Be Ye Salts of the Earth

"Ye are the salt of the earth:but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."   Matt. 5:13-16

God, our Creator, had a purpose for each and everyone of our lives before the earth was created. One of the purposes of the children of God is to be the salt of the earth. What does it mean to be "salt of the earth"? One way I can remember this is:

Seek Him

Ask Him

Listen to Him

Trust Him

As children of God we are to seek Him. Why do we seek? because there is so much of Christ that we need to know. We cannot teach others about Christ if we don't know Him ourselves. We are created in His image and therefore He too has a desire for relationship. He wants a people who are willing to seek after Him and would desire to surrender themselves so they can know more and see more of His Glory. Anything that has eternal value we must pay some type of a price for it. Christ is valuable and the same with His truths. If we want to attain more than we must be ones who are willing to seek after in, pay the price for it, and sell it not (Prov. 23:23). What do you want? Look at the things you are seeking after and that will show you where you heart is at. We want is to enter in to the presence of the Lord for He reveals what we have and want we need. Stand up and march forward; seek after Him all ye who are the salt of the earth!

Asking Him! One of the names of the Godhead is, God the Father. When I think of "father" I think of a child who when he needs something runs to his father and asks him for what he needs. God gives to us things to do (teach, be a missionary, lead songs, lead the youth, etc). God doesn't just give us things to do and abandon us. He wants us to ask Him, "how are we to do those things?" As we teach, ask Him what direction should the teaching go? If we lead songs, then ask Him what does the Lord want to do in the hearts of the people during that service? Ask Him and He will answer. However, there must be a balance! We are not to go to God the Father only when we need things. Ask all ye who are the salt of the earth! 

Listen to Him! Once we ask we must listen for the answer. We must always have a listening ear because we may be just walking one day and the Lord would speak to you to go do something. Or even, He may reveal an answer that you have been asking all your life. Those who truly are sons and daughters of God will wait until they hear from God. We cannot hear Him if we are filling ourselves with things of this world. Take care of your spiritual life because we can tend to lose focus and get caught up in the busy life in the world. Listen to Him all ye who are the salt of the earth!

Trust in Him! An action for trusting someone is obeying them. Obedience is the key to growth and maturity in the Lord. Christ wants those those who are following after Him to trust and obey Him. Looking at the Peter we see that he trusted Jesus and we know that because he obeyed when he stepped out on to the water. God will call us at point in our life to step out on to that water. Will we hold ourselves back and not obey or will we take that leap of faith and step out in obedience?!? Trust in Him all ye who are the salt of the earth!

The next part of the verse says, "but if the salt have lost his savour". If we neglect being salt, then we lost our abilities. If we are seeking after worldly possessions, asking council from the ungodly, listening to the voices of the world, and trusting in man-kind, then "it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."

Seek, ask, listen, and trust in the Lord! "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

Amen!

Uphold the Laws of the Lord!

God is looking for those who are willing to lay down their own self will, uphold His laws and be faithful to complete His will for their lives. He corrects those whom He loves and that correction is through His laws (Heb. 12:6). When there is law; sin abounds (Rom. 5:13, 20, 6:15; I Jn. 3:4). If there were no laws then everyone could live however they wanted and do whatever they felt like doing. God created a law to set us free from sin (bondage). Those who obey His law are free men and women. The world portrays laws as being a hindrance, burden, or a bondage. However, they are backwards because those who do not obey are  really the ones who are in bondage.

Obedience is truly the key and may we desire to obtain that key to life. Obedience is a hard thing and many try to be ignorant or remain in ignorance so that they don't have to obey. Their attitude is, "what I don't know won't kill me," but in actuality that is exactly the way to death. What you don't know can lead you to hell. If you don't know Christ, if you don't know His laws, if you don't know His will for your life, then you are walking on the path to death.

Those who are true sons and daughters of Christ are those who will seek and find, listen and obey. It is not enough to just listen, but we need to obey. Learn to meditate on the laws of the Lord and allow Him to write them down on the fleshly table of our hearts (Prov. 3:3, 7:3). We want to have united hearts to fear His name (Ps. 86:11). Allow God to reveal to you His calling for your life. Allow Jesus Christ to teach you His ways and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you step by step until the end. As is says in Job 8:7, "though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase." It is the end that matters not the beginning and we must finish the race.

We want to be cleansed and made acceptable, a living sacrifice for our Lord (Rom. 12:1). In Matthew 5:8 it says, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." If you desire to see our Creator then you must be pure in heart. We must submit our will, be cleansed by the Word and be purified.

One way of seeing this is: picture yourself as a big black dot and Christ as a big white dot. When we accept Christ in to our hearts that white dot is placed over the black dot and now God the Father is able to look on us through Christ. However, we are still a black dot and throughout our Christian walk we are to be changed from glory to Glory. Having our black dot be transformed little by little in to that white dot (Christ). Christ gave us laws so that we can be changed to be like Him. Through the laws of the Lord we are able to better understand what the Lord loves and hates. Obeying His laws and holding fast to the words that He has spoken to us plays a huge part in us becoming whiter and whiter. "And be not conformed to this world:but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Rom. 12:2). We want to be transformed from black to white and transformation comes through a renewed mind. A renewed mind comes only through repentance and repentance is a gift from God (Rom. 2:4, 11:29). Not everyone is granted repentance and so we must not push the goodness of the Lord. God is good, but also Sovereign and we must be one who will lay down their self will and follow the will of the Lord.


Obedience is the heart desire of our Lord Jesus Christ and may we cry out to God and be obedient sons and daughters of God.

God Bless!