Search This Blog

Friday, July 8, 2016

Salt and Light

There are a lot of things not being done the way I think they should be done, and I want to holler and crash around and make everybody listen up and start behaving properly (my way).

Thankfully, somehow Our Father speaks through the red haze and I hear Jesus say, “You are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its savor it is not good for anything but to be cast out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid, nor do men light a lamp and place it under a basket. Rather they put it on a lamp stand and it gives light to the whole house. Let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.” (Paraphrased. Matthew 5:13-16)

Now I have been hearing this for some time and I think it’s beginning to sink in, a little. What I am realizing is that salt and light are very quiet. We need light and if it is not there, we notice that. We need salt, especially with potatoes and eggs. Still these things are quiet and don’t make a production of themselves.

Salt and light are simply what they are supposed to be. They don’t insist that others be what they are, they just are.

As a follower of Jesus, there are many things that I am supposed to be: humble, meek, merciful and loving just to name a few. But I cannot by force require anyone else to aspire and strive for these virtues. If Jesus is my Lord by the voluntary surrender of my will, then His will becomes my delight.

Salt is salty. Salt is sodium chloride and as long as it is not diluted it will always be salty. The problem arises when you put not enough salt on too many potatoes, or dilute the salt until only a little salt is mixed with too much of anything else. The same thing is true of light. On the sunniest day you can go inside and close yourself off from the light and be in the dark, but the sun is still shining bright.

My own will, especially my self-righteous religious will, is the greatest hindrance or diluting factor to my being salt and light. Hollering, crashing around and insisting that everyone else behave is the opposite of being salt and light.


Will others get what I am doing? I don’t know but that is not the point. The point is, Will I be salt and light?

Will you?

Friday, July 1, 2016

A Discipleship Course

Many years ago a young man complained that he wanted someone to disciple him but could not find a minister or anyone who would do it. I’m not sure he really wanted someone but it got me started thinking. Sometime later someone sent me a discipleship work book. I had expressed an interest in it. I found it to be full of doctrines of a specific denomination and didn’t really speak to the matters of Jesus’ teaching. At least it seemed that way to me

In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus says; “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

I am especially interested in that last verse. “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

I have been in the Christian Church in one form or another since I was about 3 weeks old. That was a long time ago! I am fairly serious about my relationship with God. I spent 2 years and a little in Bible College. This matter of making disciples and teaching them to observe Jesus’ teaching is something I have seen very little.

Over the last several years I have been more and more aware of my own lack in this area and at the same time I have been discovering things that are helping me to become more of a disciple of Jesus.

Over the last few years I have been trying to organize what I am learning in order to share it with others so that it might be a help to them. I am sure that what I have put together will smell a lot like me, and I can only apologize for that and hope it’s not too distracting.

Therefore, I would like to offer to those who read this blog what I would call a beginning discipleship study guide.

A few people have already used this guide and say it has been helpful.

If you will email me at beginningdisciples@gmail.com and request a copy of the discipleship book, I will be happy to send you a PDF copy of the study.

There is no charge for this and I will not be sending you any other requests or advertisements. This is the one thing I have been focused on for the last few years and it is about all I have to offer.

I would only request that if you use it and find it helpful or have suggestions to make it more helpful. Please write back and let me know how I might make it better. If you don’t think it is any good, please let me know that too with your reasons. You might really be on to something.

Thank you very much 

Rick