2.2 Revelation and Authority are Key Components of Christ's Church

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends.

Great to have you with me. Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. We continue talking today inside of the restoration of the Fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We're going to take a look today at the fourth paragraph of this. And after yesterday's, it got me thinking a little bit about memories I've had with times in my life where I've gotten advice. And one of those pieces of advice was from a mission president that I had during my mission.

I had two of them. And he said, you know, if anyone wants to sit and argue about the philosophical things of the world, he said, always start with God and Jesus Christ. And I thought, wow, that kind of great advice, especially as we look at what we learned yesterday.

And really, this "Restoration Proclamation" is going to cover the core tenets of what we believe The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is. The fully restored New Testament Church of Jesus Christ. And that's where we're going to look at our verse for today.

In the same, it's inside the fourth paragraph of "The Restoration Proclamation," it says, "We affirm that under the direction of the Father and the Son, heavenly messengers came to instruct Joseph and reestablish The Church of Jesus Christ. The resurrected John the Baptist restored the authority to baptize by immersion for the remission of sins. Three of the original twelve apostles, Peter, James, and John, restored the apostleship and keys of priesthood authority.

Others came as well, including Elijah, who restored the authority to join families together forever in eternal relationships that transcend death." Now inside of this one we see two pieces that are essential to the restoration of that New Testament Church of Jesus Christ. We see direct revelation happening through the visitation of heavenly beings and visitation of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith. We also see a restoration of priesthood authority, something that must be in order for The Church of Jesus Christ to exist.

Now my thought for today comes on the tail end of this and this is about families being able to have eternal relationships. That is something very unique to our church and our beliefs. That concept has been very empowering for me.

When I have disagreements with family members or when we step on each other's toes or maybe even get into argument levels, the reminder for me that I'm building an eternal relationship changes the way I approach things. It helps me forgive a little faster. It helps me try to change my vocabulary a little bit more.

And rather than thinking in today's terms, where so often it's just, I'm going to walk away from this relationship, or I'm going to leave this relationship behind, or my family doesn't matter. Instead, what it provides for me is a reminder that what I'm building here is not temporary. I'm not building something to hopefully last the next two or three decades or the next 10 or 15 years.

What I'm building here are eternal relationships with those that I love, and it helps me to step up and forgive a little bit more. It helps me to realize that the people that I've chosen to have in my life and the people. And that is exceptionally empowering in today's world, especially one driven by so much division and frustration and greed.

That's all for today. Lift up your heart and rejoice. Cleave into the covenants you've made and together we will be savory salt.