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CONNIE: Are you an oatmeal Christian, or a potato chip Christian? And while we’re asking questions—are you worth your salt? Join us today as we look at Jesus’ challenge to “Spice Up Your World!” Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 70 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,
LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko.

CONNIE: And we’re glad you’re listening in today. We hope you can plan to stay with us for the next half hour as we dig into God’s word and consider the significance of one of Jesus’ challenges to His followers.

LONNIE: That’s right. We’ll be looking today at what Jesus meant when He challenged us to be the “salt of the earth.” Things have changed a lot in the world since the days when Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee. Now, admittedly salt hasn’t changed, but something has changed about the way people value it. And when we understand that, it can give a whole new perspective to an old, familiar saying.

CONNIE: But whatever your attitude toward salt, one thing hasn’t changed. Jesus still wants us as Christians to be the salt of the earth—people who change the flavor of the world around us.

LONNIE: I’ll talk a bit later about the difference between an oatmeal Christian and a potato chip Christian. But the most important thing o recognize about being the salt of the earth is how important it is that we be mixed up.

CONNIE: Mixed up?

LONNIE: Mixed up into the world around us—where we can spice things up with the flavor of the gospel. That’s a principle that’s been applied successfully in one special mission field in recent years. Ken Wade spoke with an old friend Judy Aitken about how the gospel is reaching the traditionally Buddhist population of Cambodia by applying the salt principle.

CONNIE: Let’s listen in.

KEN: I want to welcome Judy Aitkien to our program today. Judy and I have had the privilege of working together out in Southeast Asia; Judy is the director of the Adventist Southeast Asia Projects working with spreading the gospel in Vietnam, Cambodia, and other countries. Welcome to our program Judy!

JUDY: Thank you very much, I’m so happy to be here.

KEN: I mentioned that you and I have had the privilege of working together in a very special project that became very dear to my heart, of helping people learn how to become the salt of the earth. I was out in the refugee camps in Thailand as we were preparing people to go back into Cambodia, and you have had a lot to do with those Cambodian refugees, I know.

JUDY: I remember that time very well. These people had suffered very much; they came from their homeland, Cambodia, looking and seeking for the true God, and thousands and even in some of the camps half a million people.

KEN: I noticed that when they saw you they called you Mom Judy, because you have done so much to work with them, and I think tremendous what you are able to do in supplying their basic needs, but also supplying them with the knowledge of the gospel. One of the neat things that I saw was how when these people were able to go back to their homeland, they became the salt of the earth there.

JUDY: That’s very exciting what God did for them as they came into the refugee camp churches, many of them had suffered a lot, but as they learned more a about Jesus and God’s love for them, they began to believe and follow Him, and they gave their lives to obeying and following Gods ways.

KEN: I noticed that many of those people when they moved back to Cambodia; I think of one fellow who I visited over there, Poh Kheug. He had no legs, lost both of his legs to a landmine I guess, during the war in Cambodia…

JUDY: Yes, I remember him.

KEN: …and I visited him in Cambodia a year or so after he had moved back, and I was just amazed to see what he had done already. He had just gathered the people of his village and taught them to sing hymns, and he taught them about Jesus, and out of that a church has grown up. I also remember a young man by the name of Lim Peng, and you knew him when he was in the refugee camp.

JUDY: I remember him; he was only 14 years old when he was baptized, and after that he resettled in Maryland, and he studied in an Adventist college. He decided to follow God’s call to become a minister and to prepare to become a minister.

KEN: Not necessarily thinking he was going to go back to Cambodia, but I remember making telephone contact with him a number of times, and then I remember the day he flew to Singapore and then we boarded a plane to go up to Bangkok, and from there over to Cambodia. He was, I would say, about 21 or 22 years old, unmarried, going to give his life back to his country.

JUDY: That’s right! He went to Cambodia as a volunteer with a very small stipend, but dedicated his life to serve God and his homeland, and today he is the secretary of the Seventh - day Adventist Mission, and he travels a lot over terrible pot holed roads, dusty roads and during the raining season they’re muddy roads, but nothing stops him as he helps the pastors and the workers by showing God’s love to the many people there in Cambodia.

KEN: Well, what we have seen is that years ago there were many attempts to raise up Christian churches in Cambodia, yet none of them particularly successful, but then you had the terrible Pol Pott years, when so many were killed and so many went as refugees, but when these people went back into their own home villages and their own areas and just lived Christian lives, suddenly we saw Christian churches sprouting up everywhere.

JUDY: It was an absolutely amazing and wonderful blessing from God as people from the camps went to their villages and their homeland, and to the cities where they used to live, they began sharing what Jesus Christ had done for them.

KEN: And that now has gone to a second generation of salt, because you were telling me about a young man by the name of Suvani, and how he became a Christian. What’s happening in his life now?

