Foreign Substances

Today, I started reading the book “The Bait of Satan” for the second time. It brought back to remembrance the scripture in Revelation 3:18 where God instructs us to break free from deception by “Buying from him, gold refined by fire”.

Here we need to understand that gold that is refined by fire is very soft and very pliable. The reason it’s soft and pliable is because there isn’t any corrosive materials or any other foreign substances that were never meant to be mixed with gold. However, when corrosive materials and foreign substances get mixed inside the gold, it becomes hard. Immovable. Impossible to mold into anything other that what it already is....

Can we see what God is trying to communicate to us? There is a parallel here between our hearts and gold. Our hearts are intended to be soft & pliable. Something that God can to mold into what He needs. But as we get further away from the word, foreign substances begin to taint our gold.

We also see this metaphor with salt...

Matt 5:13 "Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. The Message

We are here on this earth to be salt, a taste of God, to a godless world. We are meant to be a GOOD taste, not bitter. We are meant to leave a desirable after taste in the mouth of believers and unbelievers alike, not the taste of sour milk.... Colossians 4:5-6 tells us

Be wise in the way you live around those who are not Christians. Make good use of your time. Speak with them in such a way they will want to listen to you.

We must be a good experience for everyone who comes in contact with us at all times. But we see in Matthew 5:13 that when salt loses its flavor, it’s good for nothing but to be thrown on the roadside to be trampled by men. Flavorless salt was used to keep weeds from sprouting. They would throw it by the roadside and literally use it like “Round Up”. There is a point, when we have lost our flavor, that the only thing we are useful for, is for killing!!! Just like gold mixed with impurities, we become hard.. We become unusable. Like salt that’s lost it’s flavor, we become only useful for hurting others. Offending people. Killing relationships.

One day, a few years back, I was watching one of my geek channels, (which completely annoys my wife) the Discovery channel, probably because there was nothing on the Travel channel. There was an interesting episode about salt mining. They we showing how salt when it is mined in the earth is right next rock and water. While it is next to rock, the water is able to keep the salt pure. However, if the salt is moved away from the rock, the earthly elements break down the salt and cause it to lose its flavor and ultimately becomes unusable.

WOW!!!!! What a parallel!!! If we stay right next to the rock, we can always keep purified by the living water. But as soon as we begin to pull away from the rock, the earthly elements WILL begin to consume us. They WILL begin to remove our flavor and ultimately, eliminate our influence and usefulness in our communities.

The greek word for “Unsavory Salt” according to Matthew 5:13 is moraino, which is translated “To become foolish”. This word is found only 4 times in scripture, Matthew 5:13, Luke 14:34, John 8, and Romans 1:21. Let’s look at Romans,

Romans 1:21-23. Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools.

Bottom line.... As we allow the earthly elements to overtake our lives, and allow the foreign substances that were never intended to be in our lives to take over our lives, we begin to become hard in heart and completely unsavory to those around us. We literally lose our influence in our community and become like fools!!!

This is such a dangerous state for “Christians” to be in because of our positions in the church body. When I say “Positions in the church”, I am not speaking about pastoral positions or staff positions in a church, but rather, positions as believers of the living God. As believes of the living God, we are put here to be the only taste of God to a godless community. We have also been placed to edify the body of Christ. But if we have allowed the earthly elements to take over, we are in jeopardy of not only leaving a bad taste in the mouth of the community of unbelievers, but also of hurting the body of Christ.

Hurt or offended people who have allowed themselves to be distanced from the rock and have become tainted with the earthly elements, are much like trapped animals. Trapped animals, are dangerous. They are in jeopardy of hurting not only themselves, but others...

The Good News!!!!

Thankfully, we serve an amazing and gracious God. We have sung the song “Amazing Grace” for so long but have some how lost the meaning of the words.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.

I am so thankful that God has this kind of grace for me. A grace that forgives me when I don’t deserve to be forgiven. A grace that sees past my imperfections and gives my life new meaning.

At any moment throughout our lives, if we get disconnected from the rock and lose our way, we can call on Jesus. He will reach down and lift us right back to the top of the water just like Peter. Keep your eyes on him, and the size of the storm that is raging around you, will never matter.