2.266 Enjoy the Communion and Presence of God the Father

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. Do you get the concept of power and authority? That is absolutely one of the core questions inside of our readings this week, and we're going to go back to back in our verses today and tomorrow.

So spoiler alert, whatever you see today, we're doing the next one tomorrow. But let's dive into Doctrine and Covenants section 107. Inside of this, we have basically, you know, organization of the Church through priesthood power.

And then we have these verses inside of here that also explain the power and authority. And while this may look like it's simply an administrative organization section, there are some key aspects in this that are worth pondering and worth deciding for us whether we truly grasp what we're doing. What is happening?

Let's look at our verse for today and see if we can get a little bit of what I'm talking about. Our verse is Doctrine and Covenants section 107, verse 19. It is the second half of a sentence, so just to get you the context, verse 18 is talking about the power and authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood.

Okay, we find out this power and authority is all the keys, right? But what does that mean? We get a little bit more clarity in verse 19.

It says, "Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant." My friends, doesn't that sound amazing? Isn't that beautiful? To me, I hear that and I think, my goodness, how much am I living under the privileges of the power and authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood in my life and the life of my family.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not on some stray path. I'm not, you know, making grievous sins.

But I absolutely can look at this and say, "Allen, there's so much more that you can do to truly understand and grasp the power and authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood." Now I mentioned I've been on kind of this kick with President Nelson's talks. And so this week we may have a few links set out to him, but one of his earliest talks (it may have been his first one, but one of his earliest talks when he became Prophet in April of 2018) is called "Ministering with the Power and Authority of God." I love it, and it's such a great talk. I put the link in here for you.

But he gives this; he says, "Now may I voice a concern? It is this: Too many of our brothers and sisters do not fully understand the concept of priesthood power and authority. They act as though they would rather satisfy their own selfish desires and appetites than use the power of God to bless his children.

I fear that too many of our brothers..." And then he continues with his talk. My friends, you and I, we're trying to do our best. This daily Savory Salt podcast for me has been an attempt to daily dive into the scriptures in my own life and then share a few thoughts.

Those of you that have joined me on this adventure, you're doing the same. Let you and I do our best to make sure that we don't fall in this category of living under our privileges that are available to us through the power and authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood in our lives. And by the way, in this talk, he's talking to brothers and sisters.

So in no way am I talking to only those that have the Melchizedek Priesthood or bear that; I'm talking to all of us who, as covenant makers and keepers with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, have available to us the power and authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood on the earth today. I am excited for the days ahead. I'm excited for you and for me to fully understand and live up to the power and authority and the privileges that come in doing our best to serve our Lord and to serve others around us.

We'll pick up on verse 20 tomorrow as a spoiler alert there and take a look at the power. And we will be savory salt.