2.89 Shine As Lights in the World

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 our final thoughts this week on 2 Nephi chapters 28-32, as well as the reading we've done with Doctrine and Covenants sections 27 and 28. We're going to be looking at 2 Nephi chapter 32 today.

And this is an interesting chapter because Nephi starts to tell us a little bit more and give us some more insights. And then he gets to a point where he just says, I can't tell you more. And that's what I want to look at in terms of our scripture for the day.

It comes in 2 Nephi chapter 32, verse 7. And I think it offers some interesting insight for those of us seeking to increase savor in our lives. It says: "And now, I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be." This is really telling as Nephi shares with us that the Spirit is saying, hey, you've already done all of this in plainness and people are going to reject it anyway.

This was a really interesting verse because it took me down a line of thinking. I wanted to do some research around it and I came to an incredible, it's a deep talk by Neal A. Maxwell from April of 1983.

It's called "Shine as Lights in the World." It is a phenomenal talk. It's amazing that in 1983, he's dealing with a lot of the things that we see inside of our world, but he's talking inside of it about despair and why some people seemingly buy into it rather than seek. He says this, "Some despair who are, as Peter said, willingly ignorant, or as Nephi said, who will not search or understand great knowledge." For these, a pessimistic philosophy is pleasing unto the carnal mind.

That's an interesting look. He dives into a few reasons why it's actually pleasing to the carnal mind to be pessimistic. And then a little bit further in the talk, he says this: "This sense of despair is further intensified by the demonstrated emptiness of materialism.

Increased goods will not suffice if men display decreased goodness." Man, that is such a great one! He says likewise, "The mere accumulation of knowledge without purpose and of information without wisdom constitutes ever learning, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth." Wow. If you could describe not just education in general, but if you could describe the way people accumulate knowledge today, we have more available to us than any time in history, just in our hands, just in the phones that we have or the computers that we have.

And yet that phrase is so fascinating to me. "The mere accumulation of knowledge without purpose and of information without wisdom constitutes..." So what do we do about this? And how do we respond to what Nephi says? Well, Neal A.

Maxwell has a suggestion for us, and it's what I want to offer you today. He says, I love that. My friends, I talked openly about my desire to shine my light in the world regardless of my current conditions and circumstances.

And I hear here inside of Nephi despair in his moments, he not despairing in his faith or his hope in Jesus Christ. He's despairing in what men are choosing to do with their own intellect and their own knowledge. They're ever increasing in learning and yet never seeking to find the truth.

I think that's the plainness that Nephi is trying to talk about. So today, as we go forward, whatever our circumstances may be, may we, all of us, may all of us be lights that may shine forward the light of Jesus Christ in the lives of others, no matter what conditions or circumstances we are currently facing. God is there for us.

Christ is our Savior. He will stand and lift us up in those days. So it's confidence that we too can stand and shine that light as we go forward.

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.savorysalt.org.