2.260 I Saw the Dealings of God

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. And let's throw a little savory salt curveball out here. We're reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 102–105 as well as Helaman chapters 8–12.

Now, sections 102–105, you may kind of read some of these administrative or time-specific revelations and think that there's really nothing to be said about them. All of these disciples had failed and criticized it for failing while others seemingly had a greater increase in their faith and I wanted to try and illustrate that better and so I decided to take a Savory Salt episode and focus specifically on Wilford Woodruff and what he has to say about Zion's Camp. Now if you remember, Zion's Camp was set up to try and take the lands back that the Saints had lost right in Jackson County.

And ultimately it ended up in a failure in terms of that purpose. And so many people struggled with it. They thought, where's God?

Where's the proof that God's going to do this for us? He says he's going to fight our battles. What happened here?

And many of them ultimately fell away from the Church because of the seeming failure. And yet we see a different perspective with Wilford Woodruff. And that's what I want to read to you today for our kind of "verse for today." He says this, he says, "I was in Zion's Camp with the Prophet.

I saw the dealings of God with him. I saw the power of God with him. I saw that he was a Prophet.

What was manifest to him by the power of God upon that mission was of great value to me and to all who received his instructions. When the members of Zion's Camp were called, many of us had never beheld each other's faces. We were strangers to each other, and many had never seen the Prophet.

We had been scattered abroad like corn sifted in a sieve throughout the nation. We were young men and were called upon in that early day to go up and redeem Zion, and what we had to do, we had to do by faith. We assembled together from the various states at Kirtland and went up to redeem Zion in fulfillment of the commandment of God unto us.

God accepted our works as he did the works of Abraham. We accomplished a great deal. Though apostates and unbelievers many times asked the question, "What have you done?" We gained an experience that we never could have gained in any other way.

We had the privilege of beholding the face of the Prophet, and we had the privilege of traveling a thousand miles with him, and seeing the workings of the Spirit of God with him, and the revelations of Jesus Christ unto him, and the fulfillment of those revelations. And he gathered some 200 Elders from throughout the nation in that early day and sent us broadcast into the world to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Had I not gone up with Zion's Camp, I should not have been here today in Salt Lake City serving in the Quorum of the Twelve.

By going there we were thrust into the vineyard to preach the Gospel, and the Lord accepted our labors. And in all our labors and persecutions, with our lives often at stake, we have had to work and live by faith. The experience we obtained in traveling in Zion's Camp was of more worth than gold." My friends, we will always be blessed for following the Lord.

Listen closely to the promptings, the heedings, and the commandments of the Lord through our living prophet and apostles. Seek to stay close to them, and whatever seemingly wins or losses we have, whatever outcomes we seem to see in the short term, know and understand that when following the Lord, we too will gain experiences worth more than gold. We can do this.

I believe in you. I believe that you believe in me. I feel your love out there.

Some of you occasionally shout out to me and I appreciate that. My friends, we can do this. Follow the Lord—wins, losses, whatever it may look like as the immediate result.

The Lord knows us and will uplift us as we choose obedience to him. 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.