Day 319 The Three Nephites: Immortal Ministers of Christ

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. I've got a smile on my face today because we are going to talk about the proverbial elephant in the room when it comes to the Nephites and Christ visiting, and that is the three Nephites.

Welcome to day 319 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today we're going to be reading 3 Nephi chapter 28, verses 13 through 35, and they are some powerhouse verses, my friends. It's kind of easy sometimes to take the Book of Mormon and say, 'Isn't it cool that Christ came and visited the people?' And it's easy sometimes to say, 'You know, Alma had this moment where he was repenting and was out for three days.' 'We've been here for three days and saw the Lord.' And we hear these miraculous events, and yet when we talk about the three Nephites, we talk about them in almost a mythological or legendary way.

And I love the verses inside of our reading today. First of all, after the kind of seeming ordinance of the nine yesterday, we get a full transfiguration of the three here. And they have some sort of something happen to their bodies that makes them immortal in a sense.

They achieve the level that they need to, to be alive and to go forward. And then we get the launch of today's verse and then the many verses that follow after it. Let's take a look at 3 Nephi 28, verse 18 and see what their main purpose is as they go forward here.

It says—this is Mormon saying this—"But this much I know, according to the record which hath been given, they did go forth upon the face of the land, and did minister unto all the people, uniting as many to the church as would believe in their preaching, baptizing them, and as many as were baptized did receive the Holy Ghost." What are they out doing? They're out doing the first principles and ordinances of the gospel, as any other missionary would do in their missionary service. They are truly ministers of Christ.

And then we find out through these verses that they do pretty much have all power in terms of what they need to accomplish for their tasks. They are thrown in prison and they get out of the prisons. They're thrown in pits in the earth, and they even make it so that the earth comes up and so they can't even be thrown in a pit.

They get thrown into lion's dens of sorts, right? These wild beasts. We don't know what kind of beasts they are necessarily, but they're thrown in with wild beasts.

And they hang out with the beasts and everything's good. It's pretty fascinating to see the power that they have. And then Mormon gives us a cool verse where he goes, 'And just so you know, I've seen them and they've been hanging out with me too.' And if we remember that Mormon's writing this record somewhere around 385 or so, 385 years after the coming of Christ, we realize that these men are not only on the earth for hundreds of years, but they're also on the earth for hundreds of years.

We have been on the earth for a couple of thousand years ministering and going forth helping. We find out that they have the ability to show themselves to whoever they want. We find out they have the ability to not show themselves to whoever they want.

It is quite a beautiful thing to consider that there are ministers on the earth that truly serve. We're going to be talking about a family that has been raised in an angelic and divine way. As a family, we have some family records from Pioneer Days that have some sort of divine intervention in the family transfouve voltage.

I love the story of the three Nephites. I love their heart and their desire to minister every day from the time Jesus Christ left the Nephites to the time he comes again. I want that kind of heart and courage to do so as well.

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.