Sunday, January 8, 2017

January 8

Genesis 18:20-19:38; Matthew 6:25-7:14; Psalm 8:1-9; Proverbs 2:6-15


I’m reading today’s Scripture in bed, cozy with my Bible and laptop. My 3 and 5 year-old aren’t up yet, my baby is nursed and back in his crib, and it’s a cold morning – perfect for reading my One Year Bible under the covers. I’m struck today not by Abraham’s bargaining with God, but in its result. Though God concedes to Abraham that he will spare Sodom for the sake of ten righteous people, we see as we read on that the city is consumed by sulfur and fire. Not even ten people in right standing could be found! We aren’t given information on the population of Sodom and Gomorrah, but it’s pretty sobering regardless to think that not even ten righteous people were among them.

And what about in our own day? As we read today in Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples that the “gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Mt. 7:14). The gate is narrow and the way is hard – Jesus tells his disciples, and us, that it’s not easy to follow him. It’s not easy to choose righteousness. It’s not easy to walk in the way of Christ. Just look at Sodom and Gomorrah – not even ten God-following people to be found. The gate is narrow and the way is hard – I’ve seen evidence of this in my life already so far, but even more so in the generations that have gone before, who have really journeyed with Christ. It takes a faithful commitment to enter the gate and a heart devoted to God to persist when the way is hard. 

Jesus, may I be the kind of follower who always stays on the path and is counted among the few when you return.

-Esther McCurry

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2 comments:

  1. There was some very hard things to read in today's Old Covenant reading. Without having some understanding of the culture, society and what was valued in the time that they lived in, it would be next to impossible to understand what was going on with Lot offering his daughters to the men of Sodom and then the daughters devising a plan to have children through Lot.

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