2.334 Shall Not Codemn it because of the Imperfections

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 the good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Our thought for today: don't get stuck in the mud. We're reading this week and we're finishing this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 135 and 136, as well as Mormon chapter 7 through Ether chapter 2.

However, we are just going to stay inside of Mormon as I mentioned yesterday. And I think we'll, we might sneak one of the verses from Ether in the front end of that. But either way, if you want to stay on pace, get that reading done.

Today's an interesting one. We're going to shift gears into Moroni's writings as Mormon was, we find out he's killed in battle. Mormon chapters eight and nine.

And inside of this, we see an interesting verse through the lens of Moroni that I want to, I want to take a look at and see what we can bring from it. Mormon 8. Speaking specifically about this record, it seems that Mormon and Moroni were both very mindful of the people that were going to have this record in the future.

And it says: "And whoso receiveth this record and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these. Behold, I am Moroni, and were it possible, I would make all things known unto you." Now, did you catch the stuck in the mud part of this verse? He says, whoever receives the record and does not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it.

That's interesting to me. And we also find out through these writings here that they're writing in a different language than they're regularly used to, right? We have this Reformed Egyptian, we have this Hebrew.

We learn that it's laborious to write in the one style. And so they write in the other style. And when they do that, it kind of makes it difficult.

And then we're dealing with, you know, the ability to translate through the gift and power of God. All these things are coming into play. And here Moroni is saying, don't get stuck in the mud on the imperfections part of things.

You know, it really got me thinking about those that dissect the Book of Mormon from a lens that is this tiny little verse here and say, "Ha! That comma right there. That comma shouldn't exist.

Therefore, the rest of the record is not true." Now, you probably never heard anyone argue about a comma, neither have I, but you get the message. I remember one of our favorite Sunday afternoon movies, "The Best Two Years". If you've never watched that, it's a great mission movie and a great one.

We love to watch that one. But you know, there's a message inside of there where one of the elders is talking to the other one and he says, you know, I learned a long time ago. I don't know if I'm quoting this directly, but he said, "I learned a long time ago, if you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty." And that's, that's an interesting statement there.

Sometimes we get caught up in the minute details. Even, maybe not even dealing with the Book of Mormon, maybe just dealing in the history of the Church or in questions we don't have answers to yet. And we get stuck on these questions we don't have answers to and we forget the main thing.

What's the main thing, right? The main thing is like, is Jesus Christ real? That's like the main thing: Did he organize the Church?

Did Joseph Smith see God and Jesus Christ or did he not? Did he translate the Book of Mormon through the gift and power of God or did he not? These are the core pieces of our testimony.

Thank you for watching. As we've gone through the study this week, I hope those ones – those are the core. We don't need to go and get stuck in the mud about whether the commas are in the right place, whether the period was written correctly.

Instead, we need to read these for what they're meant to be: "Another Testament of Jesus Christ". My friends, I know that as I focus on the pillars of my testimony, my testimony gets stronger. If I get down into the weeds and I start finding things, I don't have all the answers to the Plan of Salvation.

I don't know all those things. And I'm probably not going to know them until I get to the other side of the veil. So instead, what can I focus on?

The things I don't know? We'll see you next time.