Day 360 The Spirit of Christ: Our Lens for Good

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. Permission to judge?

Absolutely. In fact, it's expected. Welcome to day 360 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon.

We are five days away from wrapping up the Book of Mormon, and Moroni saves this incredible chapter to the very end. Now there's more coming still, but Moroni chapter 7, I hope you have time to dive into this, to dissect it, and to just absorb the teachings that we get inside of here. Your reading today is going to be Moroni chapter 7, verses 13 through 31.

We're going to be in the middle of that chapter, and inside of it we get some direction here that teaches us that not only are we to judge, but the lens with which we are to do it. Now, the verses that I have today—the verse today is going to be Moroni 7:16—but as has happened before in Savory Salt, read a little bit before that and a little bit after that, especially 17, as you see the other side of the coin there. Verse 16 says this: "For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man that he may..." I love this tail end piece here.

In those moments where we have difficult decisions in our lives and we're sitting there and we're trying to decide what direction we're supposed to go or what thing we're supposed to do, wouldn't you love a perfect knowledge that something is from God? I want that in my life and I've experienced some of that. I guess I would say maybe a taste of that this year as we've gone through the Book of Mormon together.

You see, inside of this verse we find out everyone has the Spirit of Christ. And we find out that we have a way that we're supposed to judge. And that judgment comes this way: We're looking for everything that invites us to do good and persuades us to believe in Christ.

There's our one punch here inside of this: "Invites us to do good and persuades us to believe in Christ." Now, I want to give you a scenario here from my life this year, and I want to do it through this lens of judgment just a little bit, because I want to add the disclaimer here that the judgment that we're talking about in 16 and 17 in this area is not judging others for their decisions. Let each man have their moral agency, and let everyone that has—everyone has the Spirit of Christ—and gets to make the same types of judgment calls in their own lives. So what I'm talking about here are my personal judgment calls.

This is where I want to drive my life, and I have no ill will or discontent for anyone that chooses to do differently than the things that I'm trying to choose to do. So with that kind of disclaimer, I got thinking about what it's been for me to try and find everything that invites me to do good and persuades me to believe in Christ. I've got to say, whether my family's noticed it or not, I've noticed this year as I've gone through the Book of Mormon that my choice of movies, my choice of music selection, my choice of TV—I didn't really watch a lot of television, but my choice of TV programming—my choice of general media consumption has changed dramatically this year as I've gone through the Book of Mormon and tried to take my own steps closer to Christ.

And as I read this, I realize this is the lens I've been trying to place in my own life: Does it invite me to do good, and does it persuade me further to believe in Christ? And that lens has opened the door for me. Now, don't get me wrong, I haven't gone through a media dearth or famine.

I've just found media that does these two things for me in my life. It invites me, it inspires me to go and take action and be good amongst my fellow men. And it persuades me further to believe in Christ as my Savior.

My friends, whatever judgment you feel you must make in your life, do so with the lens that you've been gifted with the Spirit of Christ. You may make judgments in your life with that Spirit to draw you closer to our Lord. And we're here today to talk about the great things that are brought to pass by small and simple things.

Keep it small, keep it simple, and always seek to be savory salt. I'll be here tomorrow, and I hope you are too.