An excerpt from Doug Giles’ badass book, If Masculinity Is ‘Toxic’, Call Jesus Radioactive.
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become
tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything,
except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”
Matthew 5:13 (NASB)
Matthew chapter five
commences Jesus’ longest message on record, the three-chapter, world-famous,
Sermon on The Mount.
In this sermon, Jesus
sets his sights high and wide in this demon-rattling rant. Most people don’t
get how controversial this sermon was back in His day. But the religious
hoity-toities, that he aimed it at, did because they didn’t like him too much
after this speech.
Yep, the famous Sermon on
the Mount purposely offended the self-righteous dorks of his day. It was bold,
politically incorrect yumminess on steroids.
In The Sermon On The
Mount, Christ defines what is “blessed” in God’s eyes, how His disciples
are to be in the world, Jesus’ laws for relationships, what He says about
anger, lust, cash, fasting, judging others, the proper way to pray, the
stairway to heaven, and the highway to hell.
In Matthew 5:1-12, Jesus
is talking generalities to the general populace. In verse thirteen of chapter
five He turns His guns on His handpicked boys and declares them to be… salty
dawgs. And he warns what happens if they, for whatever reason, lose their
saltiness.
Please note, once again,
that He called his disciples, salt. He didn’t call them, ‘My little
sugar cubes.’ He didn’t say to His chosen ones, ‘You’re the pumpkin spice on
the latte of life’. He didn’t refer to them as, ‘Jesus’ jelly beans’, but
as salt.
Jesus chooses his words
wisely. That’s why He calls us sheep instead of porpoises. Why would He
call us sheep? Well, we’re stupid, we need a shepherd or we’ll get eaten
by wolves, that’s why.
So, out of his vast
vocabulary, he calls the brothers, salt: biting, stinging, hot, dry, gritty,
spicy, preserving, and healing … salt.
Salt in Jesus’ day,
during Roman times, was worth its weight in gold.
If a quick history lesson
regarding salt is on your Bucket List then I’m going to make your dreams come
true right now. (*This is from Ian Harvey and Vintage News)
·
What is SALT? It’s an ionic compound made of sodium and
chloride.
·
Every person on the planet knows salt.
·
Salt’s profound impact on human civilization spans recorded
history, and in fact, precedes it.
·
It’s been a part of human existence from our very beginning.
·
Neolithic settlements, back when Pelosi and Biden were born,
were formed around salt springs.
·
Salt was essential when mastodons schlepped this 3rd rock
from the sun and was in general use many, many moons ago.
·
But this valuable item wasn’t always easy to get. During the
early days of the Roman Empire, salt was used as a form of payment.
·
Etymologists believe that the word salary came into use during
the Roman Empire when soldiers were regularly paid with a handful of salt.
·
In fact, this precious commodity was part of the reason the
Romans built their roads: to move salt. In ancient Greece much of this trade
involved an exchange of salt for slaves, and here we find the expression
for a lazy individual as being someone “not worth his salt.”
Back in the day, salt
was muy importante. Some cities were formed and others destroyed in
economic rivalries, sometimes even leading to wars over salt.
Speaking of War: The
importance of salt in times of warfare can be seen throughout history.
·
During times of war, national economies were strained to the
limits and supplies of salt were often impacted negatively.
·
This would lead to people suffering malnourishment from the
lack of salt.
·
When Napoleon’s forces retreated from Moscow, many of the troops
lost their lives as a result of salt deficiency and consequently, a low
resistance to disease. For those who believe in ghosts and zombies, there
is the belief, shared across large parts of the world, that throwing salt
on certain places or around the house can ward off evil spirits and even
zombies.
Which brings me back to
our text in Matthew 5:13, Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.” My
paraphrase in the King Doug version of The Bible, ‘Hey, dudes: you are crucial,
you’re valuable, you’re gold, you’re essential. However, if you lose your
original purpose and power you’re going to be an ineffective religious blob of
nothingness and men will walk on you, ignore you, and you won’t change diddly
squat’.
Here’s three distinctive
traits of salt.
1. Salt frets,
bites, stings, and yet … it heals. 2. Salt keeps food and animal
hides from rot. 3. Salt’s a spice.
Let’s check out these
three traits a little more fully, shall we?
Number One. Salt’s
a natural healer. It stings and yet, it heals.
God’s given us a big job of healing the planet. Like
salt, a true gospel delivery will sting before it heals. We want to ‘heal’
without stinging. That’s not going to happen.
Like alcohol, another
cleansing agent, salt will sting an open wound and cause initial pain before
improvement follows.
17 “Blessed is the one
whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
18 For He wounds, but he also
binds up; he injures, but His hands also heal.”
Job 5:17, 18 (NIV)
Question? Why are there
no messages about hell, sin, the judgment seat, our rebellious heart, or
how we love to follow demons and darkness, how we hate God and the light and
we are, by nature, children of wrath?
I tell you, ‘why?’ Saltless
ministers have deemed them ‘too negative’ … ‘too hurtful’… to the sinners’
sensitive psyche.
The gospel and the cross
are offensive to rebels who want zilch to do with a Holy God. In order to truly
heal them, the minister has to wound them first. Never back down from saying
non-PC, hard truths.
Without rebuke, reproof,
and conviction of sin, there is no true understanding of forgiveness, Jesus’
sacrifice, grace, the wrath of God, and the penalty of an eternal hell.
Ergo, spiritual disease,
infection, malicious bacteria continue in the church, culture, and politics.
All because we’re afraid
of being unpopular; stinging and being gritty when necessary.
Number Two. Salt
kills rot in meats. According to Howstuffworks.com …
“Salt inhibits bacteria
in a variety of ways. It’s a disrupter that wreaks havoc in microbes,
interrupting their enzymes and chipping away at their DNA.”
It most often works
through dehydration, removing many of the water molecules that bacteria need to
live and grow.
Salting is used because
most bacteria, fungi, and other potentially pathogenic organisms cannot survive
in a highly salty environment, due to the hypertonic nature of salt.
In tanning animal skins,
salting is what sets the hair and keeps the hide from decaying.
Our presence and our voice
should kill cultural rot.
We should be a disrupter that
wreaks havoc on satanic garbage.
Simply put, if rot’s going on
around us, we’re not doing our job.
Number Three. Salt’s
a spice.
Food to me, that’s not
salted, tastes hideous. It’s too bland. Matter of fact, wherever I eat, a
salt shaker is nearby.
It’s clear, from this
analogy, that Christ calls His crew to be holy agents of change to this sin
ravaged planet.
Also, we should do His
good works with spice. No more bland Christianity. Be bold, life-giving,
fun, faith-filled, and hope-loaded. Don’t be drab and dour.
Check out ClashRadio for
more wit and wisdom from ClashDaily’s Big Dawg. While you’re at it, here’s his
latest book:
If Masculinity Is ‘Toxic’, Call Jesus Radioactive
Much of the Left loathes
masculinity and they love to paint Jesus as a non-offensive bearded woman who
endorses their agenda. This book blows that nonsense all to hell. From the
stonking laptop of bestselling author, Doug Giles, comes a new book that focuses
on Jesus’ overt masculine traits like no other books have heretofore. It’s
informative, bold, hilarious, and scary. Giles has concluded, after many years
of scouring the scripture that, If Masculinity Is ‘Toxic’, Call Jesus Radioactive.
https://clashdaily.com/2021/
