Salty Speech or Salted Fields?

There are so many times that I have read different posts on Facebook by Christians that are not very Christ-like. I read people bashing men, belittling others of either gender, making racist statements, and generally speaking in a very unkind, unloving way. Recently I read a status of one Christian who swore in the status and included statements about how Karma is going to bite their enemy's donkey (at least the word that King James' used for donkey). This really bothers me.

To be honest, much of what is said and done via the internet bothers me and the reason is this: we are seeing so many people who wouldn't dare to make statements of this nature in "real life," yet when they sit behind their keyboard, they become all fired up and uninhibited. The problem is that people are getting fired up over the wrong reasons and as a result, they are utterly destroying their witness and assassinating their own character. 

Now, I COULD discuss the fact that Karma is NOT found in the Bible and is part of another religion entirely, but I won't. I am going to stick to my subject here (surprising I know) and speak to the fact that many Christians have trouble with "Salty Speech or Salted Fields."

As you may or may not know, many times when a conquering army breached the walls of the city or town that they had fought against and they dragged the defeated people away, the conquerors would sow salt into the fields around the city. The purpose of that would be to ensure that nothing would grow for a very long time. 

By doing this, the conquering army ensured that their enemy would not return to the city which had been taken. This was done most notably at the conclusion of the Third Punic War between the Republic of Rome and Carthage (a Phoenician colony) which took place approximately between 149-146 BC. When Rome sacked Carthage, they sowed salt into the fields so that any remaining Carthaginians would be unable to grow any crops in that location. 

Simply put, this was a very destructive process. It was an action that was so damaging that it could not be taken back. By the same token, we as Christians are told in Colossians 4:5-6, "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."

A little bit of salt has been proven to be good for you. A recent study showed that people who had a small amount of salt each day had considerably fewer cases of heart disease than people who had a lot, or none at all in their diet. Salt is almost a necessity in our lives for proper health (as long as it is within reason). That is the key though; we must have it in reason. 

Our speech is to be "seasoned with salt" not overflowing with it. Normally when I read the kind of status that I am writing about, I just keep my mouth shut and shake my head. Last night though, I had to make a statement of my own. This is what I wrote, "I am of the opinion that far too many people take things too far. Instead of having their speech savoured as with salt, they decide to sow salt into the fields of people's lives. Nothing will grow in salted fields, and a love for the Christ you claim to worship will certainly not grow in a life that you have poisoned with your speech."

I do not regret what I wrote because I am not afraid to take a stand. I get infuriated when I read posts that attempt to shame you into reposting them. I am NOT ashamed of Jesus Christ, my Lord, but I will NOT post a status that is telling people to go back to their own countries if they don't agree with Christmas. I wholeheartedly believe that we need to keep Christ in Christmas, but picking on immigrants will not solve the issue. Must I remind us all that the majority of our country immigrated here at some point? Unless your ancestry is 100% pure Native, then you are descended from an immigrant! 

I guess the gist of what I am trying to say is this: don't post things that are hateful. Don't post things that are mean or cruel. Don't post things that are offensive, and most certainly don't post things that will damage people's view of Jesus. As has been said so many times before, "We may be the only Jesus this world ever sees."

If you are a Christian, you are an ambassador for Christ. You are representing Jesus to the world around you. Make sure that you do not tarnish the image, or run through the mud the precious name of Jesus. We lament the fact that people want nothing to do with church or with our message, but the question I put to you is this: have you had salty speech or have you been sowing salt into fields? 

Have you been showing Jesus to the world or have you been making sure that nothing will grow in that field that is a person's heart? What will you leave behind you when you have left the scene, Salty Speech or Salted Fields? I pray that it will be a positive difference you make and not a negative one.

God bless,

Binyamin Pas 

(Benjamin Pass in English) 

What is Worth Having...

I'm sure you all know the olde saying, "What is worth having is worth waiting for." It is so true! The best things in life ARE worth waiting for. Oh, the wait may not be fun at times, and there will be times that you may wonder if you will ever find what you have waited for, but if you will trust in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart as it says in Psalm 37:4.

I love the account that is recorded in Genesis 29 of Jacob waiting for Rachel. The short version is this: Jacob made a deal that if he would work for Laban for seven years, Rachel would be given to him to be his wife. We know of course that Laban tricked Jacob and became the cause of much pain and frustration by giving Leah to Jacob as his wife instead of Rachel whom he loved. Jacob worked another seven years before Rachel was given to him as his wife.

