Lessons from Lot

I decided to do something different this week—instead of telling you about the cooking, cleaning, bookwork, and "everything in-betweening," I would like to share with you some of the thoughts from the Sunday School lesson this morning.  When I began studying Gen. 19 at the beginning of the week, I was feeling rather intimidated by the story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah.  I did not want to try to make applications for us that were not intended by God—but as the week progressed, I realized that I found myself looking forward to today’s lesson.  The questions below are not original with me, but I was challenged by them to consider life “in this world, but not of it,” in relation to my life today.  I share it with you all in hopes that you, too, will be challenged by these questions.  (For those of you who also studied this lesson, I hope it’s not too repetitious.)  I gained most of the thoughts from Keepbelieving.com/Ray Pritchard.

Ray Stedman poses four questions to ask Lot, which we should also ask ourselves regarding the place in which we find ourselves:  

“How has living in Sodom affected your own inner life?”

“How much have you influenced the city for good?”

“What do you have to show for years in Sodom? What did you gain by living there?”

“Lot, what happened to your family?”

Jesus told us that whoever tries to save his own life will lose it in the end. Lot wanted to get the best of both worlds. In so doing, he lost everything—his home, his family, his family, his children, his career, his fortune, and his reputation. Four thousand years have passed and Lot still stands the ultimate picture of the worldly Christian who loves the world and loses it all.

The account of Lot in Sodom demonstrates four important truths:

The Seductive Power of Small Decisions

The Deadening Effect of Moral Compromise

The Certainty of God’s Judgment on Sin

The Terrible Cost of Living in Two Worlds

This week we head to FL to celebrate Mom and Dad's 50 years of marriage, so we'll see many of you soon!  Pray for good preparations and for details to be worked out, for safe travel for all of those who will be traveling, and for a meaningful time together as family and friends.