Overcoming the World (continued)
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Matthew 5:13 (NIV)
Over the centuries there have been two uses of salt, to preserve meat and to flavor food. The human body needs salt to survive. Jesus’ comparison of his disciples to salt makes a lot of sense. We are to provide flavor to the lives of people, and we are to preserve them by introducing them to Jesus Christ so that their eternity is spent in heaven with Him. But let me tell you a few things about salt over the centuries.
Salt can be used as a preservative because it kills bacteria. It removes the water from the meat, and the bacteria cannot live without water. That applies to the Christian because we are preserved to live in heaven by the removal of the penalty for sin which Jesus did on the cross. Sin is the bacteria of our lives that has been removed (killed) by the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We use salt to flavor food all the time. When we produced Saguaro Potato Chips, we marketed a potato chip without salt for those who needed to cut out or cut down on their use of salt. The product did not sell very well because most people didn’t like potato chips without salt. They were missing much of the flavor. A salt-free diet is known as a bland diet--not much flavor. The Christian life is definitely not bland. It life offers joy and the feeling of satisfaction for completing a task given by God. One big part of the flavor of the Chirstian life is our praise and worship in song to the King of Kings. The biggest flavor of the Christian life is the knowledge that we will live a live of eternal peace and joy when we leave this earthly life. None of us really knows what heaven will be like, but we know that if Jesus “goes to prepare a place for us,” it is going to be great. After all, He already created the universe, and now we have eternity to explore it.
Centuries ago merchants sold one ounce of salt for one ounce of gold. Wars were fought over access to salt flats. In ancient Rome, soldiers were paid with salt. Salt has been valuable for centuries, but by being the “salt of the earth,” we bring a much greater meaning to its value.
So, let’s go be the salt of the earth, bringing flavor and preservation to those we meet. When we do, they will be blessed and thankful for eternity.
Spiritual Nourishment for Life
While reading some of my notebooks from the past few years, I came across this Word of the Lord, and I want to share it with you.
“Eat my Word. Ingest it. Digest it. Take from it nourishment. When you eat physical food, after you have obtained the nourishment, the remainder is waste. There is no waste when you digest my Word. All of it is nourishment. It is all good food—some is sweet, it brings you pleasure; some is protein, it builds your strength by importing to you the foundational building blocks of faith; some of it is as carbohydrates, it fills you out by providing connections for the building blocks. All of my Word contains the vitamins and minerals you need to remain spiritually strong.
Drink of my Spirit. Spend time with me so I can fill you with the life-giving, life-sustaining and life-enriching flow of my love. Do not let yourself become dehydrated of my love.
Come and be filled, be nourished, be enriched. I am the source of life. I gave the Israelites land flowing with milk and honey. I have prepared a spiritual land flowing with my ‘milk and honey,’ but you have to walk into it as did the Israelites.”
Overcoming the World
“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 John 5:4,5 (NLT)
Jesus came to earth to save us from our sins, to provide a means of forgiveness, and to promise eternal life with Him. He accomplished all three, and now it is up to us to occupy until His return. He has given us the means to do so, and He has shown us how to live so that sinners would be drawn to Him. We need to do two things: speak His Word and live His Word. When we do this, the lost will be found, the sinful will be purified, and His will will be done.
It's a daunting task, and we have a strong adversary who has been working in the minds of men for millennia. But verse five above says that EVERY child of God DEFEATS this evil world. You and I are included in that group of EVERY child of God if we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. We are told in Ephesians of the weapons that we have that will defeat the enemy while we are living in his territory. God has given us our weapons: truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the Word, and prayer. By use of these weapons we “achieve victory through our faith.”
Sounds good, but who is this “we” that is being proclaimed as the victor? It is those “who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” Only those who have this supreme belief can be victors in this battle. If you don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and if you have not asked Him to forgive you of your sins, you will not have victory in this wicked world. So I encourage you to accept Jesus’ offer of salvation and to join those of us who have the victory of living in peace here on earth in preparation of an eternal life of joy in the Lord.
Beginnings, Continued
“No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ did for us.” Philippians 3:13,14 (TLB)
We look to Paul to be an example for us, and we may believe that Paul “had it all together.” According to the Scripture above, Paul rejects that idea by saying that “I am not all I should be….” In just a few words, Paul tells us of one of the major things he had to do if he were to serve the Lord as he was asked to do: “Forgetting the past…,” and he had quite the past to forget. He sought, imprisoned, and had killed those who followed Jesus. Who of us has a past like that to forget? With the help of Jesus through His teaching that Paul received personally, he was able to do that. (See Galatians 1:16-18.) Having done so, he can look forward and move forward to the work assigned to him by God, spreading the gospel to the Gentiles—us. We need to be grateful that Paul was able to do that, for this made salvation available to us.
Paul says that he is “…bringing all my energies…” and straining to “…reach the end of the race…” to move forward in his life to complete the task given to him by Jesus. That’s pretty focused effort. Shouldn’t we emulate that effort? We are running this race because that is what God has called us to do. I may not run the race as well as Paul did, but I can bring all my energies to bear.
In Isaiah 43:18,19, God says through the prophet, Isaiah, the same message He gave to Paul. “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (NIV) God’s message in both cases is “I’m done with the past, and you need to get on board with what is happening now.” In Isaiah, He gives an encouraging statement: “a way in the wilderness,” and “streams in the wasteland.” The future shows growth even in the difficult and arid ways of the past. The way in the wilderness gets us to the place where the flowers will be blooming and the fruit trees will be blossoming by the streams in the former wasteland.
In Proverbs 3:5,6, we are told, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” There’s nothing secret about it. If you want to prosper, trust God and submit to Him. Look for His plan, trust Him, and strain forward to accomplish what He has for us to do. Then we will be successful and prosperous and be living in harmony with our Lord. Isn’t that what is best for us, the most satisfying for us? Let’s do it!
Beginnings
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Gen 1:1 (NIV)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1 (NIV)
God created the heavens and the earth, and then He created us after He had created a place for us to live as physical beings. He made it to be a perfect place for our physical bodies. John 1:1 tells us that Jesus, the Word, was there at the beginning. In Luke 2:10-11, an angel startled shepherds with the message: “…Do not be afraid, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
Here we have three beginnings; 1. the creation of the universe, 2. Jesus’ presence at the creation, and 3. the beginning of God in the form of a human, Jesus. When we put these three together, we can see the purpose of God from the beginning—to have people that He could love personally and who could return His love personally. God began it all, and there is no end, just eternity. That’s right, once God began it, His plan was in force forever. He has done His part, but some of us will never love Him. Here’s the catch--those of us who don’t love Him will certainly not want to spend eternity with Him. God has allowed for that by creating a place for those who don’t love Him. It is called hell. Hell was created for satan and his followers, but it is also the eternal dwelling place for those who do not love God. We show our love for God by accepting His Son, the Word, Jesus Christ, as Lord and Savior.
There are two more beginnings, one by Jesus and one by us. Jesus began the salvation of the world on the cross of Calvary, and He ended what He began when He arose from the dead on the day we know as Easter. On that day, He brought victory over sin and the grave to you and to me. It is left for each of us to decide whether we will make a new beginning or not. That new beginning takes place on the day that we repent of our sins and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. This is the decisive new beginning for us. It decides our eternal home, heaven with God or hell without God. Those are the only possibilities.
So in the beginning of this new year, I am asking you to make sure that you have made a new beginning that lasts for eternity. If you have, I’ll see you there someday.
