Matt. 5:13 – 14
13 “You
are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its
saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and
trampled under foot.
14 “You
are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a
lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light
to all in the house. 16 In the
same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good
works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
So what does it mean to be the light and the salt? I’ve
been on a long quest to discover what that means for me, and I want to hand you
this chunk of wisdom in the hopes that you get some mileage out of it. Then I
want to give a fast update that’s closely related to this topic.
To be salt is to be grounded in the covenant God has with
you. There is two parts to the covenant 1) the part that applies to every
believer and 2) the part that is unique to you. The second part leads directly
to the topic of light.
1)
The covenant refers to the Hebrews 9:15. Christ,
who never sinned or disappointed the Father, wrote a will that in the event of
his death we should inherit everything due to him. We live under the full favor
of God toward his only son.
2)
Because God knew us before he made the world and
we are made in his image, we know that God intended something unique and special
when he designed us, and that’s what we are restored to in that inheritance. So
part of this covenant—the life we’ve inherited—is restoration to something. (I
know we’re usually told we just get to escape death, but that’s just Mercy, we
also get Grace.)
Being the light refers to living in the truth. That also
comes in two forms. 1) You can’t live in light if you aren’t being authentic to
who you are. 2) Our woundedness is meant to be shared with a fellowship.
1)
So it’s important that we seek out the person
inside that reflects who God see us as. Or put another way, its important that we
live not only as a redeemed person, but as the unique version of redeemed
person that God intended before sin entered the world.
2)
We can’t be vulnerable with everyone, or even
most people, but there should be some people with whom we can let it all hang
out. We need to humbly receive the input of that fellowship as part of the
promised transformation from glory to glory.
So when we put all this together, being the salt and the
light is about living in what Christ did for you, as the unique person God
intended, in vulnerability with a fellowship. But it’s important to bring it
full circle and say that the good work Christ began in you he will be faithful
to complete it (Phil. 1:6). This transformation is not entirely our
responsibility (Romans 4). The promise (covenant) to Abraham was given before
his circumcision (obedience to the law).
So obviously there’s a lot to be explored there and it
really doesn’t work to just give it all in one multi-vitamin. All of this is
another approach to the concept of Glory and Calling. God meant something unique
when he designed us, and it’s vital that we explore what that is. It’s equally
important that we not take on responsibility for manifesting that new person. If
we do that, we begin to strive, which only leads to pursuing the worldly
(outword) reality of our glory. That path leads to frustration and takes our
eyes off the source and example—Christ.
The inside person is more important to God and we’ve no
perspective from which judge our inner progress. Even while we progress toward
completeness we need to understand that we’ll never make it in this life, which
is why Christ makes us complete.
I KNOW! Very confusing, but a vital concept. Even while
we are learning to walk in completeness (and our unique glory) we depend on
Christ’s mercy and must accept that we’ll not achieve it.
The reason I’m on about this is because I’m sick of all
the focus going to mercy. As long as we frame the work of Christ in our life as
a death on the cross to let us off the hook for being wicked sinners, we are
missing the entire concept of Glory. Mercy is ever important, but it’s the insurance
policy. LIFE comes from walking with Christ and a fellowship of believers in
the inheritance of God’s favor and restoration of God’s plan for your life.
What gets the attention in most churches today, is how
wicked we were and how good God is to kill Jesus instead of us. I want to shine
a light onto the inheritance Christ died to give us.
So…Update
I’ve got some amazing opportunities coming in the next
three to four months, and I’ve been knocking myself out to bring them about. I’ve
been making some uncomfortable sacrifices too, and that’s often okay for a
season. The challenge comes when things get pushed off or don’t come off as
planned. Simple delays cause me to think, “just work a bit harder to catch up.”
Of course anther delay follows, and another. Then interruptions happen and
other plans become impacted. The next thing you know I’ve robbed time from my
other values for too long and everything I’ve built evaporates.
This never used to be an issue for me. I had plenty of
other challenges, but vainly chasing the American dream wasn’t one of them. It’s
traditionally not been my heart of heart, but now that I have a wife and child
my desires have changed. Now they look pretty middle-class American to the
casual observer. So I’ve been dealing with a double whammy—pursuing things the
world says I ought to want for what in my mind is somewhat nobler motives, and
pursuing goals that don’t feed the man inside as directly as my former pursuits.
The journey/battle of merging my heart’s desires, old and
new, has been rough. I confess to experiencing enormous stress, and I should know
better. The reality is that I will receive what God has in store for me, and my
limited attention span is best invested on things that feed and grow the inner
man. So for weeks I’ve been probing the most authentic things that God and I
discovered together. I’d be lying if I didn’t confess to near constant
distractions by “real world” stuff, but I’ve been hugely blessed also.
The conclusion here is that I’m deciding not to stress
about what I get accomplished or not. I’m not going to pressure myself to make
things come about at all costs. I believe God is aware of my needs and my
desires and will manifest the right things. I can still work toward goals, but
I’m done striving. I can still practice doing things in the most efficient
manner, but I’m done feeling bad when I end the day with more to do than I started
the day with.
Also, I’m going to rebrand with all this in mind. I’m
going to spend some time on the projects that feed the inner man so that I have
more energy and focus for the “real world” stuff.
What that means for this blog, and those who follow it,
is that I’ll be expanding and rebranding onto another platform and this blog
will continue, but in a more focused roll.
God bless, and have a great day.
See also
Ephesians 5:8, 11
Colossians 4:6
Luke 14:34-35
Luke 15:1
John 8:12
Mark 16:15
Mark 9:35-50
1 Cor. 1:26
Romans 1:18-20
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