"Lot's Wife"
Daniel Valles

READ Luke 17:32

When Christ described the people's attitude toward leaving Jerusalem as it was going to be judged, he stopped to remind the people that their exodus would be similar to Lot and his family.  When the Roman armies would come to judge Jerusalem and destroy it, those that heeded Christ's warnings and saw it coming were to make haste and flee.  They were not to stop and gather things together.  They were to flee and separate themselves.  Christ reminded them that they should remember how Lot's wife perished because she was too attached to her worldly good to fully recognize that God was punishing the cities.

There are also the parallels between the warning to the Jews then and also prophecy of when Christ returns.  When Christ comes back, is He going to find us staring back at the world that He is going to shortly judge?  Will He find us wistfully wanting more of the world and a pang of sorrow in our heart that we have to leave it?

2 Timothy 4:1-5 is Paul's admonition where he states, "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.  But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."

Paul was reminding them that Christ is coming back to judge.  In light of that, how do we live?  Paul reminds us that we should not be looking back longingly at this world, but striving forward.   Preaching, ready, reproving, rebuking, exhorting - these are the activities and energies of one whose eyes are on an eternal city.  Do we find our self too easily encumbered by the lusts of this world?  Do we want more 'things' and knick-knacks?  Do we desire shallow teaching and doctrine because it allows us to enjoy the world more with less guilt?

Are you making full proof of your ministry as a Christian?  Does the world see us turning back in our daily life?  Does the world find us watching them more than watching Christ?  Remember Lot's wife.