2.258 Saviors of Men

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. Saviors of men? You and me?

Yes! Welcome to a new week. We are reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 102 to 105 as well as Helaman chapters 8 through 12.

It's amazing how quickly as we get to the tail end of the year here, and we're not even really in the tail end, but we're coming up on the last hundred days of the year, which means the last hundred days of this season. In Savory Salt, it means the last hundred days of the Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon together as we've been reading these things. I hope that you are seeing some of the references inside of Doctrine and Covenants to those that are savory salt and the warnings about salt losing its savor.

We're going to look at a verse right before that reference, this inside of our podcast episode today. Our reading this week as we dive into Doctrine and Covenants sections 102 to 105. 102, I'm going to let you dive into that. That talks about the very first minutes of the organization of the first high council and kind of what happens inside of these challenges and difficulties if church members and others are needing a form of judicial regulation.

So I'm going to let you dive into that one. Instead, we're going to take a look at Doctrine and Covenants section 103. And inside of it, the Lord kind of explains some of the reasons why some of these saints are experiencing some persecution.

And he's going to, as he often does in Doctrine and Covenants, remind them of the need to repent. There's a note for you and for me there. But then he's also going to remind them of the need to repent.

And he's going to... Let's take a look at Doctrine and Covenants, Section 103, Verse 9. It says, For they, these members of the church, us, for they were set to be a light unto the world and to be the saviors of men.

Now that's again part of a sentence, so make sure that you read the second half of that sentence in there. You'll also notice the warning about salt losing its savor. But my friends, you and I have a role to play, and it's not a passive role.

If you think about light, light enlightens, right? Light drives darkness. It's not a passive thing to have light inside of a dark room.

And we are set to be lights unto the world, And ultimately, Saviors of Men. Now, how do we do that? How do we step into our role as being saviors of men?

That took me down a line of General Conference readings, as I'm really starting to enjoy that, by the way. I mentioned that before. But I landed on a talk by President Ezra Taft Benson from 1985.

I'll make sure that the link is inside here for you so that you can follow up on it as well. The talk is called "Our Responsibility to Share the Gospel" and it has a reference to this verse here with us being a light and saviors to men. He has a cool perspective I want you to think about, and this was dated 1985.

So I want you to just think about how much it's even accelerated since then. But he says to appreciate the accelerated progress that the church has made in the last few decades, consider that it took 117 years for the church to reach its first million members, which was 1947, and then 16 more years to reach its second million in 1963, and then nine years to reach its third million in 1972. But during President Kimball's administration as president of the church, over 2 million people were added to the church.

What a fascinating thing to look at as we've talked before this year about how quickly the church is growing in numbers. And then inside this talk, he talks about the role that you and I can play in being saviors of men. And I wanted to just share those with you and allow you to dive in and look at the talk and see what role you could play inside of this, because I think there's a role for every one of us in his suggestions.

So he says, first, you can live the principles of the gospel. I love that. That's one you and I can all dive into and live up to.

Second, he says we can prepare our sons to serve missions. And there is a powerful principle inside of there. I'm going to let you dive into that one.

He gets to number three. He says, third, we can financially support the missionary program. I know, as I mentioned before, my daughter out serving.

I don't know the who, but I know as I've given financial statements for me to pay for her mission that there are people in our ward and in our area that are helping us financially, and I'm eternally grateful to them for their support of my missionary and grateful for the opportunity that they take to financially support that missionary program. Fourth, we can introduce our friends and neighbors to the missionaries. And fifth, we can participate in missionary service by preparing for and serving a mission.

My friends, these are awesome ideas. These are ideas that all of us can play a role in. And it's a chance for you and for me to truly understand that we have a role to play in the gospel of Jesus Christ today.

One role to be a light to the world and a second to ultimately be saviors of men as we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. May you and I be a light by sharing the gospel to someone, whether a person we know or a person we don't. May the Lord guide us and direct us to those we can share our testimonies with and our lights as we go forward.

That's my prayer for today. 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.