Left Behind

-


Scripture:

Luke 17:32 Remember Lot’s wife.
Luke 17:33 Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it.

Observation:

In just a short and simple little verse we are reminded to remember Lot’s wife. She was offered freedom and yet she was reluctant. We remember that she looked back and could it be that she remembered what it was that she had left behind. I’m wondering if it was more than just a simple look back, but was it actually a turning and running back to the city because she felt that what she had left behind was more important than where she was going? Placed within the context of this Scripture it appears that she may have been wanting to get something she had left behind that would help to make her feel more secure about her life. Her dependency was not on the Lord, but on the things that she had accumulated in the world. She turned back because of what she had left behind and lost her life, becoming a monument as a reminder that we are not to go back. Leave the things of the past behind, never turn back and keep our eyes fixed on the One who is leading us away to safety and new life.

Application:

I venture that too often we get hung up on worrying that we may be left behind and we don’t realize that we may be drawn to the things of this world that we are to leave behind. This was exactly Lot’s wife’s problem. We are to leave behind us the old life and the things that the world had to offer. For the Israelites it meant leaving Jerusalem behind and moving on in a spiritual life that would change them in new and radical ways. We are challenged to grow spiritually in ways in which we may have never imagined but the only way in which this is possible to is to leave behind the past, never looking back and never hesitating, thinking that you still needed that old stuff.

We want to live into the future that the Lord has for us. The reality is that future may look radically different from the past but we cannot worry about the things we have left behind. Let them be! Looking to the past and clinging to the things we are asked to leave behind will only lead us to death. Let go, never looking back to what was left behind but focusing on all the graciousness of our loving God — in this there is life both for today and all of eternity.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for your glorious peace and direction.  Amen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Take Off Your Ornaments

-
Scripture: Ex. 33:4 ¶ When the people heard these harsh words, they mourned, and no one put on ornaments. Ex. 33:5 For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do to you.’” Ex. 33:6 Therefore the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. Observation: The people had sinned before God by making and worshiping the golden calf!  They had taken their golden jewelry — the earrings and other items they had gotten from the Egyptians and used them to create an idol.  Now, in an act of humility and repentance they were to take off all of their jewelry and ornaments.  It was a time of mourning over their sin and it included intentional action on the part of the Israelites.  Application: We don’t do all that well with humility and repentance!  It seems that we live in a time when we try to carry
Read more

Does God Value Boys More than Girls?

-
Scripture: Lev. 12:1 ¶ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Lev. 12:2 Speak to the people of Israel, saying: ¶ If a woman conceives and bears a male child, she shall be ceremonially unclean seven days; as at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. Lev. 12:3 On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. Lev. 12:4 Her time of blood purification shall be thirty-three days; she shall not touch any holy thing, or come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed. Lev. 12:5 If she bears a female child, she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation; her time of blood purification shall be sixty-six days. Lev. 12:6 ¶ When the days of her purification are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. Lev. 12:7 He shall offer it before the LORD, and make atonement on her
Read more

The Advantage of Sanctification

-
Scripture: Rom. 6:22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Observation: Two sides of life are presented here in great contrast.  One is a life of sin and enslavement to evil.  The other side of life is freedom which provides the advantage of sanctification (or holiness as some translate the word) that leads to eternal life.  The options here are a life of sin, slavery and death; or freedom, holiness and eternal life.  The advantage of holiness or sanctification is the benefit of the life of freedom.  Jesus died so that we might be made holy like him and this is something that is offered as a “fruit” or “advantage” right now.  The end is eternal life — but the living of life is that it can be lived out in holiness.  The next verse is really just an affirmation of the verse 22.  Sin will lead
Read more