The Hazards of Immobility- Salt Loss is Killing Me

The effects of immobility on the human body are manifested in seven major ways. The profound effects on the metabolic system are pronounced and manifest themselves in a number of very noticeable ways, but it the creeping things that are not visible are perhaps the most deadly.

• Tissues in the body are shrunken (yes, I am with you on this one- I could use a little shrinkage myself)
• Bones demineralize and become very soft, and breakage is very likely
• The body turns on itself and begins to metabolize the protein of your body- your muscles waste away (again, I have one muscle that grows easily. . . table muscle, but the rest are hard to keep in shape)
• One of the most insidious things that happens is on the cellular level, though. The exchange of essential salts of the body are altered, and there is a wicking away of these vital mineral compounds that if left unchecked will cause death
• When you are lying down for prolonged periods especially, your vessels dilate or open up. This causes your body to sweat in order to release the heat that comes with that dilation. When you sweat like this, you lose tremendous amounts of potassium, chloride and sodium.
• It effects the hormone system of your body and cause that system to go hay wire
• It effects the natural rhythms of your body, and whether the individual is asleep or not, bedridden patients are at the low ebb of this release of hormones, of which sleep is dependent. It’s like being asleep while you eyes are wide open.
I promise that this will not be a lecture from Nursing 101. But I think that there are some powerful spiritual parallels in this malfunction of the body. I have observed a great number of patients that these levels of electrolytes bounce around, sometimes drastically. So dramatic is the difference from day to day that if care was not undertaken to remedy this, the patient would die.

One of the most surprising things that I encountered early in my career as a nurse was the effect sodium had on the ability of the patient to reason and think. Your body works best in a fairly confined range for all of these electrolytes, but the effects of sodium on the mind is profound.

If it gets low, the patient doesn’t think very well. His brain can be perfectly well, his body can be perfectly well, but if the sodium drops too low, it will appear that something is dramatically wrong with him.

In the text tonight, we read a very familiar passage, one that has been turned to many times over. But I would like to lift that passage out of scripture and place it on a pedestal tonight and shine a light on it. Jesus had began what was commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount in this passage of scripture. The Sermon on the Mount was a grouping of lessons that Jesus would deliver over a period of time that would establish the principles of His kingdom.

It was in these principles that the reigning religious class began to be at odds with this upstart Rabbi that asserted his position as the King of the Jews. It would be a few short verses later that Jesus would began to say. . .”you have heard it said. . .But I say unto you. . . .” Really Jesus was rattling their world that had been so “pat” for such a long time.

It is with more than a little interest that we find immediately after the listing of the Beatitudes that Jesus made his next statement about the salt business. He placed a high degree of importance, speaking of this before he touches the Law. Jesus stood and declared in the Sermon on the Mount his core set of values that would have to be in the lives of those that were followers of His. All of it is important, and I suppose that to say one was more important than another would be less than cerebral, however, location has to be, in some way, important.

Salt Loss Happens When Your Temp Changes

There are some things in the Bible that I wish weren’t there. Yes, I know, before you pile on me, that this is a bold statement. But consider with me when God said this to Adam in Genesis-

Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Let’s be honest. If we would have had it our way, we would not have chosen to make a living by the sweat of our brow. Yes, I sweat like its raining locally. Real locally. But I like sweating when I want to sweat. . . not in making a living. Despite the coolness of the labs where I work, I sweat.

Whether the temp goes up or down...you're losing salt. Though it is pungent, even when it is correctly dispersed, you still have to replenish it. If you are losing it due to spiritual immobility, then it needs replacing. The hazard of this immobility is that the longer you wait, the less you understand that you need it...

Salt loss is killing you by degrees...

