TUESDAY, September 2nd, 2008

Hey Everyone! I must tell you, I just spent about an hour figuring out who is qualifying for our devotional trip and I am very very encouraged!! You guys are great! Keep up the good work.
There are 8 people qualified, and 4 more people just a few away!!

Although I do agree with Rachel, I will post the results anyway. Remember if you do your devotions everyday, then there is no doubt in whether you will qualify or not! :)

Here is the List: [the dates you missed are in the brackets]
Rachel Mace: 100% AWESOME JOB!!!
Michael Stratton: 100% AWESOME JOB!!!
Tyler King: 94% [16th]
Ryan West: 94% [16th]
Amy Russell: 94% [27th]
Bethany Barnthouse: 89% [27th, 29th]
Mallory Burton: 89% [19th, 22nd]
Tricia Russell: 89% [24th, 1st]

Jessica Massey: 84% [14th, 25th, 29th]
Kacey Lockhart: 84% [29th, 30th, 31st]

Jonathan Massey: 78% [16th, 22nd, 25th, 28th]
Bethany Fletcher: 78% [26th, 29th, 30th, 1st]

LET ME KNOW IF YOU MAKE ANY UP... Those of you who are one or two devotions behind right now, will still easily qualify if you do not miss any days from now till the 20th. Thank you!

WOW!!!!!!! If there has ever been a Rated R devotional passage... this is it. Read this and observe how far sin will take you... It will take you farther than you ever thought you would go!!

Sex, Scandal, Incest, Homosexuality, Riots, Destruction, a woman even turns to salt!! This sounds just like a movie trailer or something!! Not Quite! Just a description of the passage you are about to read!

Genesis 19

1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.
2 And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.”And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.”
3 But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house.
5 And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”
6 So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him,
7 and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly!
8 See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
9 And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door.
10 But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
11 And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.

Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place!
13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.
15 When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.”
16 And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
17 So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”
18 Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords!
19 Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.
20 See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”
21 And he said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.
22 Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.
24 Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens.
25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
26 But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28 Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace.
29 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 which Lot had dwelt.

The Descendants of Lot
30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave.
31 Now the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth.
32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.”
33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
34 It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, “Indeed I lay with my father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.”
35 Then they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38 And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day.

Wow! Can you believe what you have just read? I bet you did not realize you would ever read that in the Bible...
In the first part of this passage we see two angels go into the city of Sodom, these angels end up staying the night at Lot's house. After a while passes by, there is a riot of people outside the doors of Lots house and they are about to pound the door down, because they want to "commit homosexual acts" with these two angels!!

Lot steps outside to tell them to leave and Lot is so pathetic that He offers his two virgin daughters to this group of perverts so that they can "do as they wish" with his daughters!!!! Lot was willing to give up his pure daughters to this crowd of wicked fools!!

say it with me: SIN MAKES YOU STUPID!!!!!! [if I remember correctly this all started with Lot picking an area of Land so that He could SEE Sodom, not live in it... Look how far sin has taken him now]

Well, the riotous men are so perverted that they dont even want the two young virgin daughters, instead they begin trying to beat the door down...

The two angels tell Lot to get his family and tell them that Gods judgment will fall on the city... this part is so sad! Look what happens... Even Lots own children do not believe their father... He hash such a low reputation of Character and Integrity, that even his children do not believe him.

Well, because of Lots' lack of integrity, some of his family would not even leave Sodom, and they were destroyed. Lot and his wife and two of his daughters left the city... As they were leaving the angels told them not to look back or they would be punished.

When you get rid of sin in your life, you CANNOT KEEP LOOKING BACK AT IT!! YOU MUST LEAVE IT AND NEVER GO BACK! When you look back towards it, you are showing your love, and your fleshly desires for that sin... Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of Salt...

So is there a happy ending? They got out of the city alive! (well some of them) What happens next... the daughters decide that they want to carry the family line on to future generations, so they get their father LOT drunk, and both daughters give away their virginity TO THEIR FATHER...

Pastor Lee, why are you explaining this so specifically? BECAUSE I WANT YOU TO SEE THAT WHEN WE LIVE FOR THE WORLD IT WILL DESTROY US! Lot made a decision to get too close to sin, and it destroyed EVERYTHING HE HAD. It destroyed his family, his potential, his influence, his legacy... ALL OF IT WAS GONE, BECAUSE OF HIS SIN...

Satan wants you to think that sin is exciting... that is why He will get a song on the radio that talks all about two girls "kissing" and liking it... BUT YOU MUST REMEMBER: The end of Sin is DEATH!! Destruction! and Speparation from God! Wow! What a great passage!