pitching tents
if you pitch your tent near Sodom…”
it’s funny how the Spirit moves. for me, it took two seemingly dissimilar things and linked them together to make me think deeper.
in BSF we’re studying Genesis. this last week we studied Genesis 13, where abram (soon to be abraham) gave lot the choice of land. i know you know the story, but have you ever thought how that applies to our life. are we more like abraham, or are we more like lot??? are we attracted to the lights, money, lush green grass, and worldly aspects of life (read lot), where we think we can get close, but not too close. or are we attracted to the rougher path, but a path where God promises us riches in heavan beyond our wildest imagination.
today i got an email from relevantmagazine.com that i get weekly. there was an article entitled Christian Love: Giving up the Fantasy. in it, the author talks about similar ideals that abraham exhibited. among many, one quote that caught me:
“First, it‚Äôs important to rediscover the unsexy unselfishness inherent in biblical ideas of love. We have to remind the world (and ourselves) that love involves sacrifice. Somewhere along the way, the “otherness” that love demands gets lost. In a generation where self-gratification reaches new levels through erotic mass media and a dangerously casual dating culture, the idea of abstaining from indulgence sounds almost puritanical. Yet such an attitude is completely contrary to a 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love that is defined, not by feelings or emotions or sensuality, but by matters of will, of choice and of sacrifice.”
i know i’m guilty many, many times of treasuring worldly things. how close are you to pitching your tent near sodom?
December 7th, 2005 at 8:46 am
I agree with you. I have also thought a lot about how Abram seemed to get the short end of the stick when Lot picked the “better” land yet Abram knew that God would always be his provider. I am amazed at how Genesis is so applicable to modern times!