The Point of Arguing

Abraham came near and said, "Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" – Genesis 18:23-25

Have you ever wondered why Abraham tried to argue with God? Did he actually think that one can prevail over Elohim?

Jacob did (Genesis 32:24-29). Jacob wrestled with the Son of God all night long and when the Son saw that He had not prevailed against Jacob, He damaged Jacob’s thigh and yet Jacob – seeking God’s blessing – continued to hold on.

“You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures,” taught the Lord’s half-brother (James 4:3). “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,” (James 1:5-7). God wants to give us good things. He wants us to come boldly to His throne room (Hebrews 4:16), recognizing that we are no longer enemies or even servants, but His children.

Doing this lets us realize our true status – our new relationship with the Father. But why did God let Abraham go on arguing, when He knew that there were no righteous people to be found in Sodom? He could have told the man that He had just called His “chosen one” in verse 19 “That’s okay, Abraham. I really appreciate your willingness to intercede on their behalf. Wonderful attitude you have there, really – but save your breath. It’s no use. It’s too late. There are no righteous people in Sodom.” But He didn’t. He let Abraham go on and on. If you look carefully at the text you will see that Abraham was getting more and more nervous as he tried (as he thought) raising the stakes.

I believe that God’s purpose is always good. “For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). God allowed Abraham to stretch his compassion muscles. He could not save Sodom. But He could save Abraham. This is the point of compassion: even if we cannot save others, the act may yet save us.

The Power of Repentance

Then he said, "Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?" And He said, "I will not destroy it on account of the ten." – Genesis 18:32

Teshuvah is generally translated “repentance.” However, English does not do the Hebrew word justice because teshuvah also carries within it the meaning “return.” Repentance implies a change of ways; a change of heart; a change of direction. But we can change from one bad direction to another bad direction. Teshuvah literally means returning to the Source of Good. It requires not just remorse, nor restitution, nor repentance but a positive move towards reconciliation.

Genesis 18 tells us that if God had been able to find even ten righteous people in the entire valley of Sodom with its five sinful cities – He would have spared them. The problem was not with God’s mercy or compassion. The problem was with Sodom’s total lack of any intrinsic goodness.
According to Hebrews 11, Lot was considered by God to be righteous. Not sinless, mind you, but righteous. He was accounted righteous simply because he heard God’s message, believed it and acted upon it. That’s all it takes. But Lot was the only one. He tried to warn his family and they mocked him. But even though God could only find one righteous man He still saved the lives of that man and two of his daughters.

Teshuvah has great power. Teshuvah had the ability to save ten of thousands of lives with only ten righteous souls. Teshuvah had the ability to save an entire family for the sake of one father. Witness the leverage it carried with Yahweh when Nineveh repented. Look at its impact when Saul the mass murderer of Christians encountered the Lord on the road to Damascus and was transformed into Paul the Apostle. The problem in Genesis 18 was that no one was taking advantage of that power.

History has taught us that it is never too late for teshuvah. It is never too late to turn toward heaven and beg for forgiveness. But Sodom never did. Instead, they tried to rape the angels. They tried to invade Lot’s home. They mocked his message and though she started out obeying, Lot’s wife ended up turning back and was no more.

I beg you – recognize the sin in your life and turn toward Adonai with teshuvah in your heart. Be remorseful for your sin. Repent of it – turn away from it. Turn toward God and seek to be restored to a right relationship with Him. Experience the power of teshuvah in your life and be transformed.

Looking Down toward Sodom

Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. The LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” - Genesis 18:16-17

And they “looked down toward Sodom.” So much said in so few words. What an ominous, discomfiting statement! The angel’s look is rather like the glance given by the Master to Peter immediately after his third denial. What an impact those swollen, blood shot eyes must have had on the apostle! In fact, we see the power of that single look by Peter’s reaction – he ran out, weeping bitterly.

Sodom’s evil had risen to such a state that the Son of God Himself had come down along with two angels to investigate. They knew they were about to destroy Sodom’s entire valley. They knew that thousands were about to die horrible, ghastly, fiery deaths.

And they “looked down toward Sodom.” The line reminds me of Yeat's line “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” There are times when we don’t necessarily want the Lord’s attention.

