2.298 Ask Him to Tarry a Little Longer

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. Let's imagine today: Will you go on a little imagination trip with me?

Now if you're driving, I understand that means you're going to need to still focus on driving. But if you get an opportunity to close your eyes during this episode, just for a fraction of time, I think it's going to be worth it. We're reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 121 through 123, which have been phenomenal.

They're some of my favorites. Difficult as they are for Joseph Smith, they give us some of the greatest light and love from our Heavenly Father in Jesus Christ. We're also reading this week Third Nephi chapters 15 through 19, which also happens to have some beautiful and amazing chapters there as the Lord is able to bless and heal one by one the Nephites that are there to see him.

And so, some beautiful chapters there. I only left us two days here at the end of the week to be able to go through those chapters. So I hope the ones that I've selected here are ones if you want to go back to our season before, you could go back and spend some more time inside those because we do spend a lot more time inside those.

You'd be looking in around the episodes of season one, around 300, 301, and from then on would be some episodes around these chapters. Let's dive into our verse for today and imagine together. You're seeing the Lord Jesus Christ come to earth.

He's among you. He's with you. He's teaching you.

And then you have this moment where He says, 'Look, I've given you a lot.' Why don't you go home and think about it? That was one of our scriptures last season was the Lord encouraging us to ponder upon the things that He said. But then this one hit me this time.

Actually, honestly, it hit me while I was reading it in the temple. Verse 5, so 3 Nephi 17:5, is our verse for today. It says this: I love this and I don't think I ever caught it like this before in reading the Book of Mormon.

Jesus Christ has instructed them to go home and reflect on the things that He taught them, and they can. They just want to be in His presence longer. So take a moment and close your eyes if you can, if you're not driving, and imagine for just a second being in the presence of Jesus Christ.

The presence of Jesus Christ. When you're in His presence, is He your judge? Is He your jury?

Is He making you feel guilty for all the things that you haven't done in life? I don't feel that way. I get an incredible increase of love.

My heart just starts to pound. I start to think of all the ways I've tried to be like Him, activities I've done in my life to try to emulate Him. I love this verse because the people don't want to leave.

What do you feel your relationship with the Savior would be like if you were in His presence? And I want you to reflect on all those feelings and then ask yourself the Alma question from Alma chapter 5: 'If those are the feelings you want to feel with Christ in your life, can you feel so now? Do you have those feelings now?' President Nelson encouraged us to find Jesus Christ.

In fact, he promised us to find Jesus Christ in the temple. If you want to have the feelings of what it's like to be in the presence of Christ, let's pursue them now. My friends, I'm grateful for the imagery that came to my mind this time through the Book of Mormon.

As I thought about those people not wanting to leave the Savior, He has compassion on them. He turns and heals them one by one because they didn't want to go. I hope that you and I have a desire in our hearts to never let go of the relationship we have with our Savior Jesus Christ.

That one's special to me. 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 us at www.fema.org.