2.272 Greater Signs and Greater Miracles

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. As we enter into this week, we are 75% through the year, which means we are, congratulations, 75% through the Doctrine and Covenants.

And if you've been following along in the Book of Mormon as well, you're 75% through the year, done with the Book of Mormon. For those of you that have followed along since Season One, that means that we're through our second time around in studying the Book of Mormon. Well done.

I hope that both of these books of study side by side has absolutely increased the savor of the gospel of Jesus Christ in your life. I know it has in mine. We're reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 109 and 110, as well as 3 Nephi chapters 1 through 5.

Now, as we get into that, Doctrine and Covenants section 109 is an awesome section. The entire section is simply the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple as transcribed, as given by Joseph Smith at the time. And so there's some great stuff in there.

So many verses that we absolutely will not touch on all of them. But it's interesting through that lens of 109. It's a beautiful, beautiful prayer.

I actually wanted to start this week in 3 Nephi because of something that he says and actually a connection to last week, as we were talking about Samuel the Lamanite. So our verse for today is going to come in 3 Nephi chapter 1, verse 4, and this is what's happening inside of this. If you remember, Samuel has come.

He has warned the people that Jesus Christ is coming, right? The Nephites were called to repentance and to show them signs so that their faith would be increased in Jesus Christ. Let's look at verse 4 here in chapter 1.

It says: Now, the part that stood out to me in reading this verse — "Greater signs and greater miracles." Remember, the purpose of those, according to Samuel the Lamanite, was to increase faith in Jesus Christ and in his coming. And so, as we see this, we see that the Lord is going to leave no doubt. He's going to give every opportunity possible through greater signs and greater miracles among the people.

And it's got me really reflecting, from Doctrine and Covenants 109 to today. My friends, we are absolutely seeing—we see the dedicatory prayer of this first temple of this dispensation, which we're going to look at this week. And since then, what have we seen over the last couple of hundred years?

We have absolutely seen an increase in signs and wonders and in miracles of the Lord across the earth, ultimately to the stage of 300-plus temples dotting the earth everywhere. My friends, this is absolutely an opportunity for us to see the signs and miracles in our lives and to open our hearts and minds to be able to increase our faith in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that we have today to be witnesses of these greater signs and greater miracles in our lives.

Where, absolutely, the speed in 3 Nephi is going to go really fast for the Nephites and the Lamanites, right? We're going to have quite a tumultuous ride over a couple of weeks as we go through the front end of 3 Nephi. We are here today, ultimately, to land on the coming of Jesus Christ as witnessed in the Book of Mormon.

I look forward to the day when we get to stand as witnesses, whether we're on this side of the veil or the other side of the veil, as witnesses of the coming of Jesus Christ again on the earth. May we all see these greater signs and miracles in our lives, and may those greater signs and miracles increase our faith, is my hope for us 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. For more information, visit www.fema.org.