Acts 17:6, “…PAUL AND SILAS HAVE TURNED THE REST OF THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN, AND NOW THEY ARE HERE DISTURBING OUR CITY,” THEY SHOUTED.” (TLB) – Now, when is the last time we touched the world, and unbelievers, in such a way that we disturbed them? Disturbed their sin, their wickedness, their unbelief, their habits and addictions. When is the last time you disturbed the devil? When is the last time you turn the city upside down? When is the last time you gave someone a taste of God by giving them a touch from God?
One of the most encouraging Psalms that I meditate on is this one. It always soothes my soul. Psalm 103 KJV—Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. When your identity is grounded in God, you become part of a bigger picture when you trust in Him. And you will begin to live out the excellent plan He has written for your life.
Matthew 5:13, “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.” (MSG)
The whole reason we’re here is to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. But if the salt never touches anything, how does it change anything? Which makes me think of the evangelism that has so greatly halted in our churches. Oh, we go to church week-after-week, Sunday School; Sunday worship; prayer; bible study; meetings; rehearsals; revivals; special services and the like, and we’re quite comfortable sitting in our sanctuaries (aka “saltshakers”), well contained! Problem? Salt is touching salt but touching nothing else! Selah…
For you to TASTE salt, it must TOUCH something! For salt to change something, it has to touch something. For us salty Christians to change something, or someone, we’ve got to touch it and them! We can’t remain in the saltshaker, where we’re useless because we’re touchless and tasteless.
Therefore, we can’t sit in our churches and complain about the world and the way it is, while we sit in the salt-shaker sanctuary touching nothing and no one. Just imagine if we left the salt-shaker sanctuary and went to shake some salt in the nursing homes, in the hospitals, in the prisons, in the homeless shelters, in the soup kitchens. What change might we bring about if only we’d leave the salt-shaker sanctuary? If we shook some salt while standing in the grocery aisle, in the barbershop, or at the nail and hair salon? What if we shook some salt at our jobs, in our families and in our communities? What if we shook some salt on that drug-infested park, or gang-infested territory? What if we shook some salt as we walked the streets from day-to-day, passing countless ‘tasteless’ individuals on the way? I mean after all, the Bible says that’s what we’re here for, right? Isn’t that our purpose? Isn’t that our charge? Isn’t that our call?
Is it possible that people haven’t tasted God because we haven’t touched them with Him? With His unconditional love, His sufficient grace, and new mercies. With His forgiveness, kindness, compassion, and encouragement. With His protection, provision, and presence. With His unspeakable joy and reassuring peace. I reiterate, is it possible that people haven’t tasted God, because we haven’t touched them with Him?
James 4:17, “REMEMBER, IT IS SIN TO KNOW WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO AND THEN NOT DO IT.” (NLT) Disobedience is Still Sin! Selah…
Do you remember when you opened your life to Christ how dependent you were on Him; how hungry you were to get into His Word; how boldly and frequently you prayed; how trusting you were? Well, you see, these verses are necessary to talk to us about our roots because we have a tendency to get lazy about those spiritual roots! There was a time when you couldn’t kick us out of the church; we left school, work and anywhere else to be in the House of the Lord…and now people don’t even know if we’re still members because they rarely, if ever, see us in attendance. Many believers today behave like unbelievers, we’ve become annual holiday visitors to church! But when we first believed, we lived to be in the church. We were at every meeting; every rehearsal; every lesson; every sermon; every outreach program. We had a hunger and thirst to be in the House of the Lord, building the House of the Lord! There was desperation that has since evaporated! What happened? There was a time when we were so close to the Living Waters, digesting every drop, flourishing and waving our leaves of victory…and then suddenly everything evaporated!
This speaks of what we are to look like and live like. This speaks of our conduct, behavior, character, growth, and development. This speaks of the examples and standards that we are to set. This speaks of the image, likeness, reflection, and representation we are to show forth. We are to walk as one with Him. Conform to Him. Look, think and act like Him. And how do we do this? We do so by having our roots (the core of who and what we are) being firmly and deeply planted in Him, fixed, and founded in Him. That sounds like we need to put some serious work in! Which means this is not for the lazy, or the weak. To make something firm or to give something in depth or to ensure something is planted, fixed, and founded, requires work! This doesn’t happen overnight. Nor can you snap your finger and have growth, maturity, and development appear. As believers, this will take the consistency of bible study, Sunday school, prayer, fasting, devotional time, and consecration to the Lord to attain. You cannot, however, get this by showing up part-time on the most celebratory services of the church. You can’t get this by the position or title you hold, or the chair that happens to hold you. You don’t get this via popularity or electoral vote. You don’t get this because of how long you’ve been there, who you’re connected to, or who you are (or think you are) in your own high-minded imagination. No, this comes through servanthood, humility, obedience, discipline, diligence, perseverance, and faithfulness!
