Salt & light
Matthew 5:13-15 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how she would be season? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. 14 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand and it gives light to all who are in the house.
When you were lost in sin, eternally damned to hell, who did God use to share the gospel with you, to rescue you from eternal damnation? The Good News came from someone whom He placed in your sinner’s dark circle with the light that provided a path of escape. Yesterday in social media I came across this quote from Joel Osteen that truly angered me. “If you don’t let go of the wrong people, you will never meet the right people. Be careful of who you allow in your inner circle. If your team is weak, you will be weak. Surround yourself with believers! (this can be used in your career, relationships, different aspects of your life).” Now there is just enough truth there to tickle the ears. If you have been rescued from addictions, removing yourself for a time of healing is necessary. But, the testimony of that healing when you return is what He built in you from the start. He has allowed every dark dirty road of your life for you to be able to reach those still stuck there.
Who did Jesus hang out with? Did the King hang out with the religious of the day? Did He surround himself with people who may take pride in there religiosity and look down on those still struggling in sin? Who where the twelve men He chose to change the world with Him? They were plain folks and even the dreaded tax collector that wrote the first gospel in the New Testament. Mark 2:16 and when the scribes and the Pharisees saw him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, “How is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners”? 17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Listen to me please. Being a Christian does not mean putting yourself in a bubble and protecting yourself from society. It does not mean building up your pride in Christianity by what church you attend and what friends you have or don’t have. Christianity and pride are oxymorons. You have missed the boat if you rest in those. You are going to get to heaven one day and God is going to ask you what you did with the good news of his Son. Did you proclaim it from the rooftops? Did you go and share it with anyone who will hear to the ends of the earth as He commanded in the Great Commission from Matthew 28? Where would you be right now if God had not sent his light through his servant into your dark sin-filled world? Go out amongst the sinners today and remember how you felt before you heard the good news. Humbly share the testimony he built in you to rescue the world.
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