2.308 Open the Windows of Heaven

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. Open the windows of heaven.

What do you suppose that looks like? We're reading this week, Doctrine and Covenants sections 125 through 128, as well as 3 Nephi chapters 24 through 28. And we're going to perhaps play a little bit of back and forth.

We started off with Doctrine and Covenants 126 yesterday and now we're going to shift gears over to the Lord's counsel to the Nephites in 3 Nephi. We're going to take a look here in 3 Nephi chapter 24. And I typically, in Savory Salt, sometimes I pick verses that, you know, everybody's heard, right?

And then other times I try to kind of go off the path a little bit and throw them out there. I'm going to throw some curveballs here and there inside some verses. This one is a very, very common verse and used quite often inside of the Church to talk specifically about a particular topic.

But I read it, and I wanted to make sure that my thoughts were captured inside of Savory Salt here, especially through the lens of being that savor and that salt for our Father in Heaven. Remembering that salt that has lost its flavor is good for nothing. So that's where we're going to go here.

We're going to go inside of 3 Nephi chapter 24. It's actually the Lord rehearsing to the Nephites Malachi 3 in most cases, right? So you've got some Old Testament quotations here from the Lord.

And verse 10 says this: "And pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." This is, again, a very common verse used when discussing tithing, and should be. It should be a common verse used because the promise that is in here is something that "prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts." The Lord's using a phrase here that I think is quite interesting. He's not saying have faith to pay tithing.

He's saying, let me prove it to you. I love that, and I think it made me kind of dig in and kind of look around at this verse and others, and kind of some talks that have been used for General Conference, right? And I landed on one by President Russell M.

Nelson before he was president in 2005. This is April of 2005. I'll make sure it's called "Now is the Time to Prepare." I'll make sure the link's inside of here for you.

I think I've quoted from this one before, but not this particular area. This is the talk right after. This is the first General Conference right after his first wife had passed away.

And so he's giving us the context of being there with his wife and then understanding that when the Lord says "Now is the Time to Prepare," it means in a very real sense, especially for President Nelson in that setting, a very real sense. We have no idea if tomorrow is too late. And so in his list of preparedness, he says this about tithing.

It's actually quite short and yet to the point here. He says, "Now is the time to enroll our names among the people of God. This we do by paying tithing.

He tithes his people to bless them. Sister Nelson taught that lesson to our family over and over again." Now did you catch that one? That wasn't about paying tithing.

That was enrolling our names among the people of God. And by doing so through tithing, my friends, tithing is a wonderful opportunity for us to receive the blessings of our Heavenly Father. I can testify that I've experienced the windows of heaven open in my life.

That doesn't mean that I've seen coming from clouds piles of money. It means that I know the Lord has blessed me and my family directly as a result of us choosing to pay our tithing. I hope it's an emphasis in all of our lives as we go forward and share our gratitude to the Lord for the blessings He has given us by paying a tithe back to Him.

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.