Daily Devotions: Seasoned with Salt

I gave up salting my food years ago. I felt like all I tasted was salt and no matter what type of food I ate, it was too heavily layered in salt for me to get to the heart of the taste. It was hard to do without salt at first because everything tasted different, but I persevered and eventually, after about three weeks, food started to taste wonderful. I discovered that most foods have their own salt in them anyway. Adding more sodium chloride to my plate was doing nothing for the food: all it was doing was clogging up my arteries and increasing my blood pressure. I hardly take salt with anything now, and feel better because of it. Who knows how high my blood pressure would be right now if I continued to salt my food?

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Bible Verse of the Day

Colossians 4:6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

In Paul’s time, salt was important for food because it not only seasoned it, it also preserved it. Roman soldiers were paid with a monthly allowance of salt, which is where the word ‘salary’ originates. In Paul’s time, salt was both an important and essential commodity, which is why he urges Christians to season their conversation with the salt of grace. Even in his time, too many Christians were unyielding and judgmental. For the Gospel message of Christ to be received by pagans and heathens, Paul encouraged Christians not to forget the healing and inspirational message of grace.

There’s an old story told about two pastors in London, England, who were holding revival campaigns at the same time. One of the campaigns was always crowded; the other only managed an average attendance. A reporter went to both meetings, listened to the preachers, and thought that they expressed the same Gospel message of repentance, judgment, and salvation. He wondered why both preachers didn’t have the same large gatherings, so he asked a couple of people what the difference was. They replied: “Both evangelists preach the same Gospel message and talk about judgment, but the more successful preacher seasons his words with grace.”

As Christians, we can sometimes be hyper-critical of other people and are too quick to pronounce judgment, hellfire, and damnation upon other sinners. Our message becomes a tirade of self-righteousness and our hearers just turn off listening. However, if we confront sin and apply words of grace to the sinner, it will be more effective because they will be more receptive to what we have to say.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, there are times when we let You down with our insensitivity and poor judgments. We’re too quick to condemn other people and we make too many rash judgments about their lives. Forgive us for being so unforgiving, and graceless with our opinions. Help us to clarify what Your Gospel is all about to others, and enable us to express it with grace, patience, and love. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Melted Hearts

There’s a new report from the Pew Research Council that is showing a decline in the numbers of people who are Protestant Christians. Protestantism, which has shaped American identity for generations, may soon become a minority faith. In the 1980s, 65 percent of Americans called themselves Protestants; today that number is down to 51 percent. Only 43 percent of those aged 18-29 say they are Protestant.

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The reasons for the decline are many and it means that local congregations have to work harder to grow in faith, commitment, and size. Protestants, especially Presbyterians, can no longer take it for granted that their voices are being heard. In fact most of the figures show us that we are consistently being ignored. Whatever theological tussles and scriptural squabbles we have in our denomination may seem important to us. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, we’re outdated, unimportant, and insignificant.

It seems like we have been hit with a mortal blow. For some people, this will just make them want to give up. Instead of making faith a lifetime commitment, people are choosing to make church going a life-style choice. Rather than give of their time, talents, and resources to Christ’s mission, people want to spend time, effort, and money on themselves. It’s hard to overcome this sort of spiritual ambivalence. It seems to be, according to these statistics, far easier to let go of the Church and give up believing in Jesus.

Personally, I think the Church has been dealing with the here and now too much, forgetting about the future and hereafter. More pastors are into preaching prosperity rather than salvation. More congregations are looking for life style enhancements instead of life changing conversions. We are meant to be the Church in the world, but sadly we’ve let the world come into, and take over the Church.


Bible Verse of the Day


Joshua 7: 5b They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water.



When the Israelites were defeated at Ai, their hearts melted with fear. They no longer had the strength or commitment to go on fighting their enemies. They lost their faith and confidence in God, and even Joshua was depressed by the defeat. It was a turning point for the people. They could go quietly into the night and be lost forever, or they could turn back to God and look for His guidance. They had to revive their faith and fulfill their destiny, or they could retreat across the Jordan and return to the desert.

As I see it, we have a straight forward choice before us: revive and survive, or deny and die. I don’t know about you, but I don’t intend to give up. There’s too much at stake, and there are too many souls that still need to be saved.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You command us to go out into the world to make disciples of all people, bringing them into Your Kingdom. Call upon us today to reach out to our families and friends, our neighbors and colleagues in loving and faithful ways that will attract them to You. In Your Holy Name, we live and pray. Amen.

Reading this week....

I've hundreds of books in my library. I'm running out of time to read them, so I'm going to try to read a book a week. This is my first effort. I'm also listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons - I've a ton of CDs!



I've had this book for decades (since seminary - almost 30 years ago).

Here is the opening statement of the introduction:

"In the first half of the 18th century, England was in a state of religious and moral decay. For many years the land had been sinking into darkness and paganism. Intemperance and immorality, crime and cruelty were increasingly becoming the characteristics of the age. The National Church was in such a dead condition that instead of being salt, preserving the nation from corruption, she was only adding to the immorality by weakening the restraints which Christianity imposed on the lusts of men. The teaching from the pulpit consisted of natural theology and cold morality, which were utterly impotent to awaken the Church or to stem the flood of iniquity. If the nation was to be saved, the Church would first have to be revived."

Sound familiar??????

"Letters of John Newton" 1960 edition Banner of Truth Trust price 2/6d...25cents