Have you ever considered what are your strengths and weaknesses as a believer?
What about you as part of a local church in terms of strengths and weaknesses? Perhaps (like us) you have identified the fact that you seem to be quite weak around local outreach i.e., you are not seeing many new converts in your local area. Further to this, if you surveyed 100 of your local people, how many would have heard of your church or even if they had, would they know where you meet for church?
If you have identified a similar weakness, then (like us) you need to raise your profile in the local community. The Holy Spirit has given a wide range of strategies to different churches from time to time e.g., door to door calling, offering to pray for the sick, giving them a post card, a video, putting on shows, being a helping hand, etc. Corporately we need to seek the Lord for his exact word on how to go about this in each local situation. However, it is also clear that we individually need to be ready each day to bring the kingdom of God to our local people. One of the ways we can describe this state of being ready to impact people’s lives on a day-to-day basis is that we should be ‘Salt and Light’.
Matthew 5:1-16
Verse 13; You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned. It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
In history salt was used as a preservative. It is antiseptic and stops flesh from rotting. If you did not salt your meat, as there were no fridges then, you had to eat your meat freshly. In the same way as meat or flesh rots if left to time and temperature, so with the fallen nature of mankind, the sin nature is rotten and if there was no salt amongst mankind, God would need to destroy rotten and decaying flesh of mankind. However, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer, the word of God in our hearts and mouths, and our testimony to the wonderful grace of God brings life preserving qualities (salt) to mankind!
We are the salty antiseptic in modern society when we see the moral relativism of today is destroying people’s lives, it is helping them down the road to hell. We are the only people with the distinctive of having God’s word to be a light to people’s life paths.
Remember Lot negotiating with God about the destruction of Sodom, God said he would not destroy if there were even 10 righteous men in it! God’s judgement is withheld from mankind because his Holy Spirit indwells his own people, we who are God’s living love letters to fallen man.
You (as a follower of Jesus) today are the salt of the earth, so be salty, and do not conform to the corruption of all flesh, but rather be distinctive by standing out for what is right irrespective of political correctness or wokeness. Show people a different way of living. We can and should oppose moral decay by our lives and words.
Salt is necessary for flavour, God only enjoys human beings when they have been salted by the Holy Spirit.
Salt makes you thirsty, when the people we meet see your living faith, your salt will make them thirsty for God. Amen.
Are you salty today? Worldliness takes away our saltiness. When there is no difference between the saint and the sinner, we are useless to God, this is strong language coming from Jesus himself! If we lose our saltiness, we are not only useless to God, but useless to each other, our church, and to the locality we live and work in.
Verse 14; You are the light of the world. A city that is set or a hill cannot be hidden.
Verse 15; Nor do they light or lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
Verse 16; Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
In the Greek it says ‘You alone are the light of the world, if we believers aren’t shining then no-one is’!
It is not the philosophers, sages, politicians, great thinkers but simply Jesus followers, we alone are the light of the world. We have a tremendous responsibility which only the people of God can discharge. Jesus made his light to shine in each one of our hearts, revealing the glory of the knowledge of God. We bear that same light in us that reveals Jesus as God’s son, the Saviour of the world.
We must dare to be radically different from those living without the light of God.
They lie, cheat, fornicate, take personal revenge. If we do the same, our light has gone out. Jesus’ light in us shows the unbelievers how they ought to live.
Our lives must display that we are God fearing, reverent and holy, honest, truthful, morally pure, and living a lifestyle of forgiveness.
Shining is our business; we have no right to not be shining. Our lives should expose the difference of the unbeliever’s lives to ours. They must see something radically different from their own, so let your light so shine!
How do we let our light shine?
Live pure, holy, and loving lives.
Refuse to be worldly, do not be pushed into its mould.
Do not be like a foolish virgin, but rather keep filled up with the oil of the Holy Spirit.
Let your light shine through your good works, those little kindness, being thoughtful and prayerful. Be attractive with the beauty of holiness.
Show love in every way you can.
Caring might be as simple a thing as offering cup of cold water on a hot day.
Practice generosity, Practice Hospitality, Be available
Offer forgiveness!
Remember every human life is eternal whether to be spent in heaven or in hell. Jesus associated with prostitutes, tax collectors, sinful people etc. It is God’s desire for all to be saved.
Lord, please make us ready for specific direction in our local communities.
Get to know people, after the pursuit of God himself, people are our main purpose in life.
Watch out, sometimes people might want to chop your head off like John the Baptist for telling the truth!
We need to be restored in our Salt and Light.
We need to repent. We need to stop being dead flesh and come out of the darkness into his glorious light.
We need to mourn over our sins.
Prayer
Lord restore us, restore our cutting edge in our outreach.
Make us radically different and make us effective in being Salt and Light to the world
and especially to be impacting our local communities for you in our day-to-day life.
Amen
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