3.037 The Lord...Held it in His Own Hand

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello my friends, it's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve. How can we possibly find peace and safety amidst the chaos that constantly surrounds us in today's world?

That is hopefully an answer coming from our verse for today. We continue reading Moses chapter 7 and I have to tell you, I told this to my family just the other day. I'm absolutely loving the Book of Moses more so than I ever have.

I don't know what it is this time. Perhaps it's just processing it out loud here on Savory Salt, but I am loving the information and the verses and the personal connections with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ with these interactions with the very early prophets. This is a story that is no different than the illustrations and pictures that come to mind as we see Enoch and his people to be taken up by the Lord.

And then we see them witnessing the destruction that comes through Noah's time as the earth is flooded. This is some amazing imagery to picture. We see the emotions of a Heavenly Father who loves his children and yet allows them to choose and through their agency face the consequences of their choices.

We see Enoch's love for humanity as he watches this and understands better the plan of salvation. And then we get to this verse here that just stood out to me. I actually read it while I was in the temple the other day.

And it stood out to me in such a way that I thought, wow, this one, this is a power verse. This is one worth remembering time and time again. Our verse for today comes in Moses 7, verse 43.

Enoch is witnessing Noah and his family get on their boat, right? Get on the Ark and the floods come and the earth begins to wash away. Well, at least the surface of the earth, right? 43 says this: Wherefore Enoch saw that Noah built an Ark; and that the Lord smiled upon it, and held it in his own hand.

But upon the residue of the wicked the floods came and swallowed them up. Now this is absolutely polar opposite things happening at the same time. The floods are coming and the wicked are going to be swallowed up in them.

But did you hear what happened with Noah's Ark? The Lord smiled upon it and held it in his own hand. What happens when we turn to the Lord and ask him to just hold us in his hand during difficult times, challenges, or just flat out chaos that surrounds us in the world today?

It got me thinking about President Oaks, a talk from President Oaks that he shared. I've mentioned before how I like to go through when we get new presidents and try to go back and read or listen to all of their different talks. He gave a talk in October of 1992.

I've talked about it before, but maybe not this part of it, called "Bible Stories and Personal Protection." I'll make sure you've got a link here inside the podcast episode. In it, he shares a story that he talks about having never shared before. A personal story being held at knife point with he and his wife.

He says this after the experience and after the protection that he realizes was the hand of the Lord: "I am grateful that the Lord gave me the vision and strength to refrain from trusting in the arm of flesh and to put my trust in the protecting care of our Heavenly Father. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon promise to us of the last days that the righteous need not fear, for the Lord will preserve the righteous by His power. I am grateful for the protection promised to those who have kept their covenants and qualified for the blessings promised in sacred places." My friends, keep your covenants, keep your promises and the Lord will keep his.

Protection will come regardless of the chaos, regardless of the challenges we face. I hope that you and I can allow the Lord to hold us in his own hand. That's all for today my friends.

You and I have come here for such a time as this. Step forward in faith and let's be saved through salt. We will be here tomorrow and we hope you are too.