SALT AND LIGHT

SOUTH PUGET SOUND CHAPTER WOV DEVOTIONAL 7/20/09

WV Vision Statement
Our vision for every child, life in all its fullness. . .our prayer, for every heart, the will to make it so.
Statement of Faith
• We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
• We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
• We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful man, regeneration of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
• We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
• We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
• We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

SALT AND LIGHT
“You are the salt of the Earth.” Matthew 5:13a

At the Women of Vision Leadership Conference in Virginia in March of this year each of us was given a piece of salt crystal as a reminder that we are to be salt on the Earth. I placed mine on my bathroom sink behind the fixture to daily remind myself that I was to be salt each day. Over the months since then, it has served its purpose well. Some days when I didn’t fell like being salt, I reminded myself that none the less, that was what I was to be and they my feelings were irrelevant.

One morning this summer I noticed that the large crystal had of its own begun to break down into smaller pieces much the size of table salt. I saw an amazing analogy between us as Christians and that piece of salt: We too need to be broken into smaller pieces before we can be sprinkled. No one takes large crystals and places them on top of food. In order for salt to be useful for flavoring, it must be broken into smaller parts either through a salt grinder or through refinement in a salt factory. Isn’t it the same with our lives? In order for us to be useful, we need to be broken, to suffer, to be refined. Only then can we be salt, poured out for others; sprinkled throughout our community making a difference in the flavor of that community.

Another thing that I noticed was that the large chunk that I placed on my sink gradually broke down over time as if it was a wearing away process. That is the wonder of being changed from one degree of glory to the next as Christians; God in His infinite wisdom breaks us down over time and in a very personalized process allows us to become useful for the advancement of His Kingdom. It isn’t in our timing or through our own efforts but rather in His timing and through His process with His gentle, kind and patient hand upon us lovingly changing us. When we accept Christ, we are made whole and complete in Him. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we begin to become salt. The fruit of His spirit empowers us to salt the earth with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Gal. 5:22) if we allow Him to do this.

My friend, Lily, reminded me that the “salt” verse comes after the Beatitudes in Matthew. She suggested that the Beatitudes tell us how to be salt. Blessed are the poor in spirit—those who don’t think that they are spiritually self sufficient. Blessed are those who mourn—those whose heart breaks for the things that break the heart of God. Blessed are the meek—those who are humble and submissive to God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness—those who desire to have right standing with God and whose soul hungers and thirst for Him. Blessed are the merciful—those who have compassion and pity for those who suffer. Blessed are the pure in heart—those who have been delivered from sin’s power by God’s grace who seek righteous living. Blessed are the peacemakers—those who are reconciled to God and have peace with Him and others. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness—those who stand for righteousness who are unpopular and misunderstood. May we find ourselves among “those” who are blessed by being salt in these ways.

On the challenging days when pepper seems to be more of what we are sprinkling around our community, let’s remember the salt crystal. Take heart as we remember that we are all being refined and broken so that we can be changed from one degree of glory to the next by a loving God who is making us fit for His salt shaker. Let us be poured out as blessed ones who live the Beatitudes flavoring our community, our Nation and our globe through Women of Vision. Being salt is a great challenge, but we have a great God who delights in us, equips us and patiently refines us to become salt as He has commanded.