2.33 Judgey Judgerton

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 know what you're thinking. You're thinking the same thing that I'm thinking.

And that is how can we possibly already be through a month and already be to the part where Nephi builds the ship. What an amazing story this is. Welcome to 1 Nephi chapter 7.

I hope that you enjoy this chapter as much as I do. There are so many verses inside this one. As I looked last year at the verses that I shared, those are power verses.

I got verses today that I thought about and I'm like, oh my goodness, how do I pick one? And so this is what we get. I guess it means I got to do the Book of Mormon again so that I can finally share all of my 1 Nephi 17 savory salt scriptures.

Let's dive into our verse for today. We are in 1 Nephi chapter 17. Nephi has the opportunity to build the ship.

We have all of this great symbolism at the beginning with him going up into the mountain and receiving the word of the Lord. All sorts of symbolism there with the temple. And then we get into this back and forth with Laman and Lemuel and all of their struggles and their complaining.

And then Nephi starts building and we have these miracles that happen there. I mean, oh my goodness. Our verse for today is 1 Nephi 17:22.

It says this—this is actually Laman and Lemuel talking to Nephi: "And we know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people, for they kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his commandments, according to the law of Moses. Wherefore, we know that they are a righteous people, and our Father hath judged them, and hath led us away, because we would hearken unto his words. Yea, and our brother is like unto him.

And after this manner of language did my brethren murmur and complain against us." Now, I've mentioned before how I love to put notes inside of my scriptures, the digital ones especially, and I love to see kind of the timeline of those. And this one was an interesting one. This comes from February of 2020, my note, that is, I should say.

Comes from February of 2020, which, if you look at the timeline of events, was right before we really find out about the whole COVID thing and the whole pandemic thing. My jigger, right? It hadn't quite started to come out yet.

And so, this was my study back then. And this is what I wrote. This is the note inside of here, and I think I stay in alignment with what I was thinking five years ago.

But it says this: In this moment, Laman and Lemuel show an interesting insight. They see Lehi's attempts to follow the Lord as judging others. You know, judging is such an interesting word and it is thrown around in a plethora.

We have a lot of ways in our society today. One of them, of course, being that members of the church in so many different ways and shapes and forms are judgy people. And yet, interestingly enough, here are the complaints that we see from Laman and Lemuel are quite interesting.

They think that Lehi is walking around as a judgy judgerton. And yet, Lehi is receiving visions from the Lord saying, get out of Jerusalem because these people are not going to be able to do that. The Bible says that the people of Israel are going to be destroyed.

They refuse to hear the prophets. They refuse to repent. And so while Laman and Lemuel are sitting here saying everything's fine in Jerusalem, and we know that those people are just fine, Lehi and Nephi are trying to say the Lord's telling us to get out, and we're going to try and obey the Lord.

My friends, in your attempts to keep the commandments of God, if anyone accuses you or tells you you are being judgy or judgmental, and yet you're just trying to keep the commandments of God, stay true to your convictions. You've made covenants with the Lord. You're trying to follow the commandments of the Lord.

And as you do so, if others choose not to do that, or if others see you as being overly righteous because of your attempts to do that, so let it be. You are not sitting in judgment of them and their decisions. You are trying to make a decision for you in your life and follow the commandments of the Lord.

And the Lord will bless you for doing that. I hope you feel the conviction in my voice inside of that one as you go forward and do your best and I go forward and do my best in keeping the commandments of the Lord. 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.alleneroberds.com.