A Block of Salt

The following is a Children's Devotional I have prepared to give in couple of days as part of the chapel service at St. Stephens Episcopal School:

Does anyone know what I have here? That’s right, it’s a saltshaker, which reminds of a story in the Bible. In Genesis 19, God sends two angels to warn Lot and his family to get out of the city of Sodom, for God was about to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The people of these cities were very wicked, and God’s judgment was about to fall on them.

The instructions the angels gave Lot were clear: “Run for your lives! Don’t even look back.” At first, Lot just stood there. As wicked as the city was, he was still strangely attached to it. But the Bible says that “the Lord wanted to save Him. So the angels took Lot, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and led them out of the city.

When they were safely out of the city, “the Lord sent burning sulfur down like rain on Sodom and Gomorrah. He destroyed those cities and everyone who lived in them, as well as their land and trees and grass that grew there.” And then something horrible happened. Lot’s wife looked back at the city and “was turned into a block of salt.”

Remember the instructions the angels gave: “Run for you lives! Don’t even look back.” When God says something, he means it. Let Lot’s wife serve as an example for us. When you have left a lifestyle of sin and unrighteousness, don’t look back, as enticing as it might seem. Keep going forward with God, with eyes of faith to follow Him, no matter where He leads.

God will bless your faith and trust in Him. Why would we want to held back by something the book of Hebrews calls “the sin that so easily besets us?” On one occasion, Jesus told a woman to “go and leave your life of sin.” But Jesus would never ask us to leave something unless He fills that empty place with something that is so much greater: a life of joy, purpose, and fulfillment, which is rooted in Him, the source of eternal life.