Your Father Nature
- freshst8
- May 26, 2024
- 10 min read
Matthew 5
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
New American Standard Bible: 1995
This passage about salt is referring to who you are, who you are pre-destined to be. And you have a purpose. We can't miss out on that. In order to dive a little deeper into this meaning of "salt" and "saltiness", I think you have to learn a little bit about salt.
It's found in salt mines, and the other way they get salt is from the ocean, which the water is filled with. I used to as a kid go in the ocean and the sea water would get in my mouth and I would say "yuck", and spit it out. I couldn't stand the taste of it. It threw me off. What was that, it was salt! There's no denying it. We don't swallow that water, our every instinct is to spit it out, right? Not to consume it. Even if we were really thirsty, we don't drink that water because there is salt in it.
So... the salt is salty in that instance, and it stands alone. It isn't disturbed. We respect the salt water in a way, don't we? Well maybe... it's because of the salt. Think about it, if there was no salt in the ocean, I'm sure mankind would have ruined it already. It would become infected, and completely polluted, and water companies would have drained it all. But, God designed it in such a way that we cannot touch the ocean for our purposes. When we go to it, it is something we navigate and have to be careful in. It's the salt that really makes it that way! How powerful is that?
I'll start off saying that God made you who you are in his image, in his design. He has given you inherent qualities that make you... you. Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth, and if the salt loses its saltiness, then it will be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. So, it's a natural quality, and it has a purpose. This purpose is for the world. But, if you lose your purpose, you lose your inherent value. We don't want that.
Now, I had to look it up because I didn't know beforehand...
But, I had to search what makes salt, "salty". One of the main things is the structural density of it. If too much water gets into the salt, somehow it expands it and salt therefore loses its "saltiness".
What makes salt what it is... is a density. Now catch this.....
Essentially if salt is "watered down".....
Oh Lord help us.
If we are consumed by that which is around us.....
If we allow the things around us to change us.....
If we become bloated by the outside element and allow ourselves to become stretched too thin.....
We start to change. We start to change into something that is not our true self.
If we change, we will become just like everyone else, and now stand in line. Now you're in their world. They've been doing it longer in that world- they are bigger and "badder", and uglier... and they're just going to trample on you.
Then what have you become? You become like dirt. The value is lost.
Nobody wants that..... it's important that you keep that compression.
It's important that you keep that density- that uncompromised nature that the Holy Ghost gave you when you first started.
If you feel like things are closing in on you- if you feel like you're being crammed into a straight-jacket, if you feel like a prisoner... well maybe... maybe... God is keeping you intact!
God is keeping you intact, in a world that is designed to pull you apart.
God is saving you!!! Hallelujah!
He is keeping you in His integrity.
Now we're moving on to verse 14 and 15...
14"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house"
The nature we are given from God is a nature that in unavoidable. It's not something that can be concealed. It cannot go undetected. You can't hide it! Even if you try.
You know... I am a bit of an animal lover. I think some people look at them differently, but when i look at them, I just see the beauty of God's creation. I think I'm an aesthetically oriented person. Visually oriented. I think my brain is wired that way. When someone's talking to me and they've got like a thing on their face, I'm not even hearing what they're saying. I'm just nodding, uh huh, uh huh. All my brain can process first is what I'm looking at. I've gotten better over the years though too. My hearing ears have gotten better. You've got to get your ears hooked up to that brain... Amen! It's not all about looks... but I digress...
So anyways... animals come in all different shapes and sizes and all different types of patterns for their skin or fur. One thing I have come to find fascinating is the snakes as well as spiders. Many types of poisonous snakes and spiders will have a distinct marking on their body. The Black Widow has a menacing glossy black body with a red hourglass on its underbelly. It looks like a nuclear radiation sign or something. Then there are snakes like the Black Mamba... all black- Jet black. Very sinister looking. When they see that thing... I think the message is clear to the other animals. You don't want to deal with that thing. And then there are ones with all types of colored stripes that you wouldn't want biting you and the animals are I'm sure afraid of. If that's not enough for you, there is even the rattlesnake, and it's got an audible shaker on it's tail to let you know... "Hey!!! I'm a rattlesnake... back up buddy!!!" So, we're talking about inherent nature here.
God made them that way. It's unavoidable.
They don't try to hide it- they can't hide it. It's what they do. It's what they are.
Jesus is saying that we have a certain nature given to us. We are the light in this world, and here's an interesting fact: They didn't have electricity back then. There was lightening, but it wasn't harnessed back then. Nobody figured out how to harness electricity. So, the main and only way people had light was through fire. Through the flame.
We need to remain lit, our wick must be holding the flame. We must emit the light, and we do that by being us. By being the person God made you to be when you are reborn, and even before you were reborn.
If you come to Christianity, it was destined for you. You were always gravitating toward that direction.
That's because you are the light.
There is something in you! I'll say it again there's something in you. There's always been something in you! There will always be something with you. God chose you because you're still intact. You are still compressed. You are still retaining a level of purity. You are not broken apart and disbanded within yourself to where you have altered, where you have changed. No. The Salt is the same. The flame can only be a flame.