The thing that always sticks out to me is verse 20 which says, "So Jacob worked for seven years to acquire Rachel. But they seemed to him as only a few days because his love for her was so great." What is worth having, who is worth having is worth waiting for. I have waited my whole life to be with the one that God had planned for me. Yes, I went off in my own way a couple of times and was hurt, but it was all for a purpose.

While the song was over used a few years back, I love the song that says simply, "God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you". We all have our trials that we face, and sometimes the road we journey down is rough, broken and hard to travel, but it is always worth it in the end. I am so glad that I didn't give up, and that I waited for the one that I love. I am so glad that God brought us together.

I am so glad that I waited for Laverne, and that in two weeks we will be together again. We will begin a life together and not have to be separated by so much distance. She is truly worth waiting for! I encourage any who are out there waiting, to stay strong and wait because it will be worth it. God always has a plan in place for us, and if you wait for His plan, you will find joy and love unlike anything else that is out there.

God bless!

Aliens Among Them

Greetings fellow aliens!

We live in a world that wonders if or where life on other planets may exist. This has been an obsession ever since the Roswell Incident. It has been the subject of countless movies, books, television shows, etc. Are there aliens among us? I believe that there are, and in fact I will admit to you today that I AM an alien! I do not come from this planet, nor will I remain here forever. The difference from the movies could not be more striking though. I did not arrive in some interplanetary craft, nor do I have super-powers or grey skin. By now many of you are wondering what in the worlds am I talking about. Have I truly gone off my rocker? Am I serious to think that I am an alien?

The Bible records in Philippians 3:20, "For our citizenship is in Heaven, from which also we are looking for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ..."

Simply put, we are not citizens of this earth. We can read in the Great Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:13-14 that, "These all died by way of faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. And they were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they who say such things declare plainly that they seek a fatherland." 


Once again we see that we are strangers and pilgrims in this world. And of course the old term for a foreigner or someone that does not belong in a certain area is....you guessed it, "alien". The word used for "strangers" in that last portion of Scripture is the word "xenos" which literally means "alien or guest".

We are not from this world. We are strangers and aliens. We will not remain on this world either. The day will come when our King will step out on a cloud and call us home. It will not be a matter of, "Beam us up" but rather, "Come home."

We can see in I Thessalonians 4:16-17, "For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall ever be with the Lord."

Alien abductions will likely be blamed in the day in which we are raptured, but while it is close to the truth, it is still wrong. It will not be alien abductions, but rather alien migration as we return to the place where we belong. We will stand in Heaven, in our Home, and finally be where we belong. In the meantime though, we are the aliens that walk among all those other people on the world. They can come along with us, but it is up to us to tell them that home is waiting for them. It will then be up to them as to whether or not they will accept the offer that our Lord gives us of home and eternal life.

So in signing off, may I quote another famous alien by saying:

"Live long and prosper!"

Doors

We've all heard the saying that whenever God closes a door, He opens another one. There is never a time in life that we are stuck if we have placed our trust in the Lord. There are times that God closes a particular door and we have no idea why! The "door" may be any number of things but whatever it is, we don't like having a door closed in our faces. We are creatures of habit, and we like to take the easy road through life. I mean, who wants to choose the hard way if there is an easy way? Would you rather drive to Halifax or walk? It is a simple thing. Well sometimes the reason that God closes the doors that we are ready to walk through is because He is sparing us from something. Maybe the reason that your car broke down on the way to Halifax (we'll use that as our example), is to keep you from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe if there wasn't some delay, you would end up in a serious accident. Maybe there would have been something even worse if you hadn't have been delayed.

Sometimes though, instead of closing a door to spare you, God closes a door to give you something much better. Years ago, Monty Hall hosted the game show "Let's Make a Deal." Now, there is a remake but the premise is the same. You are presented with blind options and you must choose which prize you would rather have. For example: "Would you like the money or what's behind door number 2?" We need to remember that to God, these are not blind options. He is omniscient, which is a fifty-cent word for all-knowing. He knows what is behind each and every door that we face in life.

I speak from experience when I say that if God closes a door, it is because He has something so much better in store for you; you just need to trust Him. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us about the fact that God has a plan for each of us. This plan is to give us a future and hope. God's plans are never to harm us or be detrimental to our journey with Him. So, sometimes God closes a door to protect us, and sometimes it is to reward us, and it is also a way for Him to give us something so much better than what we had before. As I said, I speak from experience.

I had a really hard time a while back when it seemed like the door to my future was slammed shut on me. Little did I know at the time how happy I would be once the door was closed. God always blesses those who will remain faithful to Him even during hard times. When doors are closed in life, instead of looking at what you "lost" instead look at all that you have. I still have a wonderful, loving family. I have a very bouncy, perpetually happy beagle who is truly one of this man's best friends. I still have my ministry and the calling on my life. In addition, God has since opened other doors in my life, one of which I am especially thrilled about.

