Salt and Bland Religion

I watched two episodes of a TV series yesterday that were absolutely hilarious and would be super easy for me to get addicted to. But as I watched them, the question, "Is this honoring to my king?" kept running through my mind. I tried to avoid answering the question, but I knew what it was. While funny, much of the content exonerated things that I simply can't condone. As much as I wanted to keep watching, I finally pulled myself away and pouted about how annoying my "overreactive conscience" is.  

Then I opened up the Word and my eyes landed upon Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?" I didn't make it any further than that because I knew this was the Holy Spirit speaking. 

So, for those of you who don't know me, I am somewhat of a health nut. Nutrition and its effects on the body fascinate me to no end. There's this little thing called salt. What most people think is that you're not supposed to get too much salt because it can cause problems such as hypertension and high blood pressure. Well, sort of. Actually, what you're not supposed to get too much of is table salt whereas mineral salt (the way God created it!) is actually a highly nutrient dense food that's important for our bodies to function properly. 

What's the difference? Mineral or sea salt is basically dried up sea water and it's chock full of all the nutrients and minerals from the sea. Table salt--what most of you are using--is salt that has been stripped of all its minerals so that all that's left is the sodium. Here's the problem: when we eat salt our bodies expect to get all the other minerals along with the sodium. But because they're not getting them, it craves more and this can lead to an imbalance in the body. What does this have to do with TV???

When we walk with the Lord and follow wholeheartedly after Him, we become like salt--full of nutrients and flavor to give to the world. But when we start to compromise our values, our standards, or our beliefs, we start losing nutrients. We may still have flavor, but it's false advertising. We're promising those around us something of great nutritional value, when really we just have a bunch of sodium which, by itself, can cause health problems. 

This is religion without Jesus.

This is the talk without the walk.

This is saying "I follow Jesus" while still living how we please. 

This is the very reason so many people are turned off to the church because we promise what we can't give; we say one thing then do another. We've lost our saltiness and who wants to eat a plate of unsalted food?

Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." But how will people believe that God's the real deal if His followers are bland and boring and don't really look different than anyone else?

Now here's the clincher. If we ourselves haven't actually "tasted and seen," then how can anyone around us? Only when we truly know God and seek Him with our whole hearts, can we live in such a way to make a difference. In other words, if we want to be salty we have to drench ourselves in the se