Devotional

Are you a Salt Shaker?

In the natural, salt is used to stimulate our senses by bringing out flavor, making our food come to life.   It is also critical for human life as it’s an essential mineral for maintaining key bodily functions like fluid balance, nerve signaling, and muscle contraction. 

In the spiritual, Christ followers are called to be both salt and salt shakers when it comes to sharing the Gospel.

Most recall Jesus’ instruction when He said:  “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” in Matthew 5:13.

As carriers of the gospel, we are salt.  We carry Jesus in us and the Holy Spirit helps us, guides us and equips us to share the Gospel.

In addition to being ‘salt’, consider that we’re also called to be salt shakers.  A device that is intentional in spreading the Gospel.  For example, Paul encourages us to season our conversations with salt:

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (‭‭Colossians‬ ‭4‬:‭6‬)

Being ‘salt’ is great, but useless if we aren't shaking it wherever we go.   That means using our conversations and actions to consciously reflect God's transforming love and grace to others.

Practice Shaking Salt

From my experience, one of the easiest ways to do this is to practice saying ‘Thank God’ often when describing your everyday life events to anyone.  This honors God as your source of strength and life.  For example: “I thank God I was able to ( fill in the blank).”

The second is to say ‘I’m Blessed’ often to show that you’re not lucky or fortunate, but point to where your source of favor is from.  For example: “I’m so Blessed ( fill in the blank).”

I consider these grains of salt that we sprinkle in conversation.

I challenge you to try it out and see where your conversation leads.  It may seem small but it's a great way to be both salt and a salt shaker.

Resources To Go Deeper

Podcast

I was recently invited to the Generations Gap podcast to share how evangelism can be a natural part of our everyday life.  We shared stories and experiences that may help you as a salt shaker.  Listen here on Spotify or Apple Podcast.

Video Teaching

Another teaching on evangelism to listen to on evangelism called: “5 Keys to Introduce Your Loved Ones to Jesus in 2026” by David Hernandez:

Book

Great resource for living a life that shares your faith with confidence.  Read “Ignite Your Life” by Barry Meguier.

Financial Update

Cobalt: A Quiet Metal With a Growing Role in Tomorrow’s Economy

For much of modern history, cobalt was in the background of global markets. It was useful, but sat far from the center of most investors' radar. 

That began to change in the last decade as the push toward electric vehicles and renewable energy accelerated. When battery manufacturers increased production in 2017 and 2018, cobalt prices shot up dramatically. 

As with most booms, that surge was followed by a steep drop. By 2019, the market cooled, and many investors lost interest.

But cobalt’s story did not end there. As more countries adopted aggressive clean-energy goals, the demand for reliable, high-performance batteries grew.

Cobalt plays a specific role inside many lithium-ion batteries - it helps stabilize the battery, extend its life, and increase its overall energy density. 

While numerous experiments with new formulas to reduce cobalt usage have been performed, the metal remains an important ingredient in a large portion of today’s electric vehicles and energy-storage batteries.

That continued reliance has created a renewed sense of urgency in the cobalt market. Much of the world’s cobalt comes from a single region — the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — and this concentration has made the supply chain especially vulnerable to political and regulatory changes. 

Over the past few years, new export controls and shifting policies in the region removed a noticeable amount of cobalt from global circulation. The result was a sudden tightening of supply and an upward pressure on prices.

For investors, this mix of strong demand and unpredictable supply creates a landscape full of both opportunity and risk. 

Long-term forecasts suggest that as global electrification grows, the world will likely need more cobalt than current mining and recycling operations can reliably deliver. 

At the same time, battery manufacturers are working hard to reduce how much cobalt they use, both to manage cost and address concerns about responsible sourcing. 

These opposing forces mean cobalt may not experience a straight path upwards in price, but the underlying need for energy storage provides a durable demand foundation.

However, one significant downside is that the mining industry in the DRC has faced concerns involving unsafe working conditions and the exploitation of artisanal miners.

As we discussed in one of our previous issues, “BRI” or biblically responsible investing, if conditions for these workers don’t improve, investing in cobalt could go against biblical principles. 

If these conditions do change, and for investors willing to continuously monitor the market carefully — and pair opportunity with conviction — it offers a potentially meaningful way to participate in the growth of an industry shaping the future of transportation and energy storage.

Tech Update

Agentic AI

Agentic AI is a new class of AI referring to systems that autonomously pursue goals including planning, making decisions, and taking actions with limited human supervision.   This goes beyond Generative AI which provides answers to prompts, but instead works to accomplish tasks that may require multiple steps to complete.

Some examples of how this is being implemented today include:

Customer Support Chatbots

By now you have interacted with Agentic AI systems unaware via customer support chatbots.  Previous chatbots provided curated responses whereas agentic ones work in real time to interact in the chat.   Agentic chatbots break down complex user requests into logical steps, such as checking availability for a booking query, cross-referencing calendars, confirming details, and completing the action without human input.

Finance Credit Decisioning

Banks are using agentic AI in credit decisioning to process loan applications as one of several applications in finance.  In one case, agentic AI was used in verifying documents, scoring risks, and approving 80% straight-through in under 15 minutes, reducing the need for manual reviews dramatically.   Caution here if you have unique considerations for qualification that may get ignored by the automated agent.

Sales Enablement Agents

Agentic AI is acting as sales enablement agents or assistants to help in lead qualification and follow-up.   These agents act as copilots, segmenting prospects via CRM data, drafting tailored emails, scheduling follow-ups, and detecting stalled deals with next-action suggestions.  You may be seeing these in what appears to be very personalized emails, that not just includes your name, but have additional context in the body of the email that has been tailored to get you to respond.

In summary, Agentic AI is being integrated into many modern business environments and applications.   The benefit it provides can be seen in terms of work efficiency, but the obvious downside is human labor force reduction which is becoming increasingly evident.  Time to retool and adjust if you are in an industry being impacted and always rely on your God given wisdom.

Health Nuggets

Glyphosate and How to Detox Your Body from It

This week we wanted to share this great article written by Dr. Jordan Rubin on this dangerous chemical that has worked it’s way into our food supply and body:

“Glyphosate Detox: How to Protect Your Body from the World’s Most Common Weedkiller”. We encourage you to read the full article here.

Note: Health Nuggets are opinions and not medical advice.

Trivia Corner

Test your wisdom and knowledge of the Bible.

Backup Power Reminder

A large portion of the US is facing winter storms threatening to take down power lines with ice storms this weekend. We would like to remind you of the article we published last year on Backup Power Solutions that may be helpful as you prepare. We pray for everyone’s safety and protection and that the outcome is minimized.

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