3.261 Warning and Blessing from an Apostle

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.

Today, a warning and a blessing from an apostle of the Lord. As we continue our readings this week with Isaiah chapters 1 through 12, I landed inside of Isaiah chapter 5 and was kind of reflecting on some of our family discussions we've had. And then I went into the citation app that I like to do, the scripture citation that BYU does, and wanted to kind of research some conference talks around the verses that we were talking about as a family.

And then I came across an absolute gem, and I'll make sure that I have the link to this for you. This is a verse we're going to cover and then a conference talk from Boyd K. Packer called "Cleansing the Inner Temple" from October of 2010.

So I'll make sure that you have a link to that as well. Such a good one. Such a good one.

But first, let's get to our verse for today. Our verse for today is in Isaiah chapter 5, verse 20. It's a very common one, at least in terms of referencing the citation index, with 30 to 40 General Conference talks being referenced here.

It says this: "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." Now, I tend to avoid the woe side of things. A lot of times it's important for us to see the woes, but I like to stay on the lights and the happinesses. This one's really interesting, though, because sometimes we read this and a lot of people, in fact, I would almost say kind of a pandemic of sorts in our mindset today is, look, I'm just the way that I am.

I've talked about this before on Savory Salt. It's just me. I just can't change.

It's just who I am. So just deal with it. And President Packer, or I guess at the time Elder Packer, addressed this inside of his "Cleansing the Inner Temple" talk.

So I'm going to read a section of it here. Again, kind of a blessing side of things that he mentions here and also kind of a warning inside of it. But he says this: "Some suppose that they were preset and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn temptations toward the impure and unnatural.

Not so. Remember, God is our Heavenly Father. Paul promised that God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

You can, if you will, break the habits and conquer an addiction and come away from that which is not worthy of any member of the Church. As Alma cautioned, we must watch and pray continually." Now, that's the first part that I thought, what an amazing promise and blessing from an apostle. Just a reminder from Paul that we're not going to be tempted above that which we're able.

This is the second part here. He says: "The teacher told me about a youngster who brought a kitten to class. As you can imagine, that disrupted everything.

She had him hold that kitten up in front of the children. It went well until one of the children asked, 'Is it a boy kitty or a girl kitty?' Not wanting to get into that lesson, the teacher said, 'It doesn't matter, it's just a kitty.' But they persisted. Finally, one boy raised his hand and said, 'I know how you can tell.' Resigned to face it, the teacher said, 'How can you tell?' And the student answered, 'You can vote on it.'" Now this is still inside of his quote: "You may laugh at this story, but if you are not alert, there are those today who not only tolerate but advocate voting to change laws that would legalize immorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God's laws and nature.

A law against nature would be impossible to enforce. For instance, what good would a vote against the law of gravity do?" My friends, I'm grateful for this reminder that we have from Isaiah and for the two sides that Elder Packer gives us here. The reminder that we can't just vote ourselves out of God's laws.

It doesn't work that way. But also, my favorite part, the reminder that for those things that are just particularly difficult for us, the Bible says those inborn temptations we experience, they will never be more than we can handle as we turn to the Lord and watch and pray continually. What a wonderful reminder for each one of us as we face a world continually growing in that which would call evil good and good evil and put darkness for light and light for darkness.

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 Savory Salt. We will be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.