The Salt Parable - The Parables of Jesus

 

The salt verse follows the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:3-12, which can seem so overwhelming in their nine-fold blessings. The salt statement can be overlooked. However, the two themes together create an even more powerful statement. Each beatitude is a blessing for the Christian believer to understand, climaxing with persecution, the way of the cross. The vitality of the sincere believer, blessed by Jesus Christ, in verse 13 is expressed by salt in verse 13, a tiny amount of mineral in comparison with most other elements of Creation but essential in life. In the Old Testament, salt was used for preserving food, for seasoning, and for healing wounds. A salt covenant could not be broken.

When people drift away from the Faith, especially clergy and teachers, they become consumed by the cares and riches of this life. They often pursue the luxuries and honors of this life, losing their vitality and turning the Gospel into a convenience. The energy of the Word of God is set aside and becomes a burden enhancing apostasy. Salt becomes a form without its essence, just as a lukewarm faith becomes a show without real meaning.

The Mark 9:50 salt verse urges followers to remain on the Way of the Cross and display the forgiveness – peace – that comes from faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Adding to the Parables Introduction - More Today, A Little Later

 

 The Prodigal Son

    The Parables are used correctly only when the Scriptures are studied and remembered as one unified source, the Bible - the Book of the Holy Spirit, all verses in harmony and not contradicting themselves as the professional professors often do. The purpose of the entire Bible is not to eliminate faith in the Savior, but to explain and believe what is clearly the mission and purpose of the Son of God.

            Some Parables, like the Good Samaritan, are so obvious that an entire era of church political activism is used to make the Savior the founder of political activism in the visible church, the conclusion always being, “What can’t we do even more to make the world a better place?”

            The divine nature of the Parables is clear to anyone who has been asked to write a very short story in fulfillment of English or journalism credits. The short story task is very difficult and suffers badly in comparison with the Parables of Jesus.

            The Parables deserve special consideration for us all, for one reason. They are the very Word of Jesus. We need the Biblical narratives which explain the birth and public ministry of Jesus, but the Parables are the concentrated wisdom of the Savior Himself. Because His Word is always effective, reading a parable is like going to class and listening to the Son of God explain aspects of the Gospel to us. We can go back to these divine stories time after time, because the power of each story is so great and so vast in its implications, always expanding our appreciation. 

Why Is Modern Art So Bad? In Honor of the $10 Million Whatever

 

Our World Upside-Down

 

As I recall from public school, when the enormous Bristish Empire surrendered to the tiny American colonies, the English troops played a song about the world upside-down, cows eating grass, etc.

That is true today - America has let itself be turned upside-down. 

1. Re-education camps have been manufactured all over higher education (community colleges and up).
2. Evil, corrupt Bibles have been promoted with glee, with snarky comments coming from dolts who barely remember the Greek alphabet but claim burning leather parchment leaves can heat a library and be the "oldest Bible in history."
3. Vast numbers of professional politicians have ignored the Constitution and overlooked massive fraud in voting.
4. News makers inventors seem to be recovering from anesthesia while reciting the latest bulletins from Langley.

People know it is far easier to let evil develop than to oppose it. Even better is - joining the dream-world of passive entertainment and comatose smart-phone addiction.

The real issue is intellectual curiosity. Far too many people lack any desire to find out what is really going on. In the past, that came from readers, explorers, and teachers always searching for better ways to energize a new generation. The irony is that we can now put a question - even a phrase - into the computer's search window and get hundreds of answers in full color. People used to get sick after reading a typo in a Readers Digest health article. (old joke, no one under the age of 60 will laugh)

The burden of Baby Boomers is having seen the explosion of information and the misuse of it. We never knew that Paul Harvey was the last of his kind. My friends talk about how everyone in the house or car was silenced when Paul Harvey was on.