Weekly Seed of Faith 3/18/23

Seed of Faith – Salt and Light   By Pastor Dave  

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:13-16

 

Dear Faithful Seed-Sowers,

It is my prayer that you are staying healthy and are walking with Jesus as you season your world.

This a two-part message. This week will talk about being a little salty. Next week, we will see how light can shine.

In the days of Jesus, and for many centuries thereafter, salt was the most common preservative used. There were no refrigerators, no deep freezers in ancient times. Salt was used to keep things from going bad and becoming rotten, particularly meat. When Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot” Jesus was telling His disciples that they were called to be the preserving agent in a decaying world.

This simple principle from Jesus is that you and I are called to be a preserving force in our world–wherever we are called to live, work, play and worship.

Think of it this way — salt that never leaves the box on the shelf will do no good in preserving anything. To be effective, salt has to be rubbed into the meat. Have you gone into the grocery store and looked at all of the “rubs” they have for seasoning your steak? In this same way, we must allow God to use us as flavorful seasoning (rub) for our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, families, and churches. A small amount of love and kindness goes a long way in making our world a better place.

Sodium is an extremely active element found naturally only in combined form; it always links itself to another element. Chlorine, on the other hand, is the poisonous gas that gives bleach its offensive odor. When sodium and chlorine are combined, the result is sodium chloride–common table salt–the substance we use to preserve meat and bring out its flavor.

Love and truth can be like sodium and chlorine. Love without truth is flighty, sometimes blind, willing to combine with various, contrary doctrines. On the other hand, truth by itself can be offensive, sometimes even poisonous. Spoken without love, truth can turn people away from the gospel. But when truth and love are combined in an individual or in a church then we have what Jesus called “the salt of the earth,” and we are able to preserve and bring out the beauty of our faith.

The other day I went to the grocery store to do some shopping. I went to buy juice for home communions, I came across an insight on flavoring. I was holding a bottle of Blueberry Pomegranate Juice. There was a picture of a ripe pomegranate spilling its exotic, glistening seeds onto mounds of fat, perfect blueberries. I read the ingredient list: “Filtered water, pear juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate.” Where was the blueberry? Where was the pomegranate? Finally, I found them, fifth and seventh in a list of nine ingredients.

By law, food ingredients are listed in descending order of weight. Meaning a product contains the greatest proportion of the first ingredient on the list and successively less of those farther down the list. According to the jug in my hand, it contained mostly water—a few other juices, with just enough blueberry and pomegranate for flavor and color.

In the bottom corner of the front label in small, easy-to-miss, were the tell-tale words: “Flavored juice blend with other natural ingredients.” The enticing pictures and clever labeling were decoys used to sell a diluted, blueberry-pomegranate flavored product convincingly disguised to look like something it was not. I put the juice back on the shelf. I chose the juice that was more costly—but it had more of what I was looking for.

So What?

That jug of juice made me think, what if we had an ingredients list printed on us?

Would Jesus be the main ingredient?

If not, how far down the list would He be?

Would our “label” accurately represent our contents?

Or would we falsely project a misleading outward-appearance that cleverly masked our diluted ingredients? Our packaging may be convincing. We may look and sound like the real thing but what if someone came looking for Jesus and found something else?

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertaker.” (Today In The Word, June, 1988, p. 13).

More than a hundred years ago the atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche reproached a group of Christians. Nietzsche said: “Yuck, you make me sick!” When their spokesman asked why, he answered, “because you redeemed don’t look like you are redeemed. You are as fearful, guilt-ridden, anxious confused, and adrift in an alien environment as I am. I am allowed. I do not believe. I have nothing to hope for. But you people claim you have a Savior. Why don’t you look like you are saved?” (Brennan Manning, Souvenirs of Solitude, 2009, Colorado Springs, NavPress)

Every Sunday my loving wife prays for me before church. Every Sunday she concludes with the same prayer, “Lord, help Dave to be funny. Let him reflect the peace and joy he has in knowing you. Amen.” Knowing Jesus really is the best part of my life. And Jesus wants us to be SALT to our world. He wants us to RUB off on others. It only takes a small amount of salt to flavor whatever we are using it on; the same way with us—it only takes a small amount of the love of Jesus to rub off on those in our tiny sector of the world. That’s our job: to be the SALT of the earth.

I leave you with your “SO WHAT?” homework:

  • Am I the SALT of the Savior? Divide my life into who I am, what I’m doing, and where I’m going—and let’s spread the love of God everywhere we are.
  • What if I had an ingredients list printed on me? Would Jesus be the main ingredient? What do I need to do in order to be more like Christ?

My prayer for you today: Be funny! (Just kidding.) Seriously, let’s take some time to sit with this SEED OF FAITH. Let’s look at our lives. If I’m the SALT of the EARTH, am I RUBBING off on those I live with? work with? worship with? Everywhere I go, am I seasoning others with God’s tremendous love? “Dear Father, I want others to know you and to experience your grace and love and forgiveness. Help me to fill my heart, mind, soul, spirit, body and strength with your living words of life so that I can be a living, walking, talking gospel of Jesus Christ. I don’t want Jesus to be the last ingredient on my label; I want Jesus listed first. Help me to be more like Jesus. Amen.” 

See you Sunday! 

