The Salt and The Light

Matthew 5: 13,14 “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 by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven”

This is a very familiar passage, isn’t it? We grew up hearing this and by-hearting this! But recently God taught me something different about the Salt and the Light which I would love to share with you.

Each time I used to say, “You are the light of the world” I taught myself that I should be the light of the world. And the same applied for “You are the salt of the earth”. Have you done the same? But did you notice that it was an ‘are’ there and not a ‘should be’? We are made the light of the world. We are made the salt of the earth. Yes, we are born useful. 

The thing about Salt and Light is they need not do anything to show who they are. They just need to be there. The moment light enters the room, everyone knows its there. The moment salt is added unto the dish, the taste shows its there. Yes, our very presence shows off. All we have to do is to keep shining and stay salty! Let the world see Him, when they see us. Let them hear Him, when we speak!

Not only does our presence show our identity but also changes the world around us. All that Light has to do is go into the dark and darkness flees! All that the salt needs to do is to be present in the dish and the taste of the dish changes! No matter how dark or tasteless your surrounding appears to be, it will change. Just be you! Know, you are contagious by birth! J

One more thing that is different about the Salt and the Light is that they themselves are useless. Light in itself is invisible, but we can’t see a thing without light. I haven’t heard of anyone who loves eating salt, but can’t imagine food without salt. You get the point? We are born to be useful. If we think, ‘Me, My life and My carrier matters’, we are not fulfilling our purpose. Neither are we shining nor are we making our situations salty! It is your choice. Are you saying, ‘just because I am made salt I can’t make you salty!’ ‘Oh yes, I am light, but I am not going to shine on you and let people see you!’ Bible says, if you lose your saltiness you are no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled by men. And what use is light for, if it is going to hide under a bowl and say, I need my light for myself!? Know that the world needs You! It is saltless and in darkess without You!

Verse 16 says, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Be You and glorify Him!

Greatest of these is LOVE

Matthew 22: 37-40, “Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Love is much more than just a verb. 1 John 4:7 says, God is love. If there needs to be a word that could explain Him, nothing could replace ‘love’. In the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22), Love is the most important constituent. In fact if you read Gal 5:22 and then 1 Cor 13 you’ll realize Love is the summation of the fruit. We commonly say faith is all that we need, but Bible says in 1 Cor.13:2, “If I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing”. 

Love is the greatest commandment. Love the Lord the most in your life and place Him above all in your priorities! Love Him not just with your brains, not just with your heart but with your soul and mind. Loving Him should be your desire, your dream! This is the first and the greatest commandment. Next or the second commandment is Love your neighbour. Then the question was asked, who is my neighbour? Jesus replies by the Story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). In the story, the Priest and the Levite turned out to be religious nuts without spiritual fruits!  The Samaritan had Love and you know what he did. Jesus says, ‘Go, and do the same’

1 John 2:15-17 says “Do not love the world or anything in the world…the world and its desires will pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Loving anything that is of the world is a ‘don’t!’ Recognize and re-arrange your priorities in life today. Remember, He is your priority. All you have received is just because of His’ Love and all He desires back is your Love!

Bible says, love that He seeks is the Love with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. It could have been just ‘Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind! The meaning would still be the same isn’t it? The very fact it is specified ‘with all your’ 3 times shows how important it is. All of us Love God. But do we really love ‘with all…’?

Give your whole self to Him, even when you can reason yourself out. The most precious thing you could give Him is your time. Spend time more with Him than for Him. Luke 10:39-42 portraits two ladies who loved Him-Martha and Mary. Martha was doing a lot for Jesus but Mary was just there with Him. Jesus clearly says Mary chose the better portion. Don’t think you can impress Him by your doings. Martha tried; she even tried to get the Master’s attention by complaining about Mary. But Jesus valued Mary’s time and presence more! 

