The World is Salt Deficient

There is nothing better than a savory scone.  The salty flavor lends to the flavor explosion.

But what if it was not salty?  Have you ever tried to eat food without salt.  There are many foods that taste wonderfully fresh without salt but there are some foods that really seem to require salt in order to enhance the flavor.

In bread, salt plays a role in tightening the gluten structure and adding strength to the dough.  This strength helps the loaf hold on to the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation.

Salt also slows down the fermentation and enzyme activity in the dough.

Just like salt in dough, our lives should prove to provide support to a lost and dying world.

Jesus has called us, in Matthew 5:13, to be the salt of the earth.

"You are the salt of the earth, ..."

Salt is not only important for flavor enhancement, as a preservative, texturiser and fermentation control agent  but salt is a necessary for the body to perform vital functions as it binds things together and controls the color of the food.

Salt surely has an important role in our lives on a minute by minute basis!

Following Jesus requires that we are full of His flavor and preserving Spirit.

As Christians we need to provide a stabilizing flavorful role in our homes, churches, communities and ultimately our sphere of influence.

In Mark 9 Jesus adds another component to being salt.

"... Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

We must walk in peace with one another in order to maintain our saltiness because prior to this statement Jesus declares that salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness it is useless.

Our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ are a vital component to our lives being the salt of the earth.

This makes sense since Jesus said in John 13:34

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

This further drives home the importance of living in peace with and loving one another as it is the very means that God will show the world that we are His.

It reminds me of the Old Testament when God set forth all the requirements of the law primarily to set His people distinctly apart from the pagan peoples that they lived among.

Jesus came to fulfill the law and write it on our hearts by the Spirit!

In John 15 He commands us;

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.

He goes on to say....

... but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.  These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

I think it is pretty important if Jesus keep reiterating that we love one another!

That leads me to ask myself, "Do I love EVERY ONE of God's people?  How do I know if I love them like Christ loves me?  By laying down my life!

I often hear the Lord say to me;  freely you have received freely give Karen!

Our lives were intended to be a fragrant offering to the Lord for His glory.  We cannot smell lovely to the world if we are not loving like Christ commands us to!  We cannot be His friend if we are not friends with His church!

Matthew 10:5-8

These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And proclaim as you go, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, You received without paying; give without paying.

Father, help us to be the salt of the earth, loving one another and living in peace but also going and doing greater works than even Jesus did while He was on earth.  He had to leave so that we could have the Holy Spirit.  This was for our benefit and His glory!

Let us examine our hearts and ask Jesus how we are loving today.  Let's be the salt of the earth because we live in a world that is salt deficient!