I have a friend from Korea whose name is Yong; she’s brilliant, beautiful, kind, and her food is delicious. She’s taught me how to make some really delectable dishes, including the side dish kimchee.
Kimchi is a fermented food high in probiotics and full of spices. You chop up the vegetables, including daikon, Napa cabbage, spring onions, and mustard greens. With the right amount of salt and spices, a few days later you have kimchee.
Normally, when you leave food in a jar on your kitchen counter for days, it rots. It spoils and you throw it away. Not so with kimchee. Your friends will ask you for it! So what prevents your food from spoiling? The secret is salt!
Jesus talked about salt, didn’t He?
13“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
Matthew 5:13
Salt gets a bad rap because we overuse it and get hypertension. Salt in the right amount gives you kimchee instead of rotted food.
You, Christian, are salt. You flavor the world with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self control. Take all of you out of the world (for example, through a Revelation chapter 4 event) and what do you have left?
Salt is a preservative. So you too restrain evil by your prayers, your witness, and your life. You may not be able to restrain all of it, but you do make a difference!
Fermented foods all use salt. It’s essential just like you are. They vary in the spices, like kimchi uses Korean red pepper and other spices. You don’t wanna use chili powder or paprika in it; you want to use the right pepper to make it taste right. Do you have your own unique gifts? Oh that’s by design! You are special for a reason.
Kimchee is not for everyone. It’s spicy. Neither are you. Some people are not going to like you, but some people didn’t like Jesus either. He gave them the breath of life and they crucified Him. So don’t fret when someone doesn’t like you. You are in good company.
In Jesus’ day, they didn’t have Tupperware or plastic bags to keep salt, and if humidity got to the salt, it would ruin it. They couldn’t throw it into the fields because in the crops wouldn’t grow so they put it on the streets.
Don’t lose your saltiness!
Following Jesus 