2.275 I Will Manifest Myself to My People in This House

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. Have you ever been to a temple dedication before? It is my hope that everyone listening to this and every member of the Church have an opportunity at some point in their lives to experience the dedication of a house of the Lord on the earth.

It's certainly a marvelous experience. We have some of the amazing blessings that flow from it. We also have an amazing experience in Doctrine and Covenants section 110, which is in our reading this week, which we will get to today.

And we're also reading 3 Nephi chapters 1 through 5 this week as well. These sections 109 and 110 have me reflecting on some of the temple dedication experiences that I've been able to be part of, whether it's a new temple build or most recently, it would have been a temple that is currently just down the street from our home. It wasn't a new build; it was after the remodeling of the Jordan River Temple here in Utah for me and my family, but had the opportunity to be a part of that rededication.

And there's just something special. Well, we know what it is, but there's just something special about dedicating these houses of the Lord to the service of the Lord and to the work of the Lord. And what we see here in Doctrine and Covenants 109 and then over into 110, 110 is quite an amazing experience as Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery are able to not just have the presence of the Lord come into their lives over this dedication of the Kirtland Temple, but also many of the prophets from Old Testament times and others as they come and provide keys that they had specifically to Joseph and Oliver.

We get this moment inside of here that I think is quite telling, especially with some of the counsel we've been receiving currently from our living prophet, President Nelson, right now. Let's look at the verse and then see if we can connect them together. Our verse for today is Doctrine and Covenants, section 110, verse 7.

It says, "For behold, I have accepted this house, and my name shall be here, and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house." Now, if you remember something we talked about just a few days ago, was the prayer, the dedicatory prayer, was asking the Lord to accept the house in whatever level of poverty they had experienced in building it. They had built it through tribulation and poverty. Here we get the Lord accepting his house as a temple, right?

But then we get this awesome promise here: I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house. My friends, does that ring a bell to you at all? Have you heard President Nelson talk about us gaining confidence in the presence of God?

Have you heard him stand and invite us to attend the temple because of the blessings that are inside the temple? He's done it over several talks over his years as president, and I put a link in one of them, his most current one, at least as of this recording, "Confidence in the Presence of God." But it's in these talks that President Nelson is begging us, pleading us to get to the temple, to be in the temple. And here we have directly from the Lord's mouth that he will manifest himself to us in mercy in his house, the house of the Lord.

I think about the opportunity that me and some friends are getting particularly excited about is they're starting to get some news in the Church News this last week or so released about the building of the temple in Mongolia. The Church has now acquired the land and they have now released where that temple will be built. Very excited about the news to be able to see what's coming there.

And whether it's in Mongolia, whether it's in Utah, Texas, New York, I don't know, Europe, Asia, Africa, wherever the temple is, I love the promise here that the Lord provides that he will manifest himself to his people. My friends, I hope that you and I can get to the temple as often as circumstances allow. If that's once a year, if that's once a lifetime, if it's once a month, if it's once a week, if it's every morning, whatever it is, I hope that we all take the opportunity to maximize our chances of having the Lord manifest himself to us, that we be in his presence and we seek to be in his presence.

And by doing so, receive the blessings that he has promised us as we continue to build temples across the earth today. What an exciting time to be alive. That's all for today my friends.

Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave into the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt.