Saturday, July 21, 2012

Salted Peanuts

"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 underfoot by men."
Matthew 5:13

I have read, and re-read this scripture many times.  I read it from different translations.  I read it fast.  I read it slow.  Something about this scripture was troubling to me, and I couldn't quite put a finger on it.  I looked up this passage in commentaries, and read the explanations from various Bible scholars, and still, it didn't feel right.

This was getting personal - I was feeling challenged!

Finally, I read it word by word, and then phrase by phrase, and the Holy Spirit began to breakdown both the scriptures and myself.  He broke them down into tiny-bite-size pieces, or morsels - like little salted nuts.


Funny, the more he broke it down, the more hungry and thirsty I'd become - like eating something salty and then needing a drink afterwards.

One thing I can honestly say about salt is that it makes you thirsty!  Try eating pretzels, or potato chips, or peanuts without drinking something along with it!  As a matter of fact, try eating anything that has salt in it and NOT drink something!  The more you eat, the more drink you require.


Taking a page out of my former life, let me tell you of my "bar" experience.  I spend my time at a different  "bar" now - studying God's Law, and the way I should live.  Old "bar" habits have passed away - behold  all things in my life are new - God is making me a "used-to-be." 

Anyway, in the old days I would go to a bar, looking for liquid refreshment after a hard day's work.  Seating myself at the the bar, there lay before me bowls of pretzels, potato chips, and peanuts all stationed strategically in front of each barstool.


Was it because of the owners being overly generous and wanting to give out free food?


No.  Pretzels, potato chips, and peanuts are loaded with salt!


They were there to make you thirsty!  The more you would eat, the more drinks you would buy.

Talk about cause and effect!

Needless to say, their little ploy worked.  Their registers were singing a most happy tune, right up to the "last call."  You couldn't help but  notice the last call, because all the patrons would go into mourning as the bartenders stopped giving out food and pouring drinks.  Everyone would break out in a bit of a dirge, "the party's over!"


Last Call.

Folks, do we really believe, that in the times in which we live, this could possibly be the"last call" of the Lord for people to be saved?  Do we really believe that this is the "party's over" for the most of the world's population?  Do we really believe that God is serious about us witnessing to the lost?

Think of it this way - Christians are the salted peanuts, potato chips, and pretzels in the earth, strategically placed in front of the unbeliever patrons of this world.  We're here to make people hungry and thirsty for Christ!


Read Numbers 18:19 very slowly:

"All the offerings of the Holy Gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you as a perpetual allotment.  It is an everlasting covenant of SALT before the Lord to you and your descendants with you."  NASB

It's New Testament counterpart is found in Romans 12:1-2:

"Therefore, I urge you, brethern, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

This is our lot - our heritage - to be salted peanuts to a dying world.


Christians are to live flavorful, to work up people's appetite and thirst for Him!  God has not called us to live a tasteless and flavorless Christian life.  He wants our daily choices in all manner of living, our conversation, what flows from our mouths and our hearts to be the spice of Christ, making those whose lives we touch thirst for - LIVING WATER!


Consider the urgency of the season.  Listen to Jesus in John 4:35 (NASB):

"Do you not say, 'There and yet four months, and then comes the harvest.'?  Behold, I say to you, 'Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest.' "

Also, in Matthew 9:37-38 (NASB):

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Therefore, beseech (beg) the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

So here's that personal challenge I mentioned at the outset - a challenge to me and you and anyone who identifies themselves by the name of Jesus Christ: 

How then shall we live? 

Perhaps, we need to stop being bar-flies, or video game-flies, or vain entertainment-flies, or just plain lazy-flies, and beg the Lord to take out His Saltshaker and shake us out into the world!  Salting the earth so people ask questions like bar patrons asking the bartender for another drink.  Are we keeping the bowls of peanuts, pretzels, and potato chips filled?   Are we lifting up the salted flavor of Jesus at work, at play, in the neighborhood, your family?

Listen to this promise from Jesus:

"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, WILL draw all men to Myself."
John 12:32

Are we drawing this "draft" for people thirsting from the taste of our "salted" lives?


If people aren't being drawn to desire to drink, perhaps we've become tasteless.  If they're not noticing the bowls of peanuts, pretzels, and potato chips, perhaps it's because we aren't regularly refilling our bowls. 

If there's no salted peanuts on the bar to begin with, no one will even notice the "last call". 

They won't even care . . .


What do you think?  How do you read?

Sharing some Salted Peanuts this week with:
Laura on Faith Filled Fridays at Beholding Glory

3 comments:

  1. I so love the link between salt and thirst that you have shared. I hadn't thought of it that way before. Such a great illustration. Thanks for sharing! Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I feel the challenge! I want to be shaken out of his saltshaker and make the unsaved thirsty for the Living Water. You have shared another great analogy and illustration. Thank you!
    Many blessings.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Interesting thoughts. It's so true, salt definitely makes one thirsty. This was a great illustration. Thank you for sharing.
    Blessings,
    Charlotte

    ReplyDelete

I welcome your comments and conversation as we enter into His Story together!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...