Church, what has happened to us?
Our attitudes haven’t improved; our dress attire looks no different than it did when we were unsaved in the club; we still cuss, drink, smoke (you know, all those things we like to call our ‘struggles and strongholds’, when in fact they’re more like our comfortable habits and addictions that we have no intentions on changing (especially if no one else finds out about them). We can’t reflect the image and likeness of Christ, but we can sure selfie. We can text in church but can’t properly expound on a sermon text. We have thousands of friends in our social media circles but can’t count 10 people in our church circle that can confirm our character. We can network on the web but not meet the needs of the needy in our neighborhoods. We have more saints on ‘Facebook live’ than we have ‘living epistles’ in the church.
I have a question? Where did we lose the cutting edge? We used to be sharp, we used to be on fire, but then we lost it, where did you lose it? Most of us, if somebody asked, know exactly where you lost it. You say, you know I was 32 years old; you know that I was this age, and I was that age, and I was over there when I went off to college. You know I moved to another city; you know exactly where you lost it. Go back, He said when you use to be on fire for me. Go back to where you used to be passionate and didn’t have anything, but Me and you had to trust Me. Go back to that place and depend on Me like your very life depended on it. Go back to the place where you lost it and put a stick on it.
Go back & stick to your prayers, stick to your confessions, go back, and stick to your studying, the word of God, go back to tithing, go back, go back to it and stick to it and find the place where you were winning and stick to what you were doing. Go back to your core and when you do go back, you will discover that God was just sending you back to the basics because so many people begin to fail, because they walked away from their basics. It amazes me when people started doing well, they came out of noting, and all of a sudden they start putting God on a back burner and God say we need to go back to our basics, go back to our core before we had degrees, go back before we had advanced training and special seminars for this and more sophisticated equipment and computers, go back when you had to trust Me when nobody but you and a few family members, go back when it was just you and a friend, go back the way you prayed then, like your life depended on it. Go back to the basics.
Because the Bible reads: “Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights HE WAS TESTED BY THE DEVIL. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up, he was hungry. The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: “Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.” JESUS ANSWERED BY QUOTING DEUTERONOMY: “It takes more than bread to really live.” For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the Devil said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole works.” JESUS REFUSED, AGAIN BACKING HIS REFUSAL WITH DEUTERONOMY: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute singleheartedness.” For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son, jump. It’s written, isn’t it, that ‘he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?” “YES,” SAID JESUS, “AND IT’S ALSO WRITTEN, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’” That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.” (Luke 4:1-11 MSG)
JESUS WASN’T LURED BY THE SMOOTH PATTER OF THE DEVIL’S TONGUE…SO WHY ARE WE (WHO HAVE HIS POWER WITHIN) SO EASILY BEGUILED?
Which is why I reiterate, how did we get here Church? How did we reach such heights, with no depth? How did we get to this place of importance that we traded it for significance? When did we become so engrossed in becoming the same that we’ve forfeited making a difference? When did entertainment supersede education, encouragement, and empowerment? When did our calendars become busier than our calling? When did our fruit begin rotting?
I find this most terrifying because in the same breath, we can look around us at what’s happening and listen to the radio and see all that’s going on in the news and in our government and still we’ll say, we’re living in the end times.’ But if in fact we are, is this what the church should look and live like? Is this what we as believers should reflect in our public and private lives and lifestyles? Do you wonder, when the trumpet sounds, can we honestly say that we’ve made people aware, and that we’ve lived in a state of readiness? When He returns, are we sure that we’ll return with Him?
Do you know some things about the Lord that you didn’t know a month ago? Have you given Him some new ground that He didn’t have a month ago? Are you praying in fresh, new ways? Is your relationship with God mostly vertical…not horizontal, just when you’re with His people? In the right social settings and circles. Can you say that you’re growing in God daily and not just giving the appearance of growth?
Today is a great day for us to begin again. A day to repent, turn and change. A day to restore, revive, renew, and redeem the remainder of our days that we will have made an impact on the world, instead of just an impression. Let today be the day that you go deeper in God. Not just Sunday services, but personal devotional services with just you and God in your prayer closet. I know in this day and age; everything has to be seen. But sometimes you need a moment away from the limelight and spotlight and simply spend quiet time with God in your dim prayer closet. Ask Him to develop your negatives in the darkroom so you can become the light of the world that you should have been all along.
Instead of being a show for the world, let’s show the world Him. No personal glory, just God. Let’s show them what humility looks like. What servanthood looks like. What discipleship looks like. What growth, maturity and development look like. What faith, hope, trust, and obedience look like. What does unconditional love look like? What does accountability and responsibility look like? What change looks like. What do depth and roots look like? Today, Let’s Not Worry About Going Higher, But Going Deeper!
