“SALT and LIGHT!”

Matthew 5:13-16                                  (ESV)

“13 "You are the SALT of the earth, but if SALT has lost its taste, how shall its SALTiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

14 "You are the LIGHT of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

15 Nor do people LIGHT a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, 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 WHO is in Heaven.”

SALT and LIGHT were two items used by JESUS to demonstrate the LIFE of a Believer in HIM, someone who accepted that HE and the FATHER were ONE (John 10:30)!  But we seem to think that EVERYONE should hear THE GOSPEL from our lips and immediately be moved to transformation, have their lives regenerated by GOD.  Remembering that GOD CHOSE us, even before the foundations of the world, to Believe in HIM (Ephesians 1:4), not because of ourselves, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:9)!  We have NOTHING to Glory in!!!

Abraham BELIEVED and it was counted to him as righteousness.  FAITH is a gift from GOD (Ephesians 2:8), and we are to understand that with everything that is in us.  It is not because we are worthy that we are CHOSEN (2 Timothy 1:9), but because GOD HAS A PLAN for our lives, for HIS GLORY!  

Our “SALT and LIGHT” is not to elevate ourselves, but to GIVE GLORY to the FATHER!  There is NO-THING (nothing described!) in me that is worthy of a drop of BLOOD from the precious LAMB OF GOD.  Yet HE left HIS throne in Heaven to live a spotless, blameless life and then die a brutal, sacrificial death, but then was raised on the third day because of GOD’S PLAN!  We are charged to be LIGHT in the darkness of “this world”, and to be SALT where “this world” begs us to “fit in”, to Glorify HIS Name.  Our “good works” aren’t intended to do anything but GIVE GLORY to GOD IN HEAVEN!  

HEAVENLY FATHER, cause me to understand that I am CHOSEN by YOU for a purpose, and that purpose is to complete the mission YOU have planned for me.  For me to be anything but “SALT and LIGHT” says that I need to “be thrown out and trampled under people's feet