"Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." - Mark 9:50 ESV
This weekend when we were meeting with the men P Butch Veader brought up the idea of posture and it intrigued me. I have been working on mine the last year or so. Technology like phones and computers tend to erode this. We bend over to look at things. Keeping our back straight (chin up, shoulders back and chest out) is important on several levels. As men we are stronger and look stronger. We can stay healthier with a straight strong back and core. Our circulation is better. Other men who go by appearances will be more likely to listen to a man who looks strong then one who looks lazy and weak. That is how the world is.
The concept of righteousness in the Hebrew involves the ability to look someone in the face. Posture is involved in that.
Good posture takes effort. As we get older it can take more effort. Our shoulders need a degree of tension... not much... but some tension in a continuous way and once good posture is achieved it can be maintained with less effort but if we relax too much for too long it will be lost.
The end of Mark chapter nine throws a few concepts at us about restraint and this idea of saltiness...
"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire... And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell... And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,... For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." - Mark 9:42-43, 45, 47, 49-50 ESV
Salt was added to certain offerings in the Hebrew scriptures. It is a needed ingredient. What will i say? What will i do? Can i endure for someone else's sake or do i have to run my mouth and get relief? Will i be a man who pulls his shoulders back and stands upright or a weak minded person who slouches and does not have strength in situations? Will i react or respond with proven gracious principles?
If we wait until the situation happens to prepare we may well be unprepared and the 'little ones' that need to see someone who has fortitude won't be covered and protected.
Salty people can be at peace with one another. I know a few men who have been salted with fire. They have endured hardship. They have had the fires of difficulty and they have also had the fire of the Holy Spirit function in their lives and they are not tasteless. They have depth.
Everyone reading this can be a person of substance. It isn't going to come by effort. Uprightness is a gift from God. God gives us the posture of His Son. That is mystical and amazing to think about. Taking time with Him and hearing His word makes us want to to put our shoulders back and walk looking God in the face. Grace works in us and our thinking and emotions become 'straight' again.
God gives and we receive. We see Him and we become like Him in transformation. Then we walk that way.
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Showing posts with label Salt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salt. Show all posts
Monday, June 4, 2018
Thursday, February 15, 2018
You Are The Salt Of The Earth
"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." - Matthew 5:13 ESV
You are the salt that can be lost. You are needed. The real you. The healthy you that has a focus on God and practices His presence and seeks His mind.
Just thinking of a fisherman in ancient culture taking a sandy substance that was naturally filled with salt to pack their fish in to preserve them until they got to market. If that sandy salty mixture got rained on the rain would dissolve the salt and leave a less salty mix. Those fish would go bad before they got to a person's kitchen.
We are needed today. Exposure to influences can water down and drain away the knowledge of who God says we are until we are just dirt or sand with little preservation power.
That fisherman would need to go to his or her source of salty mixture often and get more if last weeks or last months mixture was used it wouldn't preserve as well.
We need to go to our source often to remain salty. If we wander away and stay away the elements take their toll on us but if we go morning by morning we remain potent.
You are a force for preservation just by carrying God into your situations today. The salt you have is needed. The identity you have in Christ is rare and Heavenly in origin. That salt wasn't detected by sight it was discerned by taste. It doesn't matter what you look like it matters who you look to. If you are looking to the God of the Bible seeking His actual mind you will be a salty person.
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You are the salt that can be lost. You are needed. The real you. The healthy you that has a focus on God and practices His presence and seeks His mind.
Just thinking of a fisherman in ancient culture taking a sandy substance that was naturally filled with salt to pack their fish in to preserve them until they got to market. If that sandy salty mixture got rained on the rain would dissolve the salt and leave a less salty mix. Those fish would go bad before they got to a person's kitchen.
We are needed today. Exposure to influences can water down and drain away the knowledge of who God says we are until we are just dirt or sand with little preservation power.
That fisherman would need to go to his or her source of salty mixture often and get more if last weeks or last months mixture was used it wouldn't preserve as well.
We need to go to our source often to remain salty. If we wander away and stay away the elements take their toll on us but if we go morning by morning we remain potent.
You are a force for preservation just by carrying God into your situations today. The salt you have is needed. The identity you have in Christ is rare and Heavenly in origin. That salt wasn't detected by sight it was discerned by taste. It doesn't matter what you look like it matters who you look to. If you are looking to the God of the Bible seeking His actual mind you will be a salty person.
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Monday, December 21, 2015
Salt And Light
"You are the salt of the earth..." - Matthew 5:13a ESV
"Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.' " - Nehemiah 1:8-9 ESV
Israel was scattered but God used them to salt the lands where they went. Now in modern culture we salt the lands where we are. We work jobs and live among people and God uses us in big and small ways. We are salt and light in local government. We salt the internet. We salt our families.
"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, 'In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.' Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry" - 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:3 ESV
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing." - Isaiah 10:27 KJV
I never saw this before like I did yesterday. Grace lifts the burden off our neck then the yoke is broken by the anointing. We are salty when we point people to God and reveal the truth that removes the burden. We are salty when we have God's mind about situations.
