Wildfire
If salt looses its flavour, it's good for nothing. When a light is covered up, it's useless. That's what Jesus says in Matthew 5. He's being deliberately challenging. He causes me to ask questions like: Is the church super-salty and super-sharp right now, God's outstanding flavour in a broken world?
Is it an inextinguishable light that cannot be put out, set on a hill, shining for all to see? Taking a look around, I don't think it describes the church around the world right now. If the church was the super-salty and ultra-bright light Jesus describes, the pace of transformation in the world, UK or Uganda, would be more rapid than it is. Let's make it a little more personal: Is my life and your life super-salty, super-sharp right now? Are you and I an inextinguishable light that cannot be put out, set on a hill, shining for all to see? It may be different for you, but I'm not sure, if I'm honest, that this describes my life right now. This is not about turning up at church on Sunday, calling yourself Christian and saying prayers before you go to bed. It's about the temperature of your relationship with God. The radiant heat in my life and your life that scorches the world around each of us. How close are you positioning yourself to him? If you're caught up in the Maker's furnace, your temperature will increase. His spirit shines out of you. The people you live with, the people you hang out with, are left in no doubt that God, described in the Bible as the Refining Fire, is burning brightly within you. In Freedom Church we call this Wildfire.