Am I Lot? Part II

I do not come from a classic "prophetic" heritage in my christianity. My base is the Bible. My growth is through application and teaching others. I've had my ups and downs in the spiritual walk. All in all, it has not been so difficult. Most of my pain has been self inflicted.

The world is changing now. I hear the voices from two and three generations ago sad at the changes they witnessed during their era. I am looking two more generations on from that and compare their world with the world my grandchildren will be living in. What will they say when they too are grandparents? 

Perhaps that is why Lot stirred my soul so greatly.  

Parenting is leadership. What we teach our kids will last. Do we teach Christ for today, or the Christ of yesterday. There was a comment recently that the good old days weren't really so good. Should Christians still be arguing for Prohibition? Or perhaps demonstrating a different life completely?

Jesus wasn't reminiscing about the lost Temple, or the sacrificial system. Instead he showed how a life lived sacrificially was enough, no matter the government or current state of religious affairs.

Others in the Scriptures were in the same situation: often at odds with society and government but true to the revealed Word. Perhaps it would be good to be a little Christ for those in need and asking questions. Perhaps it would be best for our children to demonstrate a faith that doesn't rest on hemlines or physical prowess. Perhaps it would be best to sit at the feet of the Savior and grow mature in the faith before we go on a political rampage. Perhaps...

Lot

Lot's choice to separate from Abraham's family was logical and clear. Green land, cool breezes don't compare with barren rock-land. The good life was just over that mountain. Lot wanted it all. So he gathered his family, friends, servants, flocks and vast wealth to travel to the Jordan Valley.

To be fair, Lot had grown up in the shadow of his Uncle Abram. Lot's father died early and Abram took him in. When Abram left for the promised land Lot had a slim chance to choose to stay in the hometown. Lot lived with Abram's decisions. He saw Abram make poor decisions only to come out stronger on the other end. 

Genesis 13 retells the classic moment when Abram gives Lot the right of first choice. Both were rich. Both were in the same business with scant resources. Families were bickering. Something had to give. Do you want the east or the west, Lot, you may choose. 

The Lord God was not consulted by Lot at anytime in this process. Abram was a careful Uncle, but his example would not be enough for a God inspired decision. By sight, by self, the decision for the Jordan Valley was easy.

Lot was beseiged soon after his entrance to the valley. His riches and business had attracted the unsavory. Abram had to save Lot's life by force. Not much longer after that Lot's friends are picked off by the sodomites and adulterers into lives of sin filled ease. 

Genesis 18 and 19 detail Lot's end. And what do we find? Lot's riches are gone. Lot's business is gone. Lot has no servants, no extended family, his daughters aren't even married yet. Lot has no influence, instead he is forced to live unprotected outside the city walls. His habit is to linger by the gates of the city to turn people away from the danger within those walls. It is all he has left of his heritage.

Odd visitors arrive to counsel Lot and his family to leave their post to flee from the coming wrath. Lot hesitates, why? 

The visitors force Lot into action. The destruction begins to descend on the city. Lot's wife turns to view the horror. She is turned into a pillar of salt, a reflection of her stony soul. Lot's daughters stay with him through the small town of Zoar where Lot fails his prophetic opportunity to flee to the Jordanian mountains. 

A small cave houses the three in their depressive isolation. The daughters choose as the father did throughout his life: the seen over the unseen, the selfish over the godly, the flesh over the spirit. Lot is enticed by them to drink heavily, is used by his daughters to impregnate themselves, and inadvertantly spawns the nations of Moab and Ammon. 

Lot is described in 2 Peter 2:7 as a righteous man distressed by the "filthy lives of lawless men". However, Peter is concentrating on the lawless men. The concern of this review is with those of us who are called to make decisions about our family, work and friends. 

Let us not become so like our degrading society that we are not different for safety's sake. Let us choose to pray, wait and listen for the truth of God to be pressed into our soul. Let us choose paths of blessing, even through the rough rocky results of that decision. Let us also stand firm for our family, build an altar of remembrance, and seek to influence our neighbors to trust Christ for their direction in life. So Part I ends.

Return

I blinked and four years+ have passed since I opened this blog. Amazing.

So here's the update: I'm a grandfather five times over, with two more on the way. The 13 year old is quickly heading for that 18th birthday we talked about on the couch. He still has some of those same "bents" but he's becoming a pretty capable young man.

I have seen God surrounding this family as it extends to different states and then returns. He has been faithful through the years in ways that reveal themselves only in retrospect. I'm still promoting the same drug as I did then. I'm in my tenth year now... and the end is in sight. God will be at that end. There will be a direction, pray that I walk in it.

Dreams are elusive things, wisps of ideas that form and dissipate.

We are attending a different church than we did in 2009. Outreach is exciting, but discipleship is forever. The second is what this little band of Christians needed for a while. That and a closer fellowship.

Responsibilities have been pared away to the bare minimum, which is a surprise. How did that happen?

I read a study today that highlighted the reality that upwards of 75% of seminary graduates are not pastoring after five years in office. Some denominations have a much higher dropout rate. I am not alone. That is not comforting.

One key issue brought out in the comment section of the review was prayer specifically for and with the pastor. Someone believed in the power of prayer enough to spend time with the flock leader for the purpose of spiritual encouragement and fortification. That was a sense, an urge, I had during the mid-2000's. Permission was given at that time to set appointments to do just that as I traveled around the state.

I sense a wisp, do you?