JUDY: Suvani became a Christian through the witness of Eng Nhong. Eng Nhong actually had been one of the people who came to know God in the camp, he returned home to his province in Sivivoring, and began to spread the gospel by preaching and sharing, teaching, and Suvani was one of his first students. He was only in high school at that time, but as soon as he heard the gospel he believed, and later he became an English and Bible teacher, and brought a lot of people to God in this province. Then he married another SDA young lady named, Leady, and both of them felt the call from God to go to a new province called Qraujay, and to teach and preach the gospel in this area where people had never heard the gospel before.

KEN: Wow! So the salt is really spreading in the broth I guess you could say?

JUDY: That’s true. And the wonderful thing is that God has used them to start 4 churches. They have been teaching English and Bible, and many new interests have been started because of what God has used them to do.

KEN: Thank you so much, Judy, for sharing with us how the salt continues to spread in the great country of Cambodia.

JUDY: You’re Welcome!

CONNIE: That was a group called the La Sierra University Vocal Octet, with a neat, peppy version of “I can Tell the World.” If you’re interested in learning more about any of the music you hear on our broadcast, please stop by our web page at VOP.COM and check the link to “Music Heard on the Broadcast.”

CONNIE: Connie, I like that song, because it affirms our message for today—as Christians we all have the privilege of telling others about the blessings that God has given in our lives. But I think that’s one thing that a lot of people have trouble doing—finding ways to share their faith. And that’s why I’d like to recommend a little book that was written by my predecessor as director/speaker here at Voice of Prophecy, H. M. S. Richards, Jr.

LONNIE: He was always an enthusiastic evangelist, wasn’t he? He’d often just stop and talk with people and share his faith.

LONNIE: That’s right. And a few years ago he wrote a book called New Ways to Tell the Old, Old Story. It’s full of practical tips for finding ways to reach out to others with the gospel.
CONNIE: How can a person get a copy?

LONNIE: It’s pretty simple, really. Just give us a call on our toll-free number, and ask for it. We’ll send it to you, as our gift.

CONNIE: And that number would be 1-800-872-0055.

LONNIE: That’s right—give us a call, or write to us at the address we’ll share later, and ask for the book New Ways to Tell the Old, Old Story, and we’ll get it right out in the mail to you.

CONNIE: Right now, though, it’s time to listen to Lonnie’s message for today, “Spice up Your World!”

Spice Up Your World!

On Wednesday, March 12, 1930, a small, bespectacled, half-naked man with a walking stick set out to walk to the beach. He wasn’t planning on sunbathing or surfing. He was a man on a mission. And as news of his mission spread, people began to gather along his route. He would stop and speak in each town and village he passed through, and soon a large crowd began to follow him.

Some estimates say that by the time the little, old, bespectacled man, Mahatma Gandhi, arrived at the seashore, a million people had joined his march. The road before him had been strewn with fresh flowers and greenery, and musicians had honored his passage with some of their finest tunes.

What was it that had occasioned this march? What had attracted the attention of a million followers—inspiring them to leave their homes and follow their leader?

Salt.

That’s right. Salt. When Mahatma Gandhi arrived at Dandi on the Arabian Sea, he paused for a moment, spoke to his followers, and then proceeded to go down to the seashore and pick up a handful of salt.

That’s all.

But if you know the story of the Gandhi’s great Salt March, you know that that handful of white crystals had the power to shake the world. For in that simple action, the little Indian saint challenged the throne of the most powerful empire on earth in a way that would eventually crack the foundations of the British hegemony and lead to the independence of the nation of India. Because there was a law against gathering your own salt. And Gandhi challenged that law, along with the right of the British to rule his country.

It wasn’t the first time salt changed history.

In our modern world we tend to think of salt as something fairly insignificant that comes from the store in little blue boxes and can be bought for pennies a pound.

Because of that, Jesus’ words to His disciples, found in Matthew 5:13 probably don’t carry as much weight for us as they did when first spoken.

“‘You are the salt of the earth,’ ” Jesus said. “‘But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men’ ” (Matthew 5:13, NKJV).

Why did Jesus call us the salt of the earth? Aren’t we more valuable than that? I mean, I think I like the text where God calls His people jewels better, don’t you? I’d much rather be a diamond for the Lord than a salt crystal—who wouldn’t?

Ah, but you forget one thing. A person can live a good, long life without ever touching a diamond. But how long can you live without salt? We all need a certain amount of it every day to keep our body chemistry running. And so, historically, salt has been one of the most valuable commodities on earth.

In fact, in Jesus’ day, Roman soldiers sometimes collected their pay in salt. The Latin word for salt is sal. And that’s the commodity in which they collected their salary! Knowing that gives new meaning to the question of whether a person is “worth his (or her) salt,” doesn’t it?

Wars have been fought, trade routes established, and new inventions created, all in the pursuit of salt.

So Jesus wasn’t in any way demeaning our value when He called us the “salt of the earth.”

Salt has some wonderful properties about it.

