After beginning a class today by reading from Luke 14, one of my astute students asked, “How can salt lose its saltiness?” That’s a good question in the twenty first century when the salt we think of comes in a Morton’s Box. That stuff could sit forever and never change its molecular structure. Salt is salt. We are so spoiled. The salt Jesus grew up with in Nazareth most likely came from the Dead Sea area and was probably a poor quality of rock salt. It didn’t take much moisture to wash away the real salt and leave behind a bag of useless tiny stones. Dilution was not uncommon.
And so we come to Jesus’ real point. Should we allow work, relationships, responsibilities, life itself to dilute our experience with Jesus, we lose the abundant life. No, we don’t completely lose it. We only lose it in proportion to the loss of our walk with Jesus. I realize there are some who believe you are either in or you’re out. Either you are walking with Jesus or you are walking with the devil. I don’t think so. I have come to believe God loves us so much that He is willing to stick with us through the good and bad times. If we want to walk afar from Him He follows along. He is very persistent and just plainly doesn’t give up on us. He isn’t a “my way or the highway” kind of Father. He is so much better than that.
I realize this could encourage someone to say, “Hum? I think I will walk a 70% walk with God. I can get some of the blessings and get by without all of them.” I guess someone could think that. But frankly, that doesn’t make much sense.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 12, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org