Sodom-ized
Looking for ease! Looking for security! Looking for an earthbound place of rest and peace! Isn’t that our heart’s cry?
Desiring truth in the inward parts, yet casting aside sojourning, Lot chose to plant his roots in this world. When he turned to Sodom, he turned toward a Dark Prince who had caste his pall across the earth from the beginning of creation. A prince of power and artifice whose deception built a kingdom rooted in sight. A kingdom that appeared to offer the well-watered garden reminiscent of the Eden we all long for. And believing he had found it, this righteous man followed his sight until he had staked out his own territory within the fortified walls of a dark realm.
Without the lens of faith, how easy it is to perceive the Shadowlands we sojourn through as the truth our heart seeks. Lot did not understand that the city he was to be seeking was not of this world. A city awaited him with foundations anchored in the heavenly kingdom. A city not made with human hands, but one whose builder and maker is God Himself. A city claiming a cornerstone that rests unshakably and firmly in Jesus and the abundant life that is ours in Him.
As long as we sojourn in the Shadowlands, in which our temporal flesh must reside, the apparel marking us as residents of the eternal kingdom must be put on internally. It is there that the clothing of righteousness becomes ours. These are garments woven in spirit and in truth with golden spirit threads weaving the beautiful design of God’s heart throughout our lives.
Jesus gives us a glimpse of that apparel as He shares what kingdom clothing truly looks like. Speaking to the multitudes on a mountain side, He bares God’s heart. How different the Beatitude apparel is from Sodom attire.
But, like Lot, Sodom often unwittingly becomes our place of residence and its clothing our own. It glitters and sparkles. It calls our name offering itself in so many guises to our searching hearts, wooing our deepest longings. We fail to recognize it for the kingdom of darkness it is. And we never dream that its shadowy garb has become our own, disguising the apparel of light God would clothe us in.
Paul speaks of this boldly in Ephesians 2 . . . you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
And this leaves us like Lot. World-wearied! Spiritually impotent! Peter paints a vivid picture of Lot so often mirroring our own woundedness . . . oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) . . . (2 Peter 2:7-8 NKJV)
Yet, Grace, taking on human form, would not leave us here in Sodom’s Shadowlands any more than He would leave righteous Lot in the fortified city of darkness. Physically and spiritually Lot was taken by the hand and walked through those darkened streets, escaping, through the power and gift of God, the wrath that falls on all unrighteousness. Paul records Lot’s path to redemption, a journey we, too, share.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been save), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus . . . (Eph. 2:4-6 NKJV)
Sodom will ever remain a city of sight calling those who walk by sight! But we need not be Sodom-ized! We are called to a different walk, a walk by faith that enables us to look forward to that heavenly city of promise. A city of eternal blessing, made not with human hands, but by God’s own loving hands. A city where the Prince of Darkness holds no power and Eden truly is reborn. Where the garments of righteousness that we wear will shine like the noonday sun bathing us forever in the love of God.
© 5 January 2005
DeAnna Brooks
Desiring truth in the inward parts, yet casting aside sojourning, Lot chose to plant his roots in this world. When he turned to Sodom, he turned toward a Dark Prince who had caste his pall across the earth from the beginning of creation. A prince of power and artifice whose deception built a kingdom rooted in sight. A kingdom that appeared to offer the well-watered garden reminiscent of the Eden we all long for. And believing he had found it, this righteous man followed his sight until he had staked out his own territory within the fortified walls of a dark realm.
Without the lens of faith, how easy it is to perceive the Shadowlands we sojourn through as the truth our heart seeks. Lot did not understand that the city he was to be seeking was not of this world. A city awaited him with foundations anchored in the heavenly kingdom. A city not made with human hands, but one whose builder and maker is God Himself. A city claiming a cornerstone that rests unshakably and firmly in Jesus and the abundant life that is ours in Him.
As long as we sojourn in the Shadowlands, in which our temporal flesh must reside, the apparel marking us as residents of the eternal kingdom must be put on internally. It is there that the clothing of righteousness becomes ours. These are garments woven in spirit and in truth with golden spirit threads weaving the beautiful design of God’s heart throughout our lives.
Jesus gives us a glimpse of that apparel as He shares what kingdom clothing truly looks like. Speaking to the multitudes on a mountain side, He bares God’s heart. How different the Beatitude apparel is from Sodom attire.
But, like Lot, Sodom often unwittingly becomes our place of residence and its clothing our own. It glitters and sparkles. It calls our name offering itself in so many guises to our searching hearts, wooing our deepest longings. We fail to recognize it for the kingdom of darkness it is. And we never dream that its shadowy garb has become our own, disguising the apparel of light God would clothe us in.
Paul speaks of this boldly in Ephesians 2 . . . you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
And this leaves us like Lot. World-wearied! Spiritually impotent! Peter paints a vivid picture of Lot so often mirroring our own woundedness . . . oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) . . . (2 Peter 2:7-8 NKJV)
Yet, Grace, taking on human form, would not leave us here in Sodom’s Shadowlands any more than He would leave righteous Lot in the fortified city of darkness. Physically and spiritually Lot was taken by the hand and walked through those darkened streets, escaping, through the power and gift of God, the wrath that falls on all unrighteousness. Paul records Lot’s path to redemption, a journey we, too, share.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been save), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus . . . (Eph. 2:4-6 NKJV)
Sodom will ever remain a city of sight calling those who walk by sight! But we need not be Sodom-ized! We are called to a different walk, a walk by faith that enables us to look forward to that heavenly city of promise. A city of eternal blessing, made not with human hands, but by God’s own loving hands. A city where the Prince of Darkness holds no power and Eden truly is reborn. Where the garments of righteousness that we wear will shine like the noonday sun bathing us forever in the love of God.
© 5 January 2005
DeAnna Brooks
posted by brooklet | 2:27 PM
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