It has been awhile since I have written. I have been posting shortened messages on social media and getting the ministry podcast going. But today I went to a different church than I normally go to. I was there last week as well. Both of these Sunday’s I had children give their life to Jesus Christ and make the public profession of faith (baptism).

While last weeks message was a great spirit filled message, this week was a bit different. Who has been somewhere are hearing a message and you get that little feeling that something is off in the message? Something is said that makes you go home, grab scripture and start studying the content of the message given. That was today.

There were two points of the message that I had a hard time accepting at that moment. I’ll explain both in a moment. But there are times that we must trust that tingling in our sense, because it could be the Holy Spirit nudging you. Today, that was what happened.

The first point I want to hit on was taken from Joshua 4:10-14. The content of the message at this point was that, like the priests, we are to stand and rest so others can have the ability to run forward. In the case of this passage, those running forward were running into the land to battle the enemy as God commanded.

That did not set right in my spirit. Isaiah does tell us to wait on God and then to run and God gives us the strength. Paul mentions running in a few Epistles. In his letter to the Philippians he says ‘Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?’ (1 Cor 9:24). He tells the Galatian church ‘Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?’ (Galatians 5:7). And he tells us in Hebrews ‘Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us’ (Hebrews 12:1).

We are to run the race given us not stop nor let others run in our stead. When we get tired, God has already said he will give us the needed strength. The prize we run after is not of gold or silver. It is doing God’s will until Christ comes back or when we fall asleep in Him, awaiting the resurrection to come where we will be eternally with Him.

Another point that got to me was when the the pastor was talking about salt. She made the comment that to be healed, we need to be away from salt (she used the idea of saltwater). Her statement was that we needed to get out of the salt water so our wounds would be healed. First and foremost, Christ already did that. Isaiah prophesied ‘But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed’ (Isaiah 53:5). And it came to pass at the pillar with Pontius Pilate (Mark 15:15, John 18:28-19:11). And culminated at the cross (Matthew 27:33-61, Mark 15:21-47, Luke 23:33-56, John 19:17-42).

Since she used the word salt, I want to make a non scriptural point and then move into what the scriptures say about salt in the view of our faith. Any meat-cutter can tell you, they have a container of curing salt near them in case they get cut. Why? Because even though the salt burns when it is in a wound, it also heals the wound. I learned this through experience. So the idea that one needs to avoid salt for healing, on a purely non-faith level is in error.

Now lets look at how salt is viewed in a few areas of scripture. In Leviticus, the area of scripture that has the different offerings set by God, we are told that salt is to be used as an offering. ‘And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from the meat offering’ (Leviticus 2:13). Here, salt at the offering is a seasoning. This corresponds with the seasoning of the words of the Gospel in the letter to the Colossians. ‘Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that they may know how ye ought to answer every man’ (Colossians 4:6).

There is a former Anglican priest that I watch from time to time that uses salt as his sign off. He incorporates a couple different verses. These are Matthew 5:13 ‘Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cats out, and be trodden under foot of men.’ And Mark 9:50 ‘Salt is good; but if the salt has lost his saltiness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.’

These two small points in a full message may have been a misinterpretation or a fumbling. I would assume that a pastor of the Gospel of Christ would not intentionally go against scripture when scripture plainly contradicts the points in a message.

I bring this to the reader for a few reasons. The first being that pastors can make mistakes, they are not perfect and need our prayers. The second is, that false preachers and teachers will appear as sheep but are actually wolves in disguise to mislead the followers of Christ. Matthew 15:17 says this ‘Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves’.

We are also warned of false messages that will come. ‘But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you that that ye have received, let him be accursed’ (Galatians 1:8-9).

I fully understand that mistakes can happen. A pastor being tired, misreading or misquoting, etc can make a message seem different than it is meant to be. And this article is not to bash the pastor. What it is meant to do is remind us of two things. The first being, pay attention to the Holy Spirit. It will set of a bell in your spirit if something is not quite right. The second is to be like the Bereans and check everything that is said. ‘And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so’ (Acts 17:10-11)

The messages we give, as a pastor, teacher, or evangelist has to be in direct relation and not contradictory to the Scriptures. The Scriptures are God’s letter to mankind. So when a message is given it must be given in full truth. When received, it must be checked against the word of God for truth.