07/12/21 Parables of Jesus #1 — Salt of the Earth (Mat.5:13)

Matthew 5:13 (ESV) “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

Salt is both a preservative and a flavor enhancer. Pure salt cannot lose its flavor or effectiveness, but the salt that is common in the Dead Sea area is contaminated with gypsum and other minerals and may have a flat taste or be ineffective as a preservative. Such mineral salts were useful for little more than keeping footpaths free of vegetation. [The MacArthur Study Bible]

Like salt, Jesus expects us, His disciples to be pure, both in our beliefs and our behavior. When we are faithful, our words and our actions are more effective in demonstrating the power of the Gospel to a lost and dying world… not to mention our crumbling culture.

07/09/21 MY TESTIMONY #4: FRIDAY MORNING! — Almost immediately after breakfast I got into a tussle with one of my younger brothers. Mom sent me to my room. About 50 minutes later I glanced at the clock. I prayed, “Hey, God! I haven’t sinned in almost 1 whole hour!”

Then it occurred to me that if either of my little brothers dared to enter my room I would attack them again. I asked God to remind me of all the Bible verses I had memorized over the years. All of a sudden, they began to make sense to me—they actually applied to ME!

I realized that I was a hopeless sinner. There was NO WAY FOR ME TO BE GOOD ENOUGH to satisfy God’s high standards. I cried out to Him, “I know I’m a hell-bound sinner and there’s nothing I can do about it. But, God, somehow You allowed the death of Your Son Jesus to pay for my sins if I would just surrender my life to Him. He’s my Only Hope! Please take away my guilt and make me a brand-new person; save me right now!”

Instantly it felt as if there had been a dump-truck load of guilt on my chest, but Someone had removed it. I shouted, “Thank You, Lord!” and ran to tell my Mom. She seemed to believe me and cried tears of joy.

That very next Sunday, at the end of his sermon, my pastor challenged us. He said he was certain there were folks there who needed to do business with God. He urged us not to wait even for the first chorus of the invitation hymn, but to RUN down to the front on the very first note and grab his hand. So I took him at his word and nearly knocked him down! As I blabbered away trying to explain what had happened to me, he told the rest of the people that he was pretty sure I had been saved! And he was right! Praise the Lord!

07/05/21 MY TESTIMONY #3: Trying Hard to Eliminate Sin — After a fitful Sunday night of almost no sleep, I asked my mom for one of her little “Blue Horse” spiral-bound notebooks. I told her my plan was to write down the day, time an a description of every sin I committed. I figured that by later on that week, the entries would be fewer and fewer and less and less serious until Thursday or Friday, when I would have successfully eliminated sin from my life entirely.

Fast forward…  By Wednesday afternoon I was thoroughly defeated—the notebook was FULL! And I still had more sins to write down, but there was no more room in it. STAY TUNED…

07/02/21 MY TESTIMONY #2: “Amazing Grace” Verse 6 (I think) — “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, Than when we first began.”

That week, on Sunday through Thursday nights, as I lay awake, trying desperately NOT to fall asleep, the words of that verse haunted me. I was precocious in math at an early age. Back then our average lifetime was said to be 70-72 years. I figured that 10,000 divided by 70 was about 140. So 10,000 years is about 140 lifetimes, an unimaginably long time to me! The lyrics said to me that after I died I would be spending an EXTREMELY LONG time SOMEWHERE. Plus, even if I didn’t like it, I was NOT done—I could NOT leave; I had NOT used up ANY of the days of my “sentence.” And I knew the Bible said there were only two possibilities: I would either be in HEAVEN, an indescribably wonderful place, or HELL, an indescribably awful place.

I was frantic to find out if there was some way I could be sure I would spend those years in HEAVEN. I figured that my many SINS were what would be keeping me out of heaven and imprisoned in hell. In my youthful immaturity I determined to eliminate ALL sins from my life! STAY TUNED…