Be A Salty Christian

One night the World Cup was playing and everyone was home watching the game except our family. So having some extra time on her hands, she sat down at our table and we started talking.

She said in her unique Irish brogue, “You know, I’m not a Christian, but if I became one, I would go to your church.”

I had invited her to church many times, but this was the first time she opened up about God, faith and spiritual things. I said, “Well, that’s very kind of you, but why do you say that?”

She said, “Because you guys are what I always pictured Christians should be like. You all always seem to be so appy and…” then she seemed at a loss for words as she sought to find the right way to express what she was trying to say. She continued “You seem to be so…fulfilled; that’s the way I’d put it. And you are always kind to me, treating me like I’m really somebody, not a pile of rubbish like many of our customers. And you always tip well.”

It was a slow night at Pizza Hut and I saw a strategic opportunity to share the Gospel with her for just a few moments. That night she listened carefully and seemed very open. She didn’t come to Christ that night, and a little later she and her boyfriend split up and she decided to return to Ireland and we never saw her again.

But if I see her in heaven someday, I believe it might partly be because of a family who tried to be salt in somebody’s life by the way we treated her and by the way we tried to live our lives.

We were salt in her life, by her own confession, making her thirsty for the Living Water.

Illus. – In Evangelism as a Lifestyle, author Jerry Bridges tells a story from his time as a missionary to Brazil. While there, he met a university political science student named Juan who was being swayed to become a Communist.

In their conversation, Jerry invited Juan over to his house to discuss the Bible. Juan came to Jerry’s house and met his sweet wife and little boy and had a pleasant meal with his family. Afterwards he agreed to meet once a week with Jerry to discuss spiritual things.

After two years of this weekly Bible study, Juan became a Christian. Several years later Jerry asked Juan when it was he finally decided to become a Christian. His answer startled him: Juan said he had decided to become a Christian THE DAY HE FIRST CAME FOR THAT MEAL IN JERRY’S HOME.

He went on to explain that he had never seen a man and his family relate to one another the way Jerry’s did. He desperately wanted to know what they had that made them so gentle and loving and caring and supportive of one another.

You see, it wasn’t Jerry’s brilliant Bible exposition for two years that won Juan, though they answered his intellectual questions and settled the decision of his heart as time went by. It was three Christians whose lives were salty and made Juan thirst for the Water of Life that Jerry and his family had.

CONCLUSION

Believer, are you a salty Christian? Do you make life more pleasurable and enjoyable for others through a positive, uplifting, praiseful, kind, gentle, Christ-like spirit? Do you stand for righteousness and have an influence for good and hold back the decay of this sin-ridden world? Do you live such that as others watch the way you live, they get thirsty for Jesus Christ?