2.172 Skeptical or Curious?

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, it's great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Two sides of a coin today, skeptical or curious? Let's see what I mean by that.

We are reading this week inside of Doctrine and Covenants section 64 to 66, and I might not make it back there. I've got to be honest, we only got one more day after today and I can't even get through Alma 11 and 12. Without wanting to share so many different verses with you guys, but we will see if we get back there.

We're also reading Alma chapters 11 through 15. Yesterday we talked about the importance of building friendships inside the gospel of Jesus Christ. And today, only a few verses later, we see actually a completely different principle that I don't think we talked about yet.

And so I'm excited to dive into it. Our verse for today is Alma chapter 12 verse 8. Now Alma has just started to reinforce Amulek's testimony and we get an interesting change.

Now remember, Zeezrom is this, he's a lawyer, he's very skilled, cunning, tactics. He's trying to get them to deny the existence of God through paying them. He loves money and the lucre.

This is Zeezrom. And then we get verse 8. And just see if you notice this.

Verse 8 says, and Zeezrom began to inquire of them diligently, that he might know more concerning the kingdom of God. And he said unto Alma, What does this mean which Amulek hath spoken concerning the resurrection of the dead, that all shall rise from the dead, both the just and the unjust, and are brought to stand before God to be judged according to their works. Now this is an interesting question in and of itself.

And we're not going to dive into the question itself because Alma is going to answer that. But look at the beginning of this verse. What has happened with Zeezrom?

He's gone from skeptic. He doesn't even believe God exists, and he's willing to pay others to testify of that. What has he turned into?

It says and Zeezrom began to inquire of them diligently that he might know more concerning the kingdom of God. He started to become curious. My friends, I think that is a great lesson for each one of us at whatever stage we are in our testimonies.

Do we approach learning gospel principles through the eyes of skeptics? Where we're hesitant and distrustful of whatever the things we hear being true? Or do we approach it being curious, willing to investigate the Word of God and willing to see what it can do to our own understanding in terms of opening our eyes?

I think we can learn a lot from Zeezrom because we find here another beautiful example of the power of testimonies of Jesus Christ and the power of repentance. Now it's going to be several chapters later, but Zeezrom is going to go from this super skeptic to a convert of the Church. And he's going to find his own testimony.

It's going to happen as his heart changes from a skeptical heart to a curious heart. I think there have been times in my life where, as I'm reading the scriptures or as I'm studying certain gospel topics, I'm approaching them through the lens of a skeptic. And then there's been other times in my life where I've opened up my heart and my mind to say, I'm curious here, Lord, what can you teach me?

I love the shift that we see here from Zeezrom, and I hope we can each take a piece out of his example to shift ourselves from skeptical about the gospel of Jesus Christ to curious about the gospel of Jesus Christ. 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.