This morning I again plan on sharing only a short summary of Dave Stroud’s talk. He spoke about how we are called to be salt and light in the world.
Dave begun by speaking about the difference between Plato’s view of the physical body and realm and the Christian one. He told us not to think of our eternal state in heaven as a place of disembodied spirits hanging around. Our bodies are part of God’s creation, and there is no divide between the spiritual and physical, rather all is spiritual
We are the salt of the earth. We are meant to be engaged with the world serving it. We are to affect every aspect of the world. We should care for all of the environment. We should care about poverty in the developing world. We are not called to live in the modern equivalent of monastic communities.
If the world has gone off, could it not be because something has happened to the salt. If we look at the films and popular culture we will understand what society is saying. Art is hopeless. The news tells us of the increase in violence on our streets. Apparently murders by children has tripled in the last few years. 4000 five year olds were excluded from school last year because they couldn’t be controlled. A test of any society is how it cares for its weakest.
Jesus is the Light of the world, so we are the light too. In darkness things happen that wouldn’t happen in the light. He challenged us to get connected with people who don’t know Jesus and spend significant amounts of time with them. If we open up our lives to others, they will open up their lives to God.
Jesus was committed to caring for the poor. We all need to be part of caring for the poor. If we are followers of Christ we will care for the needy. We must be known not just for our clear declarations on moral issues, but for the love and mercy we exude.
We are also to be involved in transforming the culture in which we live as well as building churches. Some will have a mission and call to get stuck into an influential job and become salt and light where you are. This could include making movies that promote godliness for example.
He ended by challenging us that if we are to be light, then the light of Jesus must shine into us and make us pure and free of worry and aggravation, wrong thinking.
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