Time with Jesus - Thursday, 13
September 2012
Hi all,
Reading God’s Word introduces us to ideas we had never
thought of before. Jesus was a master story teller. Many of the things He
talked about were taken from natural world around Him. ±2000 years later, we miss many of the things He was
saying because we are not familiar with that culture. Our meditation today
looks at salt and seeks to widen our understanding of His comments on this
topic.
Blessings
Jim
& Phyllida Strickland
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – Thursday, 13 September 2012
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Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
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These
devotionals are the intellectual property of Jim Strickland and copyright
protected. You are welcome to copy and distribute them to anyone provided it
is for non-commercial Christian purposes
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©
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INTRODUCTION
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DAILY
LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES
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THE SALT OF THE EARTH
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If I asked you what you thought was the biggest
problem which most Christians have to face today, I rather suspect that most
people would say “Embarrassment”. It’s a sort of off-shoot of the fear of
man. One of the best examples I can think of is what happens in the local
restaurant when the staff gathers round you and sings, “Happy birthday to
you!” Most of us blush. We don’t like this sort of attention. There are times
I’d like to crawl under the table and hide rather than face the knowing
stares of others. Like a tortoise I’d like to pull my head and feet into the
shell and play dead! At the same time we revel in it when we send the staff
to sing “Happy Birthday” to others. I rather think many of us are like this.
I’ve tried to avoid it by keeping my birthday and anniversary dates under
lock and key. I could always find a good reason for not telling enquirers the
“incriminating evidence”. As the years go by it becomes increasingly
difficult keeping this a secret.
I’ve often wondered how a person can stand at a
pulpit and deliver an inspiring sermon in front of dozens of people, without
a second thought. But when your birthday is in the church notices for the
purpose of asking people to phone you, the day becomes something of a
nightmare. The phone rings. You’d like to ignore the incessant ringing. But
in the end you pick up the receiver sheepishly knowing what’s going to
happen. There is a cheery voice gushing over with the news that you are a
year older. At times I’d rather forget!
Sadly, embarrassment carries over into everyday
life. We would like to testify to the goodness of God and our commitment to Jesus.
But we are too embarrassed to do it. It’s stupid, but many of us are like
this. We all want to be different. But we also want to be well liked and well
thought of by others. We know we have become a “Jesus Freak”. But nobody
likes a freak! So we sort of gulp and say nothing. The same attitude is
reflected in what we wear. The idea of wearing a brightly coloured tee-shirt
with the words, “Jesus love you” is somehow worse than singing an aria from
Carmen!
The good news is that Jesus knows and understands.
The bad news is that He wants us to grow up and get over it! He expects our
light to shine brightly and not be hidden under a pot. In simple terms He
expects us to influence society in much the same way as salt changes the
“society” into which it is placed. If the salt in you and me is not changing
our society in some way, our salt is tasteless and useless. Notices how He
describes its final end. “Thrown out and trodden underfoot by men”. There are
two ways to look at this. One is to see the salt as not serving a useful
purpose. There is another and, in my opinion, a worse outcome. The “useless
salt” gets thrown onto the pathway of life and is walked on by the people of
this world. Oh it does serve a purpose. The feet of men trample on it and it
becomes more useless than it was. People do not know what its purpose was.
How can they? It’s hidden under their feet. Things will not change until you
and I “rise up” from beneath their feet and allow our saltiness to be seen.
There really is no choice. Somehow we must ask Him to give us the strength to
provide the flavour of Jesus to change the world. He will not use compulsion.
But if we do nothing, that pathway could be a grave from which nothing will
ever escape.
Jim &
Phyllida Strickland
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13 "You are the salt of the earth.
But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty
again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.
Matthew 5:13 NLT
4 You should clothe yourselves instead with
the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and
quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.
1 Peter 3:4 NLT
23 For you have been born again, not of
perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of
God.
1 Peter 1:23 TNIV
25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he
live,
John 11:25 ESV
36 And they will never die again. In this respect they will be like
angels. They are children of God and children of
the resurrection.
Luke 20:36 NLT
23 and exchanged the glory of the
incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of
birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Romans 1:23 NASB
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the
Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not
have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead
because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the
dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give
life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:9-11 ESV
42 It will be like that with bodies that are raised from the dead. The body that is planted does not last forever. The
body that is raised from the dead lasts forever.
1 Corinthians 15:42 NIrV
50 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 9:50 ESV
29 Don't use foul or abusive language. Let
everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an
encouragement to those who hear them.
Ephesians 4:29 NLT
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Salt is a
preservative, it also disinfects.
It also is a flavouring
a master chef respects.
When it isn’t
present, your food you cannot taste.
This means,
that on occasions, the food will go to waste.
But there are other
purposes. In fact there’s many more.
Which one was
Jesus meaning? I think we should explore,
What many people used
it for, way back in Jesus’ days.
To help us
come to grips with what we find the Bible says.
One of the surprises
was to fertilize a field.
When mixed
with other minerals, it caused the ground to yield,
A larger crop of
vegetables than any they had known.
So for the
local farmer, a bigger crop than sown!
Its antiseptic uses,
the midwives knew quite well.
They “washed”
a new-born infant with salt. The child would yell
And tell the anxious
fathers the child was doing fine.
But in the drier
areas, they used camel urine!
They couldn’t waste
their water; they needed it to drink.
So salt mixed
with the urine. Worked just as well – I think!
They also had a
ritual; a Covenant of Salt;
Was often
celebrated for family feuds to halt.
This covenant was
permanent. It wasn’t put aside.
It was a
lasting guarantee, like husband to his bride.
It never could be
broken. The only way was death.
And people
swore to keep it, until their final breath.
We cannot live
without it. I had a long-time friend;
A very
helpful fellow on whom you could depend.
He had a “pet aversion”
to that which he could taste.
A very “fussy
eater” whose actions were misplaced.
He couldn’t stand
salt’s flavour. He’d push his plate away,
If he could
even smell it. This happened till the day,
They thought that he
was terminal; they all wanted to know,
The reason
why this person’s health had reached an all-time low.
They did a special
test on him, to find the reason why,
And found his
low salt content was causing him to die!
They put him on
“salt tablets” and in a day or two,
He was
restored to normal; the man whom they all knew.
Now Jesus is
omniscient. He knows about these things.
He knows what
lack of saltiness, to many people brings.
And that’s what He
was saying when speaking on that day.
He meant if
you’re not salty, you will be thrown away.
If salt has lost its
usefulness, it isn’t any good.
Where can you
dispose of it? You’d use it if you could.
But it will not
cause damage if its throw upon the road.
If people
walk upon it, it helps to spread the load,
So folk will not
fall over and sink into the ground.
There is no
better purpose than ever to be found.
So keep on being
salty, that other men may know,
That Jesus is
the only way a person ought to go.
Jim Strickland – Written 13th September
2012
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