Saltshakers and Lanterns
Matthew 5:13-16
In John 16, we are reading some of the last teachings of Jesus to His disciples before the culmination of His purpose in coming to earth. These are important urgent words. The Lord told them of the coming of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11, 14) to bring glory to the Lord Jesus through salvation.
We are blessed to have a part in the fulfillment of this purpose because the Holy Spirit indwells us and will work through us. Jesus told us how in Matthew 5:13-16, in essence telling us to be saltshakers and lanterns.
Why salt? I like to bake bread and usually have good results, but a few times had epic failures. One was when I forgot to put in the salt. The loaves looked beautiful but tasted like cardboard! Salt in life is necessary. Salt is used for seasoning and preserving but also causes thirst. If our lives are seasoned with His salt, we help bring out the good and preserve it. If we live filled with the Spirit, we can create a thirst in those who don’t know Him to want what we have in Him. Be a saltshaker!
Jesus called Himself the Light of the World in John 8:12. In Ephesians 5:9, the Word says, “For this light within you produces what is good and kind and true.” In our world today, most people do not believe in God, but fashion a god from their own desires, and do not even know what is good and true because they don’t know God. Isaiah 5:20 says, “What sorrow for those who say that evil is good, and good is evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.” The Holy Spirit will use the light of Christ in us to bring people out of darkness into His light. Be a lantern.
We have an enemy who wants to keep us from being salt and light for obvious reasons. But if we choose to be led by the Spirit, He will develop in us the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If this salt and light is seen in us, then many may turn from sorrow to joy, from death to life, from despair to hope when they turn to Jesus.
Be a saltshaker and a lantern!
Prayer: Lord, today, help me to live in such a way to inspire a thirst for you and show the world the truth of your Light! May this bring you glory. Amen
Francie Overstreet
EFCC Member
Can You Handle It?
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” John. 16:12-13
In 2011, Americans took in five times as much information every day as they did in 1986. I wonder what the stats say now? Ten times as much information? I’m sure much more information is bombarding our brains now. It’s no wonder we can feel overwhelmed just managing the most basic aspects of life.
Jesus fully sympathizes with us since He experienced a human life (Hebrews 4:15-16). Jesus was speaking to his disciples about leaving, and of hard times, which made the disciples nervous and afraid (John 16:6). So, rather than overwhelm them with even more, Jesus knew when to stop. Jesus declared that he did not have enough time to say all that he would like to his followers and they would not have the ability to hear it. Then he promised a future with the Helper to guide them. “It will be just like having me around,” Jesus might as well be saying. His compassion and love never fail.
This was good news for the disciples, even though they did not fully understand Jesus, as John makes clear in 16:17-18, the last line of which is “we don’t know what he is talking about.” Giving them even more information wouldn’t have helped but confused them more.
Like the disciples, we might say we don’t understand God when life sends us curve balls. But God’s sending the Spirit of Truth doesn’t depend on our understanding. The Spirit will not be taken away from us in the challenging times when we are least able to trust, understand, or persevere. Rather he will comfort, bring peace, and restore our joy that can only come from him. That doesn’t mean we will always “feel happy” or not cry out “why” but it does mean that he will catch every tear, remind us somehow that we matter, and encourage us through Scripture and other believers. In the biggest trials and our weakest moments, we find the Lord speaking to us and the Holy Spirit directing us when we take time to listen.
Father, please help us to slow down, listen, and be sensitive to the Spirit’s direction in our lives so that we can in turn be a blessing to others.
Deb Hill
Exec. Assistant
Revelation from God
Jesus poured divine revelation into the hearts and minds of his disciples for three years. As he prepared to leave and go back to the Father, Jesus said that he had much more to reveal to them but they weren’t ready. This was an act of grace by God. He knew the disciples would need time to process the coming events of the cross and Christ’s resurrection before they could absorb further revelation. Once Jesus returned to the Father, he promised to pour the Holy Spirit upon them. All that they still needed to understand, to proclaim, and to record for posterity, would be revealed to them then by the Holy Spirit.
Beginning with the Spirit’s arrival on the day of Pentecost, all the things Jesus had promised began to be revealed to the disciples. The Spirit guided them in all truth (that includes the message of the cross, salvation by grace, and the awesome love God has for his people). Secondly, the Spirit told them of things to come (that includes all of divine prophecy through the end of the age and beyond). Finally, the Spirit declared to them that which glorifies Christ (including his second coming as King of Kings and his eternal reign at the right hand of the Father). The summation of what the Spirit revealed to the apostles is recorded in the writings we know and treasure as “the New Testament.”
