By Sidharth Mohandas

Covenant is a powerful word… In fact, our entire relationship with God is founded on a covenant. In this article I wish to specifically deal with a covenant called the Covenant of Salt.

This covenant as practised by the Jews was a covenant in word. It was something like this…men tied a pouch of salt to their belt, and when ever they made a covenant, they would exchange a pinch of salt, putting grains into each other’s pouch. If one party wanted to break the covenant, then the other would say, “You can break the covenant if you can take back your grains and yours only from my pouch“. Of course, we know that that sounds unreasonable, but that gave them the realization of the importance and gravity of keeping ones word.

There are about three references to this in the Old Testament, of which I have quoted two below to show you the nature of this covenant:

“Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the LORD I give to you and your sons and daughters as your regular share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD for both you and your offspring.” [Numbers 18:19, NIV]

“Don’t you know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt? [2 Chronicles 13:5, NIV]

This is the nature of a salt covenant …forever…everlasting. That would signify an irrevocable pledge and loyalty shown by God to His people.

Now, when we come to the Newer Covenant, Jesus tells us, “Ye are the salt of the earth…” [Matthew 5:13, KJV]

We live in a day where honesty, integrity and genuiness are no longer standards even among Christians. In fact, it is considered “clever” to be able to deceive and mislead others in order to gain advantages. When Jesus said we were to be “the salt of the earth”, He was telling us that we were to be living examples of the covenant lifestyle.

You and I need to ask ourselves…Are we people who weigh our words? Do we give our word and not keep it? If so, we need to consider Paul’s instruction:

“Let your speech be always with grace, SEASONED WITH SALT, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” [Colossians 4:6, KJV]. Now this is an instruction given to believers at Colosse as to how they were to behave with “those outside” [unbelievers]. Friends, do not forget that you are an ambassador to the kingdom of God. If you’re a person who constantly breaks his word, you are misrepresenting the culture of heaven.

A while back I was told how a certain radio group took my friend’s testimony and added some spice to it to make their show sensational! God never instructed us to season our speech with spices! I encourage you today to rightly represent the lifestyle of the kingdom of God, the lifestyle of the covenant.

By Sidharth Mohandas

In the Old Covenant, God gave them specific instructions concerning the grain offering. One such instruction was that no leaven or honey was to be used in the offering [Leviticus 2:11]. I thought to myself, Doesn’t leaven help the dough rise and isn’t the honey sweet? What does God mean by having unleavened bread?

I was led to a verse in the first epistle to the Corinthians:

“…but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” [1 Corinthians 5:8]

Unleavened bread symbolizes sincerity and truth. When leaven is added to the dough, the dough is given a sponge like texture unlike its original texture. The word that came to my mind: Artificiality! Today I’m especially concerned about the area of speech; God wants no artificial talk coming out from us; no sweet, flattering, honey-like talk. He wants sincerity and truth.

As I examined my own life I saw how I have said things to people without meaning them, so as to make them feel good or get along with them. Far from being rude, God wants us to speak the truth in love [Ephesians 4:15]. Modern day churches fear talking about anything that will make their members squirm in their seats. Some people stay in a local church as long as the pastor preaches things that will tickle their ears or bring goose bumps.

Take a moment and think about the many different greetings we use daily perhaps with little or no thought at all. When we greet someone out of mere habit, rather than in sincerity, we are indeed baking leavened bread!

Let’s make a decision to give careful thought to what we say. Like how honey turns into a black mass when passed through fire, some of our words and greetings are nothing but black masses when tested with God’s fire.

With Moses I say, “ye shall put away leaven out of your houses” [Exodus 12: 15]

By Sidharth Mohandas

I know of a person who had a fight with his friend. And unable to do anything to his friend directly, he took his friend’s picture and tore it into pieces. Friends, this is what Satan does- unable to do anything to God directly, he takes God’s image, humanity, and tears them up into pieces.

We all know that God’s ultimate purpose of creating man kind was for fellowship. What is fellowship? Fellowship means “to be one” or “to have in common”. What was God’s purpose in having fellowship with His crowning creation? He wanted man to have HIS desire, HIS will, HIS thoughts and so forth. This is true fellowship.

Why did God ask man “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it”? Was His purpose just to have man reproduce children? Not at all! God wanted multiple copies of His image, so that the earth would be filled with His glory. But through one sin that image was marred. Thank God Jesus came to reconcile us- to restore to us God’s image.

However, it’s sad to see that in spite of God’s restorative work- most Christian portray the marred image to the world. Here’s the message of the Holy Spirit to Christians, “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him” [Colossians 3: 9-10]

I could feel the agony of the Spirit as I read these verses. Most Christians think if they are busy singing Christian songs, going from one fellowship to another and preaching to big crowds- that they are doing God a great favor. God isn’t bothered how many prayer meetings you go to, or how many bands you are in or which organization you are in. He wants your character built- in other words, He wants His image in you. The Holy Spirit is hurt the most by Christians who live a hypocritical life, trying to put on a facade before others. Disciples, God isn’t interested in your religiosity- He wants purity and truth in the innermost parts.

When we had organized a crusade in Vellore, we had formed a band and the band members we had were the best we could get. For the first song practice we had, some of them didn’t turn up. I called them and told them that God wanted them to keep their word and their timing no matter how much it cost them. For the second practice I was getting ready to go for the practice and my friend said, “We’ll go a bit late…I don’t think any of them will come on time”. I told my friend, “It doesn’t matter who doesn’t come on time- we must keep our time and we do it unto the Lord”. Later I was forced to weed out those who didn’t keep their timings- one of them was a “famous” instrumentalist, who knew 17 different instruments. He always came for the practice either later or sometimes never did turn up. I called him and told him that we didn’t want him to play the instrument for the crusade.

I’m not impressed by how much people accomplish in their ministry, I’m only impressed by how great their relationship with the Lord is. And it will show up in these minor details.

The evangelist we invited to present the Gospel was Mrs. Mira Bhupathi. Once I remember calling her to ask her about something concerning the crusade, and she said she was about to go for a meeting and would call me back when she got back. I was amazed to receive her call later. She told me,“I keep my word, if I give my word. If I think I can’t keep it, I won’t give my word”.

Friends, keep your word and timing. If you commit yourself to something and do not do it, you lie.

“Lie not one to another” [Colossians 3:9a]

The Lord is warning many Christians that if they do not live holy lives- different from that of the worldly people- He will be forced to spew them out of His mouth.