13 ‘YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH.
14 ‘YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Matthew 5
Matthew 5 is the beginning of the Beatitudes, where Jesus went up on the hillside and began to speak to the crowds. Early on in His discourse He made these two statements to His audience, ‘You are the SALT OF THE EARTH. You are the LIGHT OF THE WORLD’. He told them, and us, that part of the main reason we’re here is to carry God’s presence with us wherever we go. We are to be ambassadors of the Kingdom of God to the lost people we come into contact with. If we fail to activate this call upon our lives, then we and others will lose out! Our lives should show something different that draws people and for sure, each of us will have opportunities to touch lives that no-one else will. It’s not about becoming red hot evangelists, but allowing God presence to be seen in and through our lives. Somehow in 2025 we need to promote God and His Kingdom, because that’s the only hope for those we encounter.
3 They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’ Genesis 11
Genesis 11 is the beginning of the account of the Tower of Babel, when men DECIDED TO BUILD WITHOUT GOD. They were intent on making ‘a name for themselves’, God wasn’t present anywhere in their thinking. This is still the motivation in the world today, God is superfluous to the needs of many and unfortunately it’s also true of many in the Church.
5 But the LORD CAME DOWN TO SEE the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’ Genesis 11
This building without any thought of God was so significant that God came down to see the situation for Himself and ultimately to stop it. There are many things that men want to build in their own strength that God does not allow. He may stop us building indefinitely, like the Tower of Babel, or it may not yet be the right time for us to build. I received a prophetic word at the end of 2024, when I was told that if I’d been allowed to go ahead and build things, that by now they would have been rubble. The word given to me said, ‘now is my/our time to build’, so God has given a green light to go forward and build. Nehemiah was a builder in his day and I believe that NOW IS THE TIME FOR MANY TO BUILD whatever our hands find to do, but we must remember to KEEP GOD UPFRONT AND CENTRE IN EVERYTHING WE SEEK TO DO. God help us to build wisely in the year ahead and may our work endure and prosper.
May we find many opportunities to be Salt and Light for the Kingdom, today and throughout the forthcoming year.
May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.