A
daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and
exhortation.
Monday,
November 1,
2021
Our Amish neighbors may have had church services
up the road from us yesterday due to horse and buggy
traffic on Kraybill Church Road in front of our house.
"Being The Salt Of The
Earth"
Saturday evening we joined with about 1,400
other grains of salt at a banquet in Hershey sponsored
by the Pennsylvania Family Institute. This is an
organization whose stated purpose is: "A Pennsylvania
where God is honored, religious freedom flourishes,
families thrive and life is cherished".
The Pennsylvania Family Institute
has been around for over 30 years and does an
outstanding job of seeking to restrain the flood of evil
that is impacting our state, nation and world. Of course
there were plenty of current events to demonstrate this
flood of evil, but for us the most poignant was a video
of a young female track runner from a local high school.
The teen shared that when the
track season began a boy joined the team who had been on
the boy's cross country team the previous fall. It
traumatized her and the other girls on the team,
especially in the locker room as he would openly undress
in front of them while gawking at them. Their discomfort
led some of them to changing their clothes in a
port-a-potty.
I really can't begin to fathom how anyone can
get so smitten by evil to think this is the slightest
bit acceptable, but many have, including leadership at
the school.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told His
disciples, "You
are the salt of the earth". There have been
various interpretations of what this means based
on how salt was used in that period of time, most
notably as a seasoning and as a preservative.
Today we consider the sense of salt being a
preservative.
Salt was one of the earliest of
all preservatives and was a valued commodity in the
ancient world. Without any source of refrigeration, salt
became the means of preserving meat from decaying, as
the ancients rubbed down meat and fish to preserve it
for regular use. Seafarers just a century ago would salt
down their fish and meat to preserve them for the long
transatlantic journeys. Salt was so important as a
corruption preventative in the ancient world that wars
were fought over it, and entire economies were based on
it. In short, salt could literally make the difference
between life and death in a time when fresh food was
unavailable. (Precept Austin Commentary)
The church as a whole is a great hindrance to
our world in the advancement of evil. Hundreds of
millions of individual believers are like grains of
salt. Hundreds of thousands of tiny units known as local
churches dot the globe. And there are many outstanding
parachurch organizations like the Pennsylvania Family
Institute.
Part of this call is surely not losing the sense of outrage as we slide deeper and deeper into a moral morass. The world's call to tolerance seeks to mold us and to force us to respond to evil with the attitude "to each his own", which leads to acceptance for every form of wickedness. That which once shocked will be condoned, normal, and even respectable.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers, "For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way" (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Commentators differ on what is holding back this power of lawlessness and the text is indeed a difficult one.
Part of this call is surely not losing the sense of outrage as we slide deeper and deeper into a moral morass. The world's call to tolerance seeks to mold us and to force us to respond to evil with the attitude "to each his own", which leads to acceptance for every form of wickedness. That which once shocked will be condoned, normal, and even respectable.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers, "For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way" (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Commentators differ on what is holding back this power of lawlessness and the text is indeed a difficult one.
We agree with the interpretation of Warren
Wiersbe that "God has a 'restrainer' in the world, which
we believe is the Holy Spirit working in and through the
church." Follower of Christ, you are like a tiny grain
of salt today. You may feel your contribution is
insignificant, but it's not. In concert with millions of
other believers you are preserving God's truth,
righteousness, and order in this increasingly chaotic
world. Stay faithful!
Our dominant culture has become so Biblically illiterate that for many people spiritual salt has become objectionable. This will continue to happen as the restraining salty influence of older believers is diminished after passing on to their reward. An increasing number have no knowledge of God or His law; having been raised on the Simpsons, MTV and an often godless public education system. Most have no idea what Sunday School is and few parents, particularly fathers, take their Scriptural mandate seriously (Ephesians 6:4).
Today Christ's followers spread out like grains of salt through the culture that surrounds us. You may see your role at work as necessary but an unrelated part of your Christian ministry. But I believe God uses our work to evenly distribute our presence throughout the culture around us. How salty are you?
You may look around and see but a few grains of salt where you work. In a few cases you may be the only grain. “What difference am I making?”, you might think. At times the difference we make is recognizable. What a blessing it is to lead an individual to faith or to bring encouragement to a fellow believer. But at other times we must practice a steady obedience and in due time we may very well see the impact of our saltiness. Let us stay faithful!
Our dominant culture has become so Biblically illiterate that for many people spiritual salt has become objectionable. This will continue to happen as the restraining salty influence of older believers is diminished after passing on to their reward. An increasing number have no knowledge of God or His law; having been raised on the Simpsons, MTV and an often godless public education system. Most have no idea what Sunday School is and few parents, particularly fathers, take their Scriptural mandate seriously (Ephesians 6:4).
