2.196 For the Poor of My People

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. Today let's take a look at an interesting perspective, the humanitarian arm of the Church. We are reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 77 through 80 as well as Alma chapters 29 through 33.

As I was diving into Doctrine and Covenants section 77, I was the United Firm and the United Order. There are several ways that the Church early on was attempting to take care of members of the Church across the board. The poor and the needy as directed by the Lord and the United Firm and the United Order were two of those.

I'm not going to go down that realm. Great study, great direction. There was an incredible talk that I had spent some time reading with verses 5 and 6 from 1942.

There's some good stuff there, but our verse for today is going to be Doctrine and Covenants section 78, verse 3. It says this. Now we have an interesting piece here as Joseph Smith has swapped out the terminology.

The world today, if you have not taken an opportunity to do that, I would suggest you do that. There's storehouses where you can make certain products. I remember when we lived in Houston, there was a peanut butter factory.

We loved the peanut butter there and getting an opportunity to serve there. There's cheese making, there's bread making, there's pasta sauce making, there's actual gardens where you can go and help weed or you can grow the tomatoes or whatever it is. trying to figure out, okay, what is the United Firm? And what's the United Order?

And what does it look like, sound like, feel like? And I just wanted to throw a couple things at you today to kind of see what's happening with the Church today. The Church's humanitarian arm, its ability to take care of the poor and the needy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, year by year, over the last couple of years, in terms of their humanitarian aid, has gone like this. 2021, $906 million throughout the world. 2022, $1.02 billion. 2023, $1.36 billion. 2024, $1.45 billion.

My friends, the ability for the Church to help others is growing because of what you and I and other members of the Church are doing to help it grow. Put that in perspective: during 2024, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was able to spend nearly four million dollars a day in humanitarian aid. That's going all over the world and it centers off of this idea of the Lord calling on us to organize a storehouse "for the poor of my people." A chance to help and lift those that are in need.

So, my friends, no matter what your economic circumstances are, I would encourage you to take an opportunity to serve or to donate to the Bishop's Storehouses. Take an opportunity to go see locally, wherever you are in the world, what's the most local way that you can go and donate to these storehouses and help to uplift others. I have loved the opportunities that I've taken to go and serve in these areas.

The Lord is mindful of all of us in all lands and at all times. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice.

Cleave to the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt. For more information, visit us at www.fema.org.