Category: New Testament

To Look Or Not To Look

~ Sowmya Gali

Genesis 19: 17, 26

When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.”

But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Luke 15: 17

But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!’

To look or not to look? That is the question. One question that has plagued mankind from ancient days. Lot and his family settled in Sodom and Gomorrah comfortably after years of wandering. They have been accepted in that society so much so that Lot became one of the elders of the city. Their daughters were engaged to local men. All was going well for Lot, his wife and their two daughters. All of a sudden, God pronounced judgment on the twin cities for their wicked deeds. Overnight, God commanded them to leave everything behind and run for their lives.

Lot and his daughters obeyed and in panic ran towards the mountains. However, Lot’s wife, heartbroken to leave her nice home, her friends and neighbors, and her life behind so abruptly, turned around and looked back longingly at what she was leaving behind. It was her yearning for what she was leaving behind instead of the longing for what lay ahead caused her to turn into a pillar of salt. God was preventing them from looking back because he was destroying that past to dust and ashes so they could never return to that.

Numerous times in our own lives, God snatches us away from situations that could have been detrimental to us if we remained. We may not be prepared for such drastic change but God in His infinite mercy is protecting us from the impending pain or trouble. We may have been in toxic relationships that are causing us to stray away from God and make excuses to continue in our sin. Several times, we wouldn’t even know we were in the wrong because we chose to go with the flow of the current time. We didn’t want trouble when trouble was brewing all around us. Instead of escaping with our lives, we chose to compromise, we chose to yearn for the things that were familiar and comfortable.

In the story of the prodigal son, in his dire circumstances, he longed for a decent meal. He remembered the days of plenty and luxury in his father’s house. He remembered the comfort, the love and joy of his father’s house. He even remembered that the servants in his father’s household had excess food. Because he longed for the comfort of his father’s house, he chose to humble himself and return to his father’s house. The humiliation he was enduring was too much to bear. For his sin that he committed against his father, he was willing to bear whatever punishment his father would render him but return and remain in his father’s household.

We may have been the prodigal who chose to run after the world and its attractions. After getting burned, after exhausting all our resources, after getting betrayed, finding ourselves lonely, wasted and rejected, we remember the good old days. The joy and comfort of a loving family, the goodness of God we may have enjoyed, the peace of God that pervaded our entire being – all beckon us to return home. Looking and longing for the goodness of our past is wonderful as it causes us to steer ourselves back on to the familiar yet straight and narrow path.

Dear Sojourners, wherever we find ourselves in this life’s journey, it is always good to gauge ourselves against the Word of God. When God has taken us far away from the evil that could have ruined us, we should be grateful for the rescue and not yearn for such a past. When God has reminded us of our past where we have basked in the lap of His goodness, we should be grateful for such a beautiful past and yearn to return to it. As long as we are in His will, living out His purposes for His glory and for His Kingdom, it is our prerogative to either return to His fold or strive to enter His fold. It is our prerogative to look or not to look based on our situation.

Jeremiah 6: 16 – 17

Thus says the Lord, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

“And I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’” Yes, there is wisdom in the ancient paths. Let us chose to adhere to those ancient paths for there is freedom, love, joy, comfort, peace and prosperity. Irrespective of our past, let us forge ahead towards the eternity that awaits us. Let us set our eyes on Christ, who was, who is and who is to come!

Keeping it simple!

~ Sowmya Gali

Matthew 11: 28-30

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

“Keeping it simple!” That is what my pastor calls the Wednesday night Bible study, where he would break down the word of God into easily digestible morsels, for a daily practical application. He can unravel any complicated passage into understandable passage, which we could implement in our daily lives. The applicability of God’s Word is what makes the Word of God so simple that even a small child can understand.

Yes, God’s Word is simple for anyone to receive it and understand it. However, we have complicated it for our own detriment. In the Garden of Eden, God said not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Very simple to follow. Yet, Adam and Eve disobeyed, causing sin to corrupt the whole world. We have traded easy things with complex things thereby bringing complexity, confusion and contradiction into our lives. When God said marriage is between a man and a woman, we should have stuck to that formula instead of complicating with LGBTQI+. When God said to be fruitful and multiply, we chose to abort babies. When God said to not bow down to any idols, we chose to idolize everything else apart from God. When God said to obey the ten commandments, we chose to completely get rid of them leading to the break down of our society.

We sought to find divinity in God’s creation instead of God Himself. By rejecting the One, True God, we have entangled ourselves in a plethora of gods, unable to decipher which one and how to appease. If only we are willing to untangle ourselves from the web of lies that we have woven, then we could see the simplicity of God’s Word. The Pharisees during the time of Jesus have burdened themselves and the populace with a wide range of rules and regulations, which they themselves could not live by. They not only complicated the lives of the people but burdened them with these complicated laws. Jesus comes along and simplifies the truth. The followers of Jesus slowly but surely understood the simplicity of Jesus’ teachings. It was liberating to them.

The great thinkers and philosophers of the world tried to come up with ideologies to simplify our lives. Instead, their ideologies are complex and impractical. God’s Word is simple and practical. The philosophers came up with the ideas that may have been tenable for the times they were living. On the other hand, God’s Word is timeless and applicable for every generation. God’s Word is absolute truth. All other ideologies and/or philosophies are derived from God’s absolute truth, peppered with complexities.

Dear Saints, our God Almighty willed a simple and easy life for us. If our lives are filled with complexities, it is by our own doing. Jesus invites us to cast those burdens on Him, take up His yoke, which He promises is light and easy. Let us untangle ourselves from the complex web of lies that we have allowed the evil one to weave so that we could be free. Ring in the true freedom that only comes from believing in the Absolute Truth that comes from the Word of God. Let us live in obedience to that truth. As the wise teacher of Ecclesiastes concludes in chapter 12, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is ‘fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person,’” let us strive to keep it simple. In simplicity, there is beauty. In simplicity, there is joy. In simplicity, there is peace. In simplicity, there is pure and holy love. If we strive after simplicity, then we are wise. We are better equipped to unravel ourselves from complexities. Life is but a vapor. Here today and gone tomorrow. Instead of complicating our lives, let us simplify them by simply obeying God’s Word: fearing God, honoring marriage, preserving the family, protecting the unborn, loving unconditionally, and forgiving easily.