2.179 Without Respect of Persons

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. We're going to shift gears today into our Book of Mormon reading for this week, although we only have a couple of days left in this week. We have been reading Doctrine and Covenants sections 67 through 70, as well as Alma chapters 16 through 19.

Now if you listened to last season, you might notice that we did not do any verses from Alma chapter 16. And one of the reasons for that is because Alma chapter 17 has one of my absolute favorite moments in the Book of Mormon. But I will let you go back to season 1 and check out those Alma 17 moments.

Instead, today our verse is going to be a short one, but a powerful one from Alma chapter 16. We've got a difficult thing happening here where the entire city of Ammonihah and all of its inhabitants are wiped out by the Lamanites. And then it comes back to Alma and Amulek continuing to preach.

And here a view inside of their preaching that I absolutely love. And we are also going to end Alma and Amulek's story quite a bit here as we shift into Alma 17 and go into the sons of Mosiah and their 14 year experience with the Lamanites preaching there. So this is a bit of a sunset moment to Alma and Amulek and their teaching for a bit.

Our verse for today is Alma chapter 16 verse 14. This is an insight to the preaching that they were doing. It says, And as many as would hear their words, unto them they did impart the word of God, without any respect of persons continually.

Now what stood out to me there was as many as would hear, they did impart the word of God. So they're preaching to anyone that will listen without any respect of persons. Friends, as I paused in that idea of not respecting a person, it doesn't mean that they didn't have respect for people.

It means that they taught them regardless of their backgrounds, regardless of who they were. And as I thought myself, I kind of reflected back into the gospel conversations I had, missionary experiences throughout my life, and I love those experiences. I am so grateful to them whether it was serving my mission or whether it was serving as you know at the time a ward mission leader in Houston, Texas or any of the other missionary experiences I had as I've gone to different parts of the world.

I talked about my different travels whether it was in Kenya or Papua New Guinea or wherever it is. And I thought about this without any respect of persons. I thought, Ah, how many times do we see someone and think, ah, they wouldn't, they wouldn't want to listen to my testimony.

We see them on the outside and we automatically decide whether that person would want to hear what we have to say. Or maybe we change what we would say because we're a little bit nervous about what that person looks like. And as I thought about that, I thought, you know what, in my own life experience, now I'm not trying to pat myself on the back by any means, right?

I just want to share this in terms of reflection here. But in my own experience, I've shared my testimony with drunks. I've shared my testimony with gang members and former gang members.

I've shared my testimony with former inmates who have served hard prison time, but I've also shared my testimony with intellectuals. I've shared my testimony with influencers that have, you know, great followings, but I'm going to take time to share my thoughts with them. I've shared my testimony with former undercover agents that are now retired, right?

And former special forces, military. Like these are just a handful of experiences I had. And as I thought about this, most of those people I would have looked at and thought, ah, they don't want to hear what I have to say anyway, and yet all of those experiences gave me an opportunity to share my testimony, and they were well received.

If I had gone off of how they looked or who they were or what their past was and not shared my testimony, I would have lost that opportunity. My friends, I love that Alma and Amulek will go and impart the word of God to as many as would hear their words without any respect of persons. I think that's a lesson that you and I can absolutely keep in our lives as we go forward.

Share your testimony. Share it with people that look entirely like you and share your testimony with people that look absolutely nothing like you. Share it, impart the word of God and see the blessings that can come in your life and in the lives of those you share it with.

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. We'll see you next time.