Sodom was totally given over to licentiousness. It was enamored with money, power, sex and violence. Homosexuality had gotten to the point where the men of Sodom were gang raping strangers. Fathers were using their daughters as bargaining chips. This state of affairs had been reported by angels to the Lord God and the Son had come down to witness this for Himself - and that was not a good thing.

We tend to focus on the big signs. We look at what happened on 9/11, at the devastation done by hurricane Katrina or the tsunami and think “Is this God’s judgment?” But why does God have to bludgeon us to get our attention? Why can’t He simply speak and we listen? Why can’t He just glance in our direction and we be so tuned in, dialed in, and focused on Him that we immediately jump?

Abraham knew there was a problem in Sodom. When the Lord told him what was about to happen he wasn’t surprised. He simply began trying to bargain for mercy. He knew by this point that he was speaking to God. When the Son and those two angels suddenly stood and looked down toward Sodom – did he shiver? Did a chill run down his spine as those inhuman eyes gazed upon that city’s sin?

I would like to ask you, is God giving you some kind of sign that you are ignoring? Is He looking down on sin in your life that is about to bring some unwelcome consequences? Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Do not quench Him. Do not resist his promptings. Instead, plead for mercy. Ask for compassion. Whatever you do, do not ask for justice. And pray that the Judge of all the Earth is not looking your way.

A Mitzvah for a Fool

When arguing with fools, don’t answer their foolish arguments, or you will become as foolish as they are. When arguing with fools, be sure to answer their foolish arguments, or they will become wise in their own estimation. – Proverbs 26:4-5

Have you ever had to deal with a fool? You know – bull headed, ignorant, unteachable, absolutely convinced of the rightness of their cause contrary to all evidence and good sense, easily angered, thin skinned, and self-righteous – a fool. Of course you have – we all have. The Bible has sound advice for dealing with fools.

It is a mitzvah, a divine commandment and blessing, to instruct someone who will listen to you; but if you know that he will not listen, it is equally a mitzvah to refrain from instructing him, for you will only cause unnecessary argument and strife.

These two verses in Proverbs seem, at first glance, to contradict each other. But Solomon is making a play upon the little word “ki”, sometimes rendered “according to”. The Teacher’s advice on fools goes like this:

First, don’t descend to his or her level. In verse 4 “ki” means “in harmony with”. To enter into discussion with a fool within the terms of his folly is to lower oneself to his level and to accept his outlook upon life as one worthy of consideration. As you are answering, don’t answer in the same manner the fool would. Don’t argue about foolish things. (Titus 3:9-11)

However, don’t avoid dealing with the fool. In verse 5, “according to” means “as it deserves”. Answer a fool in such a manner that his or her foolishness is revealed to those who listen and hopefully to the fool himself. Thus he may come to realize that he is far from wise and may seek to become so. Paul said, "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God..." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV).

While answering, don’t lose your cool. “Don’t sin by letting anger gain control over you.”Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a mighty foothold to the Devil. (Ephesians 4:26-27).

Don’t gossip and slander the poor fool. It is foolish to belittle a neighbor; a person with good sense remains silent. Scoundrels hunt for scandal; their words are a destructive blaze. (Proverbs 11:12; 16:27) You may derive some momentary satisfaction in knocking the fool down in gossip but keep in mind “A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends.” (Proverbs 16:28) Don’t become a troublemaking gossip. In dealing with the fool don’t become one yourself.

All of us end up dealing with fools. And from time to time, any of us can be foolish. Wouldn’t it be nice if folks dealt with us keeping this mitzvah in mind?

Living Carefree

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you. 1 Pe. 5:7

Who doesn’t have cares? Who does not live with worries and concerns about the future? One of the many downsides to being finite is that we cannot foresee the future. We don’t even have a full grasp of the present! This doesn’t change when you become a Christian. You don’t just automatically become “Super Saint” and rest entirely on God. It is something that is learned.

Many people seem to think that faith is a blind leap into the dark. It is not. Faith is a learned response. I trust my wife because I have lived many years with her and she has never been unfaithful to me. I trust my chair because I have sat in it safely hundreds of times. If ever my wife is unfaithful or my chair breaks under my weight, I will more than likely lose faith. It would take many years to regain that sense of trust and comfort.

