2.48 An Invitation to Walk With the Lord

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. Welcome to an absolutely amazing week ahead of us. My friends, don't get nervous about the readings I'm going to share with you today.

We've got some amazing things that we're going to look forward to this week. Today, you're going to be reading Doctrine and Covenants, and you're going to read Joseph Smith—History verses 66-75. And then our Book of Mormon reading for the week is going to be 2 Nephi chapters 5-9.

And my friends, I don't know what it is about the way that I'm reading right now or what it is, but these are fire. I'm so excited to dive in this week. It's going to be super tough for me to kind of pick and choose verses out of the reading this week.

But at the same time, I am so excited for us to dive into the things that these sections and chapters discuss. Let's take a look at our verse for today. It's going to actually come from Joseph Smith—History.

So however you choose to divide out the week, for me, I thought, you know what, let's dive into Joseph Smith—History because that's going to give us basically kind of the verses of what's happening around several of these Doctrine and Covenants sections. Our verse for today comes from Joseph Smith—History. It is obviously chapter one.

There's only one chapter there, but it is verse 73. And what's happened here is Joseph and Oliver have been wondering what this baptism is that the Book of Mormon talks about. So they decided to go and ask God about it.

And then they're visited by a messenger who tells them he's John the Baptist from the New Testament. He gives them priesthood authority, and then he commands them to go and baptize each other. And so there's a lot of things happening inside of this story, especially when it comes to the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What we preach here in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that there has been a full restoration of the power and authority of God that Jesus Christ had on the earth when he established his church. And so 73 is immediately after these baptisms occur with Joseph and Oliver. And it says this, Immediately on our coming up out of the water, after we had been baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from our Heavenly Father.

No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery than the Holy Ghost fell upon him and he stood up and prophesied many things which should shortly come to pass. And again, so soon as I had been baptized by him, I also had the spirit of prophecy. When standing up, I prophesied concerning the rise of this church and many other things connected with the church and this generation of the children of men.

We were filled with the Holy Ghost and rejoiced in the God of our salvation. Can you put yourself in that situation for just a second? What an amazing experience.

Joseph and Oliver witness again that the heavens are open. And where did it all start? And that's my thought for today.

Where did it all start? It started with them taking the next step. As they asked the Lord, what is this?

The Lord opened an opportunity for them to take the next step and they chose to follow. And it led to the restoration of the priesthood and it led to them being baptized and experiencing these glorious blessings of prophesying. My friends, the Lord asks us to take steps with him in the form of covenants.

And as we take those steps, he blesses us along the way. What are the steps the Lord is asking you to take with him? Maybe that's a first step.

I don't know everybody that listens to this podcast. You're out there. I don't know who you all are.

Maybe that's for you. The Lord is inviting us to take another step with Him. And as we take those steps, we will absolutely be blessed each and every step of the way.

I am so grateful that the heavens are open and that the Lord invites us to walk with Him. I want to walk with Him. I want to dive into my life and know how I can keep these covenants that I have made, how I can renew those covenants, and how I can continually be blessed more and more as I walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made or perhaps consider making covenants with the Lord.

And together we will be "Savory Salt." I'm Allen Roberds. Let's care for the ones, me and you. God bless you.