Print
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Matthew 5:13
There is nothing like fresh, hot, salty French fries to go with your favorite burger. How about butter and salt on popcorn, or a cold juicy slice of watermelon sprinkled lightly with salt? Salt brings out the flavor of your food, and allows you to enjoy it more.
In New Testament times, people had a bowl on their table in which they kept their salt. The salt was harvested from the Dead Sea and most of the time it was contaminated with other minerals. As it sat in the bowl, being used from time to time, these minerals would settle to the bottom. By the time the bowl was getting empty, the “salt” was mostly these other minerals and was no longer salty. It would then be tossed out on the pathway to be walked upon.
In the same way salt brings out the flavor of food, Christians are to bring out the fullness of God’s love in the world. But if those Christians are not walking the walk, they have lost their saltiness and are nearly useless for God’s purposes.
* * * * * *
Today in Christian History
May 30th
339 – Death of Eusebius, 74, Father of early church history. He attended the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325, and his “Historia Ecclesiastica” contains an abundance of detail on the first three centuries of the Early Church found nowhere else in ancient literature.
1431 – French heroine Joan of Arc, 19, a prisoner of the English, was burned at the stake for heresy. (She was later canonized in 1920 by Benedict XV.)
1819 – Anglican bishop Reginald Heber, 36, penned the words to the missionary hymn, “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains.”
1934 – The two-day Barmen Synod ended in Germany. The resulting Barmen Declaration affirmed that the German Confessing Church recognized Jesus Christ to be the only authoritative voice of God, in clear contrast to all other (i.e., Nazi) powers representing divine revelation.
1968 – Death of Martin Noth, 66, German Old Testament scholar. Noth was the first authority to note that 1&2 Samuel and 1&2 Kings contain virtually no mention of the classic prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos and Hosea.
_____________________
Source for Today In Christian History: www.studylight.org