The Holy Spirit continues to serve as a teacher, guide, and counselor to his people in each generation. He illuminates our understanding of the written Word, guides us in God’s will, and may even choose to speak to us on an individual basis. In God’s wisdom and grace, he doesn’t tell us everything awaiting us in the years to come. He wisely reveals it to us as we need to know. The wonderful news is that, no matter what your age, God is never finished with what He can do in your life. As the Master painter, God sees your life as a canvas on which he’s waiting to do some of His finest work yet! May your spiritual eyes always be open to the work of the Master’s hand and may you rejoice in each new stroke of the brush he reveals.
Pastor Dave Korinek
Conviction is a Gift
What do you think of when you hear the word “conviction?” Merriam-Webster defines conviction as the act or process of finding a person guilty of a crime, especially in a court of law.
In John 16:8-11 We read about Jesus sharing with the disciples the role of the Holy Spirit when Jesus leaves to go be with the Father. In these verses, we see words like convict, guilty, sin, righteousness, and judgment.
Who is convicted and how?
What is sin and why?
Who is righteous and why?
And who is receiving judgment?
I battle guilt and can carry false guilt so conviction seemed like an incarceration with no hope. Could it be that the biblical word for conviction was different than the dictionary or was I missing something?
Verse-by-verse commentary shares the following threefold role of the Holy Spirit and explanation below.
-He would indict those who reject Christ as Savior
-He would convince people of the standard for acceptance before God
-He would condemn Satan’s belief system
We need to understand that conviction does not simply show sin as sinful. Moses revealed that. The singular point of the world’s guilt is that they do not “believe” in Jesus. The Spirit’s role is to validate the credentials of Christ. Another nuance of the word “convict” is the act of convincing, not only condemnation. Conviction is not the same as conversion. However, conviction is necessary for conversion to happen. Conviction exposes facts and the truth. The Holy Spirit will bring the world to the point where they fully understand that the issue of belief in Christ is the only way of salvation.
The “conviction” is the eye-opening gift to unbelievers pointing them to the truth. The commentary shared the word phrase “to illumine” which offers the breaking of chains-not an incarceration.
Our righteousness comes from the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and not anything we can do. He is now with the Father interceding on our behalf. How thankful we believers are for this gift!
Lastly, judgment is not ours but the prince of this world who stands condemned. Satan is defeated!
I want to share The Message version of John 16:8-11 that will offer a clear understanding of the “gift” of conviction.
John 8:11, “When he comes, he’ll expose the error of the godless world’s view of sin, righteousness, and judgment: He’ll show them that their refusal to believe in me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control; that judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted.”
Tammy De Armas
EFCC Member
By the Numbers
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away… - John 16:7
What?! There is no way! Our advantage? That YOU, Jesus, the Son of God, the Alpha and the Omega, our Teacher and Rabbi, that God incarnate leaves us? Please no!! Don’t leave!! We need you! There is no way it could ever be better for Jesus to leave us. Right? At least, that’s what I would have thought if I were there. To be honest, that is often what I think . . . “See, Jesus, this is what you get when you leave us to run the place while you’re gone.”
However, this is where I might be a bit mistaken. I could just trust that things are better because Jesus says so, which, I’ll admit, seems like the appropriate thing for a Pastor to do, or I could run the numbers. Let’s run the numbers.
Soon after Jesus spoke those words, he was crucified. Who knows how many of his followers pulled a “Peter” and denied Jesus? After he was resurrected, we don’t know how many believed. We know that Jesus interacted with over 500 people after he was resurrected, but after he ascended into heaven, the book of Acts tells us that there were 120 disciples.
One hundred twenty! That’s it! Can you believe that this guy who is worshiped by literally billions of people around the world, left this planet with only 120 disciples?
But, what happened next proved Jesus’ point. The Holy Spirit came down on those 120 disciples and they became disciples who were empowered to live on Jesus’ mission of making disciples. Wanna know how they did it?
When Jesus left, those 120 disciples had a monumental task ahead of them. The best estimates of the world’s population at that time say that the world had 200 million people in it. That meant that the ratio of believers to non-believers was 1/1.67 Million. That means that every disciple had 1,670,000 people to reach. That’s a lot!
But today, in a world of 7.8 Billion People, there are about 700-900 Million Christians. That means that the ratio of believers to non-believers today is only 1/8-12 people. Which means each disciple only has 8-12 people to reach. Wow! We’ve come a long way. Maybe it was to our advantage after all.
Let’s keep making disciples!