Jesus was 'made to be sin' on the cross. He was the sacrificial lamb that bore own sin so that we could 'become the righteousness of God.'
"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it - the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," - Romans 3:21-24 ESV
That is a salty statement. That is the thinking that preserves. Anyone who lives with this premise is going to reveal God's life.
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"Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.' " - Nehemiah 1:8-9 ESV
Israel was scattered but God used them to salt the lands where they went. Now in modern culture we salt the lands where we are. We work jobs and live among people and God uses us in big and small ways. We are salt and light in local government. We salt the internet. We salt our families.
"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, 'In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.' Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry" - 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:3 ESV
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing." - Isaiah 10:27 KJV
I never saw this before like I did yesterday. Grace lifts the burden off our neck then the yoke is broken by the anointing. We are salty when we point people to God and reveal the truth that removes the burden. We are salty when we have God's mind about situations.
Jesus was 'made to be sin' on the cross. He was the sacrificial lamb that bore own sin so that we could 'become the righteousness of God.'
"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it - the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," - Romans 3:21-24 ESV
That is a salty statement. That is the thinking that preserves. Anyone who lives with this premise is going to reveal God's life.
--
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Leviathan Is A Fresh Water Creature
"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. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." - Matthew 5:13-16 ESV
I often think of this concept that there is a world system that has been declared as the enemy of the believer.
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life - is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." - 1 John 2:15-17 ESV
"Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory." - Matthew 4:8 ESV
"As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful." - Matthew 13:22 ESV
"And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." - 1 John 5:19 KJV
It is almost like a plot out of a science fiction film. The idea that humanity exudes or is swimming in something diabolical and does not even know it. The last verse in 1 John makes the claim that we know that the world is like this. Someone who has faith in Christ looks around and realizes quickly that the culture they are in is much darker than the faith they have.
Can we rid ourselves from this 'world' that the Bible speaks of? People try. They try to pass or establish Biblically based laws and impose structure that is anti-world. America was formed by people who left Europe and many of them had this idea and wove it into the fabric of the national cloth. Salty people with a salty world view made for an incredible success story.
"Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words?... Lay your hands on him; remember the battle - you will not do it again!" - Job 41:1-3, 8 ESV
But, The world isn't passive and cords can't bind leviathan. The cords won't bind him for long. In His element he is the master.
I just want to quote the first verse again because I think it holds the answer for us.
"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. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." - Matthew 5:13-16 ESV
Salt and light are the answer. The cosmos (world) does not function well in salt and light. Leviathan is a fresh water creature.
"Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it. Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf. Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise." - Proverbs 11:27-30 ESV
Changing rules must always be secondary to the great cause of changing hearts and minds. If people with changed minds can get a foothold in society they will change the rules as protection against the darkness they used to know but now disdain.
This principle is true for the individual also. More and stricter rules will not transform me. Salt and light will preserve and change me. Spending time with salty people will make me saltier. Exposure to the light of grace teaching and practical compassion will cause my values to change.
Don't we want to enter the bland situation and bring the presence of God into it? It won't be our personality that accomplishes that. It will be us co-laboring with God that does it.
I want to live salty and die salty.
--
I often think of this concept that there is a world system that has been declared as the enemy of the believer.
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life - is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." - 1 John 2:15-17 ESV
"Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory." - Matthew 4:8 ESV
"As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful." - Matthew 13:22 ESV
"And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." - 1 John 5:19 KJV
It is almost like a plot out of a science fiction film. The idea that humanity exudes or is swimming in something diabolical and does not even know it. The last verse in 1 John makes the claim that we know that the world is like this. Someone who has faith in Christ looks around and realizes quickly that the culture they are in is much darker than the faith they have.
Can we rid ourselves from this 'world' that the Bible speaks of? People try. They try to pass or establish Biblically based laws and impose structure that is anti-world. America was formed by people who left Europe and many of them had this idea and wove it into the fabric of the national cloth. Salty people with a salty world view made for an incredible success story.
"Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words?... Lay your hands on him; remember the battle - you will not do it again!" - Job 41:1-3, 8 ESV
But, The world isn't passive and cords can't bind leviathan. The cords won't bind him for long. In His element he is the master.
I just want to quote the first verse again because I think it holds the answer for us.
"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. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." - Matthew 5:13-16 ESV
Salt and light are the answer. The cosmos (world) does not function well in salt and light. Leviathan is a fresh water creature.
"Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it. Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf. Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise." - Proverbs 11:27-30 ESV
Changing rules must always be secondary to the great cause of changing hearts and minds. If people with changed minds can get a foothold in society they will change the rules as protection against the darkness they used to know but now disdain.
This principle is true for the individual also. More and stricter rules will not transform me. Salt and light will preserve and change me. Spending time with salty people will make me saltier. Exposure to the light of grace teaching and practical compassion will cause my values to change.
Don't we want to enter the bland situation and bring the presence of God into it? It won't be our personality that accomplishes that. It will be us co-laboring with God that does it.
I want to live salty and die salty.
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