Didn't Know You Were Running, But Sure Enough, You're in an Election

Titus 1:1 . . . according to the faith of God's elect

The elect of God is a term that has come under some considerable misconception. There is a doctrine that floats around theological circles that is misleading, and extremely dangerous to our spiritual health. I will spend the rest of our time together here tonight with a doctrine commonly known as predestination, a thought that says that you are preordained, or that your salvation was determined prior to your birth by God, and nothing you do can change the will of God. It is a way of saying that you have little, if any thing, to do with your spiritual destiny. While I rarely, if ever, refer to doctrine that is not apostolic in nature, there is a compulsion to address this in the context of this study.

We need to examine the issues of election before we go any further here in this study. Scripture is very clear that we are all called of God(reference Acts 2:39), and where Paul stood on Mar’s Hill in Athens, and said
Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Every man is then called to repentance, which is the entry way into the Elect. For obvious reasons, you must first believe before there is any need to repent. So, then we must consider the words of Paul with understanding that God has called all men. It would be difficult for God to say He was calling all men, then only to openly reject some as a matter of course if they weren’t elect.

If He called all men to repentance, and they did so, and were not included in the “elect” than God would have a supreme problem of fairness. But scripture has a bit more in the view of clarity in this matter.

Peter would be compelled to address this in the short book he penned. The rough fisherman would chose his few words carefully.
II Peter 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

So what becomes evident in the writings of this simple fisherman from Galilee is that he believes that we must make our election sure, that is to ensure that we remain in the elect. The only way to make our election sure is for there to be a chance of it NOT being sure. This also puts to rest the doctrine of eternal security, although I don’t have time to fully examine this in the context of this lesson.

It would seem fairly important to “make my election and calling secure,” especially if I want to make heaven my eternal home. How do we make our calling and election sure? How do we apply this idea presented by Peter? It is through a process that I like to call sanctification. We must grow in truth. It is a scriptural principle that, although speaking in tongues is the INITIAL evidence of the infilling of the Holy Ghost, there is much more to the life of a Christian than that.

In fact, scripture reveals that the proof of the Spirit in our lives is not the ability to break forth into tongues, to speak in tongues, and neither is the ability to see signs and miracles, it is in something entirely different.

Paul would introduce this idea in Galatians. He would report that the fruit, that is the evidence of the growing influence of the Spirit would not be speaking in tongues, but it would be in the FRUIT that we produce. Fruit is a very evident part of any fruit bearing tree or bush. It is the reason for that tree to exist.
So then, the tree, that one that we have been grafted into, is there to produce fruit in our lives.
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

It is interesting to me that NONE of these happen in a vacuum. There is an outside expression of these things to others. I can’t have love, joy, peace in the truest sense alone. They require me to be involved in the world and exposed to those things that are around me that aren’t Christlike or Christ acting. There is no way to lead a monastic life and have the fruit of the Spirit.

It takes someone getting on your last nerve before you can be longsuffering, or to demonstrate gentleness, you have to be exposed to someone that needs gentleness. In fact, all of these must have exposure to others in order for them to have a way to bloom. So when you feel it would be better to be in bed the whole day, remember that your fruit can only be demonstrated in the world around you.

The way in which we make this calling and election sure is to commit ourselves to prayer, to fasting, to the study of His word. We must immerse ourselves deeper and deeper, as the prophet of the Old Testament described when he first went in ankle deep, then knee deep, and was encouraged on by God to go out chest deep into the waters. Ezekiel would tell of the waters becoming so deep one could only swim in them. That is the place that we should reach for in our lives, where we are so immersed in the spirit that our reliance is on Him and not ourselves.

The Elect’s Mention in Scripture

Scripture has much to say regarding the “elect.”
Matthew 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
Luke 18:7And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

As you can see there are multiple mentions of the “elect.” Mentioned some seventeen times in the Bible, it is a description that applies to a group of men and women who are part of the Bride. Seventeen times the word “elect” is used in scripture, and I want to be part of the Elect. I must make my calling and election sure.