Josh Rose
Discipleship Pastor
Standing Strong
During the first three centuries of the church, Christians were a persecuted minority in the Roman Empire. Most early believers faced the risk of persecution. They had to stand strong in their faith. That dark cloud lifted at last in AD 313 when Roman Emperor Constantine issued an Edict of Toleration which permanently outlawed the persecution of Christians. For more than 1,500 years after that edict, a biblical worldview prevailed in the West, framing how people viewed themselves and their world. However, many Americans have a sense this has changed in our lifetime. We’ve seen a dramatic drop in the number of people who have a biblical worldview (e.g., God created the world, Christ died for sin, He is coming again, etc.). A recent survey by George Barna revealed that during just the 20-year interval from 2000 to 2020 the number of Americans who hold a biblical worldview dropped below 10% (per Tracy Munsil on April 7, 2020, in American Worldview Inventory, CRC). And the percentage is still dropping. America is now a post-Christian culture. Like the early church, Christians today are in the minority.
What does this mean for our walk of faith? For one thing, we need to be prepared to face pain and persecution for our faith. It should no longer come as a shock. Like the early Christians, we will need to accept this as a part of our calling. The blessing of this is that we have the support of each other, and we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Through His power, like 1st-century believers, we are being called to bear witness to an unbelieving world (see John 15:27). And we don’t have to travel far for that. In our post-Christian culture, more than 90% of people living in our local community lack a real understanding of the Bible.
What may the future hold? For one thing, it will bring plenty of opportunities for us to serve as witnesses of God’s love to the lost souls around us. A big part of our witness may come through how others see our response to pain and persecution. So let us stand strong in our faith. Speaking to the disciples, Jesus told them regarding persecution, “I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you” John 16:4 (ESV).
May your witness shine brightly through the Spirit of Christ as spiritual darkness encroaches more and more in our world. Pray that your faith will grow in whatever circumstances God may allow. He who called us is faithful.
Pastor Dave Korinek
Supernatural Strength
You may have heard the name Corrie Ten Boom. Most of us would be hard-pressed to compare our “first world problems” with that of a woman who hid, housed, and cared for Jews during the Holocaust. In addition, Corrie, and some of her family, spent time in prison and concentration camps. While most of us have not experienced such hardships, I think we could all say that at times, life is simply hard and we may wonder if we will be able to find the strength to survive.
One of the amazing things about Corrie Ten Boom is that not only did she survive, but she was also the instrument that provided life and hope to so many others in their darkest hours. She did not however do this in her own strength or even with the strength of others. Her strength came from her Lord. Corrie is quoted saying, “Trying to do the Lord’s work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.”
In John chapter 15, Jesus tells us that in this world, we will be hated because of our love for the Father and our loyalty to him. But the good news is that we are not alone! We have a friend, an advocate, a Spirit that defends us and reminds us of the truth. John 15:26 says, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father - the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father - he will testify about me.”
There is a reason that John places two verses reminding us about the power that comes from the Holy Spirit amid a passage on persecution. We need him! He longs to help and comfort us in our distress. And in that pain and suffering, when we rely on the strength that only the Spirit can offer, peace, assurance, and boldness naturally flow out of us.
What challenges are you facing today? You may not be physically imprisoned as Corrie was, but are there burdens holding you captive? Do you wonder if you will have the strength to face another day? Call out to your Abba. You can even stand, or sit, with open hands, envisioning your hardships and longings being handed over to Jesus. The Spirit provides supernatural strength. He is your Advocate. He is your defender and he will fight for you!
Lynette Fuson
Care & Counseling Director
“They Will Also Persecute You”
The reason the Church was persecuted is because Christianity was not like other religions. Christians gave their entire loyalty to King Jesus instead of Caesar. This eventually caused a political and social conflict between the Church and the Roman Empire that resulted in persecution against the followers of Jesus.
However, for more than three centuries, instead of declining, the church grew and became stronger because of its perseverance and faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus. The early Christians understood clearly when Jesus said, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (Jn. 15:20b) Therefore, they faced persecution as if it were an honor and a blessing (Mt. 5:10).
Today the vast majority of Christians in the West are not being physically persecuted. However, we all experience spiritual persecution that seeks to weaken and destroy our faith. Currently, the prince of this world, Satan, and his spiritual forces of evil are managing to influence our modern society with greater intensity, causing our Christian faith and ethics to become increasingly more offensive to non-believers. But this should not surprise us, because again, Jesus warned us about it and we must persevere.
With that said, we must not forget there are still millions of Christians around the world facing levels of physical and spiritual persecution unimaginable to us. The evil one wants to silence followers of Jesus because of their testimony; people like you and me willing to suffer for the same reason our Lord suffered, “for being light amid darkness.” Christians who have a fireproof persevering faith that would be good for us to imitate.
