Day 358 Numbered, Remembered, and Nourished in 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. You are numbered and you are known. Welcome to day 358 on our 365 day journey through the Book of Mormon together.

Today, we're going to be reading Moroni chapters 3, 4, 5, and Moroni chapter 6, verses 1-4. So those are the full chapters. There's only a few verses in each one of them.

And it's almost like Moroni got done with the Book of Mormon, had this extra time and thought, oh my goodness, we've preached Jesus Christ and his gospel throughout this entire book. And we forgot some of the administrative things because that's kind of what some of these chapters are. He's teaching us about administration on passing on the authority of the priesthood.

He's teaching us the administration of the sacrament as Christ taught us. We talk about the people, and so that's what some of these chapters are inside of here. And then we get to our verse for today.

And it, in Moroni chapter six, it's right on the tail end of our reading today, in verse four, as he talks kind of about what it was like to be new members inside the Church. He says in verse four: And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ. And their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith.

There's so much inside this verse. I wish we had time to go into it, but there's a couple of pieces that I want to bring into our episode today in Savory Salt. I love that as people were baptized in Moroni's day and before, that they were numbered among the people of the Church.

And then their names were taken so that they could be remembered and nourished by the good word of God. Now, for some of us that have had President Hinckley in our lives as a president of the Church, you may remember that President Hinckley, for a good chunk of time of his presidency as prophet, he talked about three things that every new. But Gordon and I would go and visit Sister.

We would take her to the sacrament. She was physically unable to come to church, and so it became our duty as priests to drive to her house and to administer the sacrament. And she dealt with a throat cancer, among other things, that made it very, very difficult for her to swallow anything of substantial size.

And so when we would go, we would break the bread into the tiniest of crumbs. We would bless it. She would take the tiniest of crumbs and put it in her mouth.

And that's how we administered the sacrament to her. But we did something more than just administer the sacrament. We let her know she was remembered and that she was numbered in the fold of God.

We spent time with her. Sometimes it was very awkward for me as a teenage boy to try and figure out what to talk about with her. And yet we always stayed as long as she would have us.

It was very clear. Some days she wanted to talk, and some days it was just let's do the sacrament and then you boys can go. But I love that memory of Gordon and I.

In fact, as I was reflecting on creating this episode, I shot a text message over to Gordon. I haven't seen him in years. And I found him on Facebook and sent a message over to him.

And he and I have been responding back and forth talking about times past. My friends, when you enter into covenants with the Lord, you are numbered. You are known.

Your names are taken, and you are remembered. And part of our covenant in being the fold of God is to help remember those people as well. So whether you feel like you're on the end of being forgotten or whether you feel like you're on the end of forgetting others, this is an opportunity for us to gather together and realize that our goal at the end of the day is to do as Christ asked the Nephites to do and become one and work together.

You and I, we are numbered, we are remembered, and we are going to work together to continually be watchful unto prayer to rely alone upon the merits of Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith. 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.