It is or it isn't. It's yes or no, and we are and we are the yes.
Say YES!...
Don't buy that lie from the enemy that it's over!
Don't listen to that voice of defeat that says you're nobody and you don't have what it takes, you do. It's all been given to you from God. It's part of your nature.
It's the outside forces that are trying to pull you apart, that are trying to dismember you, trying to discombobulate you. That are making you wacked out and hurting your walk. It's time to recollect yourself before God. It's time to take an inventory. It's time to let your light shine.
When God is on you, you'll just walk into a place and the heads will turn. You are a light shining in the darkness. You are the light that cannot be hidden. They need you!
I'm telling you they need you!
So here they need you, and the devil and the world is trying to pull you apart telling you, you can't do it. No, I counter it. You CAN do it, you just have to be you.
No, I'm not talking about the sinful you and whatever you want to do. I'm reading the text today, and he's saying beneath that, beneath everything there's a you! Oh Jesus... there's a real you! A real you that can affect the world. A real you that the Father destined you to be. There's a you that can't be decayed and destroyed by sin that you were given in the rebirth. There's a you that's the real you! Oh Glory to God! He's got you. He's got you. He's got you!!!
He's not going to let you go. Because you are the light! I've come to tell you, you are the light because that's who God created, he created a people who are the light!!!
You will shine! You have to, because that's who you are.
Well....
Some might say, "well Scott, I'm sure that's the case for some"... "but you didn't know the old me". That's true, but I don't need to know the old you. If I know you now... "the new you"- then that tells me there was always something right with you. I think Jesus knows how to deal with sin, but more than that he is able to take things from a primitive state, but if it's the real substance, He can use it! And that's what He's doing with you.
Romans 8:29,30
29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
New American Standard Bible: 1995
So here in Romans it talks about that God knew you. Think back to when you were a kid even before you started doing your first sinning, probably in your teen years- that's usually where it starts. Do you ever remember God being with you when you were sick and you were alone and scared? Maybe you felt such strong dread and fear and hopelessness. He was there. His angels were there likely. He has always cared about you.
When Christ was on the cross, you were on his mind. He knew that you needed saving. It wasn't all your fault in the sense of man's fallen nature. We were all slaves to sin, and Christ is the one who brought us out of that slavery. Out of that path that leads to death. You had something worth saving. You!
And now...
We are learning to conform more and more to the image of Christ it says.
It says it was "pre-destined" for us. That means it was determined a long time ago. He makes a way for us.
It means that the way that your life went up until now was all part of his plan to lead you to where you are now. That's how it works. That's what's happening.
If you are thinking, I'm not sure what's going on? I'm not sure how I'm going to make it? I'm not sure if I have what it takes...
It says that He is leading us more and more through the process of conformity into the image of Christ. He's helping you retain that saltiness as I've been saying. That intact molecular structure so to speak. He's making your light stronger. He's stoking that flame that is your life.
He's making a way for us now!
There's no way to avoid your destiny if you keep walking with God. He will make a way. It says He is the "way maker" in Isaiah 43:16!
One more verse in Romans 8
Verse 31
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update
I'm starting to see something here...
Are you seeing it?
If we just stay intact, and remain patient in the process, God will help us finish this journey. If we don't lose ourselves in the process. If we don't go off into other things that detract us from the gospel- from the truth.
There is God's agenda, and then there is the world's agenda.
The world says, "I'll believe it when I see it"
The redeemed of God says, "I'll believe it, and then I'll see it."
The world says, "Only the best and the most talented will succeed. You have to be the smartest, you have to have all the looks, you have to be the most popular, you have to be fierce and you have to be an "Alpha dog". You have to have the most money, you have to be famous, you have to have the most degrees, you have to have a respectable home and car, you have to have the best clothes, you have to let them know you are an experienced world traveler"... then and only then are you worth something to the world.
You see, these voices are trying to pull you away from the one strange fact that nothing we can do can change what God has appointed for us since we were born. We were born with a purpose, and that purpose was to take the path of conformity to Christ. Don't confuse me now... people can stumbled and fall away from this faith, but that's a path they take and that's not what we're saying right now. We're talking about this ability to stay "put". This ability to stay in His nature that He gives us from the start.
Christ was a purist.
Jesus was THE salt of the earth.
Jesus was the most down to earth person there ever was.
In Hebrews 12:2 it says
Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
It says he "endured" the cross. I looked up that word in the Greek translation, and it is "hupŏmĕnō"... it means "to remain"... "to stay put". To not be moved. To go through the situation you're going through. So if we're being conformed to His image, we are going to learn something about enduring. We will become more and more concentrated in our God-given nature. Amen!
I hope today that you will be renewed by the Holy Spirit and that your mind is renewed in the knowledge that God has created you with a certain substance and that you are able to retain that substance that He gave you in the beginning. You can walk out your faith with Him, and that all starts in submitting yourself to Him, and not to the world, which so desperately seeks to pull us apart. Let's make a concentrated effort and focus upon Him, that we won't be so easily moved by the things around us that try to shake our faith. We will remain. We will endure- for He endured for us.
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