 Everyone has explanations and excuses for not praying. We’ll look into the story of the woman with the alabastar jar (Mat. 26:6-13) to understand it a little better. In vs. 7 we see she poured a very expensive perfume on His head. Neither did she bother about the price she had to pay nor did she think on what others would say. Look at what the disciples said, “Why this waste...this perfume could have sold at a high price and the money given to the poor”. How logical, isn’t it? They definitely made a valid point. When it comes to time in this age we have a lot of reason to miss prayer meetings! And just a lot of reasons for not praying. It can look genuine for you, but maybe not for Him! He loves it when He matters the most to you. Also remember, loving your neighbour is the second and not the first commandment. ‘Good’ is many a times the enemy of the ‘Best’. The sacrifices you make because of your love for Him is of high worth in His sight. Don’t look at what the world says. Remember nobody encouraged her, instead they criticized her but Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me”. Whose opinion matters for you today? The world’s or Jesus’?

The best part is ‘Love is the fulfillment of the law’ Rom. 13:10. The whole Bible hangs on these two commandments. Were you saying following the whole Bible is impossible? It isn’t. It could be hard, yet possible!  All that it requires is Love…

FAITH in Jesus Christ, as we know is the entrance to our journey; HOPE of the eternal life is our destiny; LOVE carries us through. There are no shortcuts. Remember, FAITH is not a ticket to HOPE!

1Corinthians 13: 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is LOVE.

Make Up Your Mind

Exodus 13: 17,18  “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road towards the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.”

Israelites were ‘called out’ with a promise of a land flowing with milk and honey. We know that if God has promised something He is faithful and He fulfills it. But expecting the entry to directly lead into the destiny is immaturity. We have to leave room for Him and His supreme will. The journey, no matter how tough it can get, travelling on it can be easy. All that it requires is that you make up your mind…

They were, for sure, delivered from the bondage of Pharaoh by God Himself. But they were led towards a desert. A journey that led from slavery to desert. Though delivered from the enemy’s bondage they were bound in His’ leading. The scene, of you being in a desert, doesn’t mean you’re out of His’ will. Seemingly, the situations were equally worse with one difference. God ‘delivered’ them from slavery and ‘led’ them to a desert. That makes the whole difference! What we need to know is, if God has ‘led’ you to a desert, He knows to provide, protect and faithfully lead to the Promised Land. You have to make up your mind, ‘If God leads me through the desert no matter what comes against, I am not going to return!’

Notice that the usual route to the Promised Land was ‘by road’, but God leads them through a desert. Sometimes He doesn’t take you through familiar routes. All because He wants you to walk trusting on Him and not on yourself. Bible says, we walk by faith and not by sight. When a problem comes, walk by sight pushes you back to where you came from but walk by faith pushes you to destiny! All that they had to do was to trust Him with the same faith they had when they set out of the country. Many of us have a faith to move out of no matter where we are, but no faith to face tough situations. Each time we face a problem we murmur and complain, just as the Israelites! Do you know why? We haven’t made up our minds…to walk by faith!

The ‘by road’ route was definitely more convenient than the desert one. Sometimes God’s ways appear very inconvenient compared to our ways. Wonder why? If you never faced a Red Sea, how would you know He is mighty to split it? If you were never hungry, how would you taste heavenly manna? If you never tasted bitter Mara, how would you know He can turn bitterness into sweetness? If you never travelled through a desert, how would you see Him going ahead of you in a pillar of cloud to guide you and as a pillar of fire just to lighten your way?! Being a Christian doesn’t mean you have no more problems, but it means He is going to be with you and lead you through them. History proves, not once did God fail to be there for them. Train your spirit to say, ‘He is good’; ‘He is able’ each time you face a problem. Make up your mind to believe that He is above no matter how big the situation is!

Bible says the ‘by road’ route was shorter but think of the desert route- which has no map, God alone knows how long! The Promised Land, for sure, is ours. But to attain it God needs armed warriors and not pampered babies! Don’t worry He doesn’t call the equipped, instead equips the called. He equips His chosen with endurance…with perseverance! A preacher once said, endurance is outlasting the devil. Warriors fight till they win, taking no breaks. God desires that we make up our minds to fight for no matter how long.

Israelites failed in making up their minds. Neither could they outlast the test nor could they rely on Him. They were tried many times and given many opportunities to prove otherwise. In spite of all their failures, the Lord decides to lead them into the Promised Land. In Numbers 13:1, He asks Moses to send 12 spies to the land. As they awaited the report, ten of them returned saying (vs.27-29, 31), ‘the land is definitely good, but the city is fortified, the people are large, they have giants and we appeared to be grasshoppers in their sight. We can’t attack those people!’ They had made up their minds to be weak, to fail and not to fight. Worst was their trust in God!

