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Have you taken your Daily Step
Sometimes the step may be a long one, a leap even, however, life is still taken "One step at a time!"
Add one Godly thought a day and in a year you will have taken 365 steps closer to Him!
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Sunday, March 25, 2007
"The Toothbrush and Salt"
5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. "
Matthew 5:13 NAS
When something loses its value what do you do with it? If the bristles start to fall out of your toothbrush, you throw it away (well, you may use it to clean the tiles in the tub first, but it is usually on its way to the garbage can). If your oven quits heating your food you will probably call a repair man you trust (and can afford) to look at it and see if it can be repaired. If it can, good, if not, out the door with it. If your health fails, you go to the doctor, try to be healed and if you cannot you just . . . wait a minute here? And what about a soul?
Tooth brushes and salt are one thing, but lets not get too personal here. Or should we be? Personal, that is. What if we, like the salt and toothbrush become useless for what we were created to be? That would be a terrible way to live. Existence would meaningless and hopeless. Useless salt was used for road material. That is something, I guess. The toothbrush might clean some grout in the bathroom for a while.
What about the human being? When sin and sickness break us down and all hope seems lost, are we like the salt and toothbrush just to be tossed? May it never be!
With salt and toothbrushes we can dispose of them (although we can quite often recycle them nowadays) but Jesus did something different for the human condition. We have a choice. We can choose the garbage heap or we can choose to live. It is more than recycling, it is restoration, new-life born from above.
We are created in God's own image and it is true sin and life will tarnish that image. Created to worship and serve, the tarnish destroys our "usefulness" and we can no longer function as worshipers or servants. Jesus takes that away. While alive, there is no such thing as a hopelessly lost human being. Jesus saves! Jesus restores! You have worth and great value both to Jesus and your fellow human beings and to yourself. Get to Him who can do all things. Choose to live!
"Dear Jesus, help me to feel hope and worth today. In some way I want to serve You and others. Show me in some way the salt in my soul that I may know You. Restore my joy of life and of living today. Put the salt back in my step and in my song that I may glorify you. Amen"
Copyright © 2007
Points to Ponder
1) If your back is strong and you can carry great things, go and do so for the glory of Jesus. If your mind is wise and can figure out great mysteries, go and do so for the glory of Jesus. If you are not strong or wise be gentle, love righteousness and mercy, pray and rejoice and glorify Jesus. It is not by human standards you will glorify God, but by His!
2) God created something precious in you and He came to restore that.
3) Is there a time to rest and a time to be salty?
4) The doctors tell us salt is necessary for us to live but that too much can make us sick. Jesus knows just the right amount.
5) Salt preserves. What does this mean for us as "salt" of the earth?
Copyright © 2007
Email Pastor Leslie