So faith grows with time and experience. But it is not necessarily chronological. If I were married for fifteen years but had only actually spent five years with my wife due to my job, then I would only have five years worth of knowledge of her. My faith in her would only be five years worth. Fortunately for me, our separations have been few and far between. We do everything together. Thus, my knowledge of her is great and correspondingly, so is my faith in her.

I have seen people who have been Christians for thirty years but who were still novices because they did not actually spend that much time with God. They did not study the Scriptures, they did not explore their relationship with Him, so they were still Christian infants.

I have seen young Christians who were totally dedicated to God and spent every possible moment with Him. Their faith was very strong. Jim Eliot was once such Christian. He was able to leave behind a comfortable life in the US, move to Ecuador as a missionary, and was eventually martyred for the faith. But this did not happen overnight. He was not able to show this much faith in God until after many, many moments spent with Him in prayer.

Only after you spend much time with God will you be able to fully give all your worries and cares to Him. As with anyone else, a relationship with God can and must be cultivated. What does it take to make a great friend? Time spent together, two-way conversation, care for the interests of each other, and a willingness to sacrifice for each other are required. Believe me; God is already doing all this for you. The only one who is lacking is you. Get to it.

Fighting Like a Girl

…Be earnest and disciplined in your prayers…Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere. 1 Pe. 4:7; Eph. 6:18

Most girls, when they fight, flail away wildly – hair falling in their eyes, eyes closed, they swing with great energy, but with little accomplishment. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen some phenomenal female warriors, but most girls fight like – well, girls!

We Christians are often guilty of fighting like girls. We pray when the mood hits; we read the Scriptures when the pastor tells us to in church, we study for a couple of minutes when someone asks us a question, we rise in ignorant indignation over issues then quickly fade away. This is no way to win a war. Christ calls us to a life of disciplined prayer. We should not only pray at the meal table or in church, but “at all times and on every occasion.” When we head for the phone, we should ask God to help us have a sweet spirit. When we make up our bed, we should be planning our day with the Lord. As we drive to work, why not ask the Creator for some creative solutions to your day’s problems?

One thing about girls, though, when they do decide to actually train and learn how to fight, they are great. You know why? Because they don’t try to rely on their own strength. They’ve lived their whole lives as “weaker vessels” and so they use their brains instead. Trainers spend half their time with men trying to convince them to use strategy and tactics instead of just wading in and trading punches. With women, if you can show them a sneaky trick, they listen. But we Christians are constantly guilty of relying on our own strength in day-to-day life. We try to figure things out, connive our way out of issues and bills. In the face of debt, God says “Give me your money. Not just the tithe – give Me all of it. Let Me show you what I can do.” And we respond by clutching our bills and change with trembling, palsied little hands. We think His way does not make sense. We think we can out-think God. What we should be doing is praying and acting “in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Stay alert. Don’t snooze. Look for opportunities to pray. When someone expresses worry over their children, pray with them – right there, right then. Become known as a persistent, habitual prayer warrior. Instead of flailing away uselessly, spending your energy without accomplishment, become disciplined in your spiritual life. Why should it surprise us that when we must exercise physical and mental discipline, we must exercise equally in the spiritual realm?

Expectancy

Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly. – Psalm 5:3

I enjoyed a particularly close relationship with one of my nieces. She used to stay at our house almost every weekend when she was very small. I found her sleeping with my dog in the dog basket not once, but several times. Once there was a time when her parents denied her a request. She responded, “I’ll just ask my uncle. He’ll get it for me.” Ah, the utter confidence of youth and love.

I am often guilty of going through the motions when I pray. I ask for things without any real expectation of receiving them. Why do I pray then? Well, I am not always aware of my lack of faith. I only become aware of my unbelief when the answer comes and I am surprised by it. I think to myself “Wow! Look at that! God answered!” or “What, already?” I’m not sure how long it will take before I have that complete and utter confidence in the love and concern of my heavenly Father.