God loves you and so do I,

Pastor Dave

www,theseedchristianfellowship.com

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Seed of Faith 2/25/2023

Seed of Faith – Leaving and Following   By Pastor Dave  

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.” Matthew 4:17-20

Dear Faithful Seed Sowers and followers of Jesus,
The Lenten season is upon us. We have 7 Sundays of feasting along with 40 days of fasting ahead of us. Jesus was tempted in the desert for 40 days after just being baptized and being declared that he was God’s beloved son. We just had a message on how to respond to trials, temptations and tests. Ask yourself if you are HUNGRY, ANGRY, LONELY or TIRED (HALT). Your reply to the enemy is to be the same as Jesus’: IT IS WRITTEN.

During this season of Lent, write down a few of your favorite verses and have them ready. I like John 10:10, “The enemy has come to steal, kill and destroy. I have come to bring life abundantly.” Philippians has 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Strap in and let’s get through this Lenten season, friend and followers.

I took my wife to see “The Jesus Revolution” last night. What a great, inspiring movie! Don’t wait for it to come out on DVD. GO SEE THIS MOVIE! What really touched my heart is that when the pastor started reading from the Bible, everyone raised up their bible and said, “THIS IS THE WORD OF GOD!” and pointed with their pointer finger to heaven as they said, “Amen.” Good stuff. Just a really good movie.

Right now, I encourage you to go pick up your Bible and read Matthew 4:12-25. Jesus begins His ministry after being baptized and tested in the wilderness. This bible really is the WORD of God! Amen?

Let’s start out this message with a “so what” question: how did Jesus call you?

Can you remember? I challenge you to sit down, talk it out, write it out…and send me a copy of how Jesus found you and called you to FOLLOW HIM. It can be in one moment of time, or it can be a lifetime of moments of following—just get it written down. Someone in your family is going to need to know how you know that you know!

Follow Me! Powerful words! In all, the words “follow me” occur thirteen times in the Gospels.
John’s call to repentance was a call to turn away from something!
Jesus’ call to repentance was a call to turn toward someone!
Where is Jesus calling you to turn today?

Lord Kenneth Clark, internationally known for his television series Civilization, lived and died without faith in Jesus Christ. He admitted in his autobiography that while visiting a beautiful church he had what he believed to be an overwhelming religious experience. He wrote, “My whole being was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy far more intense than anything I had known before.” But the “flood of grace” as he described it, created a problem. If he allowed himself to be influenced by it, he knew he would have to change, his family might think he had lost his mind, and maybe that intense joy would prove to be an illusion. So, he concluded, “I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course.”[i]

A question that comes to me is why would anyone trade away the joy of this world for a heavenly joy? One is fleeting, the other is forever.
Another question after reading our gospel for today: Why would anyone respond as Peter and Andrew did?
The answer is in the link between Isaiah’s words in chapter 9 and these fishermen’s locale. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:2
Because they’re fishing the “Sea of Galilee” (v. 18), they’re among those whose “darkness” has been broken by the “great light” — the dawn of Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus is Fishing — He is fishing, surprisingly, not for the religious or political elite (e.g., Nicodemus, Caiaphas, Herod) but rather Jesus went fishing for the average Joes of this world—Peter, James, and John.

Jesus welcomes Galilean fishermen, Samaritan women, and Roman soldiers, and his church welcomes Irishmen and Indonesians, Indians and Americans, Russians, Chinese, Taiwanese and so many others. Tell me another religion in the first century that did that. Tell me another religion in the world today that does that. It’s part of our history. It’s part of our theology. It’s part of our gospel!

So What?

Following Jesus is not only a door to be entered but a path to be followed, and the true disciple proves the reality of his discipleship by following that path to the end. David wrote about it in Psalm 119. The section of the psalm that begins, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (v. 105), ends with the words, “My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end” (v. 112).

That is it!
A true disciple is one who follows Christ to the very end.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105
I have suffered much; preserve my life, O Lord, according to your word. Psalm 119:107

I wrote in my Bible these words, “I have suffered much. What a powerful statement. I personally have gone through rashes all over my body for 4-5 years. Lead poisoning … three rounds of chelation. (Now on my fourth round.) The last round was extremely hard. Churches have fought and people lied and hurt me. My finances are depleted. Yet will I praise you.”

Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart. My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end. Psalm 119:111-112
If I do not focus on the joy of the Lord … I could lose heart all earthly joy and heavenly hope.
How about you? Where is Jesus calling you to leave behind something and follow HIM?

Are you a Sunday disciple? Attending church on Sunday but not following Jesus Monday through Saturday? Or are you in it to win it? Is your heart set on following Jesus to the very end?

Are you watching THE CHOSEN? They now have 3 complete seasons of 8 episodes each (24 episodes). If you haven’t watched it, DO! Go see THE JESUS REVOLUTION and ask yourself, “Where am I in this movie?” Powerful question. Are you sitting in the pew being the judge and jury of everything? (Bad song, pastor’s tie doesn’t match his shirt, I could give a better, more organized message.) Or are you the person who crosses over the aisle to sit with the new person? Are you the person who stays to clean up the sanctuary? Maybe you’re the person who serves snacks and coffee after church?

FOLLOW ME….and then…I WILL MAKE YOU FISH FOR MEN AND WOMEN…AND YOUTH…AND CHILDREN…AND HIPPIES…and OLD PEOPLE…and every single person who needs to hear the LIVING WORDS OF LIFE!

This week, I’m praying for us all to follow Jesus all the way home, all the way to very end of life.

WHERE ARE YOU IN THIS JESUS STORY?

I pray we are all following HIM. Amen.

See you Sunday!
God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

 

Copyright © 2018 THE SEED CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, All rights reserved. May you be blessed by God’s grace and love. You are receiving this email because you signed up for our weekly devotionals.   Our mailing address is: 6450 Emerald Street Alta Loma, California 91701   Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.