It Needs Salt

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.” ~ Matt. 5:13

Salt is a good thing. Like, a really good thing. Salt has virtually always been used to cure meet, preserve foods, in medicines aiding the balance of electrolytes and fluids, carry nutrients into cells, regulation of acid-base balance, support transfer of nerve impulses, regulate blood pressure, and secretion of gastric acid. Who doesn't remember a time when mom or dad or their grandparents, tasting a dish we've made and they said, “It needs salt.”? We may have said it ourselves. Salt, give flavor and helps bring out the goodness of the food. Salt also causes us to become thirsty. Thats why most every bar or restaurant offers peanuts or pretzels. The saltiness causes them to buy more drinks. Salt can feel painful too. Have you ever had an open cut and sweat got into it or you were cooking and salt got onto the wound? It hurts, doesn't it? Salt is a good thing! It cause a reaction, no matter what it is used for. I guess that is why followers of Jesus are called, “the salt of the earth.” 

This passage should cause you to think about your own saltiness. Jesus looks at the lives around you, the people you have been called to serve and influence and he is saying, “They need salt.” Do people in your life, thirst for more of the Jesus they see in you? Can they taste the goodness of God that comes from your life? Spend time this week thinking about these things and praying that God will restore your saltiness. 

Work for the Lord

“54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” 

                                                                                                                                                  - 1 Corinthians 15:54-58

It can get tiresome, doing good things for others and not getting any recognition. Not feeling valued. Being under-appreciated, is defeating. It can leave us resentful and full of anger and bitterness. It can turn us cold and indifferent. But it shouldn't! If it does, it is because of our own selfishness. That doesn't sound right does it? How is it that when we do something for others that generates thanklessness rather than thankfulness, we are the guilty ones for feeling as though what we do isn't important or no one loves us for it? It is because, whatever we do, isn't being done for the Lord or really for anyone else. We are doing for our own satisfaction. God will not grant us the satisfaction. 

When we do it for the Lord, whatever “it” may be, then we are not concerned with man's praise. What people think or how they respond to what we have done doesn't change how we feel inside. It doesn't cause us to feel anything. Only what God says about us will matter. So, we work for the Lord, in every way. And, we accept His gratitude as more than enough. We do not work for the Lord in order to be saved. We work for the Lord because we are already saved. Working and serving others is by and large, how we work and serve the Lord. Therefore, our service to others should be viewed in the same respect. We do it, not for recognition or praise or even for thanks. Rather, we serve one another, out of love and appreciation for what God has done and is doing in and through us. 

Loving the Not So Lovable

“11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” - 1 John 4:11-13

For the most part, loving people isn't too difficult. Its really more a part of who we choose to be that determines how well we love others. It has to do more with us than them. But every once in a while we can encounter people who make it hard to love them. They are not so lovable. You know the type I'm talking about. They are bitter and sour and their presence churns within us feelings of uneasiness and despair, dread and defeat, anger and frustration. It is hard to love people like that. They are so closed off to the people around them that it is nye on to impossible to find ways to connect with them beyond the surface. Its hard to break through that crusty exterior. So, more often than not, we give up on them and chalk them up as a lost cause. We begin warning everybody else to just avoid them at all cost. We, ourselves, put up barriers that make it even harder to love them. We, like the rest of the world, say to ourselves and enact in our lives toward them, “You hurt me, so I hurt you back.” “You reject me, so I reject you entirely.” We forget that Jesus says, “You hurt me and I'll just love you more.” “You reject me, but I have excepted you right where you are.” 

The truth is that even when it comes to these type of “not so lovable” people, the problem with loving them is still more to do with your character, with your heart, with your faith, than it is to do with them. When you choose to live in the Spirit and set the Spirit free to work in and through you, you will easily be able to love those “not so lovable” people by the power and might of the Spirit at work in you. My challenge to you this week is to look back over your life and think about the people in your life that fall into that category of “not so lovable” and reflect on how you maybe should have loved them differently or more. Then reflect on people in your life now whom you struggle to love and seek out ways to love them publicly. Not for show but for the Spirit. Salvation hangs in the balance.