What I should do is begin to immediately look around for the answer to my prayer. God knew my need before I even knew about it. He knew I would need this and that before the foundations of the world. So the odds are, the answer was already on the way as I was praying. But because of my unbelief, the dark forces of Satan may be able to delay it a while. Remember when Daniel was praying? The angel that eventually arrived told Daniel that demonic forces had delayed him. Demonic forces gain power and strength in humanity’s sin and willfulness. They have been bound over to darkness – the moral darkness that can be found even, at times, in the life of a Christian. That means that wherever I allow moral or spiritual darkness in my life, I am giving them more maneuvering room. When I pray faithlessly, I am the one delaying the answer to my prayers.

I was praying once with a young, mentally retarded man. He prayed, “God, preacher tells me my hair is too long and I need a haircut. How long was Jesus’ hair?” There was a long period of silence and I began to worry that I would have to try to explain to this young believer that we couldn’t really know what Jesus looked like until we got to heaven. Suddenly he said, “Oh, thanks!” Immediately after the meeting he went to the barber and got his hair trimmed. It was still long by some people’s standards but it didn’t go to his shoulders. To this day I believe that somehow, some way, God gave that simple man an answer of some kind in response to his child-like faith. I only pray that I can achieve the same faith.

Complex Simplicity

Once when Jesus had been out praying, one of his disciples came to him as he finished and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1

“Teach us to pray.” This disciple had a flash of insight. He realized that there were hidden depths, unrealized complexities to prayer that were eluding him. When audiences who are not familiar with the art of grappling watch two master wrestlers, they often think not much is happening. Because they have not tried wrestling themselves, they don’t see the nuances. They don’t notice the vibrating deltoid muscles that tell a story of nearly superhuman strain. They don’t see the little adjustments of balance that should telegraph that the person is trying to get a tactical advantage. Ah, but get an old grappler to watch and he will thoroughly enjoy himself. When my father-in-law watches a hockey game, he leans and twists and his muscles twitch in sympathy with the players. You see, he once was one of them and he realizes that there is more to hockey than just staying up on your skates and pushing around a little black puck.

We Christians are often satisfied with only surface knowledge of things. The great depths and reefs of theology elude us through lack of effort or concern. Never be guilty of this. Realize that you know little about the business of prayer. It matters not that you have been praying for twenty years, there are yet unplumbed depths to explore.

“Teach us to pray” the disciple implores. Not only does he realize the need to learn, but he goes to the right Teacher. As much as I would like to, I cannot teach you everything you need to know about praying. The problem is that I am also a student. I can teach you what I have discovered so far but any insight shared will be limited by my own limitations. I do know a great Teacher, however, who once said “Ask and it shall be given, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.” He knows everything there is to know about the subject. How does He know so much? Well, He was the Inventor, the original Creator of the concept of God/Man communication.

Prayer is like the Japanese game of Go. It is so simple that a child can learn to play in a few short minutes. It is so complex that some people dedicate their lives to mastering it and die short of their goal. Prayer is so simple that a child can kneel beside his bed and be instantly in communication with the sovereign Lord of the universe. Yet it is so complex that old prayer warriors can struggle sometimes almost to the point of death, wrestling with God. More rightly, they are wrestling with themselves, trying to get their hearts to submit to the will of God. This is the strength, the beauty, the challenge of prayer.

Deep Roots

Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. – Philippians 4:13 (The Message)

There once was an old man who wore overalls and a straw hat. He smiled a lot and his smile matched his hat – old, crinkly and well worn. He never yelled at kids who played in his yard. His house sat on ten acres, and his life-goal was to make it a forest. He had some interesting theories concerning trees. He came from the “No pain, no gain” school of horticulture. He never watered his new trees. He said that watering trees spoiled them, and that if you watered them, the next generation of trees would grow weaker and weaker. You have to make things rough for them and weed out the “weenie” trees early on. He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of moisture.

So he never watered his trees. He’d plant an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he’d beat it with a rolled up newspaper. Smack! Smack! Pow! When asked why he did that, he said it was to get the tree’s attention. The old man died, but those trees were granite-strong, big and robust. Those trees woke up in the morning, beat their chests and drank their coffee black!

