Genesis 19

There are some sinful elements to Lot’s life in this narrative of him getting rescued from God’s judgement of Sodom and Gomorrah
Firstly he offered his daughters to the perverts outside – I guess he thought it was the lesser of two evils, but doing no evil would have been better!
Secondly he allowed his daughters to get drunk with him to father their children. The offspring became teh Moabites who were fertility god worshippers and the Ammonites a cruel race. But there is hope – Ruth was saved out of Moab! No-one is a lost cause.
The Sodomites were sexually immoral, clearly willing to commit sexual immorality promiscously with either sex. Verse 9 gives us an example of the intolerance of tolerance. “Tolerant” people are pretty intolerant with people who think their behaviour is sinful!

The judgement on the wicked area was total – the fire from heaven trashed it completely/ Deut 32:32 tells us no fruit was produced there again.

Ezekiel prophecied restoration for the area in Ezek 47- so there is always hope in the gospel.

Matthew 18

In this chapter Jesus tells some hard hitting stories.
i) Greatness is defined differently in the Kingdom – chidlren have the capacity for simple faith and obedience. Trust God and obey!
ii) Be ruthless with sources of temptation – for many that will be apathy and procrastination and wasting time on TV, facebook and the internet! For others it will be porn. Be ruthless with things that cause you to sin.
iii) Lost sheep – lost people matter to God, the one sheep triggered an allout search. Be passionate and unashamed of the Gospel!
iv) Upsets. If you someone has upset you, go to them to “win them over” by showing their fault. Don’t tell them their fault to show you anger but to reconcile them. If that doesn’t work, take someone to help them. Eventually unrepented sin needs to be a matter of church discipline. The binding and loosing of v18 are in the context of church discipline, where sin isn’t repented of. As is the two or three agreeing – that is
still talking about church discipline not poorly attended prayer meetings
v) Showing grace to others – we have received much forgiveness, so forgive others – a lotof conflict would be avoided by forgiving people!!

Nehemiah 8

Having built the walls, God is now about rebuiling the people of God! The people gather together for a six hour meeting! They listen to the Scripture in read and then worshipped. Then in v8 the teachers read, explained and applied the Law – preaching! That caused weeping as people realised how sinful people had been.
Nehemiah wisely tells them that this is a day of grace – they have come back to God – celebrate with good food and sweet drinks and help the poor to celebrate too! The kingdom of God is the best kind of party – joyful celebration of grace!

Acts 18

Priscilla and Aquila are a great couple used mightily of God. They keep popping up in church planting situations to help pioneer. They aren’t leaders but they are pioneers! Here they arein Corinth as migrant workers because the evil emperor Claudius has kicked the Jews out of Rome.
The first phas of teh plant has Paul bi-vocational making tents by day and preaching at the weekends. When the team arrive, Paul goes full time. The Jews kick up a fuss, so he goes to the Gentiles and works for 18months establishing a vibrant Church.

Priscilla and Aqula then go on with Paul to Ephesus and Paul goes onto Antioch and other place.
They are used by God to explain the way of God more adequately to Apollos. Lord give us more couple who love Jesus, will move to help see churches established and are able to explain the Gospel clearly! Wouldn’t you want to be like them?

Day 18 of the Murray M’Cheyne Bible Reading plan