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Ava Semerau is a published author and award-winning journalist. She’s also an American expat, a wife and mother, and a Christian. Her latest book is titled, , And God Was Pleased

How many kinds of salt do you have in your pantry?

I checked the other day, and I have six – probably five more than I need! I have table salt (with and without added iodine), coarse salt, grinder salt, sea salt and even grey salt.

You could say I got hooked on salt a few years ago when a friend gifted me a fancy salt grinder. The gift came with a small bag of chunky coarse salt. As the saying goes, I tried it and I liked it!

It wasn’t long and another friend gave me a bag of sparkling white sea salt for my new grinder.

And then one day at the local market, I found a bag of funny-looking grey salt and had to try it, as well. Grey salt looks like sea salt only dirtier and tastes more bitter. It’s an acquired taste, I guess.

I like salt a lot. Probably too much, but I love what it does to food. It takes away the bitterness of an eggplant and adds to the sweetness of a melon. It brings out the flavor of pork chops and turns even a bland hard-boiled egg into something spectacular.

Salt just brings out the best in things.

That’s probably one of the reasons Paul referred to salt when he was telling the Colossians how to behave around non-believers.

Season your conversations with salt, he told them. Remove the bitterness, enhance the sweetness. Give the things you say more tang, more texture. Turn the average into the unforgettable!

In other words, bring out the best in others – and for others.

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:5-6 NIV)

Be kind, Paul reminds us.

Lift others up instead of running them down. Let your words reflect Christ in your life.

Show consistency between what you believe and who you are, and follow the advice of James 1:22: Don’t let the word of God go in one ear and out the other. Do what it says.

Act on what you know to be pleasing to God and, as my favorite recipes all say, salt to taste.

Paul’s advice to “season with salt” hits equally hard on two different Biblical principles, Be Kind and Think More Praiseworthy Thoughts.

Be Kind tells us: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32 KJV). Be Kind is exemplified in the Beatitudes, and it reminds us to treat others the way we want to be treated.

Thinking Praiseworthy Thoughts encourages us: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.(Philippians 4:8 ). Thinking Praiseworthy thoughts is all about staying positive – in the things we think and say, and the things we pay attention to.

These two principles together help us to keep a positive mental attitude toward others as well as ourselves, and form the basis of a God-pleasing life.

For more information on these principles, as well as the other 15 Biblical principles for creating Christian success, pick up a copy of book And God Was Pleased by Ava Semerau. The book is available online at amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle versions, and is also available at fine booksellers around the globe. To learn more about Ava Semerau, visit her sit at www.avasemerau.com, or simply send her an email.

I’ve decided to do something I’ve never done before. I am going to be part of a blog book tour. Just recently Ava Semerau sent me a copy of her new book “And God Was Pleased: Biblical Principles for Creating Christian Success”. I’ve only just read the first few chapters, but thus far it’s been an enjoyable read. As she points out in her introduction, it’s “not a theological treatise and it’s not a Sunday morning sermon”, but it is a refreshing reminder of some simple Biblical principles for pleasing God.

I’m going to continue reading through this book, and on October 1st, I’ll be posting an article from Ava here on this site.

For more information, pick up a copy of the book And God Was Pleased by Ava Semerau. The book is available online at amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle versions, and is also available at fine booksellers around the globe. To learn more about Ava Semerau, visit her sit at www.avasemerau.com, or simply send her an email.

The Tower of Babel – Genesis 11

“Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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 and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 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. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”

What were the people of Babylonia trying to do? Build a tower to make themselves famous

Were they being successful? Apparently

What made them successful? A common language – the ability to communicate successfully

Was that good or bad? Why?

What did God say about them? “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!”

Do you think God would say that about your church? Your family? You and your friends?

The people of Babylonia were united in doing something wrong, so God had to stop them. But what if a group of people could be united in doing something right? Nothing would be impossible for them – God said so.

So how does a group like that become so united together? How did the people of Babylonia do it? Look through the passage. They all spoke the same language – they talked – they understood each other. When their ability to communicate was stopped – they were finished. I think Satan has done a great job of keeping us Christians from communicating with each other because he knows that Christians who have that kind of communication – nothing will be impossible for them.

Think about it: When you’re at church, how often do you talk to someone about the things that really weigh on you heart? How often do you share your deepest hurts, how you really feel, what you’re really concerned about. The last time I was at church my conversations went like this:

Me: Morning.

Other person: Morning, Dave. How are ya?

