2.178 What Role Do You and I Play as Stewards Today?

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. Stewardship and accountability, what do those have for us today? That's what's stewing on my mind as we dive into our final look inside of our readings of Doctrine and Covenants this week, as we've been reading sections 67 to 70.

We're going to get into, it only leaves us with a couple of. That's gonna be tough. A couple of verses in Alma chapters 16 through 19 to finish off the week.

But these have been some great sections to dive into, and I had one more thought in section 70 that I wanted to share with you today. Our verse is inside of Doctrine and Covenants section 70, verse 3. It says, "I, the Lord, have appointed them." And "the them" you can read all the who's inside of verse 1, as well as in the introduction there.

But it says, "I, the Lord, have appointed them." So we see here, these men specifically were named by the Lord and given stewardship over the revelations and commandments that they had up to that point. And we use the term stewardship a lot inside of Doctrine and Covenants and in kind of early Church history, but it's made me really think about our stewardship today. What accountability and what stewardship do we have over the revelations that we continue to receive and be part of?

For example, as General Conference comes around every six months, what role do we play? What accountability do we have to dive into those things and to study them and to share them with others? And that's what I've kind of been thinking a lot about.

And then I got thinking about some of these specific men from Doctrine and Covenants section 70 that were named. And it led me down into a talk by President Dallin H. Oaks (at the time, he would have been Elder Oaks) in 1999.

And as I looked at the timing of it, I would have actually watched this talk in the Missionary Training Center, in the MTC. April of '99, I would have been in the MTC. So shout out to my other MTC elders and sisters out there that are listening to this episode today.

In this talk, Dallin H. Oaks spends time talking specifically about Martin Harris. And he starts out by letting us know that he's saddened at how many people remember Martin Harris simply as the guy that lost the 116 pages because of the role that he played in the Restoration.

And then he goes through talking about Martin Harris's experiences, and Martin was at so many key historical experiences at the beginning of this Church. I absolutely encourage you to follow the link and read this talk or just listen to it with President Oaks's voice. But at the end of it, he has a cool lesson.

That's really the key of the talk. And I wanted to share that with you for us today in terms of our stewardship. He says, "What do we learn from this example?

Number one: witnesses are important. And the testimony of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon is impressive and reliable. My friends, you and I, part of our stewardship, is to be a witness.

That's important for us. Number two: happiness and spiritual progress lie in following the leaders of the Church. That also is key to our day as we continue to try to navigate the waters of so much information that we're inundated with in today's world.

And then number three, he says, 'There is hope for each of us, even if we have sinned and strayed from a favored position.'" My friends, I love that one. Martin Harris, in fact, all three of the witnesses, in different times and in different stages in their lives, were all excommunicated from the Church. They were all left.

And Martin Harris has an amazing story of coming back and finding within himself again the path and the hope. And for each one of us, repentance is that path. It's an opportunity for us.

I'm so grateful to Martin Harris and the others that were so enthralled in the beginning of this Church. Thank you for joining us today. We're going to be talking about the Book of Revelation, and its full restoration that continues to go today.

But I'm also grateful for you and I, who serve as modern-day stewards over the revelations and commandments that we have been given, to continue to share those with the world. I know the Lord will bless us and uplift us as we take account of our stewardship and stand before the Lord and say, "Hey, I did everything I could to continue to be a steward over the revelations and commandments I was given." 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 a Savior's Salt. For more information, visit us at www.savorysalt.org.