But the other two, Caleb and Joshua said (14:7-9), “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” You got it right! They had made up their minds! They had made up their minds to trust Him no matter what comes against and that they’ll fight for no matter how long it takes! Bible says the whole Israel turned against them (vs.10). Neither did they make up their minds nor could they be convinced to do so. They rebelled. The result was the perishing of the whole generation in the desert (vs. 26-35). The Lord spared only the two…the two who had made up their minds. Not only were they blessed to enter the Promised Land but also they led the new generation to the blessing. What an honour, to be among the only two grey haired heads among the millions. Yes, they fought for long…all because they had made up their minds!

Just as you believe

Matthew 8:5-13  5“When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion, came to him, asking for help. 6”Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralysed and in terrible suffering.” 7Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.” 8The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.

Israel has been a chosen nation. Chosen just because of faith (Heb.11:8-16). In this passage Jesus says, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith! When we read vs. 10-12, we understand he was not an Israelite. Neither was he among the chosen and nor was he a follower of Christ. He was someone who randomly pops up and amazes the Lord by his faith. Let us see what about his faith astonished our Lord.

Jesus had just entered Capernaum, when the centurion comes to Him, asking for help (vs.5). First thing to be noted is that he knew whom to have Faith in! He knew if he could just reach Jesus there is a solution. The thing we most often forget or maybe neglect is Jesus Himself. We say He is the healer…but running to the doctor is always the first choice! We say He provides…but then run all around the world looking unto people to help! Looking unto Him has become the last option! What a sorrow that we have turned into unbelieving believers! The very reason why miracles have ceased to happen.

Notice what the centurion says in vs.6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” He did not say, “Lord, my servant at home is sick please heal him” neither, “Lord, would you please speak healing unto my servant who is sick back home” nor did he say, “Lord, my servant at home is sick, would you please come over and keep your hand on him, so that he might be healed”. We do that, don’t we? We have just a lot of suggestions for Him. “Lord if you could do it this way, it will be great!” Instead of letting Him take the wheel, we hold on to it and give Him directions. The result is either delaying in His intervention or messing up of our situation. We think we know better and He cares little! How wrong! He knew Jesus was able and all he needed to do was invite Him into his problem.

Jesus replies, “I will go and heal him.” The moment you say, “Lord, I’m dependant on you…I am in need of you”, He takes over. Surrendering is the only way to let Him do His Best. He doesn’t just want to see your problem solved but wants to get involved. Didn’t Jesus know, He had authority on words? He did! But He chose to ‘go and heal’. All He wants is that you call unto Him in faith and in total surrender!

Now notice the reply of the centurion (vs.8). He replied, “Lord, I do not deserve…But just say the word …For I myself am a man under authority…” His undeserving mentality shows his dependence on grace. He knew if not for grace, nothing could happen. How often do we forget that it was, is and has been all about grace? Grace keeps you Christ dependant. Christ dependence always keeps and leads you safe. Remember, humility comes before honor. He also acknowledged that Jesus had authority over, no matter what, the situation. He says, “Lord…But just say the word, and my servant will be healed…”. Please note that it is not written, ‘a word’ instead it is, ‘the word’. He knew the power of the word! His faith was in the word! Many of us fail to believe because we don’t know the word enough. Rom 10:17 says “Faith comes form hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ”. Have faith in the word!

Now we understand why Jesus was astonished! He says, “…such great faith...”. Faith He requires from us is ‘as small as a mustard seed’ but here he finds someone with ‘great faith’. Someone whose faith was in Jesus…whose faith let Jesus decide the solution…whose faith was in His word…who had faith in His authority! No wonder Jesus was astonished! He was an unbeliever who believed! Often our prayers go unanswered because of our lack of faith, faith in wrong people, and faith in ourselves, lack of faith in the word and in His authority over the problem. 

It is just as you believe that it would happen. Read verse “13Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.”  Just as he believed his servant was healed and there is more! Note that the servant was healed the very hour, probably right at the word of the master. Let us think Jesus had walked with the centurion to his house and then healed, think about the time it would have taken. The time that the word took to heal was definitely faster than the master plan! Wow! Our faith can give direct entry into our blessings. It all depends and happens just as you believe!