The Price of Apostleship

The second thing that Paul calls himself is an apostle of Jesus Christ. Makes one wonder if being an apostle is somehow tied to the slavery to God? Paul would report earlier in scripture thusly-
I Corinthians 15:8-9 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

The overt humility of Paul here is neither overdone nor Hollywoodesque, but purely a statement of the essence of Paul’s identity here on the earth. One of life’s greatest battles is humility.
• Understand that humility is NOT denying the truth of your life.
• Humility is not clothing oneself in rags and claiming this to be humility
• Humility is not a faking of your station in life.
But rather, humility is recognition of who you are and what you are seen through the clear lens of how God placed you there.
This is why Paul could, without conflict, first assert that he was a slave, a servant, and then immediately claim apostleship. It came with a recognition of who he really was in terms of what and where God had placed him.
The literal Greek translation of this "apostle" meaning both ambassador and commissioner of God. Dormant in this passage is the implied understanding of power that backed up both the slave and the apostle. Paul would claim apostleship numerous times in the New Testament, as a preface to instructions given to him by God. It helps to underscore the latent power that was placed in his hands as an apostle, which became a bit more important as the letter progresses.

-Often we want the apostle portion without the servant part...
-Often we would rather the authority of apostleship but not the footwashing consigned to the slave...
-Often enough, the bonds of slavery are enough to drive us far from ever being considered for apostleship...

Sadly, there is much apostleship that needs fulfilment, but the portion of the slave is too "beneath" us to ever achieve the heights of where He would lead.

This upside down Kingdom is both difficult and demanding. Yet it is the only way...

Shout Out from the Slave

Paul would begin the book of Titus with some interesting wording...Looking into that for a day or three.

Titus 1:1
Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect,

Interestingly enough, Paul, the Roman name given after the blinding light experience, means “little.” In light of this revelation, it is amazing that God chose a name meaning “little” in order to give the Gentile world one of the greatest missionaries and writers of the New Testament(by sheer number of books penned). I suppose all kinds of conclusions could be gathered here, but I will submit to you that there is a minimizing of “us” before God can creatively use us in his kingdom to any great degree.

Shout from a Slave
In the opening words of the story, Paul first and foremost identifies himself first by his name and secondly by the significant title of servant, as the KJV reads, but perhaps more telling in the Christian Standard Bible(CSV) as the slave of God.
This is a remarkable term that Paul would acquire for himself in the interim of his life and service to God, after such a proud and determined young Pharisee. This slavery that Paul would subject himself to replaced a slavery that he had previously experienced. A slavery that totally consumed his being, a slave of sin, of misery, of misled religious leanings, and a bent on killing Christians.


There are numerous yokes that Paul could have chained himself to, and yet that of Jesus Christ was what he chose.
Seems that man(kind) is constantly putting chains on himself, and then shouting to the world, “I’m free, I’m free.”

Chains so often do not come looking like chains, but rather are cloked in some disguise...like...
• Bondage of freedom- the inordinate attachment to being free of all authority.
• Bondage of feelings- the inordinate attachment to loving the feeling of the moment, and obeying the urges of emotion, while negating the absolutes
• Bondage of frailties- the inordinate attachment of those who would rather be bound in body, and living from charity(either in spirit or flesh) instead of labor. This is known as spiritual welfare mentality...loving the disease that ravages the flesh because it brings others to bow at the knees of the sick one.

Freedom is not the detachment of the moorings of life, but more a ballast that holds the ship upright. When one discovers the implications of a life that is set free from all of the chains of life, it often is way too late to recover the ship from the rocks of life. Often, though we don’t like to think of it in this way, we are much better servants of God, church and our families when we have a chain of responsibility yoked to us.

Paul would not hesitate in identifying himself as a prisoner. . .a slave. This is interesting considering the emotional make up of Paul, one that presents itself as one that is a choleric, passionate man that is concerned with being the one in the forefront, taking the lead, and yet he identified as a slave, even to the point of taking up the case of Onesiphorus, a slave that had became a believer.

So, Paul's first identification was that of a slave...

Seems to be that you are going to be enslaved to something in life. . . choose the slavery you put yourself under well