Some people plant trees, carry water to them, spray them, pray over them, do everything but tuck them into bed every night and even consider that. What they get is sissy trees - trees that are unable to deal with anything. With the first big wind they’ll topple. Funny thing about the old man’s trees - adversity and deprivation seemed to benefit them in ways comfort and ease never could.

So often we pray “Lord, spare me from the hardships of life.” But we need to recognize the inevitability of life’s cold winds. Our praying to be spared them is naïve, since there’s always one blowing somewhere. Life is tough whether we want it to be or not. Too many times we pray for ease, but that’s a prayer that’s seldom answered. Let’s pray “Lord, make my roots grow deep, so they can draw from the hidden sources of the eternal God.” What we need is for God to smack us with a newspaper every once in a while so when the real tough times come, we’ll be ready.

Change Your Name

The nations will see your righteousness. Kings will be blinded by your glory. And the Lord will give you a new name. – Is. 62:2

A great general was surrounded one time. He was in his tent discussing strategy with his subordinates when an aide came running in. “General, the enemy has surrounded us with eight regiments! We are outnumbered 20 to one!”

Everyone turned to the great man as he gazed calmly at the panicked aide. “Well that’s outstanding!” he replied “We’ve got them right where we want them. We can shoot anywhere and hit the enemy.”

Life’s problems often surround us and it’s easy to get panicked. We look at the overwhelming mass of them and it is too much to bear. What we need to do is have the same outlook as the general. Just keep doing the job, one bullet at a time, one enemy at a time. By staying calm and remaining on the job even under stress, we reveal our true worth. Anyone can do well when everything is running smoothly. How good are you when the going gets rough? That’s the real test.

Another general, Alexander the Great, rode into camp one day. As he approached the center of the huge camp he saw an officer berating a foot soldier. He stopped and asked what the problem was. The officer told him the soldier had displayed cowardice in the last battle and was refusing to go into the fray. Alexander rode his horse over to the kneeling soldier. “Soldier, what is your name?”

The man hesitated to answer so Alexander repeated the question. “Soldier, what is your name?”

Finally the man barely whispered, “Alexander, sir.”

Alexander the Great, conqueror of the world replied, “Soldier, change your ways or change your name.”

All of us who claim the name of Christ, should learn the lesson. How awful it is to see someone with some Christian sticker on his or her car get angry and impatient in traffic. How terrible it must be for Christ when a person with a WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelet or ball cap is nasty to the cashier at Walmart. How much better it would be for you to remove the sticker, the bracelet, the ball cap or the cross necklace and display Christ with your attitude or actions! Change your name or change your actions!

Archipelagoes

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. - James 5:16

No man is an island unto himself. We are more like an archipelago – a chain of islands with interrelated ecologies. Everything you do affects others around you. Why not use this “ripple effect” to benefit those around you? Do not consider yourself separate. Do not pray only for yourself. Notice that in Christ’s example of prayer, He began by praying for the advancement of the Kingdom. It is easy to fall into the habit of self-centered prayer. We ask for this, beg for that, plead for the other. We are so caught up in our own needs and wants that we forget that there is a needy world. Christianity is primarily about service. We are to minister to those around us. James says that it is useless for us to simply tell someone who is hungry to be blest, be warm and be fed. We are to get up out of our comfort zone, get out there and help them.

So, too, our prayer life should be characterized by service to others. Pray for their needs, for their wants. Pray for their children, for their family life. Pray for the leaders of your community. Pray for your church. Ask God to give wisdom to the judges. Plead for protection for the police and firemen. See if God will guide the hands of the medical staff of your hospital. Check on these things and see if your prayers are having a result. You can ask for information on the number of police or fire departments work related accidents or incidents. You can see how many people are successfully treated at your hospital. This will only help your faith as you see the impact that your prayers have.

As you are praying, choose a prayer partner who is willing to join you. Be accountable to that person. If you are struggling spiritually, ask for their prayers. If you have sinned, confess it to them and get them to help you establish safeguards so that it doesn’t happen again. As you reach out to others IN help, also reach out to others FOR help. What will develop is a community based on love, compassion, and help with you at its heart. But it will not happen as long as your prayers remain self-centered.