Luke 8:14-15, “And as for what fell among the thorns, these are [the people] who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked and suffocated with the anxieties and cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not ripen (come to maturity and perfection). But as for [seed] in the good soil, these are [the people] who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in a just (noble, virtuous) and worthy heart, and steadily bring forth fruit with patience.” (AMPC); When you read Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the Sower in the Message translation it brings a real sense of what happens concerning the Word that God gives. I must look at what I’m doing with the seeds God places in my heart.
Psalm 34:8, “Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see – how good God is. Blessed are you who run to Him.” (MSG)
How can people “taste” how good God is, if we’re His salt, but we never leave the salt-shaker?
I’m sure God would love to hear His salt getting out of the shaker more often! After all, the work salt is supposed to do is not inside the saltshaker, all clustered together with the other salt. It’s supposed to get out and change the flavor of something!
Furthermore, how are they to be BAPTIZED, without us touching them?
And how do we use anything as an excuse, when God Himself said, “…AND LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS [REMAINING WITH YOU PERPETUALLY – REGARDLESS OF CIRCUMSTANCE, AND ON EVERY OCCASION], EVEN TO THE END OF THE AGE.” What can we possibly use as an excuse for why we have not done what He “COMMANDED”?
According to Jesus, “You are the salt of the earth… “, not of the sanctuary! But of the entire Earth! Which means we must leave from within the church walls. We must operate outside of our comfort zones, our pulpits, and pews. We must leave the meeting and the auxiliaries. We must leave the Fellowship to go Fellow-Ship before they all Drown!
Can you imagine the horror on the face of an individual who’s fighting with all their might, absolutely terrified that they may die any minute while trying to stay afloat in the troubling waters of life…and yet, we, the church, Jesus’ Life-Guards, are standing on the shore, watching…equipped to help…but just watching…knowing how to save…but choosing to just watch…having the Word that will deliver from destruction…and yet we remain, just watching.
People are struggling at sea because the saints are only concerned with their safety on shore. We are comfortable standing on the shore before we are afraid to go out into the deep. This should not be!
You don’t keep salt stored up together in the shaker any more than you stand as a lifeguard on shore and watch someone drown. No, you scatter salt around so it will be in contact with the things that need their flavor changed. No lifeguard just stands on the shore and yells, “see if you can make it over here to me, then I can help you”. No, it’s the lifeguard’s job to look for those who may need him, and he goes out to them, he does not wait and hopes they will come to him. And unfortunately, that’s what we’ve been doing as a church. We see people struggling to stay afloat in the troubling waters of life, and instead of going out to help them, we’re standing on shore, yelling, “see if you can make it over here to my church, my service, my program, then I can help you.” That’s not how this is supposed to work.
Listen, Jesus left Heaven to get to us, Satan left Hell to get to us, and yet we won’t even leave the church to make disciples?
As Christians we were never meant to be all clustered together in a spiritual saltshaker, just salting each other and soaking up more blessings, miracles, and the like for ourselves. The salt’s got to be in direct contact with the meat or the vegetables that need it. So, guess what? You and I must be in meaningful contact with the people who really, really need our Jesus. We’re not supposed to be hiding out, playing defense all the time, trying to keep from being contaminated by avoiding the world that Jesus left us here to change! We need to have the world testify about us as they did about some of Jesus’ more effective disciples:
(MSG) When is the last time we’ve made an impact like this on the world as the church?! When is the last time we went door-to-door letting them know Jesus is King? When is the last time we’ve attacked sin, the very thing the unbeliever holds dear? When is the last time we touched the world in such a manner that they couldn’t deny the taste of God? They took the gospel message “EVERYWHERE”! And we can’t get folks to leave the sanctuary or the community!
People of God, we must do more than rub shoulders with each other in the saltshaker sanctuary! Think about it, salt on top of salt is dangerous and deadly to our physical health…could be just as dangerous and deadly to our spiritual health as well?
Listen, if we are in the last evil days we should be: Preaching the gospel truth message to the masses as God’s servants! Not to each other! But to others! If we don’t touch, they don’t taste, they’ll just settle for tickling! Do you really want to be held responsible for that?
Like it or not, but if your time is pretty much spent with Christians, well you’re missing your mission! We’ll do that in heaven! We’ll hang out together all the time, for all eternity! But right now, we’ve got to be involved with some people who aren’t going to heaven yet! It’s time for you to take all that you’ve been storing up spiritually and start taking it to places and people where it’s really needed. They’re all around us waiting for a touch and a taste, let’s not let them down! Remember: “…if you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?” They can’t taste godliness without first touching your saltiness. So, are you within reach? Are you salty? Are you in use? Are you available? Are you touchable?
Let today be the day that you challenge yourself, your family and friends, your community and certainly your church to come out the saltshaker and touch the world with a taste of God! Many are waiting, to be counted in number with the few who are in fact available to proclaim the message of salvation to the masses!
Remember: Salt With No Touch Has No Taste! Reach Them Today!
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