It's The Season for Seasoning

Watch the Food Network enough and you’ll hear many colorful catch-phrases on how to season up a dish. Many herbs and spices are utilized to obtain a desired effect: sweet, spicy, hot, sour, tangy, earthy…whatever it takes to get the desired result. Emeril puts it in very simple terms.. “Bam!”

God’s Word puts it quite simply as well: “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Col 4:6 NIV

Beautiful and simple as that is, there is also a deeper Christian tenet running through what God is telling us. "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 by men.” Matt 5:13 NIV

Now that’s really getting to the heart of what we—as Christians—are all about. We’re here on this planet to be noticed. Our obligation is to share and express God’s Word in a manner that makes an impact. Matthew is pretty clear about it: If you end up bland with no effect on people, what good are you?

That’s a pretty tough reality to digest (no pun intended). But, truly, when you think about it…why are we really on this planet? God wants relationships with His creation—pure and simple. He can’t have a relationship if His creation denies Him or is oblivious to Him. This is our job. Spread the gospel and do it in a way that makes them notice.

The next time you prepare a meal or throw something on the grill, pick up that salt…that seasoning…and remember that this simple act of livening up your food is exactly what you and I should be doing in this world.

Greg Morton
© April 22, 2009

Wisdom

There’s an old adage in the world of aviation that says, “The superior pilot uses his superior judgment to keep him out of situations that require the use of his superior piloting skills.” In other words…making good choices from the get-go keeps us from having to squirm our way out of a bad or uncomfortable situation in the first place.

I know I’ve relied on my faith—and my belief that God does, indeed, intervene on our behalf—waaay too many times. I’m sure God has shaken his head many a time thinking, “Greg…dude…get it right the first time and you wouldn’t have to go through this.”

The reality for all of us is that we won’t always make the right decisions or choices the first go-round. But that shouldn’t keep up us from striving for the knowledge and the discipline to make better choices.

The Bible uses the word “wisdom” 215 times (in the New International Version), and for good reason. It all starts, as Psalm 111:10 puts it, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding.” With that wisdom comes understanding. With that understanding you can then build your faith and deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Screw-ups happen. Mistakes happen. Bad things happen. Life happens. We have thousands of choices to make and thousands of opportunities to make sound judgments.

Just like the superior pilot will have all the knowledge available to him to know his skills, his aircraft, physics, the weather and all the “what ifs”…so too should we attain all that is available to us to deepen our understanding and wisdom of the God we love and serve.

Greg Morton
© April 4, 2009