The story of Lot becomes a prayer
Genesis 19:15-16 “As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot saying, ‘Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.’ But he lingered, so the [angels] seized him and his wife and two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.”
Hebrews 13:12-13 “Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate. So let us go out to him outside the [city] bearing his reproach.”
Lord, would you be merciful to me as you once were to Lot. You have told me, “Up!” but I have lingered. So now take me by the hand (for I have need of aid) and set me outside the city. You say to follow you outside the city walls where we will die (as you did), and yet live ever-after, having escaped being swept away in the punishment of the city. I want to die to myself, cast off the idol that is my vanity, and so live unto you. Come and help me, Spirit. My heart is willing but my flesh is weak. I seek holiness! Command what thou wilt, but give what thou commandest. Perfect are the good desires you have given me, be their end as you have been their beginning.
My past self
“What a hell of horror, I thought, to wander alone, a bare existence never going out of itself, never widening its life in another life, but bound with the cords of its poor peculiarities, lying an eternal prisoner in the dungeon of its own being! I began to learn that it was impossible to live for oneself even, save in the presence of others–then, alas, fearfully possible! Evil was only through good! Selfish but a parasite on the tree of life! In my own world I had the habit of solitary song; here not a crooning murmur ever parted my lips. There I sang without thinking; here I thought without singing. There I had never had a bosom-friend; here the affection of an idiot would be divinely welcome. ‘If only I had a dog to love!’ I sighed–and regarded with wonder my past self, which preferred the company of book or pen to that of man or woman; which, if the author of a tale I was enjoying appeared, would wish him away that I might return to his story. I had chosen the dead rather than the living, the thing thought rather than the thing thinking! ‘Any man,’ I said now, ‘is more than the greatest of books!’ I had not cared for my live brothers and sisters, and now I was left without even the dead to comfort me!” George MacDonald, Lilithe
Waiting
“But hark the herald of the sun, the auroral wind, softly trumpeting His approach! The master-minister of the human tabernacle is at hand! Heaping before his prow a huge ripple-fretted wave of crimson and gold, he rushes aloft, as if newly launched from the urging hand of his maker into the upper sea–pauses, and looks down on the world. White-raving storm of molten metals, he is but a coal from the altar of the Father’s never-ending sacrifice to his children. See every little flower straighten its stalk, lift up its neck, and with out-stretched head stand expectant: something more than the sun, greater than the light, is coming, is coming–nonetheless surely coming that it is long upon the road! What matters today, or tomorrow, or ten thousand years to Life himself, to Love himself! He is coming, is coming, and the necks of all humanity are stretched out to see him come! Every morning will they thus outstretch themselves, every evening will they droop and wait–until He comes. Is this but an air-drawn vision? When He comes, will He indeed find them watching thus? It was a glorious resurrection-morning. The night had been spent in preparing it!” –George MacDonald, Lilithe
“what [he] actually did to me was to convert, even to baptize my imagination…The quality which had enchanted me in his imaginative works turned out to be the quality of the real universe, the divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic reality in which we all live.” C.S. Lewis of MacDonald
“I have never concealed the fact that I regarded George MacDonald as my master; indeed, I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him.” C.S. Lewis
“Surely, George MacDonald is the grandfather of us all–all of us who struggle to come to terms with truth through fantasy.” Madeleine L’Engle
Living Hope
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3
What does it mean for hope to be alive? I suppose it must be active and effective. The hope which the Bible speaks of is not a hope that says, “I hope I get a raise this year.” (Because it might not happen!) A hope which is alive finds grounds in Jesus who is risen from the dead and reigning. Hope in the living God, and your hope will live. Biblical hope means preach yourself a sermon! “Why are you downcast, my soul? Why in turmoil? Put your hope in God, oh my soul! He is surely (or hopefully) victorious.”
The problem of discipleship, namely in parenting
How are we to disciple our children? That is, how do we raise children who love God and their neighbors without subjecting them (and ourselves) to legalism?
One might answer, “We show them, by example.” After all, faith without works is dead. But how do you show someone what takes place in the heart? Who can discern the heart? Check yourself…are you discipling your children by taking them to “church”, praying with them, singing spiritual songs to them, and teaching scriptures to them? These things edify, indeed. But where is the line between legalism and true love of God?
I am convinced that the way to disciple our children, or make disciples of them, is by bearing the fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are evidence of what takes place in the heart. Children will quickly learn this as they experience the world. They will see that these fruits are good, and that worldliness opposes them. Though it is of great importance that we pray with our children (even teach them to pray), read scriptures to them (teach them to read it for themselves and memorize it), sing spiritual songs to them, and bring our children into the assembly of believers for fellowship and worship; I believe that these are not enough by themselves. The world can do all this and still produce dead souls. Look at the Muslims! But a soul that loves God will bear the fruits of the Spirit (which cannot be imitated by the world). The Spirit will not be eluded! We cannot bear the fruits of the Spirit without the Spirit! We need the Spirit in all we set ourselves to.
We must test ourselves, to see if we are in the faith. Are we in the household of faith? When we go through the day with our children and spouse, are we loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, self-controlled? As Jesus once said, “The world will know you by your love for each other.”
A meaningful quote
Consider Romans chapters 6-8 very long and you will find it difficult to be free from the law and legalism without sinning all the more that grace may abound. This quote has been extremely helpful to me and influential in my life. I hope it might be for you as well.
“The relationship between legalism and freedom is like the story of Jesus calling Peter out of the boat to walk on the water and join Him. The ocean is like the law-still present after salvation (it hasn’t gone away). However, our relationship to the law has changed. Now instead of trying to stay afloat in it, swimming, we are called to walk on it! How do we do that? Keep your eyes on Jesus. If you take your eyes off Jesus, you will sink. Look to Jesus to guide you across the ocean of the Law-He will safe keep your morality.” John Piper
