Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Deuteronomy 23-25
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 14:34-35
Jesus: Don’t be like salt that has lost its taste. How can its saltiness be restored? Flavorless salt is absolutely worthless. You can’t even use it as fertilizer, so it’s worth less than manure! Don’t just listen to My words here. Get the deeper meaning.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Sometimes I enjoy cooking. I’ll have to admit, for the first 20 plus years of my marriage, I couldn’t boil water. Carole was such a great cook, I just left it to her and enjoyed eating whatever she put on the table. It probably wasn’t fair, but whenever she was gone and I had to pinch hit in the kitchen, the kids would complain a lot when she got home. They begged her never to leave again. They remind me of some of my fiascos when we get together on special occasions.
But one day Carole said, “All you have to do to cook is be able to read. The recipes tell you exactly what to do.” Well…not exactly. But I did find a few beginner cookbooks that began to teach me what all the special words meant, like the difference between boil and simmer, saute and caramelize. So I started cooking as a hobby. And I’ve come to enjoy it every once in a while. I don’t even make a terrible mess because I have a tendency to stick things in the dishwasher right away and clean as I go to keep Carole from having to clean up behind me.
I’ve learned to use a lot of spices other than salt to flavor food since I took up cooking, but salt is still the go to spice. Salt makes everything better, kind of like bacon. If you don’t think bacon makes things taste better. Well, you just wrong. Sorry. Salt is the same way. It tantalizes the tongue like no other spice. In fact, a large portion of our tongue’s taste buds are geared to seek out that particular flavor. We can measure saltiness with our tongue extremely well.
In Jesus’ day, though, they didn’t make salt the same way we do today. Vendors gathered it up from salt deposits on the Mediterranean Sea or at the Dead Sea and then broke it up into large or small chunks depending on what the buyer was using it for. Because of its crystalline form, you could even grind it up very fine to use the way we do today, but it wasn’t nearly as pure and most often wasn’t the bright white color you see on your table.
The biggest problem with the way salt was sold in Jesus’ day, was that since the vendors sold it in blocks and it wasn’t necessarily white because it had other minerals mixed in with it, if it stayed out in the weather and got damp, the salt would leach out of the block and lose its saltiness. You would lose the salty flavor over time and be left with all the other minerals and no salt without knowing it. You can try it yourself with a salt-lick, those things you see out in dairy or cattle ranches in the summer. Ranchers put them out to keep the cattle’s salt intake up during hot weather. But it they get wet or the weather get really humid for several days or weeks, you’ll find that the animals will no longer be drawn to the salt-lick because it has lost its saltiness.
Jesus’ hearer were much more familiar with salt that loses its flavor that we are. Our store bought salt seldom loses flavor. The packaging we use protects it from the elements and we don’t worry much about losing flavor before it’s gone. But Jesus told us not to miss His deeper meaning in His words. So what does that mean?
I think as Christians He expects us to season the world. We should be out and about in the world and seen in such a way as to add His grace and mercy to the world. We should stand out the same way salt stands out as a flavoring in food. When you salt food, you know it. When a Christian walks into a room, you should know it. Not because we announce it. There are too many today that announce they are Christians but are not and that just gives Jesus a bad name. But others should see our actions, hear our words, experience our love toward others and know we are Christians. When Christ lives in us we should not be able to hide it any more than you can hide the flavor of salt in food.
The world should miss our presence when we are not around. They should recognize the absence of the fruit of the spirit they see in us when we are not around. Our presence at work or school or in line at the grocery store should make a difference in the world as much as salt makes a difference in the taste of food.
So, has your life lost its intense seasoning in the world? Only God’s spirit in you can bring it back. Let Him put a little salt back into your life.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.