Salt Shakers

 History of Salt Shakers

The Lord put a definite hunger for the Word of God on my heart after church on January 1, 2004.  I wanted to be held accountable to reading a chapter in the Bible every day.  When sharing this with my sister, she said she would be my accountability partner if I would be hers.  At that time she suggested we read the chapter, chose a verse, write a thought and prayer each day and email it to each other.  She would take a week then I would do the next week.  It was such a great idea that my daughters, her sons, spouses and spiritual mom agreed with us.  We had 9 faithful writers.  (They are listed in the Closing Thank You)  We began January 1, 2004 and ended November 8, 2010.  The devotions were inspired by the Holy Spirit.  The prayers are filled with praise and requests for guidance.  The Bible can be overwhelming when a person thinks about reading it in its entirety.  It is our prayer that these thoughts may help you get something a little special out of each chapter and make the reading of His Word become a hunger on your heart also.  

The Name Salt Shakers was given to the group by Tanya Ruden, one of our faithful writers.  She was teasing Jane and me one day because we nickname everything but had not yet put a name to this group.  She suggested Salt Shakers which Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount when He tells His followers, “You are the salt of the Earth.”  Matthew 5:13. Our desire to learn His Word and live it in our daily lives made the name stick. We really had no goal as far as how long we would do this or how much of the Bible we would read.  We just kept going by the encouragement we gave each other and the accountability the Holy Spirit put on our souls.  After 7 years we announced we had come to a completion.  

In Leviticus 2:13 it says that we are to season all our grain offerings with salt.   The purpose of the grain offering was to show honor and respect to God in worship, acknowledging that all we have belongs to God.  Everything we do, we are able to do because He enables us.   The offering of our lives to the Lord must be salty.  Our life offering contains salt when we remember God’s faithfulness to us.  We can flavor the world with the Life of Christ in us by speaking to others the love and message of Jesus.   

Jesus used salt to illustrate three qualities that should be found in His people. 

  1. We should remember God’s faithfulness just as salt when used with a sacrifice recalling God’s covenant with His people.  
  2. We should make a difference in the ‘flavor’ of the world we live in, just as salt changes meat’s flavor.
  3. We should counteract the moral decay in society, just as salt preserves food from decay.                   

When we lose this desire to ‘salt’ the earth with the love and message of God, we become useless to Him.   We as Salt Shakers hope to live up to our name and live for Him.  

So this is how the Salt Shakers came to being.  We pray that it can be a tool for anyone who is into the Word or those who are struggling with the reading of the Bible.  

PRAYER                                                                                                                                              Lord Jesus, it wasn’t by accident that we were assigned the name Salt Shakers.  Please direct us where, when, and how You want us to ‘salt’ the earth for You.  We will rise to the challenge and task, and may we never lose our saltiness.  AMEN


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