SALT AND LIGHT

Today I am being prompted to write about salt and light.  This is something I have struggled with many times in my life.  How do we find a happy balance between being salty and being the light?  What does being salty mean?  As we walk for years with the Lord we know what it means to be his light but how are we to be his salt and how much of it do we use?

 

Mark 9:49 (NIV) - ' Everyone will be salted with fire. '

 

Mark 9:50 (NIV) - “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

 

Leviticus 2:13 (NIV) - Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.

 

Colossians 4:6 (NIV) - Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

 

Ezekiel 43:24 (NIV) - You are to offer them before the LORD, and the priests are to sprinkle salt on them and sacrifice them as a burnt offering to the LORD.

 

2 Chronicles 13:5 (NIV) - Don’t you know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt?

 

We know that salt is a preservative and extends the usefulness and life of food when it is salted.  Without salt these foods decay in time.  We also know that salt is used a flavoring.  Do we completely stop using salt as a flavoring or do we use it in moderation?  Does everyone need to use salt or just those who can discern the appropriate amount to use?

 

I will admit that throughout the years the salty words that come out of my mouth are not always what the Lord would have me say.  I know that I let my emotions and feelings spout out of my mouth without thinking of their effect on the ears that hear my words.  I sway this way and that way depending on what is happening in the world and in my world.  I am a mess at times but the Lord always brings me back into his way of thinking and acting. I know he wants me to do better and be better in how I spread salt for him.  There should always be a happy balance of salt and light for spreading his word.

 

We live in a world today much like the times of Noah and the times of Sodom.  The world has lost it's way and the people are dying and decaying right before us.  We can see that the wickedness of the world is taking the people farther and father away from God.  Even in the Christian world the foundations are cracking and breaking because the storms are battering them.  They no longer bend and sway in the storms because their foundations were not strongly built in the Lord.  Many are breaking and falling into the stormy waters and are drowning.

 

In Old Testament times Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others did their best to tell the people to come back to the Lord.  They told of the terrible things to come if the people did not change their ways and stop worshipping false idols.  They stood before the Temple gates and cried out to the people but the people would not listen.  This happened over and over again even up to the time the Messiah came and they were unable to see and recognize him.  They killed him and moved on in their lives.  The prophets did not want to antagonize the people with their words of salt. They did not want to hear and see the anger of the people towards their words.  They did not want to feel the wrath of the people but they did fear the wrath of God far more.  They did what the Lord called them to do, to warn the people of their impending doom if they did not mend their ways and stop following false gods.

 

Throughout time there have been those standing on the street corners with signs saying, "Repent or Die" and they were scoffed at and ridiculed.  Twice in Luke 13 Jesus told the people,

 

Luke 13:3 (NIV) - I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

 

Luke 13:5 (NIV) -  I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

 

I believe when Jesus says something more than once he is truly trying to get the ears to hear exactly what he is saying.  Read those two verses again then read them in the context of the chapter.  This is a call to repentance and then speaks of the destruction that comes from lack of repentance. Jesus gives the grower one more year to help the tree produce fruit.  He gives the tree one more chance to not be thrown into the fire and burned.  He will not continually disregard our sins and disobedience.  A price will be paid for those who do not repent.

 

We live is a world today that cares very little for the light of God and cares very little for the salt of God.  Their hearts are hardened.  Their eyes are blind.  Their ears cannot hear.  So do we, who do still hear the Lord speaking, give up and quit being salt and light stop also?  Of course, we do not!  Not if the Lord is speaking into our own hearts and minds about the impending doom of the people.  It's no fun being that person on the street corner holding the sign of God to "Repent or Die".  It's no fun being ridiculed and rebuked for not being a light for the Lord.  Salt in an open wound hurts painfully.

 

For me it is hard finding the proper balance of how to warn the people and how to encourage the people. I have not been trained properly in speaking out effectively and honestly in a good balance.  I will be damned by some for doing it one way and be damned by others doing it another way.  It is so much easier to only be the light sharer than it is being the salt spreader but some are called to do both.  We are told that every joint supplies in Ephesians 4.  It also says,

 

Ephesians 4:15 (NIV) - Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

 

How do we, as his voice crying in the wilderness, maturely speak truth in love?

How do we tell the people that unless they repent from their sins they will die?  No one wants to hear the truth about their sins and their eternal death because of their sinful ways.  No one wants to speak out with the saltiness of this truth.  It's a hard truth. I would so much rather only be the light of Jesus but for some reason he has decided I also have to be salty in my words.  I need to make sure to find the correct balance the Lord would have as I speak out to a world that needs to repent or die.  This part of my walk with Jesus is very hard as many do not understand that each journey he takes us on are individual journeys.  Each one of us who are followers of Jesus have a different ministry on earth.  Some are called to be one thing and others are called for other things but all are part of the kingdom of God when they are called according to his purpose. 

 

Romans 8:28 (NIV) - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

 

Ephesians 1:11 (NIV) - In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.

 

1 Corinthians 3:8 (NIV) - The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.

 

Each one of us are called in different ways and for different purposes but all are called to Jesus, the savior of our souls.  Some are called to only shine light in a dark and dying world.  Some are called to spread the salt to preserve the word of God to repent from their sins or they will die.  All of Jesus' followers are called to do both but as human beings we sometimes do not have the proper balance of how to do this.  Only he can show us the way to be effective in our world today. 

 

My prayer for myself is to find the best balance of salt and light and then to go out into the world spreading his word of salvation which only comes to those who surrender to him and confess their sins and sin no more.