Who is my neighbour?

This is a question that never gets tired or old. It is a question no less valid today as the world gets smaller and we can find out what is going on in far flung countries. Who is my neighbour? Does my heart grow bigger as my horizons do, or does it grow small and hard when I am called upon to care in a costly way? It is a question no less valid today at a time of austerity and belt tightening when it is all too easy to "take care of our own" first and just give our leftovers to others. Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan may be heart warming in its familiarity but there is a heart warning for us too. We are called upon to love in unexpected ways, to see our neighbour as an unexpected person. Spend some time thinking about what this means for you and your faith today.

As ever the team have come up with some beautiful interpretations of the challenge for this fortnight. Why not visit their own blogs and find out more about their thought, inspiration and how they put their art together?

Hazel

Ruth


Lythan

Kim


Pauline

Life is busy

With the kids returning to much of the school routine things have gotten out of hand for me really , no excuse my priorities are out of whack. To much of work , to much facebook and not enough time to enjoy. My Hubby has been working alot and out of town almost everyday getting home very late at night. His sacrifice has kinda left me feeling very uninspired. So when thinking and praying about what to write about this week I thought what a good time to remind myself of those priorities. To put God first in my life, he will fulfill my every need.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (New International Version)

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

God's Righteousness

Last week we had a guest speaker at our church and his sermons really stuck with me as he raised some very common questions that I, and I suspect others, hear frequently when talking about God. One of those questions was, “Is God righteous?”
The only way to effectively answer such a question is to head straight to the Bible. Romans 3:21 states, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.”

Matthew Henry has these helpful comments on these verses, “Never was there such a demonstration of the justice and holiness of God as there was in the death of Christ. It appears that God hates sin, when nothing less than the blood of Christ would satisfy for it. The iniquities of us all being laid upon Him, though he was the Son of his love, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Mercy and truth are so met together, righteousness and peace have so kissed each other, that it is now become not only an act of grace and mercy, but an act of righteousness, in God, to pardon the sins of penitent believers, having accepted the satisfaction that Christ by dying made to his justice for them."

The one thought that I walked away with from hearing those sermons was that God is good. There is nothing in us that deserves God’s favor, it is only His mercy and long suffering that sustains us, even through those times that we walk away from Him or ignore His kindness. It may be argued that we deserve whatever we want or that God’s requirements are too heavy, too hard. Yes, God requires something from us but it is merely faith, faith in the One who was sent to deliver us from our sins. Christ is the answer, He came to take away the sting of death to stand in our place and take the punishment that we deserve. How great is His love and how righteous His works! May God be pleased to show you the love of Christ today!

Thank you so much for allowing us to share these challenges with you, it is a blessing! And we're blessed when you share your artwork and thoughts with us...If you feel inspired by this week's study and/or art please leave us a comment with a link back to your blog or gallery...we'd be delighted to see your creations!

Kim


Lythan
Hazel

Judge not...

Hi there Salt followers, thank you for following our efforts to be SALT.

It's me, Ruth's turn for the in between post.

I've been pondering lately on what it means to judge others. I find it an area in my life that I struggle with. When I don't know the full picture of a situation and somebody does something I don't like I often make a snap judgement about their motivation.

The Bible says

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

This is the way God wants us to live, and these verses are such a clear illustration of how we should examine ourselves first. But even more amazingly, God the righteous, all knowing, holy and loving God, the one who does have the right to judge us does not judge us when we put our faith in Jesus - "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

Speaking With Kindness

I (Julie) have been particularly burdened with verses about our speech lately. As often happens when you have children, I hear them making unkind comments, hear them yelling at each other or saying things that they shouldn't. I have been trying to impress upon them the need to speak to each other with kindness and love - or just not speak at all if that is not possible!

Personally I have always been convicted by Proverb 31:26 "She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness." The note for that verse in the Geneva Study Bible says "Her tongue is a book by which one might learn many good things: for she delights to talk of the word of God." Ouch! Is my speech such that my children "learn many good things?" I desperately want that to be true!

In her book, The Virtuous Woman, Vicki Courtney has a whole chapter about speech. The last paragraph sums it up very nicely:

"A virtuous woman . . . speaks with wisdom because she wisely considers her words because she wisely considers her words before she opens her mouth. When in the presence of gossip or hearsay, the law of kindness remains on her tongue. With an awesome fear of the Lord, she is quick to remember ' that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken' (Matt. 12:36)."

Please consider joining us by creating a card or project with this week's topic and please leave us a link to it! In the meantime, enjoy the beautiful creations the design team has come up with

Julie

.

Pauline

Kim

Hazel

'Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt.' Colossians 4:6:



Tanis

Ruth

Lythan

A new year of priorities challenge update

The 'New year of priorities' challenge by Tanis is still open - please go to the challenge here.

So far we have had these two lovely creations:

From Elisha (you can read what she wrote here):


From Lee (you can read what she wrote here):

Thank you, ladies for your beautiful contributions.

If anyone else contributes something for this, please leave us a comment and a link to your creation so we can come and have a look.

And don't forget that Tanis is kindly offered to send her beautiful digital stamp set to anyone who responds to the challenge. Elisha and Lee please let Tanis have your email addresses so she can send you the digital stamps - her email address is on her blog.

To enter please leave a link in the comments section of Tanis' original post here.

Facing the Day

“The time just before dawn contains the most energy of all hours of the day. This has helped me become an early riser and an early doer.... When I wake to see that it's light out already, I feel like the world has started without me.”

_____

“If people were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters.”

_____

Are you an early riser or the sort of person who prefers a lie in and leisurely start to the day? I started a new job in August which involves a longer commute Monday to Friday. I was full of trepidation about this, how would I cope getting up earlier (I really like my sleep and struggle if I don’t get enough!), would the change in routine for the family have adverse affects, would I hate the hour-long drive…

Several weeks into it and I’m enjoying it a lot. I’m not usually too tired to function in the mornings, I have time to sit and have breakfast and some quiet time before waking everyone else up, the family are adjusting well to the new routine and are actually benefitting from being up and about slightly earlier than previously, and I enjoy the drive to work.

I’ve found it particularly important to have that little bit of time to myself before I wake everyone else up. I get up, have a shower, get dressed then go downstairs to let the dogs out and get breakfast for myself. I do a lot of thinking at that time of day, during the lull between getting up and the ‘activity’ of the day beginning. It’s my time for talking quietly to God and putting the new day into his hands. My day never goes quite so well when I’ve been in too much of a rush to have that time. I always feel there’s something missing when I’ve rushed headlong into the day.

“Morning by morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; morning by morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.”Psalm 5:3

The Psalmist starts his day by talking to God. He lays his requests before God and then waits. He doesn’t ‘do’ anything, he doesn’t try to provide answers himself, he just waits. As Christians it is important is to find that time to talk to God, to lay our requests before Him and then simply wait.