2.60 How Will You Liken the Words?

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 first for Savory Salt, coming in this episode today, right here, right now.

This is a first. My friends, as we were diving into the readings this week with Doctrine and Covenants section 18 and 2 Nephi chapters 10 through 14, I gave you 2 Nephi chapter 10, verse 1. I read 2 Nephi chapter 11, verse 5 yesterday as a verse for today.

For the first time in Savory Salt, we're going to be taking a step back for just a second. I did one out of order. That's on me because as I was going back and reading, something hit me at this.

I was actually, well, honestly, I was actually sitting in the temple rereading these chapters, and something struck me this time that I thought I've got to share this because to me, this got me really excited. So, so forgive me as we back up just a little bit. Just a few verses, actually, in 2 Nephi chapter 11.

Continue on your pacing. You're still going to want to make sure that you get 2 Nephi chapters 10 through 14 taken care of. But let's stay in 11 for just one more view here if we could. 2 Nephi 11, verse 2.

It says: And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah, for my soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken his words unto my people, and I will send them forth unto all my children. For he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him.

Now, I told you something hit me, and forgive me if I'm the slow one on the uptake. I totally understand that could be the reality of the situation. But I read this like I've never read it before.

We know that Nephi loves the words of Isaiah and he talks about how plain and precious they are to him. And then I thought about the contemporary time that Nephi was with Isaiah. Isaiah would have been somewhat of a contemporary of Nephi.

And that got me thinking about contemporary apostles and prophets in our days. And I thought, oh my goodness, Nephi loves Isaiah because he's like the general conference talk that he loved. And maybe I'm oversimplifying this, but Nephi reads the words of Isaiah and goes, 'He's speaking to me and my time and my people, and I'm gonna liken all of his words to me and my time and my people.' And then it occurred to me, Allen, don't you have favorite apostles and prophets, or don't you have favorite conference talks?

And isn't it interesting how this aligned with our conversation earlier about searching out the 12 apostles? Because I know some of you, you've been telling me, but some of you have been looking at past conferences and looking at past talks. And one of them hit me today that I had forgotten about.

And yet, the second I started listening to it and I heard his voice, I thought, 'That is "The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ—Plain and Precious Things."' And we get inside of his talk a view from him of doing exactly what Nephi talked about with Isaiah. President Packer was telling us, 'I've read the Book of Mormon and I likened it unto my own life. And here are plain and precious things that I captured in my own life.

And I encourage you to do the same thing.' And then he goes through it. It is so good. And his voice speaks to me.

My childhood is filled with stories from President Packer like "The Mediator" if you've ever seen that one, or "Spiritual Crocodiles." My girls always laugh at that one because they like that, like the scariest video ever. But these monumental lessons for me... I see now why Nephi got so excited to share Isaiah with us because he was basically saying, 'Hey, my favorite general conference speaker is right here, and I want to share his stuff.' And that's what I thought about with President Packer's message.

I will send a link inside of that. And by the way, I just kept listening to that conference. I love it.

It's exactly what we talked about earlier this week. You will hear testimonies of the apostles and prophets, and you will regularly hear of the power and love that Jesus Christ can be in our lives. My friends, Nephi's favorite general conference speaker was Isaiah.

Who's yours? Spend some time diving into that. I'm excited to see what comes on the backside for you.

That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave to the covenants you have made.

I do apologize for the out-of-order operations, but I thought it was worth it today. Together, we will be savory salt. For more information, visit us at www.savorysalt.org.