You areb the salt of the earth

 Matt 5:13 - “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. In biblical times, salt was very precious. Ït was not easily available. Roman soldiers received a certain amount of their salary in salt. This portion of salt in their salary was called salarium, which gives us the word ‘salary’, payment we get for the work we do. One use of salt was to preserves things, to keep things from going bad. We live in a time of refrigerators but generations ago, people had to rely upon salt to keep their meats from going bad before being eaten. They would rub the meats with salt or they would soak them in a barrel of salt water. This caused the salt to thoroughly penetrate the meat. This prevented bacteria from growing and thus extended the shelf life of the meat products to many months.

I read this story once. A pastor was building a wooden framework for his wife’s roses. There he was merrily cutting the planks and nailing them together when he saw this little boy watching him intensely over the fence. The pastor was feeling quite proud because he thought the boy wanted to learn from him. So he asked the boy, “Are you interested in becoming a carpenter. It’s a good profession. After all Jesus was a carpenter?” The boy looked at him weirdly and said, “No, my father swears a lot when he hits his thumb with a hammer. I always wanted to know if a preacher uses the same words.”

The boy’s impression of the preacher depended on how the preacher responded to a particular situation. We Christians are marked people. People are always watching us to see how we act and react. Consider this! What if someone followed us around for a week or so? Would they see a difference in our life, or would it look much like another non-Christian’s life? When we chat, will they hear gossip, backstabbing, crude or foul language, etc.? What if they sat beside us in our homes and rooms? Will they see us watching TV and Internet shows with our children? Or will they see us going for dodgy shows after our children are asleep? If they followed us around in our daily work, will they find us putting in an honest day’s work every day or simply wasting company time? Will they see us humiliating people or cutting corners on jobs when no one is looking?  If non-Christians see us, do they see us as a different people with different values? Or will they think we are just like them except that we go to church on Sundays and carry a Bible? People should see a distinct difference in our values and the way we walk in this journey of life. Our friends, family and coworkers hear the stories and jokes we tell. They will see how we treat other people. Like it or not, in that moment of response, we represent what it means to be a Christian in that person’s mind. Therefore, are we preserving the truths of what Christianity really is in our lives? Do people get a true picture of what it means to be a Christian when they study or work with us? If we did not tell others that we are Christians, will they know we are Christians by our conduct and lifestyle? There will be situations where we may well be the only Bible other people are willing to read.