2.13 Inquirers of Truth Look to the Source

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. I have good news on the front end of this episode and throughout this week: I have created a downloadable for you.

It's not fancy in any way, shape or form, but I've created a downloadable PDF that is in this podcast episode and I'll put it in throughout this week. The reading for Come Follow Me through Doctrine and Covenants. It shows you the pacing that I am using for my own study of the Book of Mormon and also the pacing that will be used in here for Savory Salt week by week.

So I hope you enjoy that. No names or emails required to download it. Just go click on it.

It should be available to you. If it is not there, please send me an email or whatever best you can do to contact me and let me know that it's not being downloaded. That's just available for you as a resource as some of you have asked, "Allen, what's your pacing through the year?" Our week as we look ahead here is going to be focused on Joseph Smith—History found in the Pearl of Great Price, and it's really just chapter one.

We call it chapter one, but it's going to look at verses one through 26 this week. And at first I thought, "Man, how am I going to pick verses from that over an entire week?" And then I read through it and thought, "Oh my goodness, how am I only going to pick some verses for Savory Salt here?" And then in terms of the Book of Mormon this week, you're going to be reading from 1 Nephi chapters 4 through 8. So those will be the combined readings that we will have this week as we go through Savory Salt.

Let's get to our verse for today. It comes right off of the beginning of Joseph Smith—History. As we look at verse 1, I'm going to let Joseph explain this in verse 1 and then let's talk about it for just a second.

He says, "Owing to the many reports which have been put in circulation by evil-disposed and designing persons, in relation to the rise and progress of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, all of which have been designed by the authors thereof to militate against its character as a Church and its progress in the world, I have been induced to write this history, to disabuse the public mind, and put all inquirers after truth in possession of the facts as they have transpired, in relation both to myself and the Church, so far as I have such facts in my possession." Now, this one's an interesting one. I chose this one because I think it's interesting. We know that Joseph Smith—History is written later in Joseph's life.

In fact, this is not the only account of the First Vision, for example. And you can find many of the others in the Joseph Smith Papers, other resources inside the Church, the Saints books—all of those things have different versions there. But I think it's interesting here that what Joseph's trying to say is, "Look, there's been a lot of stuff written about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." There's been a lot of stuff written about Joseph Smith, the Prophet.

Many of it is commentary that is designed specifically for ill intent. As he mentions, it's evil-disposed and designing persons that are specifically doing it to militate against the Church's character and its progress in the world. And I love that what Joseph's trying to do here is say, "Look, if you want to know the character of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, if you want to understand the character of Joseph Smith the man, here's the source." Go to the source.

I think it's a great reminder for us as Savory Salt: Let's go to the source. Let's read his history. Let's read the Joseph Smith Papers.

I love that this is a great reminder for us. Joseph does it in his own life as he's seeking, in fact, a precursor to the First Vision. The First Vision that he has is that he is seeking to go to the source of knowledge and information.

It's a great reminder for you and me as we're reading the scriptures, as we're struggling with questions that we have, to turn to the source of that knowledge rather than the commentary around the sources. Let's dig in and go to the source. And ultimately, the primary source we can turn to is the same that Joseph Smith did.

And that is seeking insight and direction from our Heavenly Father, who will truly, as we find out through our research this week, "give to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your heart and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made, and together we will be savory salt. For more information, visit us at www.savorysaltpodcast.com.