jUST THINKING ON THIS THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2011

What about our local Church?

I recently read the quote that had been recorded in a Christian Blog. The quote was that of an individual who was not a Christian or a church-goer. The article of this skeptic got my attention and made me begin to really think.

The skeptic wrote –

“The churches in America are major failures. They own the best properties in the area they are in. Church communities stay empty most days and nights during the week. All they do is sponge off the people in these communities and churches do not help anybody.”

I as the Pastor of a great local church wanted to standup and argue this statement with this skeptical individual. This individual just does not understand the operation or the purpose of the church. Apparently he has just simply never attended church or for that matter never attended the right church.

Not knowing this individual and not understanding his perspective I see no need to argue or exchange my views with him. I feel that it would best for me to ask myself, “Is there any truth to this man’s stated view?”

Jesus came to this world as a man, was born a Jew into a very religious Jewish culture in which people were following the Law and thought they were doing just fine. The people in the day Jesus lived had real hurts, pains, struggles, hang-ups, and so many bad habits. These people were frustrated and began to flock to Jesus because He ministered to their needs. The established Jewish religion of the day just did not have any real power, had no answers for their many needs.

Jesus challenged His disciples to think differently about faith. He preached the Sermon on the Mount for several reasons, but one was to set the record straight and let His disciples understand the need and the purpose of His call. Throughout the discourse, He kept saying things like “You’ve heard it said that —, but I say to you —.”

Right after the beatitudes, Jesus sets the record straight on what disciples should be, what they should look like and what they should be accomplishing. He makes it plain and clear that there is very little point in the pointlessness that characterized the religious system of that day.

Jesus let it be known that it is useless to act like salt but not be salty. It is also foolish for people to pretend to be light and yet not be shining and brighten anything around them. In all of this Jesus describes what we who are in the church should be, even today.

Matthew 5:13-16 NLT
You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world — like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

His own Words are telling us that we must refuse to be irrelevant and useless in this present world. Jesus was saying,
“If you are going to claim to be salt, be salty, if you are going to claim to be light, be bright enough to light the way for other people so they can find their way to Truth and Salvation.”

“If you are going to call yourself the church, make sure you are a useful church, a life-changing church, a church that fulfills God’s purposes for you in a real and relevant way.”

There are some very important lessons for the church of today to learn from Jesus Christ Words about salt and light.
We do know and understand that salt does at least three major and important things.

1st – Salt Preserves

In the south we have country hams. There is nothing to compare to the taste like good ole Country Ham. When we drive through the states such as Arkansas and Tennessee just to mention a couple we can see these country hams hanging from racks in the grocery stores, unrefrigerated, but preserved. People from all over wonder how is it possible to leave pork hanging in the warmth of a store for weeks on end, and they are still eatable? The secret is “SALT”. These folks who cure and process these hams rub enough salt into the meat and it will last for months on end.

The modern day churches should be a preserving agent in the lives of all of the people in their surrounding areas and they should be changing the very cultural that is surrounding the local churches.

Today we as the saints of God can close ourselves off and complain about how bad the world is getting, how prevalent sin is or how hard Satan is at work opposing the work of our churches, or we can we can make up our minds and determine that we are going to be the bright spots in the middle of all the darkness of this modern day. We who have been filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost can and should be preserving our communities from the decay of our culture as we live out God’s purposes in the midst of this day and age.

Salt is very Irritating

If you have ever cut your foot in the sand at the beach and then step into the salty seawater, your foot begins to sting! Salt is so irritating, but while it is stinging with the pain of irritation it is doing so in a healing way, not just in a hurtful and painful way.
The churches in America today (especially some of us who are holiness people) have been quite guilty of irritating the world in a way that turns people away from Jesus Christ and not pointing them to our wonderful Savior. But this is not the purpose that Jesus had for us as His called out people, the Church. We are called to irritate the world in a healing way a way of preserving them.

It is irritation that causes an oyster to turn a grain of sand into a valuable beautiful pearl. Saints of God sometimes it is our persistent irritation, our resilience and unwillingness to give up on our community, our families and our friends that brings them healing and also brings their preservation.

A salty church says, “We are not going away. We are going to keep loving and serving our communities no matter how resistant people are because we love all people and we want to see change happen in our communities, towns and cities.”

Salt Flavors

I watched my parents use salt to flavor so much of the food they prepared while I was a child. I am originally from Louisiana and I love good ole Louisiana Cajun cooking, where salt is the base of most of the seasonings that we use. My wife tells me that I am a salt-a-holic. I salt salads, vegetables, meats, fish and so many other foods. Why do I use salt? I use salt because salt adds flavor, seasoning to my otherwise bland food. We as the local church should flavor the lives of people in the communities all around us. The preaching of the Word of God may offend some individuals who attend our local church, but heaven forbid that we the saints of God offend these people who are attending our churches with our personality or with our brash, harsh approach. We who are involved in the local churches should never be guilty of pushing people away from the hearing the preaching of the Word of God or from being involved with our worship services.

Jesus also calls we who are His disciple’s, light. Notice, Jesus identifies us with His identity. He is “the light of the world” and we are to be like Him. But, He labels us both salt and light in His Word. Jesus goal in this setting is not to get us to doubt what we are, but rather for us to realize what we really are with a challenge to live this calling before all men in our daily living.

I know we have all had to light a candle in a totally darkened room? We have seen for our self a little bit of light goes a very long way it literally burst forth through darkness. I have taken tours of caves in Arkansas and in New Mexico. When the tour guides turn all the lights out for a momentary viewing, it seemed like the darkest place on earth, but when they turned on a single tiny key ring flash light, that tiny light fills the room. So ought we to fill the earth with the light of the Lord.

People all around us in our families, communities, towns and cities are trapped in sin and its devastating consequences. Shame and guilt keep people bound, chained and enshrouded in darkness, but our light can break through their darkness and expose all of Satan’s deceptions and set people free to live in the light of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Can you imagine landing a plane on a runway at night with no runway lights, or imagine cruising through the busiest intersection in our towns when all the traffic lights are out. Light guides us I every facet of our life.

It is great to know and understand who we are as saints of God and members of the local church. We have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light of truth, to be like Him. When we really understand who we are and identity ourselves with His light and reflect His light to a lost and dying world the way Jesus wants us to reflect His light into the dark world. There are three BIG words that we who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ need to keep at the forefront of our minds as salt and light: SPEAK. LIVE. ACT.

As salt and light, we who are members of the local church need to speak the gospel, live the gospel, and act as the gospel teaches us to act. Jesus Christ has already paid the debt to redeem men and women of this world from their sins. We who are members of the local church have the timeless mission to reach back into the world to evangelize and bring people into the light of this marvelous Savior and bring them to the knowledge of truth.

Even we who are members of the local church deserve hell for the sins of our life, but Jesus Christ forgave us when we realized we were sinners and repented of our sinful ways. Jesus Christ paid our sin debt by giving His life through death on the cross of Calvary. Then after His resurrection He called the church and commanded us to go into the world and preach the gospel to every individual. That call from Jesus Christ is still for the local churches today to join Him in this great work of reconciling a lost and hopeless world back to Himself. There is no greater privilege for the local church and its members than living out our purpose as His salt and light.

What good is our church, anyway? Are we really satisfied with merely meeting on Sunday and “having worship?” then gathering on Wednesday night for our traditional teaching time, I hope not…I hope we want our church to fulfill the perfect will of God reaching the lost at any cost.