57: Salty and Lit
We need light, we need salt and we need Jesus. He calls us to be salt and light in this world - to shake His flavor and show His flame. When we absorb His rays and marinate in His flavor through the Word, we show up as Functional Christians - being the hands of feet of Jesus in the world.
In this week’s episode we are meshing Functional Nutrition with Functional Christianity for a look at how to live out our calling to be salty and lit.
EPISODE 57: Salty and Lit
SHOW NOTES
(0:00) Intro
(0:44) Welcome back to the club!
Happy Easter - the Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed.
Today we’re going to talk about being salty and lit.
It might sound like we’re about to talk about a drunk angry sailor - Salty and Lit - in slang terms this would mean angry and drunk. But that’s not where we’re going with this. We’re talking about being Salty and Lit in Biblical terms. We’re talking about showing up with the flavor and light of Christ in this world which is what we are called to do as followers of Jesus Christ.
I have to give credit to Father Casey, the rector at my church, it was one of his sermons a while back that sparked the idea for this podcast. He brought up the idea of Functional Christianity which pertains to the way we function as Christians in the world. It really resonated with me because it reminded me of the term Functional Nutrition which is my approach to practicing holistic nutrition.
Functional Nutrition means considering every aspect of somebody’s health, the body as a whole working, operating system
Diet, lifestyle - including sleep patterns, stress levels, daily schedule, any specific conditions - everything that pertains to how someone shows up in the world now must be taken into account so that we can determine what we need to do to support how they actually WANT to show up in the world.
This is my jam as a Christian nutritionist - to help you better your health so that you can get out into the world and be everything God created you to be without being held back by a health condition or a weight problem or an obsession over food and diets and scales. We are here to be salty and lit in this world - to put the flavor of Christ in people’s lives, to be a light that glorifies Him.
When we feel well, we serve well. That is Functional Nutrition and that is Functional Christianity and it’s what we’re going to explore today.
(3:32) Isaiah 58:1-11
Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Announce to my people their crime
and to the house of Jacob their sins.
For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
Like a nation that acted righteously,
That didn’t abandon their God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own family?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you open your heart to the hungry
And provide abundantly for those who are afflicted,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Basically the people are like what’s up God? We seek you, we ask you for justice, we fast, we practice the holy rituals and acknowledge the holy days and you don’t even take notice. What’s the point in doing all of this if you’re not going to show up for us? They felt like God had abandoned them, that He wasn’t active or present.
And God is like - you may be checking off the boxes, got your Holy Moves down pat - but it’s empty, you may be in attendance but you’re not showing up. You serve your own interest during your fasts - not my interests - You’re arguing during fasts, using it as an excuse to treat people poorly, you’re hiding from your own family instead of helping them.
You’re not practicing in the spirit of what this means - feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the poor, don’t hide yourself from family, be good to them. This is the time to work on my behalf, to let the light of my glory shine through you. These are not “works” to earn you something from me but for you to be a light to the people.
How many of US are “in attendance” but not showing up?
Am I showing up? Am I fully present?
(7:53) Fasting:
I may be fasting but am I only doing it for the physical benefits and not for the spiritual ones?
This passage focuses so much on fasting and it got me to thinking about how often I choose my fasting times based on my convenience.
In Feast 2 Fast® we do both intermittent fasting of 12-16 hours but we also do Superfasts that are longer than that. I always encourage my Feast 2 Fasters to look at their schedules and choose a day that they will be most successful.
When we look at Biblical people - their fasts were basically scheduled around holy occasions, or maybe there would be an impromptu fast called in times of crisis.
I think of Esther and how she fasted for 3 days in face of crisis. None of these fasts were scheduled to someone’s convenience and I think as we become more practiced in our fasting, as we seek to grow past the infant stages of our Christian walk and seek deeper meaning and discipline.
Eat, Fast, Feast by Jay W. Richards
Greater Health God’s Way by Stormie O’Martian
(11:00) The Salt and the Light:
So God was essentially telling the people that shallow worship and checking off boxes does not please Him. He wants his light taken out into the world.
