2.97 Your Mind Has Been on Things of the Earth

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 exciting week ahead of us.

There is going to be a lot of reading, folks. We have a busy one this week. But to put it in a little bit of a perspective, next week according to Come Follow Me, there is a break for Easter and a focus on Easter scriptures and study.

Because of the readings this week, I might sneak a little bit of the Book of Mormon readings into next week. But let me give it to you anyway so that you can dive in and decide what piecing you would like to follow along. Our reading in Doctrine and Covenants this week is in Doctrine and Covenants sections 30 through 36.

There's a lot inside of there. They're not long sections, but they are specific to different individuals. And I would absolutely advise that you spend time in the Come Follow Me extra stuff, right?

To get the historical perspectives of a lot of those. And then our readings this week are Jacob chapters 5 through 7. Jacob 5 is a monster.

As well as the Book of Enos, which is technically Enos chapter 1. So that the week ahead. Again, I'm probably going to sneak some of Jacob 5 through 7 or Enos into next week, just a little bit, based on how we go this week.

But let's dive into our verse for today here. And really, if you look over these sections, I want to just give one piece of this: this is a historical podcast. Interestingly enough, in these sections, what we have here are direct revelations to a lot of individual members of the Church.

Many of them are new members that experienced baptism and then a couple weeks or a month later, they're called on a mission over here or they're called to serve over there. And a lot of these early members of the Church have direct revelation given them by the Lord through Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and they still end up falling away. And so I'd like to put a lens, even through all of our study this week, for you to kind of hold this lens and I'll probably repeat it a couple of times throughout the week.

And that is this: many of these early members took counsel directly from the Lord and still fell away. What did they miss in these revelations that we can catch? That's what I'd love for you to dig into and see.

What did they perhaps hear and not act upon that we can read and choose to act upon? And that's a little bit of what we're going to look at inside of our verse for today in Doctrine and Covenants section 30, verse 2. It says this, "What a great piece of advice for us to apply in our own lives." There's several pieces inside of here that are worth pointing out.

One, where's your mind focused? For me, there's absolutely days where my mind has been on things of the earth more than things of my Maker. And so there's a great reminder to me.

Hey, Allen, remember, let's stay focused on the plan. Stay focused on Jesus Christ, my Savior. What do you want me to do for that?

Right? That's important. And then the ministry that I've been called.

What are my callings? What am I doing? How am I serving inside of the Church?

Right? What am I doing ministry-wise? That doesn't even have to be a specific calling because I'll use "Every Member a Missionary" as an example, right?

We've all been called to do missionary work and that's part of our ministry. So where's my focus there? And then I didn't give heed to the Spirit, right?

And to those who were set over you. So now, who are those set over me? Well, those are my leaders.

Perhaps those are parents or grandparents, right? Those authority figures in my life that can go all the way to a leadership of the Church, the Prophet, Apostles. Am I listening to those who are set over me, specifically the living Prophet?

Am I following his counsel, but instead have been persuaded by those whom I have not commanded? Now that could be such a huge swath of people, but these are people, look, maybe even influencers, right? Or those that jump onto social media or the voices that we follow here or there.

If those voices are voices that have not been called of God to specifically work for you in your life, this is the counsel that the Lord's giving. And I think it is absolutely worth our time and attention to focus on. This is a great reminder to me to stay with the Lord, stay with His called servants, follow them, seek the Spirit in my life and give heed unto the Spirit.

And by doing so, maybe just maybe I can stay on the covenant path rather than deal with what some of these early Saints dealt with and have struggles of faith and testimony and ultimately apostasy. 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. We'll see you next time.