2.324 Don't Delight in Hardened Hearts

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. I wonder if Mormon wrote Doctrine and Covenants 133 if he would say very similar things that are already written there. We're reading this week Doctrine and Covenants 133 through 134 as well as Mormon chapters 3 through 6.

We've got a little bit of a We're going to shift gears and go back to Mormon again and take a look at a segment. It's been a couple of days now, but a couple of days ago we looked at the concept to go ye out from Babylon. I love the weeks where we get to see the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants line up.

And I don't think they line up intentionally, you know, if you're reading both of them at the same time through the year. I think it's coincidental there. But I do love the times where it seems like the messages just resonate together.

And I think Mormon has a moment here where he writing about the destruction of his people that he gives us some insight that I that I believe could very well be copied and pasted into Doctrine and Covenants 133 Let take a look at it and see what it says here Remember that 133 is this original tail end to the Book of Commandments, right? It's the appendix. It's the last piece you're going to read to the Book of Commandments.

And here we have Mormon kind of writing the last of his words as well. And he's describing what's happening between the Nephites and the Lamanites as their battles become more and more brutal. We definitely get, we slide out of the PG part of the Book of Mormon and get into the R-rated version of the Book of Mormon, right?

It's difficult to read. It's sad to read. And this warning is certainly got some, you know, parental guidance for all of us here.

Mormon 4.11. One of the saddest verses, I think, for me in the Book of Mormon, and yet it can teach us a very important lesson. And it is impossible for the tongue to describe or for man to write a perfect description of the horrible scene of the blood and carnage which was among the people, both of the Nephites and of the Lamanites.

The Bible says, And every heart was hardened, so that they delighted in the shedding of blood continually. Now it may not seem on the surface here to be a warning from Mormon, but I believe this verse carries a warning on the tail end of it. Did you notice this scene that is so awful that it cannot be described had a piece attached to it with the survivors Every heart was hardened because of the world that they lived in So much so that they delighted in the shedding of blood continually.

Now we get to the core question here for us. Are we there? Are we there?

Now before you just quickly jump on and you're like, no, no, I don't know if we're there. I've seen footage from World War I. I've seen footage from World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War.

Take your pick. That is harrowing. It is awful.

And yet I could go even further to our modern day media around us. And it's not just the blood and carnage. The world around us, we are moments away.

We are one device away. We are one computer away. We're one television away.

We'll be right back. and say, Allen, as you continue to do this, what would I not take with me into the temple? Maybe that's a new lens. That one just came to me right here.

But if it was on my phone, Would I let that movie play on my phone as I walked in the temple? Would I let that song play as I walked in the temple? Would I look at those pictures in the temple?

Would I play that TV show in the temple? Look at the filter that's happening as we do that. My friends, I know the Lord will bless us.

And I also know that the times that the Nephites experienced Are going to be very similar to the times we experience as well. I hope that you and I can allow our hearts to stay softened to the promptings of the Spirit. And I hope it can amplify our efforts to go forward and live the gospel.

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. For more information, visit us at www.fema.org.