For those of you who have me on facebook or talk to me regularly, you know that I am dating an absolutely wonderful woman named Laverne. She is a kind, sweet, loving, compassionate, thoughtful and caring person, and she will probably turn beet red reading this because she is so humble as well. Right now we are many miles apart, but as those of you who truly know what love is, physical distance does not dictate the heart. You can be directly beside someone and never have a real connection, or it can be a forced one.

On the other hand though, you can be miles away and still have such a strong connection to someone. I am so glad, and I thank the Lord that He DID close the doors that He did. Without them being closed, I never would have met my Verny. She truly is special, and proof that God always knows what He is doing. He brought two people together that likely never would have met, and built a bond between us that is only strengthened each day. To those of you out there who are still standing in front of closed doors, it is time to realize that God has a much better plan. That plan may be behind door number 2 or 3 or whatever, but God knows where He is leading. Won't you let Him lead you?

PB Jr.

Family Time

Hi followers of my blog! 

I just thought I would do a bit of writing tonight and let you know what's going on in the Pass household. Tonight we started doing something that I have been looking forward to for months! It all started back when we were kids. When Matthew, Alannah and I were kids (we never were little), we would always take time together as a family to read at night. We would read a chapter or so every night.

Anyway, a couple of months ago I got thinking about it, and thought that it would be a nice thing to start up again. You see, it is so easy for everyone to get going their separate ways, and never really spend time together as a family. So for us, we have 5 books picked out, and though it will take a long time to get through them all, we are going to have fun with it. 

There are so many people who lament the fact that their families are not closer. Sometimes it takes a determination to make sure that you will set aside time for your family no matter what life brings your way. I know that I do enjoy spending time with my family, and this is just another way that we can do so. Maybe reading isn't your thing, but in my humble opinion, everyone should determine to spend time with their family, and don't let anything get in the way of that. Don't let TV consume your time, or work, or gyms or anything else. God needs to be first in our lives, and family needs to be second. Everything else can come afterwards. 

Just a thought.

Beagles: The Beautiful Disaster

I know that today many people are blogging and talking about the brand new year. It has been unspoiled by heartache and frustrations, and is a time of new beginnings. I'm not thinking about the new year right now though. I am thinking about my beagle Daisy Mae.

I heard the term "beautiful disaster" years ago, and I think that it perfectly fits Miss Daisy. She is a sweet little ball of fur. She can look at you with those big, sad eyes and melt your heart. She can curl up against you in the bed and let a huge sigh out of that tiny body and make you feel so happy. Yet there are also times that you hear that high-pitched whine accompanied by the scratching at the door that makes you wish she knew how to use the toilet instead of having to go outside. And then there are the times that she goes outside simply to "sniff the flowers;" a term that I use for when she does absolutely NOTHING!

I don't know if all beagles are like my Daisy, but she is certainly interesting to say the least. I have never had a dog that chewed shoes, yet if you fail to keep your shoes in the entryway, she will roll around, play with the laces and start chewing on them. She will stick her little head into the edges of the couch and find tiny pieces of chips that no one even cares about much less remembers. The chewing, the whining, the bumming for food, and the standing on your shoulders to lick out your ears are things that make Daisy a disaster.

BUT, there are also the times that she lays down on the couch beside you, places her head on your leg and goes to sleep. There are those times that she looks up at you and gives you a little lick on the cheek and lets you know that you have a friend that loves you no matter what.

Just a moment, she needs to go outside again.

Okay, back again. I love the quote by Charles Shulz, "Happiness is a warm puppy." Daisy is a hound through and through. At night, she'll push me over in bed so that she can curl up at my back and watch the door. There are the times like today when I am sick, and she comes back downstairs to see if I'm okay. I hear the unmistakable thump, thump, thump of her running down the stairs, and then she seems to fly from the doorway to my bed and she sniffs me all over to see why I'm still in bed.

I am a hound person, and I dare say that I am now a beagle person. Despite the annoyance and frustration, despite the disaster that is beagle-dom, the warmth and love of Daisy is all that I could ask for. She is a good dog, and good dogs show perfect love; they love you no matter what, and always want you to be happy. If more of us were like good dogs, we would see a real difference in this world. If we all loved each other no matter what and put the happiness of others above that of ourselves, what a world we would see!

No, we won't always do it right. We may very well turn it into disaster, but like the beagle, we need to shake ourselves and try again to make people smile. Daisy is a little clown, but I love her.