Day 296 Repentance, Baptism, and Childlike Humility

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 catching the repeated message here from our Savior?

Welcome to day 296 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today, you're going to be reading 3 Nephi chapter 11, verses 21 to 41. You will finish Christ's initial message to the people of the Book of Mormon here, and isn't it amazing?

Now I want to dive directly into the verse that I chose today with just a quick mention of how many times the Lord refers to a few specific topics. In here, I suggest that you dive into how many references are there to baptism and being baptized directly from Jesus Christ? How about disputations?

How about repentance? These are some of these recurring messages. The Lord comes and he says over and over and over again, here's some things I really want to make sure you understand.

And then something happens in 3 Nephi 11 that is really interesting. Verses 37 and 38 are very interesting to look at and I want to dive into that today. I had to pick one of the two of them for our verse for today and so I'm going to pick verse 38.

But understand that we're going to talk about 37 and 38 side by side today. 3 Nephi 11:38 says, "And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in no wise inherit the kingdom of God." So we have this, you know, first principles and ordinances of the gospel here. We have repentance and then be baptized in my name and become as a little child and then inherit the kingdom of God. And yet, interestingly enough, if you look at 37, you have "repent, become as a little child, be baptized, and receive these things." Now I don't think it an accident that the Lord swapped the order of operations from 37 to 38. "Repent, become as a little child, baptized, receive these things" is 37. "Repent, be baptized in my name, become as a little child, inherit the kingdom of God." I love how this phrase, "become as a little child," is first on the front end before baptism.

You become this, as Mosiah would say, meek and submissive to the Lord as a little child would be to his parent. You do that in terms of being baptized. The Lord is saying, and by the way, after you're baptized, remember to stay in that state and to continue to seek and lean on the Lord as his parent.

Because it appears that after baptism, becoming as a little child is also something that becomes a bit of a requirement to inherit the kingdom of God. Such an interesting swap here in this phrase and I'm interested what the Spirit may teach you as you dive into these verses today. Either way, the Lord Jesus Christ has come, and we're going to continue diving into his messages, and I hope you're catching the repeated things he is saying.

Baptism or baptized in all of its form. I think I did a count here, I think it's no less than 10 times in just this small interaction from our Savior to the people. I hope that we get an opportunity here as we continue to dive in to see what the Lord is saying over and over and over again and that we catch it rather than simply read it and say, "Oh, he just said that a couple of verses ago." Catch the messages from the Lord.

His repetition absolutely means something for us 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.