2.128 Let's Be "They That Are Wise"

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. Oh, man, are you enjoying this week of your list?

I've taken my own challenge here a little bit and started before I even record these podcast episodes. I'm taking time to look at my list of Light of Christ in my life. And I'm telling you, it's changing my perspective as I sit down and consider the things that I want to share inside of this podcast, but it's also changing the way I'm paying attention to my day.

And I hope you're experiencing that as well, as we are reading this week, Doctrine and Covenants section 45, as well as Mosiah chapters 12 through 16. Yesterday, we used a little bit of an example from Abinadi and his story. Welcome to the side of believing and so it a chance for And then we get this interesting reference in Verse 56 about the ten virgins.

And I think we spoke about this recently after the recent General Conference. That would be April of 2025 if we're using this in terms of a reference from this recording of this podcast. But there were so many references to the parable of the ten virgins that this verse stood out to me because I thought, wow, there's a lot of references here in General Conference.

And then Verse 57 talks about the people that are the five virgins that are prepared. And I think that's worth us diving into. It is in Verse 57.

It says this: "For they that are wise and have received the truth and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide and have not been deceived, verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day." Now this is cool because it provides for us more context around the wise virgins. We know that they had oil and that the oil was ready in their lamps and their lanterns, right? But sometimes we go, yeah, but what does it mean for us to have oil?

Like, we're not literally filling oil lamps here. So what does it mean for us and our preparation? And that's exactly what I feel like this verse provides for me.

It's a chance to say, hey, Allen, if you want to be wise here, what do you do? You receive the truth. How do I do that?

Well, I need to hear the Word of God. So I can have that through my scripture study. I can seek that through General Conference talks.

I can seek to see, I don't even care if it's on social media or whatever. I'm seeking out the Prophet, the apostles, leaders of the Church. I'm seeking out those that are sharing the truth of the gospel.

Missionary work is another example there. And they've taken the Holy Spirit for their guide. And this is the one that I absolutely hope that I can continue to develop in my life.

And it's the one that actually my list of Light of Christ is helping me hone, I feel like. This taking the Holy Spirit for their guide, me focusing on where Jesus Christ shows up in my life. The Holy Spirit is helping invite the Spirit in my life and it's providing a space for me to have the Holy Spirit be my guide.

And you'll notice that that's associated with not being deceived. We are absolutely living in a time of deception, a time of lies, a time of false information, and we are left with such a plethora to try and associate with that. It reminds me of President Nelson's advice to us, right?

Maybe even more than advice, prophecy to us that there will come a day where the only way we will know right from wrong is if we are constantly under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. My friends, this is an opportunity for us to not just take the idea of oil in our lamps from the ten virgins, but actually have specific actionable items that we can work on in our own lives, whether it's receiving the truth more, whether it's taking the Holy Spirit for our guide more, or whether it's working on making sure that we are not deceived. We have a checklist here of opportunities to make sure that as the day comes for Jesus Christ to be here, we are receiving him and it is a day of glory and excitement for us rather than a day of terror and destruction.

I want to be on the side of glory, happiness, and joy as I see my Savior come back again. 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.