3.208 Be Open to a Stirred Up Spirit

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.

As we get kicked off into this new week, something that's been stewing in my mind for quite some time. Many times we find ourselves labeling "us" and "them." And those labels can be all sorts of different labels that put us in the "us" column and them in the "them" column. Today, perhaps one of the thoughts from our verses is a little bit of an opportunity to push back on that idea.

We are reading this week, and I'm only going to do this once, Ezra chapter 1, chapters 3 through 7, Nehemiah chapters 2, 4 through 6, and 8. From now on, my friends, let's just call it the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Fair enough?

That is what we're going to focus on this week. The Jews have an opportunity to return to Jerusalem here. We're going to talk about that a little bit more tomorrow and further on inside the week.

Instead, where we're going to begin is right off of Ezra chapter 1, verse 1, and we're going to attach it to the Book of Mormon as well. Let's get to our verse and see if we can see what's happening with the "us" versus "them" label. Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing, saying, and then the proclamation begins in verse 2, which is basically telling the Jews that they get to go back to Jerusalem.

The Bible says that the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia. I thought that was interesting because Cyrus king of Persia would not have been inside of the Israelite world, right? He wouldn't be considered children of Israel at all.

He would, in fact, be more like the Babylonians or the Assyrians as conquerors. And yet we see that the Lord is working through him. It got me thinking about where else I had read that, and I landed inside of 1 Nephi chapter 13 when Nephi gets an opportunity to see all that happens in the development of the new world.

And inside of verse 12 there it references that the Lord stirred up one to kind of go and explore and discover that new world as we've, you know, been interpreted through modern revelation to kind of see that that's Christopher Columbus and the other explorers who are inspired to go forward and to search out this new land. My friends, I think it's interesting when we get so caught up in the "us's" versus the "them's" that we may forget that the Lord is going to fulfill his purposes with those who are good and able-hearted people, whether they fall in the "us" column or the "them" column. If they're willing and able to be stirred up by the Spirit of the Lord, the Lord may be able to work through them.

So perhaps, as we get launched into this week, perhaps just kind of this mental note that we can put off to the side, file it into the filing cabinet, and remember that we may have our labels of "us" and "them," but the Lord carries no such labels. We are all his children. We are the children of a Heavenly Father who loves us and as such may have the opportunity to work with good people around us who aren't in the "us" column necessarily, but who are absolutely open to being stirred up by the Spirit.

I know that I've been blessed with great friends who are outside of my "us" column in many different ways and yet still phenomenal people and people that have absolutely served me through their own inspiration and revelation from the Lord. And I hope that you have an opportunity to experience that as well. That is 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 savory salt. We will be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.