Day 280 Recognizing Prophetic Signs and Wonders

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. Congratulations.

We are 75% through the Book of Mormon together. Can you believe that? Welcome to day 280 on our 365 day journey through the Book of Mormon together. 75% done.

Well done. I hope the Book of Mormon is changing you. I love this, and it has been so amazing to go through on a daily basis and study the words of the prophets.

Today, you're going to be reading Helaman chapter 16, verses 5 through 25, and this is the end of the Book of Helaman. It's kind of crazy. After we go through the Book of Alma, and it took us, you know, 100 days or so to go through the Book of Alma, it's crazy how fast we're going to be going through books as we go forward here.

And it's going to tomorrow take us into the Book of Third Nephi, which I'm really excited about because we get to the coming of Jesus Christ to the Nephites and the Lamanites. And I am so excited for that. But today's focus instead is on Helaman chapter 16, and our verse for today is verse 13.

Now we have Samuel the Lamanite. He wraps up his preaching. Some people go get baptized with Nephi, and then he just leaves.

Like I said, this one's such an interesting thing because Samuel comes, he preaches, and he disappears, and he's never seen again by the Nephites. And he goes on living his life with his people and continuing to preach there. And so then we get this kind of section of after Samuel the Lamanite, what's going on.

And verse 13, it says, but it came to pass in the 90th year of the reign of the judges, there were great signs given unto the people and wonders, and the words of the prophets began to be fulfilled. Now, we learned that these great signs and wonders were observed by pretty much everyone, but there was this chunk of people. The vast majority of the people actually reject these great signs and wonders in the verses following this.

And they do it by using their own reason. They trust in themselves and what they're seeing rather than what the words of the prophets have been said. And this one got me kind of interested.

I thought, you know, how do you even recognize a great sign or a wonder if you don't even know what you're looking for? And it had me reflect. I thought about this, and I think there's a couple of times specifically I can think of where I have enjoyed like a General Conference talk, for example, or I've enjoyed a talk specifically from a prophet, and I've had someone come to mind specifically that I think, you know, I should send that talk to them.

And most of the time, it's not someone that's a member of the church or maybe even has any context of what General Conference is. And so I sent it over to them as kind of just an invitation of like, "Hey, this is what I've done." In fact, there were several times when I lived in Houston where my friends started to get to know that, "Hey, this is General Conference weekend," and I was going to go listen to, you know, prophets and apostles and whatnot. And then I'd try to pick a talk and say, "Hey, this is something that I watched or that I listened to." And this verse just kind of stuck out to me because I thought, "Well, these great signs are happening.

These wonders are happening." The words of the prophets. The Bible says that the prophets are beginning to be fulfilled. And yet if you never heard the words of the prophets, how do you have any idea that they're being fulfilled at all?

And so whether it's current General Conference, whether it's a General Conference talk from the most recent one, or whether it's just digging into General Conference in general, that is where we can go into this incredible library of prophets, prophesying of Jesus Christ and of the things that we can see in our lives and apply the great signs and wonders so that as they do happen, as it gets closer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, we too may be able to see them and bear witness of them as the coming of Christ draws closer in our lives. 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, and I hope you are too.