2.302 Holy Places Wherein You Receive Conversations

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. For me, a new reason to want to be in the temple of God. We're reading this week Doctrine and Covenants section 124 as well as 3 Nephi chapters 20-23.

I'm a little confused on which verse of scripture we're reading from. Forgive me there. Inside of Doctrine and Covenants section 124, we've had this casting of this vision of what Nauvoo is going to look like.

We've had an introduction, a commandment from the Lord to build not just a temple, but also this Nauvoo House side by side with the temple, right? And it actually turns in for the Saints into a kind of a competing challenge as their resources are very limited. And they're like, do we work on the temple, or do we work on the Nauvoo House?

And the answer is like, yes. We have this kind of back and forth. Today, I wanted to share with you a verse that stuck out to me because for me it was, you know, when you sit down and say, "Why do we go do temple work?" I think a lot of the primary answers, a lot of the textbook answers, are easy to kind of come forth, right?

Well, we do temple work for those who have passed away. We do temple work for ourselves, the living and the dead, right? And we do get in Doctrine and Covenants section 124 this view of baptisms for the dead, which is pretty cool.

It's kind of the introduction of a baptismal font for the dead and stuff. But those answers, while they're all right, those are all correct answers. There's no wrong answer inside of there.

The verse today gave me kind of a new answer. And it's one that I want to really focus on, especially as we get into kind of our last—what are we? We're down into our last 60-ish days of Doctrine and Covenants reading together here. 60, 65 days, something like that, that we're down to.

Isn't that crazy? We've been doing this for 300-plus days now. Congratulations on that reading.

Let's get into our verse for today. I'm all over the place. Let's get into our verse for today and see if we can focus in on this new reason to attend the temple.

Our reading today is Doctrine and Covenants section 124, verse 39. Forgive me, it's kind of a long one, but we'll get there. Verse 39 says this: "Therefore, verily I say unto you that your anointings and your washings and your baptisms for the dead, and your solemn assemblies, and your memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi; and for your oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive conversations; and your statutes and judgments for the beginning of the revelations and foundation of Zion; and for the glory, honor, and endowment of all her municipals are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which my people are always commanded to build unto my holy name." Now I know there's a lot inside of that, and you're probably gonna want to open up and read that one.

And if you're just a listener of the podcast, you're going to want to go back to this one later and kind of break it down into chunks. I get that. There's a lot inside of there.

But I want to just focus on one specific phrase because it's one for me to really focus in on going to the temple. It's in the middle here. It says, "And for your oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive conversations." Now the other things for me were interesting because I went through the other things.

They were familiar. Anointings and washings and baptisms for the dead. These are phrases I'm familiar with when it goes to attending the temple.

But "the oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive conversations," that's a different way of speaking to me. Yes, I go to the temple to pray and to meditate, but I don't know how often I go to the temple seeking in my most holy places to receive conversation. That was quite telling.

I know that the temple is the house of the Lord on the earth. It is an opportunity for us that the veil there is very thin. It's a chance not just to seek revelation and input, but to receive conversation.

That's got me awakened at a different level. I want to go to the temple right now. I want to go, and this holy place wherein I can receive conversation has got me excited to make sure that the next focus for me in attending the temple is that I may attend a holy place wherein I may receive conversations.

My friends, I hope that the temple, whether it's close to you or whether you only get to go once in a while, I hope that the temple is a place where you can receive in the holy place conversations with the Lord. May you and I seek to attend the temple as often as we possibly can is my hope for us all. And 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.