Pastor Esteban Tapia
Have Some Nerve!
We are creatures of habit. We like predictability and calm familiarity. Most of our daily activities like exercising, having that morning cup of coffee, showering, and going to work are habitual and done without much thought. But haven’t we all had a day that started ‘wrong’ because your pattern was interrupted? Or gotten a new boss at work and been forced to adapt to the change that they bring with them… and you hate it? Interruptions to patterns generate anxiety; some only cause a wrinkle in our days, but others seem to create a chasm that seems insurmountable to cross. In insurmountable moments, Jesus reminds us that navigating change isn’t done alone—we have a Helper, sent by the Father that can teach us how to persevere in those moments.
Reading the book of John, we see Jesus has been an interruption to the earthly kingdoms reigning the days and habits of those He encounters. With each encounter, Jesus brings a new way of doing things and often people hate it! The disruption and great anxiety that the incoming Kingdom of God brought with it was not unexpected to Jesus and He used those moments to remind the disciples they should expect the same reaction and yet encouraged them to persevere. They would need to become resilient.
Resilience is the ability to recover, spring back or withstand difficulties. After He departed from them, they would need to remember how love had shaped them. They saw with their own eyes that Jesus Himself, bearing the witness of God’s love, was suspected, neglected and ultimately rejected by those who needed it the most. Another gospel records Jesus' teaching, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44 ESV). This was no easy task for the disciples then or for disciples today.
Loving and living like Jesus, even the hardest to love— rather especially the hardest to love—comes at a cost. Jesus was aware that for some, the cost would be too great. He knew their flesh was weak, their hearts might fail in times when their message was rejected, and they’d be tempted to give up hope on the very people that God had sent them to witness to and instead consider them hopeless to change. This cynicism disconnects people and sometimes entire groups of people from being included in the calling of every Christ follower to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). No one is too far gone to be reached by the Good News. As disciples of Jesus, we must remember that conviction and change of heart is the role of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8) and it’s our responsibility to abide in Christ and bear fruit in the midst of the hard and even hate. Jesus’s last advice here on earth was to “Take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).
Jesus warned His disciples they might also fall away in another way and choose conformity when faced with objection by those living by the standards of the kingdoms of this world who saw this new Kingdom as foolish. The pressure from the outside would cause instability of their faith and they would lose their nerve to bear witness. For a positive example of commitment to the transformational Gospel, the apostle Paul is a great role model. He had nerve! When writing to the church in Galatia he said, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” He willingly risked displeasing others to be pleasing to God.
My prayer is that we heed the loving warning of Jesus and accept encouragement from the Spirit to stand firm and resilient in our faith in this ever-changing world. Take heart and have some nerve!
Jessica Klootwyk
Group and Women’s Discipleship Director
Love the Haters
John 15:17-18
I remember when I first started taking discipleship to Jesus seriously. There were a few things Jesus taught I really struggled to put into practice. At the top of that list was his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount when he said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (Matthew 5:43-46)
I wanted to say, “Well, of course, that’s the way the tax collectors respond, that’s the way we all respond.” The way of the world is that we love those who love us and hate those who hate us. We have a quid pro quo relationship with the world - we give back what we receive.
However, Jesus wanted to break his followers from that kind of thinking. He called them into a new way of being. He claimed that his disciples were to love even when they were hated. It seemed that Jesus would go so far as to state that there was nothing someone could do that would give his followers the right to hate. Listen to what Jesus taught in John 15. He said,
"These things I command you so that you will love one another. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. (John 15:17-18)
I’d summarize Jesus' teaching: The world is going to hate you, but you are to love. Hatred from the world does not eliminate Jesus’ calling to love. Wow! That’s so countercultural that we struggle to believe that he’s teaching a way of being that would actually lead to life and joy. The way of the world is so programmed into us that we have a hard time imagining what it would look like to love even when we are hated.
What Jesus is teaching is hard to do. I think it’s impossible to do if we expect everyone to love us. Jesus is preparing his disciples for the resistance that they’re going to face so that they can continue to love when they’re hated. He wants to prepare you for the same thing. Your faith may very well ostracize you from friends and family. It may cause you to lose friends, to be ridiculed in the public sphere, and to be mocked at your workplace. However, none of that frees us from the calling to love. We can hold our convictions while extending the love of Jesus to others - and that’s the very space Jesus calls us to inhabit.
Today, think about the ways that you may be experiencing rejection because of your faith, and then ask the Spirit to strengthen you to continue to love.
Pastor Ryan Paulson
