Day 290 The Danger of Returning to Sin

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. It's time for another savory salt checkup from the neck up.

Welcome to day 290 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today we're going to be reading 3 Nephi chapter 7 verses 4 through 26. And there's a really interesting piece inside of here.

I had to pause on this one and ask myself, what was Mormon focused on as he wrote these chapters? There's so much focus on the wickedness, the destruction, the people turning away from the Lord, the sin. And we get this interesting thing inside of 3 Nephi chapter 7 where from verses about 15 or so to 26 we get this little tiny blip of Nephi performing crazy awesome miracles in the name of the Lord.

He goes forward and is just doing miracle here. You live, you passed away, but you live now! Like, he's restoring people from death.

And yet that's not Mormon's focus. The several chapters before that and leading up to this and all the way leading up to 3 Nephi 11 when the Lord's going to come again, Mormon's focus, and it puts it back in his perspective for me, is on the wickedness of the people. Remember, the Book of Mormon is a testament of Jesus Christ and a warning for our day.

And I think we get a pretty direct warning from Mormon today. So let's get to our checkup from the neck up inside of 3 Nephi chapter 7 verse 8. "And thus six years had not passed away since the more part of the people had turned from." I don't think it gets clearer than that, my friends, on Mormon's opinion of sin and wickedness. Now the checkup comes when we're willing to look ourselves in the mirror, me and you, and say, "Oh my goodness, how am I turning like a dog to his own vomit?

Or how am I like a pig rolling around in the mud when it comes to the sins that I choose?" We even use a term today to describe these. We call them "guilty pleasures," right? We even use a term that says there are things in our lives that we know they're not the greatest.

They're not purity. They're not cleanliness, but we keep them around. And here Mormon is saying, don't do that.

Don't do that. I can remember a video in seminary from forever ago, right? When I was in seminary.

And I might describe it wrong, but this is how I remember it. I remember it was one of those music video, storytelling type videos. And it was a girl that had like set up her living room and it was all white furniture if I remember correctly and everything.

And her friends came over and they gave her this movie and she stuck the movie in the TV. And everything's white. She's in white and everything's all around.

And the movie goes into the VCR. It was a VCR back then. But then all this like black goop comes out of the VCR and it just starts pouring all over everything.

And then she's left inside this room that's stained and dark. I can remember that all the way back from seminary. And here, I think Mormon's trying to say, "Hey, everybody, look, this is what it's like to go back and choose your sins after you felt the Spirit." And it's a great opportunity for us to say, "Okay, I'm here." I see what Mormon's saying.

How can I turn away from my sins and actually do the repentance part where we do what President Nelson talked about and repent in the way that it changes our hearts so that we have no desire to do those things again so that we don't end up like the dogs and the pigs turning into their own mud, muck, and vomit. That is quite a stark picture. Sorry for the graphic nature of it.

And yet I just felt strongly today that the message that we can pull from this is: let's be as clean, as pure as we possibly can. If that means a TV show that you've watched, but you're on season five and you just need to finish season six. No, don't finish season six.

If that's what the Spirit's telling you. Maybe it's some songs in your playlist. I don't know what it is.

Maybe it's where you spend your time. Maybe it's specific people you're hanging out with. Whatever the Spirit is prompting of you, take some time in the mirror and say, "What does a clean life look like before Jesus Christ?" And how can I start living?

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.