2.326 Know Ye Not that Ye are in the Hands of God?

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. Maybe I'll give it a try one more time.

That's the message we can remember as we take a look into our reading today. We've been reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 133 and 134, as well as Mormon chapters 3 through 6. We're actually going to finish off this week in a little bit different style than we typically do.

We're going to do a final Book of Mormon message today, and then we're going to bounce back to the Doctrine and Covenants tomorrow to finish out the week. Usually I finish out the week with the Book of Mormon, but we're going to reverse that this time. Our message today actually comes with a story and, honestly, an activity that, if you want to do...

Let me explain what I mean there because that sounds very nebulous. One of the activities I used to do when I was working with families and helping families develop better relationships, at the end of one of my trainings that I would do, I would do this short activity. I'd hand out a blank sheet of paper, and I promise we're going to get to our verse for today, but first let's tell this story here so that we get the context of it.

I told them that they found out right there in the class that they only had five minutes left on this earth, in this life, and that they needed to take a moment on that white sheet of paper—that blank sheet of paper—and write a final message to their family or to their friends or whoever it is. What would you put on that final message? And then I gave them just a couple of minutes to write that out.

You know, I did that several times throughout the times that I did these trainings. And without fail, I'd kind of see two people—two types of people—come out of that activity. The first group of people would get very emotional at writing the letter.

They would really, really get into it, really feel the emotion of writing that final letter. And the second group of people were people that couldn't take it seriously at all and basically just kind of tweedle-deed and waited for the timer to stop because they didn't want to go there. They didn't want to think into that.

Well, Mormon goes there. He goes there because he does leave us a final letter. And yes, he continues writing the Book of Mormon after Mormon chapter 6, but really, in Mormon chapter 5, we get Mormon's kind of final thoughts before the destruction of his people.

And so that's what we're going to look at today: Mormon chapter 5, verse 24. This is Mormon's final words before he writes and records the full destruction of the Nephite civilization. He says, "And there is none to deliver." Now, that seems like a pretty harsh comment to be your final message.

And yet, at the same time, he's telling us that his entire civilization has been destroyed because they refused to repent and turn to the Lord. And it's interesting, in chapter six, if you continue and you go to the final verse in chapter six (which we won't read), he reflects back on this verse here, and he says, "I wish you would have got the message. I wish you would have repented because this destruction was preventable." My friends, I hope that your communications with your family members and your friends are communications that could be considered your last.

If you are hiding the opportunity to bear your testimony because you're nervous about family members, or you're nervous about what your friends might say, or you're nervous about the context, don't be nervous! That may be to your aunts and uncles, your brothers and sisters, your neighbors, your friends, your ward members, people in your class at school, people in your class at church. I don't care where it is, take the opportunity, share with them your thoughts, your feelings, if needed, invite them to repent and be humble.

Because Mormon shows us from a living perspective what it's like to watch those he loved be completely destroyed. And he shares it with us and invites us to repent. Some powerful final words worth reflection, in an activity that hopefully you may find productive in your life as well.

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.