2.58 Search Out the Twelve

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. A fun little activity for you this week as we continue on inside of Doctrine and Covenants section 18, as well as 2 Nephi chapters 10 through 14.

This one I thought was important to bring up. It's not necessarily a profound verse of sorts, but what it is is a profound moment in the history of the Bible. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

And so our verses in Doctrine and Covenants, section 18, verse 37 today, it says, And now, behold, I give unto you, Oliver Cowdery, and also unto David Whitmer, that you shall search out the twelve who shall have the desires of which I have spoken. Now this is not a complete sentence. It continues on and there are preceding verses that you're going to want to read to kind of make sure you catch the context here.

But what we have here is the Lord Jesus Christ calling on Oliver and David to begin to organize the Twelve. And you'll notice inside of there if you look at it that the Twelve is a capital T. And what beginning is the recalling or the restoration of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Just as Jesus Christ had his Twelve Disciples following him and learning from him and testifying of him on the earth when he walked on the earth, we have them again today through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

But what does it mean for us to have these apostles on the earth? We speak very often about listening to our living prophet, our prophet having revelation for the church. And I think sometimes, you know, if you had a quick little challenge here, name the last couple of prophets, what come to mind, you may be able to just kind of spout those off.

And yet, if you were to name key apostles from your life, you may have a few favorites that have come and gone, but it may be a little bit more difficult for you to name all of those that have been. So here's kind of the fun activity with this. Apostles are called to be special witnesses of Jesus Christ.

And you're going to see that in the verses surrounding this. And Oliver and David have this challenge to go and find the 12, right? And then he gives them kind of a little bit of, this is what you're looking for here.

My wife, as we were talking the other day, she showed me a quote and I looked at the quote and I was like, hey, I really like that. Where did that come from? She said, oh, it came from Marvin J.

Ashton from the October conference of 1984. Now, 1984, I'm just a little kid in 1984. I went and I looked into that conference.

Just to give you an example of the power of these living apostles, go back to October of 1984. Here's the Saturday morning session of 1984 conference You ready October 1984 Here the Saturday morning session Gordon B Hinckley Ezra Taft Benson Neal A Maxwell Dallin H Oaks M Russell Ballard and L Tom Perry That was the opening session. Now if those names don't ring a bell, it's okay.

But what you're talking about there is this powerhouse of apostles and prophets that you can fast forward from 1984 to today and say, Oh my goodness, every one of those names has kind of quintessential type talks that you could go back and reference. And so the activity kind of became fun for me because the Marvin J. Ashton quote wasn't actually in that Saturday morning session.

It came from Saturday afternoon in a talk that he called If Thou Endure It Well. Inside that one, just to grab a quick thought from him, because this one's a great one, especially if you're kind of weighed down with challenges or kind of seeing challenges in your life. He says this, he says, when heartaches, tragedies, disappointments, injury, unusual attention, fame, or excessive prosperity become part of our lives, our challenges and responsibilities will be to endure them well.

God will assist us in our quest to conquer, triumph, and continue if we humbly rededicate And then he closes his talk there My friends the activity that I thought and I started going through this I was like this is so fun Sorry, I'm kind of a little bit geeking out right now. But pick a conference that's been forever in your life. I don't care what decade it is.

And I don't even care if it's in this decade, right? But like pick a conference where you can't remember things that were talked about and just go into the Gospel Library app. Open it up.

Look at who talked. Pick an Apostles talk and you will find the bearing of testimony that Jesus Christ is real. They are truly special witnesses and their talks whether today, 20 years from now, 40 years ago, 50 years, whatever it is, They will testify and have since this verse that we get in Doctrine and Covenants have testified of a living Jesus Christ.

I'm so grateful for their testimonies. They strengthen me. They uplift me.

And I hope through the activity that you do, you find someone that whether you had a relationship with or not, that their testimony speaks directly to you and lifts you up today as well. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice.

Cleave into the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt. The Help Desoney Miller miracle church in New Jersey.