Today Christ's followers spread out like grains of salt through the culture that surrounds us. You may see your role at work as necessary but an unrelated part of your Christian ministry. But I believe God uses our work to evenly distribute our presence throughout the culture around us. How salty are you?
You may look around and see but a few grains of salt where you work. In a few cases you may be the only grain. “What difference am I making?”, you might think. At times the difference we make is recognizable. What a blessing it is to lead an individual to faith or to bring encouragement to a fellow believer. But at other times we must practice a steady obedience and in due time we may very well see the impact of our saltiness. Let us stay faithful!
Be encouraged today, (Hebrews 3:13)
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily
prayer: Father, as I
commit myself to You this day, I ask that You help
me to preserve Your truth, righteousness and order
in this increasingly chaotic world. I want the light
of Your glory to be present in my conversation so
that it is full of grace seasoned with salt,
enabling me to know how to respond to each person in
accordance to Your Word. May I be like a tree
planted by streams of water, bearing fruit each
season unlike the godless whom Scripture describes
as worthless chaff, scattered by the wind which
leads to destruction. We choose not to be overcome
by evil but to overcome evil with good. By Your
grace and our obedience we will be victorious
through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.Additional
notes:
*
Teacher friends and family: We realize there are
many good and godly teachers. We both have them in
our family and in churches we have served and
attended. But we contend the public education system
increasingly promotes ungodly behavior such as the
caving to the transgender nonsense and many other
issues. We are heartened to see teachers stand
against this but some have paid a price. In whatever
field we serve we must keep our first allegiance to
God and His truth. We need to be in prayer for our
Christian instructors as they seek to be salt and
light in the classroom and in their sphere of
influence.
We contend that two
critical components of this saltiness is living
righteously and expressing truth in love:
1) Living righteously; that is, living in obedience to God’s Word: In the context speaking of light Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). As a result of God’s transforming grace in our salvation we seek to earnestly find out what pleases the Lord. The grace of God “teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11,12).
2) Speaking the truth in love. We need to lovingly address and confront sin, first of course in our own life but also as a salty, preserving influence to others. This is now so politically incorrect that some readers will chafe at our words. We can hear people saying, “But that will be seen as judgmental, intolerant, unloving.” Sadly this attitude has silenced so many that those who do speak out are rarer and rarer. I am intrigued by the words in the second passage, “so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”
1) Living righteously; that is, living in obedience to God’s Word: In the context speaking of light Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). As a result of God’s transforming grace in our salvation we seek to earnestly find out what pleases the Lord. The grace of God “teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11,12).
2) Speaking the truth in love. We need to lovingly address and confront sin, first of course in our own life but also as a salty, preserving influence to others. This is now so politically incorrect that some readers will chafe at our words. We can hear people saying, “But that will be seen as judgmental, intolerant, unloving.” Sadly this attitude has silenced so many that those who do speak out are rarer and rarer. I am intrigued by the words in the second passage, “so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”
Pastor
David Guzic writes,
"A key
thought in both the pictures of salt and light is
distinction. Salt is needed because the world is
rotting and decaying and if our Christianity is
also rotting and decaying, it won't be any good.
Light is needed because the world is in darkness,
and if our Christianity imitates the darkness, we
have nothing to show the world. To be effective we
must seek and display the Christian distinctive.
We can never affect the world for Jesus by
becoming like the world. The figures of salt and
light also remind us that the life marked by the
beatitudes is not to be lived in isolation. We
often assume that those inner qualities can only
be developed or displayed in isolation from the
world, but Jesus wants us to live them out before
the world. Jesus points to a breadth in the impact
of disciples that must have seemed almost
ridiculous at the time. How could these humble
Galileans salt the earth, or light the world? But
they did. Jesus never challenges us to become salt
or light. He simply says that we are - and we are
either fulfilling or failing that responsibility."
Today's
Suggested
Music and Supplemental Resources
"Christ
Be Magnified" Video The concluding
song from our service yesterday at Calvary
Church. May Christ be magnified in each of our
lives!
Ken and Audrey Mull, owners of a
company we serve in Lebanon County, invited us
to the banquet. We joined with several others,
including their pastor Alan Walter, whom I have
come to know as we attended conferences together
in the past.
The banquet was held at Hershey Lodge.
It was nice to see many friends we have met over
our 20+ years of living in this area.
Including a table from our
"Crossroads" Sunday School class.
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& Brooksyne
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Weber".Scripture references are from The Holy Bible: New International Version. © 1984 by International Bible Society; NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. and the King James Version.
Personal Mission Statement: "I am created by God to bring Him glory. Through God's Son Jesus Christ I have been redeemed and make it my life's goal to please the Lord. My mission in life is to honor God through my faith and obedience and prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."
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