Salt and Light

In Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount.  In this sermon He talks about many topics.  One of the topics was "Salt and Light".  This topic is very convicting to me.  Jesus talks about how Christians are the salt of the earth, and if we lose our saltiness how can we become salty again.  He also said, what good does unsalted salt do? NOTHING! Jesus said that unsalted salt should be thrown on the ground and trampled on. "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."  (verse 13) This is very convicting. It makes me think about what I am like. Am I "salty" or not? I really need to work on spreading God's word to people. "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." (verses 14-16) I need to stop thinking selfishly and all about myself. I need to go out of my comfort zone and share the gospel with people. We as Christians need to get out from under the "bowl" and let our light shine. I think that my "bowl" is, I am too scared about what people will think about me, which is ridiculous. I do NOT want to be unsalty salt to where the only good I am is to be thrown on the ground and trampled on. I want to be used to further the Kingdom and be a tool God can use to show people about Him. I think a way that I can do this is set a good example for younger people. I know that when I was little I would look up to the older kids. I should build relationships with younger kids that others aren't reaching out to. This can be a very humbling thing. It will help me get out of my comfort zone and it will make me stop worrying what other people think about me.

Halloween

I do not think Halloween is a bad thing.  I think it is just fine to dress up in fun outfits and go Trick-or-Treating.  There are many people who view Halloween as a devil holiday, and that there is more demonic activity on Halloween, and that by participating in its activities they are participating in devil worship.  However it was really a Celtic holiday to celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of the harvest season.  During the same time, they would celebrate the "festival of the dead" this is when they believed that the evil spirits came out.  they would wear scary masks and outfits to ward off the spirits.  They would also carve faces in turnips and put candles in them, which is where we get the idea of jack-o-lanterns.  The Celtic children would go from door to door entertaining their neighbors with songs, in exchange for candy or money.  This is where we got trick-or-treating.  If Christian's are going to boycott Halloween because it is a pagan holiday, we need to rethink our other holidays, such as Christmas and Easter.  These holidays were both originally pagan holidays that Christians put a spin on to make it okay to celebrate them.  It is kind of hypocritical to boycott one holiday, and not the other.  Some people really do participate in devil worship on Halloween, and I obviously think this is very wrong, and that people should NOT participate in those activities.  But I still do not think that it is wrong to trick-or-treat.