Clearing the Fields

“Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful!' and sitting in the shade.” - Kipling

Gardens are a lot of work. Planting is a lot of work. My uncle always fancied himself a farmer. He was too lazy to truly be a farmer. He always took to the short cuts. He would hire me though to do what work he did want to do. He used to have a garden that was about fifty feet wide and a hundred feet long. That was the one thing he did put some work into. He never had any money for a tractor so a rotary tiller it was. Guess who got the privileged of holding onto that thing as it burrowed its way through the rocky and unforgiving southwest Missouri soil. That thing would jar me and nearly break me, but it got the job done. Every year it seemed to get a little easier than the year before. 

I remember my dad telling stories about his grandmother and him clearing the back field of rocks so they could have grass and hay for the cows. My dad said that, “In southwest Missouri, the ground grows rocks. You no sooner pluck from the ground and another would take its place.” There is a row of rocks at the edge of the field in the tree line to prove it. That is where they would chunk the rocks as they cleared the field every spring.

You can't see where that garden was, and that field is barely visible for all the trees, shrubs, buckbrush, and weeds that have overtaken the landscape. Left unattended the earth took back its natural appearance. 

“Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.” - Hosea 10:12

Our hearts are like that garden or that field, if we don't daily tend to it, taking out the bad or useless and placing in it the good and beneficial; then it will wither and fade away back into the landscape of culture and worldliness. Pretty soon, no one will be able to make out where the field ends and the forrest begins. Its a lot of work but oh how the fruits of your labor taste, so fresh and sweet. Take time this week to do some clearing in your heart for the planting of righteous things that come only from the Lord.

Reel 'Em In

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” - 2 Corinthians 5:20a

Did you know that there is a difference between “fishers” and “catchers”? Fishers like to talk a big talk and they even have some success with which to boast about and to gain attention with. But catchers, they feed people. Fishers, showboat for a short amount of time with little effort, all for notoriety and sponsorship. Catchers, work long and hard, with purpose and passion, all for a meal and the joy of the catch and to meet the needs of others. In short, fishers, fish but catchers, catch. In other words, those that fish make little impact and have no lasting reward. Those that catch, they change lives and are remembered forever. They don't do it for glory or fame that fades away with time. They do it for a purpose bigger than themselves. One that has everlasting repercussions. I am sure you get the sense we are no longer talking about fishing. You would be right. 

God called us to something bigger than ourselves. He calls us to be the reel. As one author has said, “We are the reel, Jesus is the lure, and God is in control.” The truth is, when it comes to fishing and catching, it doesn't much matter if you use a reel that costs $100 or a reel that costs $30. One may last longer than the other because of quality and construction. But neither one will catch you more fish than the other. Because, the difference is the person doing the casting. God brings the fish and supplies the bait, he asks you to do the casting. You learn to do that right, and you will eat heartily for all eternity. 

This week, consider your role in God's unfolding plan. You have been called to be His hands, His feet, His mouthpiece. In light of the lesson above, you have been called to “reel 'em in.” Are you doing that? If so, how are you doing that and can you do more or better? Every fisherman has to adapt to the water and the fish and change their bait and technique up as needed. If you aren't, “reeling 'em in,” why? What is stopping you from being obedient to God? 

A Pleasing Tongue

A Pleasing Tongue 

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” - Psalm 19:14

“Think before you speak!” I am sure you've heard that a time or two in your life. The truth is, we don't often sit and think about the words we say. In reality, we are more likely to consider what we are going to say before we say it than we are to contemplate what we said after the fact. I don't really know why that is. Perhaps, it is because we have placed an emphasis on it with things such as the cliché saying that I opened with. In either case, when I read this text in Psalm 19, I am forced to consider the words that come from my mouth. That is, if I am concerned at all with what God thinks or feels in regards to my words or thoughts for that matter. I am reminded of another text in the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians. 

“3For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.” - 2 Cor. 10:3-6

God obviously cares a great deal about our thoughts and the words that come from our mouth. So should we. Take time this week to consider your words, not just before you speak but afterwards. Consider how you use your words. Do your words build others up or tear them down? Are your words encouraging and profitable or are they divisive and discouraging? Is there noticeable love in your tone and grace in your approach or do you come across as brash and abrasive?

Consider this, how was it that Jesus could call someone out for their blatant and heinous sins but leave that person feeling loved and cared for? How do people feel after an encounter with you?