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He should have known better! Balaam had already been warned by an armed angel to be careful with regard to Israel. He tried the kind of formulae ancient paganism could come up with—offering the perfect number of sacrifices and trying to get God to curse a just a small part of the Jewish camp. His techniques backfired. God would bless Israel and curse those who cursed them. Balaam seems to have gotten the message.
He seems to until we find him dead for having tried to seduce the nation into a place where God would curse them. After all that had transpired, he really should have known better. Maybe he did. Maybe going ahead when he did know better is what got him dead.
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By: Brent Walsh
When I was a child, my family was barely making ends meet. Fortunately I had a set of parents that worked well together. My father worked hard to bring the money in, and my mother worked just as hard to make it stretch as far as she could. Throughout the year, she would go treasure hunting at garage sales and thrift stores to buy like-new toys, games and clothes, and then stash them away in a box in her closet. When December rolled around and it was time to wrap gifts, my siblings and I would "go shopping" in mom's room. She would pre-select a set of gifts for each of us to choose from and encourage us by saying, "I think Christie would like this…" or "Don't you think this would be perfect for Daddy?" When each of our gifts had a name attached to it, we would wrap them with wrinkled and ironed squares of wrapping paper that were to be employed for the seventh or eighth season in a row. Then we would make our grand exit and parade our gifts out to the living room.
...amid pleas from my mother - "Be careful! Don't rip the paper!"
When there is barely enough money to buy food, a Christmas tree just falls out the bottom of a budget. No need to worry, though, because we had lots of friends who would send us Christmas cards. My mother would clear a wall in the living room and affix the cards to it in the shape of a tree. Then she would outline it with green garland and put a tree skirt on the floor beneath it. Before you knew it, we would have gifts piled high beneath our tree-shaped card mural!
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By Pastor Leon E. Savage
Genesis 18:22-33
In this story, Abraham learns that God is going to destroy the people of Sodom because of their great sinfulness. Instantly, Abraham becomes a prayer warrior for them. He was qualified for this job because he walked with the Lord step-by-step and longed for His presence.
The Lord listened to this man of God because he sought every opportunity to turn his thoughts to the Lord throughout the day. We can follow his example by focusing on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of a good report (Phil. 4:8). A prayer warrior will set aside blocks of time every day for concentrated, uninterrupted prayer.
Simply put, the prayer warrior longs for God's presence, to walk with Him step by step. There, they will find their true happiness. This may seem a lofty goal, but in reality the Holy Spirit puts in each of us a desire for a relationship with God. We can only find it by acknowledging our helplessness without God’s grace and mercy.
By Pastor Leon E. Savage
19705 Shumagin Circle
Eagle River, AK 99577
This devotional thought was written to complement our story Abraham and Lot. |
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Devotional thought:
What impresses me with this story is that Lot was counted as a righteous man, but his righteousness wasn't enough to save his family - even though he was there at the scene. On the other hand, Abraham prayed from his place in the mountains, and Lot and his daughters were taken out of the disaster. It reminds us that sometimes we are God's means of helping those who aren't in a position to pray for themselves.
Key verse:
And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. --Genesis 19:29
This devotional thought was written to complement our story Abraham and Lot. |
by Brent Walsh
"If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!" Exodus 16:3b
"Did you hear that? I told you this would happen! They’re laying off drivers left and right. We gotta find another company to drive for, or we're going to be stuck with a mortgage payment we can't pay, not to mention all the other bills! After all, they won’t pay themselves!" I continued to complain to Julie, my wife and co-driver as we walked out of the dispatch office of our trucking company.
I had laid out this doomsday scenario for Julie at least three times in the past. Once because our branch office doesn’t haul freight any farther west than Texas. I insisted that we needed a coast-to-coast company – one that offered us more opportunities.
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