2.29 Ye Are Called to the Work

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 had such the great curveball set up for you today.

And then I went back, looked over my Savory Salt episodes from last season and realized that everything I'd planned for you, I covered last year. And I promised I was not going to duplicate last year's Book of Mormon verses. So, today you're still reading inside of Doctrine and Covenants sections 3 through 5, as well as 1 Nephi chapters 13 through 17.

And I mentioned earlier in the week how these chapters seem to have some great overlay pieces. Today is one of those. We're going to be looking inside of Doctrine and Covenants section 4.

Although here was the nod, here was going to be the secret I was going to sneak into 1 Nephi chapter 14 and give you verse 7. And it really, like 7 through 14 or 17 or something like that, it's about 10 verses there inside of 1 Nephi chapter 14 because that fits our reading for the week. So I have you kind of nod over to 1 Nephi chapter 14, verse 7, but we did cover that last year.

So let's stay inside of Doctrine and Covenants section 4. And today we're actually going to take a look at this one. It's one of the shortest verses of this really short section.

Fascinating thing about this one, though, is just remember, a lot of people use this one as a missionary one, and that's fine. There's no like misinterpretation there. But this section was not given to like missionaries going to go serve.

This section was given to Joseph Smith's father, Joseph Smith Sr. And he was really just looking for his place in the gospel. I can find great connection in that personally.

I'm just looking for what's my role as we go forward. And, President Nelson, what's my role? What role do I play?

I love seeing it through this lens here with Doctrine and Covenants 4 because yes, while this can be an awesome and amazing missionary scripture, this can actually be a great everybody scripture. The verse we're going to look at kind of identifies that for me. So let's take a look at Doctrine and Covenants section 4, verse 3.

It says, "Now, does that verse work for missionaries?" Sure. Missionaries opt into missionary work, and when they opt into it, you're called, right? But does that also work for you and I as members of the Church, or perhaps even those that aren't members of the Church, but they have desires to serve God?

Folks, here's a qualifier here: You have a desire to serve our Heavenly Father, you're called to the work. I love inside of the Come Follow Me manual (I haven't—I don't know if I've ever referenced that inside Savory Salt), there's a fun kind of activity here to say, "Hey, what if you consider Doctrine and Covenants section 4 as actually a job posting?" This is what the Lord is looking for in terms of your qualifications. If you were to submit a resume to the Lord and say, "Hey, here's my resume of the work I want to do for, you know, the work of God." Well, section 4 is kind of Thank you for joining us.

I love this qualifier here: I have a desire for it, and I'm going to seek the Lord's input for it. Elder Bednar, talking to youth recently, reminded us that when we pray, rather than this list of things that we're going to tell the Lord we want to ask for, what if we changed our prayers to flip around and ask the Lord what he intends for us? And I think that's what's opening the door here in Doctrine and Covenants section 4.

It's an opportunity for us to say, Lord, I have a desire. I found out I'm now called because of my desire. I'm called to the work.

Here's some of the things the Lord would tell us back for us to put in terms of life qualities. I love that. I love Doctrine and Covenants 4.

I'm glad that missionaries spend time memorizing it, but I think you and I, outside of missionary, you can also find some great uplift with it. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice.

Cleave unto the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt. For more information, visit us at www.fema.org.