Build an alter in the center of Las Vegas

Does every choice we make really lead to life or destruction?

Here is a riddle for you to consider. You are going down a river and to you come to a split in the river. One way leads to life and the other leads to certain death. At the split in the river is a single cabin. In that cabin live two twin brothers. These brothers are the only ones who know which way leads to life and which way to death. One brother always tells the truth and one always lies. One of the brothers comes out to greet you. You don't know which brother it is. You only have one question you can ask to figure out which way to go. What is the one question that you can ask to ensure you go down the river of life?

Let me know if you figure out the answer.

In Genesis 13 there comes a choice for Lot. The land is not plentiful enough to support both of their herds, because they have become to rich and their herdsmen are fighting. So Abraham gives Lot the choice. You pick where you want to go. If you go right I will go left and if you go left I will go right. Lot takes a look at the land and sees a lush valley by the Jordan. This seems the logical choice to support the life of his family and herds so to the valley he goes. Lot pitches his tents among the cities in the valley near Sodom which if full of wickedness. Abraham moves into the forest and builds an alter to the Lord.

Now this is the argument that many home school parents use for the protection of their kids. Lets keep them isolated from the evil of the world. We all want to protect our kids don't we? And from the way this story develops we could look at this and say that is the right choice look what happens to Lot. He really just moved himself into a bad area of town so shame on him. (PS I have nothing against homeschooling!)

I wonder though if the real choice here was not so much where they moved but what they did when they moved there. Abram gave Lot the choice. If Lot had chosen to go the other way it seems that Abram would have moved into the valley. Would the fate of Sodom and Gamora have been changed if Abram had moved closer? We will never know. But what we do know is that where ever Abram set up camp he build and alter to the Lord. Well he didn't in Egypt and we know how that went.

In John chapter 17 Jesus prays not that his father would take the disciples out of the world, but that he would protect them in the world. There is still work to be done. Running to the hills and into the country side in order to avoid the world doesn't really seem to be God's call, nor the lesson in this passage.

It seems to me, God's call is more to worship him where ever we go. I would like to think we can build an alter down town Sodom and be a light in that dark place. We could build alters in downtown Portland, Spokane, Denver, Seattle, Vegas, L.A., etc. I don't think Jesus' prayer is for us to avoid the world but to engage the world, to change the world.

I don't know if Abram had moved to Sodom that it would not have been destroyed, but perhaps a few more people would have run out with him. Or perhaps his tents could have been a refuge just outside of the city for people to run too. Bible prophecy doesn't say that we can save this world from destruction. In the end it will be destroyed and then recreated. But the people in this would will not all be destroyed.

So lets build and alter where ever we are and continue the rescue mission in the midst of the world. For we truly are called to be in the world just not of the world. There must be light in the darkness, there must be salt to give preservation to this human race. Jesus calls us to be that salt and light!