That took on even more meaning when God came to earth as Jesus, took on the sin and suffering of the world and gave us salvation.
John 8:12 tells us Jesus is the light of the world.
In Matthew 5:13-16 Jesus tells:
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead they put it on a lampstand, and it shines light to all who are in the house. In the same way, Let your light so shine before people, that they may see the good things you do and glorify your Father in heaven.
What is Jesus saying here - be God’s flavor, be His light
You know We can’t live without light:
We have so many light sensors in our body meant to absorb natural light.
Our light exposure helps set our circadian rhythm - which determines how we release hormones -especially cortisol and melatonin.
The light tells our bodies how to behave throughout the day and the night. And we can make the most beautiful parallel to Jesus - who is light. When we absorb Him through the word and the Holy Spirit, his light will also direct our day and our night in the best way.
In the same way we can’t live without light we can’t live without salt:
It is essential to the body.. You will die if you don’t have enough! Are you seeing a pattern here? Salt, light and Jesus - you can’t live without them.
Salt is responsible for so many functions in the body. It's needed to transmit nerve impulses, contract and relax muscle fibers (including those in the heart and blood vessels), and maintain a proper fluid balance.
Balanced Blood Sugar: Salt can actually improve insulin sensitivity (so makes your blood sugar levels- and energy!- more stable throughout the day).
Optimal Digestion: Salt is necessary to maintain an acidic stomach pH because of its chloride content. With proper production of hydrochloric (stomach) acid, the pH of your stomach will stay between 1.5-2.0. If the pH is more alkaline, food will be incompletely digested.
Less Stress: Salt has been shown to reduce the levels of circulating stress hormones, mainly cortisol. This can also lead to metabolic benefits as high cortisol levels can contribute to weight gain and hypothyroidism.
Mighty Minerals: Magnesium deficiency is very common in our country, due to the prevalence of highly-processed, nutrient-devoid food. Even if you’ve switched to real food, you may still be slightly deficient. Salt content affects aldosterone, the hormone which regulates water and mineral balance. More salt in the diet will increase the absorption of magnesium and other essential minerals.
Soothing Sleep: Sufficient sodium in the diet allows for decreased excitatory neurotransmitters, which promotes the action of serotonin and melatonin (our sleep-inducing hormones). This allows you to fall asleep more quickly & stay asleep for longer.
Don’t be afraid of salt. The concern is getting too much from poor sources like processed and canned foods. Also, you don’t want to rely on iodized salt which has been stripped off so many important minerals.
Your best options are something like Redmond Real Salt - which is unrefined and comes from a mine in Utah - or Celtic Grey Salt. Those are both good choices.
Salt cleanses, purifies and brings flavor. As our Savior Jesus has cleansed and purified us. Because of Him we are given the power of the Holy Spirit which lives within us.
If you marinate in what God says about you, in the truth and promises of His word - THAT is the flavor you will impart to the world.
(16:16) Colassians 4:6
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
Our salt is the love, peace, grace and hope we bring into the world - we help to purify. And Jesus is pretty clear that this is our purpose - He’s like if you’ve lost your salitness - what are you good for? There’s nothing else more important than this - Be salty!
We have to ask ourselves as Christians…
Am I being salty? Am I being light?
You know, both in the passages from Isaiah and Matthew is the mention of being a light to those close to us.
Being salty and lit starts with the people in your house, with the people closest to you. Not just being present, but showing up and practicing love, grace and peace.
Are we shining for our families and are we teaching them to shine?
Are we going to be Salt free, light free christians like the Israelites who were checking off the boxes but not bringing the flavor or the flame? Or are we going to be salty and lit? Shaking our flavor and shining our lights in the world?
Jesus lives and we keep him alive in our actions and our words - by sharing the good news of forgiveness and salvation, of peace and hope, of love and joy. We are the hands and feet of His love in the world, we are His people, If we’re not representin’ and teaching our babies to represent - who will?
(18:45) Outro & Disclaimer
Thanks for listening! Have a healthy and blessed week!