World

“…and if He delivered righteous Lot, vexed with the filthy conduct of the wicked
8 (for that righteous man, having dwelt among them seeing and hearing, was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their unlawful deeds)” 2 Peter 2:7-8 (KJ21)

When we look around this world, what is it that we see? Would we say that it is similar to that of what Lot was enduring while he was living in Sodom and Gomorrah? Turn on the news and it seems that all we hear about nowadays are war, poverty, conflict, and destruction. When we hear about those things that are occurring around the world, or even locally, it may cause us to cringe and stop to pray. But what about the things that are happening in your immediate sphere of influence? What about the things that you read on your Facebook news feed or what is going on in your coworkers lives? Do you have the same reaction?

The sad thing is many of us are outraged when injustice in the form of murder or kidnapping occur but have become desensitized to foul language and premarital sex that we no longer bat an eye. His word reminds us to “not let any unwholesome talk ” and “no filthiness nor foolish nor crude joking” come out of our mouths but still we speak with foul language and licentious jokes with no conviction (Eph 4:29; 5:4).

Although Lot was surrounded by worldly desires and wickedness, he had great anxiety with it because of the evil around him. Are our convictions still present in guarding our hearts and minds from falling into the things of the world and stirring action in us? Or have we developed a habit of having anger towards sin, ignoring it, and reinforcing this action until we no longer have that same righteous anger?

The Wolf of Wall Street received many awards, positive reviews, and accolades and also broke the world record for its liberal use of the f-word 506 times (which would amount to hearing it once every 21 seconds spread evenly across the span of the movie). In addition, it used the S-word 70 times and blasphemed God’s holy name 28 times. Surrounded by a world of sin have we embraced it or are we in this world, but not of it (John 17:16)? Are we like Lot, righteous persons, who are greatly distressed by the sin in this world?

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3 (NRSV)

WOD:
3 Rounds for time of:
10 Burpee Pull-ups
30 Air Squats
60 seconds of handstand (time only counts when you are stationary in an inverted postion, use a wall if necessary)