“Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.” Matthew 5:13-14 MSG

I love food so much. Living in Miami, we are exposed to so many different cultures of food. One of the things I enjoy the most about sharing a meal is the people I get to share it with. Dinner brings people together as a family. There’s nothing quite like sharing a meal with someone to get to know them for who they really are.

I think it’s not coincidental that Jesus uses salt as a metaphor in today’s scripture focus in order to illustrate bringing people together.

Salt is used while cooking to enhance certain flavors while minimizing others. It’s a sweetness balancer and a bitterness suppressor. Just like cooking, Jesus is calling us to enhance the culture of our world in the very best way while simultaneously suppressing the bitterness and darkness this world can be consumed with.

Essentially, Jesus is calling us to be cultural and social influencers. We as believers are called to set the standard of what it means to be a true community; not hiding our light so no one can see, but boldly declaring who God has called us to be in order to lead our generation and generations to come.

Let us lift our voices of influence in prayer today and bring out the very best flavors this life has to offer.

Greg Burgess