2.346 That Evil May Be Done Away

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. How many times do we need to be warned? We have finished reading this week the Articles of Faith and the Official Declarations 1 and 2, and we're now shifting gears into our Book of Mormon reading for the week which is Ether chapters 8 through 11.

And yet we know that Moroni was pretty much done with the Book of Mormon. As we finish the Book of Mormon, the small book, the Book of Mormon there, as we finish that, Moroni pretty much wrapping up and being like, well, now my people are gone and I don't have any gold plates to write on. And so I'm pretty much just going to kind of live the rest of my life running away.

And then all of a sudden he's like, "and now I give you the Book of Ether." And so I would encourage you to stop and say, "wait a second," Moroni saw our day and he made sure to include the Book of Ether. And he gave us some dialogue in between the story in the Book of Ether. What does all of that mean?

And perhaps one of the reasons is inside of our verse for today. Let's take a look at Ether chapter 8 verse 26. It is the last verse of chapter 8.

And in chapter 8 we find that the secret combinations have been introduced into the people of the Jaredites. Right? And we see that happen in the teens here in the verses.

And then Moroni tells us that these secret combinations are among all people. And I think when he's saying that, that's a present tense statement. And so I think we can also read into that and say, well, it's highly likely that secret combinations exist in our day as well, especially if Moroni is going to warn us about them.

And then we get to verse 26 here. This is what Moroni says. He says, "Wherefore I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved." I find it interesting here that Moroni is going to include this record of darkness as a warning for us to try to help us bind Satan and have no power.

But he's also going to include it with the hopes that we are persuaded to do good things. That we are persuaded to be righteous. My friends, I think that's an interesting call from Moroni.

He's not just saying, "beware of the bad things." He's trying to say, "embrace the good things." Embrace righteousness. Come into the fountain of all righteousness. Come unto Jesus Christ and be saved.

It's not enough for us to avoid the bad. That's not going to win the war, so to speak. We can just avoid the bad.

We need to embrace the good. We need to embrace the gospel. We need to embrace our covenants.

Live righteously. We are encouraged by Moroni to repent repeatedly throughout these sections, especially as he starts to record the downfall of the Jaredites. He starts to sound just like his father in recording the downfall of the Nephites.

Repent and turn to the Lord. I think we can do more, you and I. I will always speak to me first.

So let me try that again. I think I can do more to be better at embracing righteousness in my life. Not just trying to avoid the bad, but trying my very best to do the good.

That's a message I hope we can all take as we continue our path of Savory Salt. 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.