Saltiness and Discipleship

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This is a series of reflections that I sent to my fiancee from my own Bible readings. I have posted them in this blog so that it is easier to keep track for future reflections. 
34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.  Lk 14:34–35
This passage follows after two parables about counting cost. Before the parables, Jesus talked about carrying the cross while following Him. The parables of building the tower and going to war with another king demonstrates the seriousness of counting the cost when we choose to follow Jesus.

The first parable of building the tower seems to imply that we need to count the cost so that we will be able to finish what we start out to do in the first place. The second parable of going to war with another king seems to mean that we need to count the cost so that we don't end up in failure. In the context of following Jesus, it is a call for us to think through seriously what we are about to embark.

Then come the parable of the salt, about saltiness. This is a weird place to insert such a parable. In the context of the whole segment, I saw that it links carrying the cross as a disciple of Christ and being salty fit for manure and soil. It seems to suggest that if we lack a particular quality as a disciple of Christ, we will be considered useless in the kingdom of God. These particular qualities seems to be self-denial (v27), perseverance (v28 - v30) and total devotion (v31 - v33).

My question is then, do we want to be useful as disciples? Do we want to be used by God? Have we considered how we can be used by Him?

I was sharing with Ivan earlier, all the considerations and big items that we have been discussing, like wedding ceremony, housing, careers, studies - they are pointing towards where God is leading, where we can participate in God's work. It distills to this one single point. We consider how God can use our stories for the wedding, how God can bring us to a neighbourhood to be the light to the darkness, how God can use us to disciple our future children to become godly men and women of His, how God can use us in our respective spheres of influence in our current or future work place, how God can work through what we are studying in the various classes that we are taking.

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