23 January 2016

Scriptures:

• Psalm 22
• Genesis 21:22-34
• 1 Chronicles 26
• Luke 14

Observations:

In the psalm, David is pleading with God to be heard and to be delivered. He is recounting his situation and how he feels everything is against him. Also, note that he is recounting the faithfulness of God to his people and to him in the past.

In Genesis, we see Abraham's treaty with Abimelech (I swear I keep overlapping passages by accident). Abimelech comes to Abraham where he is currently residing and entreats with him for fair dealings, testifying to Abraham's faith in God. Abraham responded with a counter-issue, that some of Abimelech's servants had robbed him of his well. So, the two made right by each other and sealed their treaty with seven of Abraham's ewes, freely offered.

In 1 Chronicles, we see the division of the gatekeepers, with their assignments by lot to the north or south entrances/walls. We also see the division of the treasurers and overseers/judges.

In Luke, again, we see Jesus confronting the pharisees about working on the Sabbath. This time, a man with an illness has walked in and, before healing the man, Jesus asks the pharisees and teachers whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath, healing the man in the face of their mute answers, then asking them whether they would even engage in work in the face of an emergency. 

Next, Jesus teaches on humility, advising his followers not to take for themselves the positions of greatest honour, but to take the positions of least honour, for it is better to be asked to move to a seat of higher honour than one of lower honour. 

Following this, Jesus gives advice on inviting others to a banquet, that is, to not invite those from whom you can expect a return invitation, but to invite those unable to repay you. From this statement, Jesus gives the parable of the great banquet, in which every one of a man's invited guests declined last minute with excuses. In response, the man sent his servant to invite the beggars, crippled, and all others whom he could find so that his house would be filled, for none of those who had scorned the invitation would have a place at the table. 

After this, Jesus is speaking to his followers about the cost of following him: 

1. We need to be so devoted to him that, by comparison, we hate our families, friends, and selves
2. We need to be prepared to die any death, even the most ignominious death
3. We need to renounce all we have (all ties, assets, pride, etc.)

As Jesus said, it is important that we bear these in consideration, because just as a builder weighs his budget before construction and a king measures his forces' strength before going to war, so we as Christians must weight the cost of following him before we blithely state our allegiance.

Last, Jesus talks about the very nature of his followers. He compares them to salt. He then makes an absurd statement, "If salt loses its saltiness..." How can salt become unsalty? I'm not going to delve into the whole sea salt having impurities thing. I'm looking at the very nature of salt as compared to Christians. If salt isn't salty, then is really isn't good to be used for salt anymore, so, it's just used for roads. Similarly, if a Christian isn't Christlike, then how is he any good to be used as a Christian? Of course, you can't have unsalty salt (chemically speaking), just like you can't have an un-Christlike Christian. Either you are a Christian and Christ is manifesting himself in you, or you aren't and you're only fooling yourself and those around you.

Application:

Yesterday, I talked about faith and its effects on the believer, changing his very nature and permeating him with Christ's nature and purpose. 

Today, we see the cost of following Christ and, honestly, it follows from yesterday. If we are permeated with Christ's nature and purpose, our connections and assets, our pride, our sins, none of that matters. If we are permeated with Christ's nature and purpose, we have security in our eternity and are invested in Christ's mission above all else -as Paul put it "To live is Christ and to die is gain." If we are permeated with Christ's nature and purpose, there is no room for any other connection, save as an outpouring of what God has given. Does this mean to actually deprive your spouse and children? No. What it means is that your family should know and clearly see that they play a very second fiddle to your devotion to God (and hopefully they too have such a relationship with God).

If we are permeated with Christ, then we cannot be anything other than salty. So, let's stop hiding our saltiness and impact the world around us - our workplaces, our classes, our churches, our streets.