Truth

TRUTH - such a powerful concept.

So rooted in the character of God, important enough to make it one of the Ten Commandments yet so easily dismissed in day to day life. I've lost count of the times when people have told me they had to tell a 'white' lie, or when I have exagerated or underplayed a fact so save face. Often we try and justify these things but u

ltimately they do offend our Holy God who knows the truth and wa

nts us to be truthful about ourselves and to speak truth.

The meaning of the word truth has been slightly twisted by the way it is used. In a recent sermon I heard the preacher explained that the phrase 'being true to yourself' was often an excuse people give to why the behave in a certain way. Yes we should face the reality of our sinful motivations, and acknowledge when we have failed God, but the truth is we must not excuse it.
The TRUTH is, that God has created a way in which he will remember our sin no more, and that truth can set us free from the bondage of UNTRUTH. Our enemy the devil will so often through untruth at us and ultimately he does this so that our faith will weaken and our winess become useless. How we must keep reading the word of truth to remind us of the wonderful promises of God that he has never broken.
Please enjoy the pieces that myself (Ruth) and the team have created for your inspiration. Please meditate on how the Truth of God is a reality and how we can practice being truthful and speaking truth in love to others. We would love to see any creations you make on this theme, please leave us a comment and we'll pop by!

Ruth

Kim

Hazel

Pauline


Lythan

God's everlasting love

Hi, Hazel here with the 'in between' post. In a few days' time it will be Valentine's day and there seems to be a lot of love around atm - in crafting challenges anyway!

Our own current Salt challenge is about love - love for our enemies - you will find the post here - and it's not too late to create something and link for our challenge as we still have a week until the next one.

It doesn't come naturally to us to love our enemies - 'We love because he first loved us.' (1 John 4:19).

Sadly, human love can sometimes let us down, but God's love is everlasting - Psalm 136 is a testimony to this fact - so many times throughout the Psalm the writer says: 'His love endures forever'.

And He is so generous: 'See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! ' (1 John 3:1).

'For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.' (John 3:16)

'Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.' (John 15:13)

We pray that you will respond to God's love and accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.

Loving our Enemies

Hi, it's Pauline with this week's challenge. I asked the SALT team to reflect on Luke 6:27-36 where we are challenged to love our enemies. I had an interesting discussion with some teenagers recently where they were talking about how we behave when we are with friends, and how differently we behave when around people we are less comfortable with or who we don't like. Being in a Religious and Moral Education class, the talk inevitably turned to religion and it was suggested that people who follow a command such as 'love your enemies' are pushovers, weak-willed people who cannot stand up for themselves. However, one pupil, summoning every ounce of courage they had, said that they thought the strongest person was the one who could rise above what people were saying to them and not end up in a fight at lunchtime. As a side note I work in a school for pupils with additional support needs and behavioural issues, so fights happen regularly and not just at lunchtime!

"Turning the other cheek" has made it into the English language as an expression meaning to go out of your way to avoid a nasty confrontation. Even though provoked, instead of lashing out, you turn the other cheek. The natural human reaction is to retaliate. On an almost daily basis we have pupils getting into fights over the smallest comment. We work with a restorative approach where we try to help the pupils understand their own behaviour and why they reacted the way they did.

People who have known each other for years can sometimes get into arguments (parents with children, couples, friends etc); tensions that may have been simmering for years boil over once again. And with the boiling comes anger, and with anger a willingness not just to defend, but to strike back. To get an advantage. To have the last word. To wound.

Though Jesus' instruction to turn the other cheek is intended to mean when dealing with a sworn enemy, the principle applies to every area of our lives. Don't retaliate. Don't hit back. This isn't easy though! My layout shows a class photo from when I was in my final year at school. Not all the people in the photo were friends, some went out of their way to make me miserable (or so it seemed at the time). It has taken me a long time to come to a place of acceptance where I don't find myself bearing a grudge against people who made me unhappy. I can't say that I've necessarily reached the place where I can love my enemies, but I believe that I have reached a more healthy stage.

I hope you enjoy the team's creations on the theme. It's not an easy one to contemplate and I really appreciate their willingness to think about things that are not necessarily happy things to contemplate. Remember to link back to us if you create something on the theme. We'd love to see your interpretations.

Pauline
Stacy

Kim

Lythan

Hazel



Ruth