3.284 Gather the Outcasts

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.

A living prophet of God has just spoken within the last week to the entire inhabitants of the earth. Did you hear what he said? And what does that have to do with Isaiah?

That's how we're going to wrap up Isaiah chapters 50 through 57 as we've been reading them this week. We're going to dive into Isaiah chapter 56. Yes, as of this recording, General Conference has just occurred.

An opportunity for us to hear a prophet of the Lord, as well as his living apostles and leadership of the Church speak and testify of a living Jesus Christ, a Savior for us all. I want to touch on the words of President Oaks as well as the words of Isaiah here and see if, see if perhaps, you heard the same things that I did. Inside of this, Isaiah chapter 56, verse 8, is an interesting one, but it one that I think speaks to me personally.

I won't see you guys out there listening, but it speaks to me, and so I thought I wanted to share it here. Isaiah 56, verse 8, says this: "The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him." Now, this is such an interesting verse because the first part of it, kind of, the Lord just explains that he's gathering the outcasts of Israel. I don't know about you, but labeling yourself as an outcast sometimes doesn't necessarily carry a positive connotation with it.

And yet here, the Lord speaks to me personally, as there's been times in my life where I feel like the outcast. There's been places where I've traveled in the world where I've certainly been the outcast, and times in my life with different friend scenarios, or just new meeting new people scenarios, where you feel like the outcast. And here we have the Lord God gathering the outcasts.

And then what else is he going to do besides those outcasts of Israel? He also going to gather others to him. Now, I don't know if you had an opportunity yet to read, study, listen to—maybe you never even heard of President Dallin H.

Oaks, and that okay. He has spoken; I put a link here in the podcast episode. He spoke this past week about the gospel of Jesus Christ being for all.

And inside of it, he said this piece, and I just thought this connected with the Isaiah chapter here. He said: "All the seed of Abraham." Now, my friends, that to me says something really exciting and yet could be mind-bending for some that haven't thought about it, and that's this. The Lord has spoken to his outcasts of Israel, if I could connect Isaiah there.

Those records exist somewhere, and President Oaks is saying we believe that eventually the Lord will bring those out for all to study and learn. And then this other piece here that really feeds my testimony of the Book of Mormon and kind of where I come from in believing its truthfulness: "This will include accounts of the visit of the resurrected Lord to what we call the Lost Tribes of Israel." We have one of those records today in the Book of Mormon with Jesus Christ visiting the people of the Nephites and the Lamanites, a separate people from those in Jerusalem. My friends, we live in incredible times, a time where the Lord is calling, gathering, gathering outcasts, gathering others.

Whether you feel those outcasts in, or whether you feel like you are the outcast, whether you resonate with the songs, the stories, the scripts written about the outcasts, the Lord truly seeks to gather all unto him. And it's an exciting day to be alive! Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching!