Luke 14:34-35
“Salt is good, but
if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no
use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has
ears to hear, let him hear.”
Jesus refers to the church as salt, and what is the church,
not a building, not a denomination, but people who by faith have entered into
Christ Jesus. So the question must be
asked, how does a church lose its salt?
And the follow-up question must be asked, can it be restored, or is it
to be thrown away?
On Thursday at 6:30
in the morning, Paul Wendell and I have been looking at a book written by my
friend T.W. Hunt, “The Mind of Christ” and in doing so the Holy Spirit
convicted me of my lack of Scripture memory, and it seemed I was directed to
begin in John 14:18-21, I want to share those verses and what I believe they
are telling us about our salt being good, or without taste. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a
little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I
live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and
you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is
who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love
him and manifest myself to him.” (John
14:18-21 ESV)
No matter where you find yourself today, God desires to have
an intimate relationship with you, and first and foremost you need to come
clean, you are not in charge, you’ve not redeemed anyone, you need forgiveness,
and Jesus is more than willing to meet you at the level of your need and
understanding by His grace and He will give you the faith you need to ask Him
to come to you. By that faith you can
know that Jesus is in the Father, and you are in Jesus and Jesus is in you,
welcome to the Church!
But now comes the messy part, it’s found in John 16:33, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have
peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the
world." And
here is another untidy part we often have not learned or chosen to ignore, “For the flesh
desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the
flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever
you want.” (Galatians 5:17)
The answer to how the Church loses its salty taste is found
in, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who
loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him
and manifest myself to him.” (John
14:121 ESV) The church has allowed the
culture to mold it, and it often teaches a worldly message that is in contrast
to God’s commandments. When one follows
Jesus they are not guaranteed health, wealth, friends, or success, in fact
Jesus tells us the world will do this; "If the world hates you, you know
that it has hated Me before it hated you. "If you were of the world, the
world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you
out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” (John
15:18-19) But the Church will stand, for
there will always be a few who love Jesus and are willing to die to the world
and the flesh and live life as if Jesus tells the truth. And let me be quick to answer the follow-up
question; can a believer or a group of believers called the local church
be restored, or is it to be thrown away?
Do what John the Baptist came proclaiming; repent and return to being a
follower of Christ and not men, not the worldly wisdom of men who act like they
are wiser than our Creator, for His Word is like Him, it changes not, it is the
same today as it was yesterday, it is the Truth.
In closing, ponder this verse from Revelations 2:4-5, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the
love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent,
and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your
lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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