Dear SCC & Friends,
Have salt in yourselves… ~Mark 9:50
Reflection #188
Salt is essential to all of life. Jesus chose His words carefully when He said, “You are the salt of the earth.” ~Matt. 5:13 In antiquity, salt was a precious commodity… In ancient Greece, slaves were traded for salt – An unruly slave was said to be “not worth his salt.” It just takes a little salt to make us thirsty and it doesn’t take much to affect the taste – Just a “pinch” here and there. Salt is amazingly diverse… It seasons, cures, preserves, cleans, acts as an antiseptic, makes colors brighter, makes ice cream freeze, gets more heat out of boiled water, removes rust, seals cracks, removes spots from clothes, puts out grease fires, kills poison ivy, treats sprains, sore throats and earaches… There are over 14,000 known uses for salt… not the least of which implicates how we are to speak… Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person. ~Col. 4:6
People don’t enjoy salt. They enjoy what is salted. We are the salt of the earth and do not exist for ourselves. ~John Piper~ What would it be like if there were no Christians in the world… not a one? What kind of world would we have? No salt, no light… Also, what if Christians are here but their salt has lost its taste? Salt is a remedy for unsavory meat, but there is no remedy for unsavory salt. When salt loses its savor, it is worthless and has no purpose. …salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out… ~Lk. 14:34-35 The way we are may be the only sermon a person ever hears. ~St. Francis of Assisi~ For we are God’s fellow-workers… ~1 Cor. 3:9 We’ve been given a great responsibility… to be salt for His glory and honor. We were made for these days… Keep up the good work!
In His service,
Kevin