For one thing, it’s a preservative. Jesus spent most of His years of ministry near the shores of the Sea of Galilee—an area famous for its fish and fishermen. Galilee is a freshwater lake, but by preserving their catch in salt, fishermen could extend their market to places too distant to ship fresh fish to, and thus increase their profits.

But the thing salt is best known for is its ability to bring out the flavor in foods. The Romans recognized that green leafy vegetables were an important part of a healthy diet. But many of the vegetables had a bitter taste. The best solution in the days before you could go to the supermarket and pick up a bottle of Paul Newman’s Ranch Dressing? Put a little sal on your vegetables—and voila! You’ve got a salad!

If you’ve ever made up a batch of oatmeal in the morning and forgotten to put in that dash of salt, you know that salt doesn’t have to be tasted in order to make a change for the better in food. You just need to put in enough to help bring out the good, natural flavor of the food.

And you know, maybe that’s a good lesson for us as Christians. Sometimes we get the idea that we need to go out into the world and force our ways on everyone around us—force them to become Christians and think and act just the way we want them to.

Maybe we should call people who do their evangelism that way “potato chip evangelists.” They think that they’re to go out and coat their world with their saltiness.

But personally, I wonder if there isn’t room for a few “oatmeal evangelists!” Christians who go out into the world and use their saltiness to bring out the best in others. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do our best to convert others and help them become Christians. After all, we here at Voice of Prophecy recently completed a major evangelistic outreach in which we appealed to thousands of people to give their hearts to the Lord, be baptized, and become fully committed Christians.

But do you know what? A lot of the people who took their stand for Jesus in those meetings could trace their first interest in Christianity back to the influence of some friend of theirs who had learned how to be an “oatmeal evangelist”—someone who lived in their world, mixed in with their friends, and just tried to bring out the best in them, without being pushy or forcing their Christian values on others.

That’s one of the magnificent things about salt. It can mix in and change things even in small quantities—a little bit at a time.

But having said that—remember that when Jesus called His disciples the salt of the earth, He did include a caution: “‘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’ ” (Matthew 5:13, NIV).

Now, you may wonder how salt can lose its saltiness—I mean, salt is salt. And it always tastes like salt.

Well, in Jesus’ day, people didn’t buy their salt in little blue boxes. They gathered it from marshes along the seashore, and it often contained impurities. If that kind of salt was allowed to become wet, the salt would dissolve away, leaving only the unsalted, worthless impurities.

That’s a caution for us. How pure is our salt? Is Jesus the most flavorful thing in our lives?

But that’s not the only way salt—in a spiritual sense—can lose its flavor.

On Sunday, June 19, 1937, Pastor Martin Niemoller stood in front of his church in Berlin, the capital city of Adolph Hitler’s Thousand-Year Reich. The title of Pastor Niemoller’s sermon that Sunday was “The Salt of the Earth.” He was speaking on the same text we’re looking at today, from Matthew 5. But under far different circumstances.

At the beginning of his sermon, the pastor paused and spent five minutes reading off the names of 73 Christians who had recently been arrested or evicted from their homes for the crime of standing up for Christian values in opposition to the Nazis.

The question on everyone’s mind that day was how should we, as Christians, conduct our lives in a nation where true Christianity is banned under threat of arrest, imprisonment, torture, and probable death? Can we still be the salt of the earth in these circumstances?

Courageously Martin Niemoeller stood in the pulpit, and gave this gospel-centered answer:

We have only to see that the salt does not lose its savor, that it does not lose its power. What does that mean?

The problem with which we have to deal is how to save the Christian community at this moment from the danger of being thrown into the same pot as the world. . . .

We have come through a time of peril . . . we were told: “Everything will be quite different when you as a Church cease to have such an entirely different flavor: when you cease to practice preaching . . . the opposite of what the world around you preaches. You really must suit your message to the world; you really must bring your creed into harmony with the present. Then you will again become influential and powerful.”

Dear brethren, that means: The salt loses its savor. It is not for us to worry about how the salt is employed, but to see that it does not lose its savor.

Courageously, in the face of Nazi threats and oppression, with Gestapo spies in the pews, Pastor Niemoeller urged his fellow Christians not to lose their savor by harmonizing with the world. Rather, they were to challenge the world to harmonize with Jesus. They were to keep their distinct flavor, and spice up their world.

It was his next-to-last sermon to the congregation. Within 10 days he had been arrested and thrown in jail for having the audacity to remain salty in a nation where the courage to stand up for what one believed was not valued. He spent the years of World War II in Dachau concentration camp. But he never lost his saltiness. He spiced up his world, even there.

Fortunately most of us today live in a world where it’s easier to be a Christian. And yet, it’s still possible for the salt to lose its savor. For us to fall to the temptation to blend in with our environment, not letting the gospel make a difference in our lives. Or maybe just to stay in the salt shaker and not get out and touch—or shake—the world at all.

But no matter what our circumstances, Jesus’ challenge comes down to us: Make a difference in your world. Make it a better place by your influence. Spice up your world—maybe even shake up your world—with the salt of the gospel.