You are the salt of the Earth!

We had an awesome week with First Baptist Church of Alpharetta (pics coming soon).  God really worked in the hearts and lives of the people in Venezuela, as well as the team.  The team came in on Saturday night and on Sunday we had a special mobilization service encouraging the church to particiapte in upcoming trips.  Thanks to God and your prayers, a lot of people from our church have signed up to go on those trips.  I was really touched by their faith, a lot of them signed up not knowing where the money was going to come from for these trips.  Some of them are unemployed, some are students, mothers, fathers, and children.  However, their faith is not in what they have, but in the One who provides.  I know that they were really inspired by the team that came from Georgia.  People in Venezuela are very much aware of the economic hardships in the US and it really meant a lot to them to see how much faith they had to come to Venezuela.

I will share more details about the trip, once I get the pictures up...but I would like to talk about one of the devotionals that Pastor Jason shared with us that week.

Matthew 5:13, says, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men." Jesus used a lot of common, ordinary, everyday things to use as metaphors in his teaching.  In this passage he tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth.  To really truly understand the meaning behind this passage we have to look back to the cultural and historical significance of salt.  Salt was extremely valuable in biblical times.  Roman soldiers were paid with salarium, which is the latin root of the word we have today known as salary.  Salarium was used as an allowance for Roman soldiers to buy salt.   Salt is much more valuable in biblical times than it is today.  Salt is important and valuable because of its use and it has four main uses. 

1)  Salt is an antiseptic.  It heals and cleanses wounds.  We are to be salt, to be the agents of change, healing and cleansing that this broken world needs. 

2) Salt creates thirst.  As salt of the Earth, we create thirst for the living water of God.

3) Salt is a preservative and stops corruption.  Back in the days before refrigerators, meat was transported and kept fairly fresh through the use of salt.  Salt keeps things from rotting, from going bad.  In fact, four of Jesus' disciples who were in that crowd knew exactly what this metaphor meant.  They were fishermen, they knew that they were the salt of the Earth to keep it from decaying. 

4) Salt seasons food.  Without salt food is dull, there is a richness that is missing.  Our life with God should show a richness that attracts those who do not know him yet and in turn we should fill this world with the richness from God. 

So, how do we use salt now-a-days?  We put it in a salt shaker.  A salt shaker is the perfect metaphor for our churches.  A container that holds the salt, a container that also pours it out and distributes it.  The salt shaker is only useful if the salt is poured out.  Sometimes water or humidity gets inside the salt shaker and what happens?  The salt clumps together and is not able to leave.  You know one of the ways that salt loses its saltiness is to get diluted in water. A lot of our churches look like this.  Instead of going out of our churches and blessing the communities and the world around us, we clump together and stay comfortable in our Christian bubbles.  In other words, we lose our saltiness. 

So, what do we do to avoid this?  In the case of the salt shaker, we add in rice to keep the salt from clumping together.  Just like in our churches, we have some people who encourage and challenge others to leave their familiar surroundings and impact the world around them. 

Our church is more than just a building to meet on Sundays.  We are the salt of the earth, not just the church.  We were meant to be poured out, we were meant to take all that we learn from our time in church and pour it out into the people around us.  As the salt shaker gets used more and more, it will always be refilled.  But the important thing, is that it gets used.  So, where are you right now?  Are you salt being stored in the salt shaker?  or are you being poured out and used in the community and the world around you?