Zebra Ministries

Good morning Zebras,

Eighteen years ago, I went to my first and only Women Over Forty retreat, where I heard this truth.

When Abraham was told to go and sacrifice Isaac, the Bible says, he rose up early the next morning and went.

Genesis 22:2–3:  Then God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”  So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac.  And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

When Lot was told to flee Sodom and Gomorrah to save his life, he lingered.

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 men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

Lingering when God tells us to do something is dangerous.  He may be merciful to us like He was to Lot and force us to go, or He may just leave just there to suffer the consequences of our disobedience.  (Facebook is the perfect illustration of a place where we can get into trouble when we linger after God says “Log off!”) 

Cynthia Heald, who was the speaker at the retreat said she had no desire to be “Lingering Lot.”  Instead, she said, she wanted to be like Abraham who believed and immediately obeyed God.

I completely agree, to me Lot seems like one of the “losers” of the Bible, while Abraham is called God’s friend.

James 2:20–24:  Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.  You see that’s a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

As we have been discussing, you need to do nothing for Salvation other than to repent, receive forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:37–38:  Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”  And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But if a person, who claims to have faith has no desire to listen to and obey God, if they have no “works,” or evidence of a changed life, then the harsh truth is their faith either never existed or it has died.

James 2:26:  For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

True faith makes itself known.

Love,

Jill