, verses 13 through 29.

You're basically going to finish chapter 11 today. Our verse for today is actually going to wrap up that at the very tail end here. Verse 29: "Now the eyes of the people were blinded.

Therefore they hardened their hearts against the words of Abinadi, and they sought from that time forward to take him. And King Noah hardened his heart against the word of the Lord, and he did not repent of his evil doings." Now, Abinadi's come in, and we've got King Noah going on. And Noah's... you're going to have to look into Noah.

Noah's got some wicked tendencies, and his people... He swaps out the priests, and now we've got priests that aren't really priests, and we've got all sorts of stuff happening. And then we get introduced to Abinadi, and this is his first round of teaching to the people here.

And then we get an insight to their reaction. And that's what verse 29 is. This is what happens after Abinadi tries his first round of preaching.

Verse 29. "Now the eyes of the people were blinded. Therefore they hardened their hearts against the words of Abinadi, and they sought from that time forward to take him. And King Noah hardened his heart against the word of the Lord, and he did not repent of his evil doings." All of these things, you know, this is a yellow flag, red flag, all-flag, yo-flag, flag-waving warning, warning, warning!

People, it seems to be inside of the Book of Mormon, that when you live in a righteous group of people and then you change to unrighteous ways, your hearts seem to be hardened even more so than those that have never had the light of the gospel. And what we see here are two things that I wanted to bring up in Savory Salt today. "The eyes of the people were blinded." They couldn't even see Abinadi as a prophet of God. They could not even see him that way.

Their eyes were blinded. Therefore... Now, "therefore" is saying first blindness came; therefore, next thing that came: they hardened their hearts against the words of Abinadi.

My friends, when it comes to the gospel, and especially hearing the testimonies of the Lord's servants, beware lest you be blinded. And if you are experiencing some distorted eyesight... I don't know how to say that correctly.

But if you see your vision darkening, seek the words of the prophets; seek repentance from our Savior, Jesus Christ; seek His Atonement in your life. And if you don't know the outcome of King Noah, don't worry, it's coming. But for those of us that do know, you can see the train coming down the tracks.

Don't be blinded. Don't harden your hearts. Keep them open.

Keep your eyes, your tents, your temples facing towards the Lord and His servants. Listen to what they have to say. Let their words sink into your hearts, and seek to be a repentant people.

I am grateful for the Lord's servants in my life. I hope you can experience the love as they share their testimonies with you of our Savior and our Heavenly Father, and that you can feel the love of our Heavenly Father as they share it with you. That'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.