Adoration/Praise
2 Samuel 22:50
Therefore I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing praises to your name.
Scripture Reflection Matthew 5
13"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.
This was a sermon preached to a crowd of people who were mainly Jewish and who were looking for God's work among them. They saw the things that you did Lord Jesus and they were amazed and you had their attention. Lord Jesus they were looking for your blessing...they were looking for your teaching...they were looking for a word from God that had power in it.
So it was with this audience in front of you that you spoke of salt. The role of the people of God in the world was to be salt. Salt in the ancient world was at times was what people got paid in. It was a currency of exchange. Beyond that it was used as a basic preservative...to keep food from decay It was also one of the staples of life. It was as important as flour, yeast and grain. Without salt, life would stop. Beyond that it was seasoning of the most basic type. It brought flavor.
So when you called the people of God salt...you were saying that they were the preservative, they were a staple, not an add on...they were essential to the function of the way the world worked...just like economic exchange happens at the most basic when we barter to get our needs met. The role of God's people in the culture that surrounds me today Lord Jesus is just the same? There should be a difference between my approach and the approach of the larger culture that surrounds me. Even when I am not aware of it, there is change that occurs on a very basic level when God's people interact with the culture at large...or there needs to be. We are a preservative?
But then there is this catch to the whole thought...what happens when salt isn't salty anymore? How does that happen anyway? How does salt lose its salinity? Over exposure to the elements that surround it. If I leave my salt shaker out on the picnic table first it becomes hard as rock inside and then as time goes on it just loses it taste entirely. That really is the tension that must exist in the church...a creative tension between interaction with the culture around us and the creation of culture within the church. We seem to over-compensate at either extremes of that tension. Either we are over engaged and then controlled by the culture, or we are under exposed and speaking to a culture that no longer lives except in our experience of the past. The result of over-exposure is uselessness. The result of under exposure is irrelevance. Neither advances your Kingdom in this world Lord Jesus.
Lord Jesus that is what has to take place a creation of tension...a creation of balance. Lord Jesus work in my heart to bring be to the place of balance of engagement and yet maintaining who I am called to be.
13"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.
This was a sermon preached to a crowd of people who were mainly Jewish and who were looking for God's work among them. They saw the things that you did Lord Jesus and they were amazed and you had their attention. Lord Jesus they were looking for your blessing...they were looking for your teaching...they were looking for a word from God that had power in it.
So it was with this audience in front of you that you spoke of salt. The role of the people of God in the world was to be salt. Salt in the ancient world was at times was what people got paid in. It was a currency of exchange. Beyond that it was used as a basic preservative...to keep food from decay It was also one of the staples of life. It was as important as flour, yeast and grain. Without salt, life would stop. Beyond that it was seasoning of the most basic type. It brought flavor.
So when you called the people of God salt...you were saying that they were the preservative, they were a staple, not an add on...they were essential to the function of the way the world worked...just like economic exchange happens at the most basic when we barter to get our needs met. The role of God's people in the culture that surrounds me today Lord Jesus is just the same? There should be a difference between my approach and the approach of the larger culture that surrounds me. Even when I am not aware of it, there is change that occurs on a very basic level when God's people interact with the culture at large...or there needs to be. We are a preservative?
But then there is this catch to the whole thought...what happens when salt isn't salty anymore? How does that happen anyway? How does salt lose its salinity? Over exposure to the elements that surround it. If I leave my salt shaker out on the picnic table first it becomes hard as rock inside and then as time goes on it just loses it taste entirely. That really is the tension that must exist in the church...a creative tension between interaction with the culture around us and the creation of culture within the church. We seem to over-compensate at either extremes of that tension. Either we are over engaged and then controlled by the culture, or we are under exposed and speaking to a culture that no longer lives except in our experience of the past. The result of over-exposure is uselessness. The result of under exposure is irrelevance. Neither advances your Kingdom in this world Lord Jesus.
Lord Jesus that is what has to take place a creation of tension...a creation of balance. Lord Jesus work in my heart to bring be to the place of balance of engagement and yet maintaining who I am called to be.
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