When the salt loses its savour

Jesus said,"You are the salt of the earth" We live in a port city on Canada's east coast and as I look out of my window, I can see the harbour and port facilities from an excellent vantage point and as I do, I see what looks to be a huge pile of raw salt(unprocessed) No doubt it is waiting to be shipped all over the world. While I was looking at this huge pile of salt I began to reflect upon what Jesus says here in Matthew ch 5 verse 13, He said "if the salt has lost its savour(flavour in the modern translations) how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men."
If the salt has lost its flavour...now I probably am one who uses too much salt but I cannot stomach bland food. And neither can God stomach blandness in HIS CHILDREN. It happens in marriages; the flavour goes out of the marriage...people get tired of each other. It happens in churches, just look at the church at Ephesus, they did everything right, they lived right, they laboured right, they were patient, they could not put up with evil, they even put some so-called apostles to a test and proved that they were lying, they persevered and worked for Jesus' name's sake, but the love had gone from their worship, they had lost their first love their passion for God; the salt had lost its savour. Sometimes we take each other for granted....too many times we do that. And all too many times we take our soul's freedom for granted. In a marriage you need passion; I have been married to the same girl for almost 46 years and I can say unashamedly that my passion for her is as great as it has ever been maybe even greater. We need to be passionate about God and love Him first of all and foremost of all. The salt will lose its flavour if we don't take the necessary precautions.

Riding the crest

Some people seek popularity like a surfer would ride the crest of a wave. They have this thing that drives them and they have to be on top at all times. The problem with that is it is only a temporary condition, the wave breaks and down they come. In the book of Proverbs ch 18 verse 24 states "there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother"; backing up to ch 17:17 "a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity" True friends are hard to find especially if you don't ride the popularity wave. We have some close friends and you can depend on them in time of need but there is one Friend Who you can depend on at all times, even when other friends may fail you. For one thing He always knows just what you need . His name is Jesus and the Bible says that He will never leave us nor forsake us. You can find Him if you seek for Him with all of your heart, soul and mind nd strength. If you need a friend today He is waiting to hear from you. Who is Jesus? He's that Friend that sticks closer than a brother.

Who is Jesus?//a series

Just who was Jesus anyway? Some say He was a man, better yet a few say that He is still a man...a good man but just a man. The Bible says, and you may be one who questions the Bible as to whether it is relevant today, that He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I prefer to believe the Bible rather than some flaky TV personality who can't even keep their own life straight. In fact it says in 1 Timothy 6:13-15 "I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession beforePontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing , which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the King of kings and Lord of lords," verse 16 says "who alone has immortality, dwelling in unaproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, in whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen."Rev. 19:16 says, "And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." I am not about to prove that the Bible is true...it will prove itself without my help. But I believe it with every fibre of my being. Jesus is the One who deserves all praise. He has given me eternal life...As the King of Kings and Lords of Lords, He is also the Image of the Invisible God. My next blog entry will talk about that title. Your comments are welcome on this blog or any other blogs Ihave prepared -

A forgiving nature

"Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; that your father in heaven may also forgive your trespasses." (Jesus in Mark 11:25 NRSV)
Jesus had just finished giving His disciples a practical lesson about faith, faith that can move a mountain but He concluded this by inserting into His faith message the necessity of forgiving anyone to whom the praying person had something against. Unforgiveness will hinder receiving answers to prayer. It will prevent you from removing the mountain that Jesus refers to in this passage. In fact unforgiveness may very well be the mountain that He is talking about. And it takes faith to remove the mountain of unforgiveness that is hindering your prayers. I have been in these situations, one in particular where a certain individual caused me much grief and has never said that they were sorry and usually avoids me and I find that tendency myself and one day I made it a point to go and shake that persons hand and every time I see them, I do just that. I have found that it works. It is a God like thing to do; it is a God quality. Forgiveness to another person gets the albatross off your back. Remember what Jesus said about forgiving your enemy and thereby heaping coals of fire on their heads? It will cause your enemy to become defenseless and you might even gain a brother. You will get an answer to your prayers. Try it...you might like it. RC

Hebrews 12:1,2 antidote for clutter

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Judy and I have been married almost 46 years.....wonderful years as well. And this year we moved...so what you might say, what's the big deal? Clutter, that's the big deal...after 46 years you accumulate a lot of stuff, some of you understand better than others just what I mean. You don't realize just how much stuff until you move into a place that is a lot smaller. Then you realize that you have a way too much stuff. One meaninhg from the online dictionary that I frequently refer to describes clutter as a disorderly heap. An example statement: "it is impossible to find anything in all that clutter." Sometimes our lives are like that; cares weigh us down, family issues, health issues, finances, things that we accumulate can be burdensome to the point that they rob us of our time that we should spend with God...our first priority. This scripture reference from the book of Hebrews admonishes us to "lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with patience (endurance) the race that is set before us". This Christian life is like a race that we must run and as in any race there are hurdles...roadblocks if you will that we must jump over and in order to do so there are things that you have to rid yourself of in order to lighten your load. You need to lighten the load in order to run faster, sometimes in order to run at all. Burdens we bear can be overwhelming and sometimes we don't seem to no where to turn, it's as if we have lost our way. But the writer to the Hebrews gives us the answer..."looking unto Jesus" What a revelation! It's as though I never saw it before, although I must have read it a thousand times before, give or take a hundred or so. As I read this again this morning, it's as though He is just revealing it to me. "Looking unto Jesus". It's not hard to do. It is a Divine revelation; it's as though He was opening my minds eye to see Him standing there at the finish line cheering me on saying "you can make it, just lay aside those burdens that are weighing heavily on your heart, in fact, here...give them to Me, I will take care of these things, you don't have to carry them anymore." He's the Author and He's the Finisher of my faith. I do not have the faith but He has and He gives me just what I need when I need it. Let Him get rid of the clutter, He's the professional. An old hymn of the church comes to mind, "come every soul by sin oppressed, ther's mercy with the Lord, and He will surely give you rest, by trusting in His Word." And then the chorus "only trust Him, only trust Him, only trust Him now. He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now." "Cast your burdens on the Lord and He will sustain you." Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!