Identity: Salt and Light

Thanks for taking the newest challenge. Five days this week of "displacement" (getting God's Word in and pushing the nasty stuff out). Add comments on the blog or in Facebook. Or just check in to say "I'm in" and encourage others by your participation.

Here's what I did in my quiet time with this passage. It's a simple meditation exercise that has a name, but I can't remember what it's called. In this exercise you take a phrase or a verse and repeat it out loud, each time emphasizing a different word, until you've emphasized every word. I wrote it out in my "prayer email" and then repeated it out loud when I was done. Then I chewed on that for a while. What did I hear God saying? What did I see in a new way? What does it mean? How can I live it?

In case my description falls short. Here's what I mean.

YOU are the salt of the earth.
YOU are the light of the world.

You ARE the salt of the earth.
You ARE the light of the world.

You are THE salt of the earth.
You are THE light of the world.

You are the SALT of the earth.
You are the LIGHT of the world.

You are the salt OF the earth.
You are the light OF the world.

You are the salt of THE earth.
You are the light of THE world.

You are the salt of the EARTH.
You are the light of the WORLD.

Day Twenty-one: 21-Day Easter Challenge

I listened to chapter 21. I've prayed. I'm tired. But I feel so blessed. I'm in awe of what God has done for us in Christ. I got to experience the Easter service four times and it was a great meal every time.

For all of you who participated in the Easter Challenge, keep reading. We'll do other similar challenges soon. There's hardly anything we can all do to grow and go deeper in our faith than daily Bible reading. So don't stop now. Read and reflect. Listen to God speak.