2.301 A Good 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. Let's continue on this idea of what could have been.

There's kind of a sad component in our reading in Doctrine and Covenants section 124. We're reading also this week 3 Nephi 20 through 23 so don't forget that. But there's a bit of a sad component in Doctrine and Covenants 124 for me at least.

I know that there's some history. The historical context for the Saints that they saw this as an opportunity to grow. And there's a lot of things in 124 that never came about in the history of the Church.

Perhaps one of the biggest ones being the Nauvoo House, as it was the vision of it was presented in section 124. Again, take some time to read historically what that was. It became quite an obsession for Joseph Smith after section 124 was revealed to him.

And so there that component there of what could have been, what might have been. And yet also there's some great counsel here because in that attempt of what could have been, Nauvoo became quite an amazing place historically. It was this swampland that the Saints came into.

They were able to establish quite an interesting charter, government-wise. They were given quite some interesting economic powers and kind of self-decision-making powers. Some are, and of course, you get, you know, the building of the Nauvoo Temple.

Let's look at this Nauvoo House for just a second, because it's one of those, one of those pieces that you kind of look back and you go, man, I wonder what exactly was the Lord hoping for here? And does it exist today? Could it exist again today?

I think that's worth taking a look at. Let's look at our verse for today in Doctrine and Covenants, section 124, verse 23. This is the Lord describing what would be known as the Nauvoo House.

He says: And it shall be for a house for boarding, a house that strangers may come from afar to lodge therein. Therefore let it be a good house, worthy of all acceptation, that the weary traveler may find health and safety while he shall contemplate the word of the Lord and the cornerstone I have appointed for Zion. It's a pretty picture, actually.

It's quite an interesting picture that the Lord presents here for this house, this Nauvoo House. Basically it was kind of a hotel of sorts, right? It's gonna be a boarding house for people that travel from all around the world according to the Lord, right?

That they can come from all over, from afar. The things I like inside of this, and the piece I want to kind of share with you today, is what in this list can we do to make our places where we reside—whether it's our house; whether it's our car, as we invite strangers to drive in our car with us (or maybe not strangers, maybe friends, as we're just driving from A to B); or our houses, as we have friends come over and stay or family members? What in this list can we do to make this good house?

Do we offer a place where the weary traveler may find health and safety? Is our home a place where others could contemplate the word of the Lord? Isn't that kind of an interesting list to think of?

A place that others could come from afar. I love having family and friends come and stay at our house. We had family and friends stay at our house for a myriad of reasons.

And I love that. But this has got me thinking about making my house a place where the weary traveler can come and contemplate the word of the Lord. I love what might have been here with the Nauvoo House.

And I hope that I can do my part in just a small way to create my house in some sort of way—not just this verse, but this section that talks about the Nauvoo House. What can I do to make my house a place where the weary traveler can come and contemplate the word of the Lord? My friends, I think that's an opportunity for us to create houses of the Lord, not necessarily at the level of temple, but houses of the Lord literally dotted throughout the land.

While we may have temples in the hundreds right now, we have houses in the thousands, tens of thousands, and even millions across the world. 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. For more information, visit us at www.fema.org.