Carry an Umbrella

…Because of your faith, it will happen. Mt. 9:29

I read a story about a church that was located in an area beset by drought. At last, they decided to pray about the matter. Isn’t it funny how we don’t start out praying? We always wait until the situation seems hopeless then yell out, “God! Help!” Anyway, only one person showed up to the prayer meeting with an umbrella. They were all there ostensibly to ask God for rain, but only one among the congregation actually believed God would answer. When you pray, do you carry an “umbrella” with you? Do you pray believing you will receive an answer? If not, then why waste your time and God’s? Just go down to the closest street corner, accost a complete stranger, and spout out a bunch of gibberish at him. It will be just as effective.

Faith is an integral part of prayer. It is by faith that you pray in the first place. You must exercise faith in an invisible God, and yet more faith in the fact that He listens and answers you. Saying “faithless prayer” is like saying “wordless speech”. It is nonsense. If you are not exercising your faith muscles as you pray, you are only pretending to pray.

If you believe your prayers will be answered, you will begin moving on them even before the answer arrives. George Mueller used to minister to the Lord by establishing orphanages in England. He often was totally devoid of funds. His biography recounts a time when he caused all the orphans to gather around a dinner table that held no food. They set the table, placed the napkins and sat down to pray over the non-existent food. As he was thanking God for the food, a knock came at the door. A bread truck had broken down in front of the orphanage and they wanted to know if Mr. Mueller had any use for the bread? A few minutes later, another man arrived asking if Mr. Mueller would care for a truck-load of milk. This did not happen just once. It happened over and over.

The scary part of living by faith is that to truly live by faith, you must act when there is no reason to. You must live with God on the edge of things. Jesus approached his would-be disciples and said “Drop your nets, leave behind your source of income and follow me.” Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that God necessarily wants you to quit your job and live totally by faith. You should, however, not rely on that job to provide everything for you. You could lose it any day now. You will never lose God.

If you pray in an attitude of faith, and begin putting feet to your prayers without waiting to have everything spelled out for you, you will embark on a scary, exciting and thrilling adventure with God. You will start carrying around an umbrella.

Dung Beetle Lives

I once thought all these (self-righteous works) were so very important, but now I consider them worthless (KJV reads dung) because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ. - Philippians 3:7-8

Generally, dung beetles don’t get a lot of respect. They usually don’t get noticed by anyone not playing around in a cow pad. However, in tropical climes they can be extremely numerous and busy workers. In 1973, a guy called Jo Anderson recorded the action as it happened at a small 1.5 kg pile of elephant dung on the African savannah. In two hours, that small pile of dung attracted 16,000 dung beetles of various shapes and sizes. They had eaten and or buried that dung completely in just those two hours.

Some of the larger dung beetles are incredibly strong and can move balls of dung up to 50 times their own weight. Dung beetles can be conveniently divided into three groups: Dwellers, Tunnellers and Rollers.

Dwellers spend as much of their lives as possible digging around inside some sort of dung. They lay their eggs straight into the dung and the larvae live happily eating their way through it.

Generally speaking, dung beetles are good fliers. Tunnelers will fly along until they find a nice fresh cow pad into which they will dive. They then dig beneath the pad and drag as much dung as they like down into the newly-created tunnel.

Rollers are species who make a burrow some way away from the dung they are going to use and then collect small to medium sized lumps of dung to role away from the source and into their burrows.

So, what is the lesson that we can learn from these useful but disgusting creatures? We Christians must examine the things we value and determine whether or not they have any more worth than little rolled up balls of manure. Oh, it’s easy to instantly let our minds think of materialism. We roll our little balls of money. We wallow in our piles of things. But what of pride? What of position? What about our little fiefdoms that we struggle so valiantly to defend, never realizing that they are so much dung? Are we Dwellers? Do we make no attempt to reach out for the better things God has to offer and simply wallow in and eat of Satan’s filth? Are we Tunnelers? Do we try to appear as if we live separate from the world while all the while living immediately under its sway? Or are we Rollers? Do we acknowledge the need to be separate and yet still occasionally roll little balls of worldliness into our lives and into our homes? Make sure that you are truly reaching your full potential and not merely leading a Dung Beetle life.