Me: Hey, I’m doing great. You?

Other person: Real good. How’s work been going?

Me: Not bad. Keeping busy, anyway.

Other person: That’s good. How’s the kids?

Me: They’re good. Well, I better go find this kids. Nice to see ya.

Did we really communicate? Not really. Most of what was said wasn’t even true. That’s not communication – that’s not even fellowship. God doesn’t want us to only communicate with Him (although that’s surely important), He wants us to communicate with each other. The Christian life was never meant to be lived alone – God intends us to live life in unity with other Christians.

What would happen in your life if you had a small group of friends that you could really communicate with? A group of friends that you could share your biggest struggles with – no matter what they may be? People who ask you how you really are – how you day has really been. People who say they’ll pray for you and then actually do. Friends who don’t just talk about the weather, they talk about what God’s been doing in their life and what He’s been teaching them. I tell you, nothing would be impossible for a group like that.

Would you like to be a part of a group like that? I sure do. But it’ll require a change in the way we communicate. Casual conversation isn’t enough. Non-believers can have casual conversation. Christians need intentional conversations. Our natural tendency is to be very superficial in our conversations – even with close Christian friends. The “Hi, how are you? I’m great” kind of stuff. We need to intentionally make our conversations count.

Ephesians 5:16 – “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” Or “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.” Ask the real questions. Answer questions with truth. Take the opportunities you have to encourage one another and build each other up. Don’t waste your time on weather and politics – talk about things that actually matter.

Exercise: Pair up with someone who you know fairly well and spend five minutes being real with each other. Have an intentional conversation.

This devotional is a rehash of an earlier post, Livin’ on Strained Carrots. That devotional was written for grades 7 thru 12 and this is a re-write for grades 1 thru 6.

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Today I want to teach you guys something very important. The thing I want to teach you is pretty easy to do, but there are lots of grown-ups that still don’t know how to do it. In fact, the thing that I’m going to teach you is so important, that if you learn how to do it today, and you start doing it – you will never be the same! Do you want to know what I’m going to teach you? I’m going to teach you how to feed yourself.
Before you tell me that you already know how, I want to play a little game.

Game:

Three contestants blindfolded, guess what object they hold. If they are right, they win the object.(Pop, Smarties, and baby food)

Imagine that it’s Christmas time. Christmas day, actually. All of your relatives have arrived and it’s time for the feast. There’s a big turkey (or ham or whatever your family usually eats complete with all the trimmings. Name a few of the things you would have at your Christmas meal…
So there’s all this food just waiting to be eaten, someone asks the blessing on the food and everyone digs in – except you. For you, your mom or your dad opens a jar of baby food and starts feeding you that stuff.
How would you like that? No way! That would be gross. And besides, you’re not a baby anymore! You don’t need your parents to feed you – you can feed yourself!
But you know… you couldn’t always feed yourself, could you? When you were a baby, you had to be fed by your parents. You had no teeth and all you could eat was baby food. But aren’t you glad you grew up and learned how to eat regular food all by yourself?
Today, I want to show you how you can grow up as a Christian and feed yourself spiritually. If you don’t know what that means, that basically means that I want to show you how to be really good friends with God. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I spoke at the chapel time for a Christian High School. It’s a little long for a devotional, but it can easily be chewed down to size. So without further ado, here is “Living on Strained Carrots”.

Game: Double or Nothing

Three contestants are blindfolded, and they try to guess what object they hold. If they are right, they win the object. Then if they correctly answer the bonus question about that object, they will double their prize. (Pop, Doritos, and a jar of baby food – for the bonus: What flavor?)

Imagine that it’s Christmas time. Christmas day, actually. All of your relatives have arrived and it’s time for the feast. There’s a big turkey (or ham or whatever your family usually eats complete with all the trimmings. There’s all this food just waiting to be consumed, some one asks the blessing on the food and everyone digs in – except you. For you, your mom or your dad cracks open a jar of Gerber’s “Broccoli, Potato, and Cheese Casserole” and start shoveling it in. Read the rest of this entry »

Just for those of you who are familiar with Camp Little Red (or at looking for a great Bible camp in central Alberta), check out the camp’s new blog.

Camp Little Red Blog – The Online Offbeat Inside Out

It just made it’s debut moments ago, so check it out! So far, you’ll find the latest Inside Out Newsletter and a few aerial photos of the camp property, but there’s lots more on the way so stay tuned.

Or just head straight to the main site – www.camplittlered.com for all kinds of info about the camp.