In recent weeks, due to a broken cabinet in our kitchen cupboards, I needed to rearrange the majority of my baking goods. This meant cleaning out a larger closet in our dining area to accommodate moving my items to a new home. If completing that task wasn’t enough I found myself in “give a mouse a cookie mode” and continued cleaning and purging other cabinets in the kitchen. One such shelving area is where I keep my variety of spices. Included with those spices is my collection of salt varieties. I counted that I have five different salts: Baja, Pink Himalayan, Kosher, Course Sea Salt and Fine Sea Salt. 

Did you know that salt is mined globally? It’s found in underground rock salt beds, evaporated sea water from salt flats and coastal salt pans. The United States has key mining sites from Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Utah.

Salt has been a world commodity for centuries. It was used for preserving foods, adding flavor, and as a means of payment. Ancient people knew the value and significance of salt’s benefits in daily life, therefore it came as no surprise when Jesus referred to God’s people as being the “salt of the earth” in His sermon on the mount. Matthew recorded His words found in Chapter 5, verse 13: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot”.

I don’t know about you, but as a Christ follower I don’t want to run the risk of losing my effectiveness as a Christian witness, to be considered as “no longer good for anything” or something to be thrown out or trampled upon. When cleaning out my pantry items, there was stuff that had lost its quality, or I was no longer interested in keeping it, so in the trash bin it went.  When I look and listen to what’s happening in our world, in our communities, and in some of our churches, I dare say that many Christians and even some of our churches, have lost their saltiness. 

I’ve watched and witnessed good individuals being slowly caught up in what’s now defined as Progressive Christianity. Not sure what this is? Take some time to do an online search to discover how it’s defined. Its tenets sound very good at first glance, but with deeper reading and digging behind pretty words, evidence of swaying from biblical truths to embrace humanistic teachings surface and challenge its validity of being biblically sound. I think this erosion from truth is why we’ve seen an increase in Christian apologetics across social media etc. to counteract lies against the tenets of Christian theology. Individuals such as the late Charlie Kirk and Ravi Zacharias, were eloquent in explaining many topics covered in scripture for our role as sincere Christians. Others whom i enjoy learning from include Alisa Childers, Del Tackett, the teaching staff from “Walking the Text”, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, Hugh Ross, R.C. Sproul.

By no means am I an apologetic, however, I value and trust these strong knowledgeable individuals. Lee Strobel is a former atheist. Hugh Ross is an astrophysicist (he uses BIG words sometimes but is fascinating!) The others all have their rightful individual styles but are amazing at bringing the bible alive for today’s Christ followers, which is vitally important as we live in times where many people are following their own sinful hearts versus seeking to live under the commands and guidance from God’s plan of salvation and Christian living. 

Cleaning a kitchen cabinet is really a very simple task that doesn’t hurt anything or anyone other than tossing out unwanted stuff. Teaching and leading people astray with false teachings based on humanistic doctrines is very serious and will not go unpunished from God when He deems so.  Matthew is also credited with describing falling trap to false prophets. In verse 15 of Chapter 7 we read “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves”.  In 2 Peter 2: 1-3 we read that false prophets come secretly with destructive heresies, deny the Lord, and exploit people with deceptive words.  And this in 2 Timothy 4: 3-4: “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

There are varieties of salt and each has its purpose. There are different approaches to interpreting and teaching God’s Word. You and I have the responsibility to “test” what’s being taught, to “test” the fruit of the teacher, and to discern if we are being infiltrated by a wolf in sheep’s clothing.