Dear Church family,
It was wonderful seeing you all yesterday. I pray that our Church would bless the world like Abraham through: (1) Our friendship with God (2) our family discipleship and (3) intercession for the world (Genesis 18:16-33).
For me, one of the most amazing features of Genesis 18 is how God responds to Abraham’s intercession for Sodom by agreeing to spare that evil city in light of only 10 righteous people living there (and yet, there wouldn’t even be that many, so God would wipe them out in the end). And yet, God was willing to delay justice on the wicked for the sake of preserving His righteous. It’s an amazing thing how simply the presence of God’s Church in the world buys the unbelieving world around us more time to repent and experience God’s ultimate salvation.
This past Friday, I was talking about this with a friend while hiking and he made this comment: “Faithfulness is underrated in our world today!” I thought that was a good & accurate statement based on Genesis 18. There is nothing spectacular about 10 righteous folks living in a city other than the fact that they belong to the Lord and they live out their faith from day to day. And that’s the kind of life God uses to spare a whole city.
Like I said yesterday, WOL Chapel, we are making an impact on our community by simply being here. It’s God’s mission & power to preserve an evil culture and show them grace before it is ours. He responds to our life and in turn, our culture is saved (temporarily).
This also answers the question that people sometimes ask: why doesn’t God immediately judge the wicked in this evil world? Why does God allow evil to go on? And the answer is that He’s just. He’s unwilling to wipe out the whole earth because His Church exists here. Or as 18:23 says, “will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”
This kind of rational can also be applied to eschatology for those of you who think deeply about the book of Revelation and God’s chronology on the end of this earth as we know it. However God writes His final chapter here on earth, it will involve making sure that “the righteous are not swept away with the wicked.” Read Psalm 37 for an example of that.
Back to the main point, WOL Chapel, it’s good to know that God is merciful on our towns and our schools and our country for our sake! So let’s keep on following Jesus with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength and watch how merciful God will be to the people around us!
With love in Christ,
Aaron
