49 For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.” Mark 9:49-50
July 16 – 20, Marianne, Sophie, Prim, and Brooklyn will all be at Canyon Hills Middle School Camp @ Miracle Ranch in Purdy, WA. Marianne and I will be “Flock Leaders” all week, serving and caring for several Cabin Leaders. We are so looking forward to this time with the Middle School students and coming alongside this Cabin Leaders who sacrifice so much to be there. My Quiet Time posts will be pretty short and sweet and most of them will come rapid-fire as I will post most of the days on Sunday. Cellular Data connections are horrid at camp.
This passage in Mark is one that is kind of tough to understand. What’s interesting is that Jesus talks about 3 different aspects of salt.
- Everyone will be salted with fire. – This has a couple of potential meanings (or both). If we link it with the previous verses, then Jesus is talking about Judgement. However, if we look at it in light of the following verses, it is more about purification or sanctification of our lives as followers of Jesus. I tend to think Jesus is referring to both and the ‘being salted with fire’ is a cleansing…whether that is as an unbeliever or a justified/redeemed follower of Christ.
- Salt is good, but how do you make unsalty salt, salty again? – Different commentators have different thoughts on this but when I look at this passage applied to my own life, here is my take-away -> The seasoning of Jesus in my life makes me a preservative and “bringer of good news” to the world around me. I can become unsalty by being distracted by other books and authors say which can keep me out of His Word and what the Lord is revealing to me through it. I must stay salty by keeping my nose in God’s Word and prayerfully supplicating with Him every day.
- Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. – Jesus calls on the disciples to have peaceful, harmonious relationships among themselves. In Old Testament times, salt was also seen as a symbol when entering into covenants with each other. I think it fits well in that while we look to encourage each other and hold each one accountable, we need to do that with Grace and Love so that we can grow each other up without cutting each other down.
APPLICATION:
I must be deliberate about being the salt of the earth God wants me to be. I also need to welcome the cleansing fire of trials. I need to pivot from feeling ‘hit’ to ‘what does God want to teach me in this’.