2.187 Never Did Fall Away

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. My friends, what would it take for you and I to be like Ammon and his brethren? That's worth digging into a little bit in your own personal study.

We've been reading this week in Doctrine and Covenants, sections 71 through 75, as well as Alma chapters 20 through 24. We're going to look inside of Alma chapter 3 here to finish out this week's reading. I realized that last season when I did this the first time through the Book of Mormon that I only picked one verse inside of Alma chapter 23.

And I thought, well, that's interesting. Let's go back and focus on there and see what I could have missed last week. Look, I'm picking a verse a day, so there's a lot of verses I miss.

Let's just be honest. But I wanted to look at Alma 23 and say, what can I see here this time that I'm missing? All of these are things that I didn't see last time I went through.

And that's what has taken us to our verse for today. It's Alma chapter 23, verse 6, and we're learning about the conversion of these Lamanites. Now we know that many of the Lamanites have been converted because Ammon and his brethren have all gone out.

They've had these incredible experiences with King Lamoni and the other kings, and it's been great, right? Incredible miracles have come. But we get an interesting look in verse 6 here about the people that are converted to the Lord.

It says in Alma 23:6, May I say unto you, as the Lord liveth, as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching and were converted unto the Lord never did fall away. That's quite incredible when you consider who the Lamanites are inside of the Book of Mormon. This is the group of people that build generational hatred and mistrust of the Nephites.

And yet here Ammon and his brethren, through their revelation, through their prophesying, through the power of God working miracles in them, through their faith, through their willingness to go and serve these people, as many believed on their preaching and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away. That for me has left me wanting to study Ammon and his brethren and their missionary experiences as deeply as I possibly can. Because this level of missionary work is possible.

Now I'm not saying I didn't reach this level of missionary work. I'm not saying others don't reach it today. I love hearing stories of missionaries as they come home and share miracles and share faith building stories.

We talked about it earlier this week about sharing the mission stories that build faith and where you had an opportunity to testify of Christ. I love those stories. We find out here that Ammon and his brethren did it at such a level that the Lamanites believed, were converted, and never fell away.

Now we also see in Alma 23:7 that they did some things to help them never fall away. They got rid of their weapons of rebellion. They didn't fight against God and wrestle with God anymore, right?

And they didn't fight with their... So they did other things that helped them not to fall away. But it's left me wanting to be a part of that style of missionary work.

I think you and I have every possible available authority and power that Ammon and his brethren did to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ today. The Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We have this possibility.

We can step up. This is an incredibly high bar, but you and I are capable of it. We can do this together.

We can support our missionaries around the world that are doing incredible things right now inside of their teaching and preaching and ministering. And they doing it in a way that is so important to us. I'm so grateful for the missionary work worldwide and grateful for the tiny, tiny role that I get to play inside of it in supporting my daughter, in doing my own missionary work and sharing ideas and thoughts inside of Savory Salt.

May all of these things be combined together and through the power of God reach hearts and minds that turn them to Jesus Christ. That's my hope and prayer inside of our thought today. 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. For more information, visit us at www.fema.org.