Prof. Biju Issac

It’s quite interesting to see that we are making an impact on our generation -either positive or negative. We are either for Christ by our lives or against Christ. We are either for the gospel of redemption or against it. We are either a positive witness for Christ or a negative, dull witness for Him. You either make a godly influence in your generation or a godless and pagan influence. It’s a truth and no one can deny it.

But many may retort - ‘I am so regular to the church, I never miss a prayer meeting, I love to sing Christian songs and in fact I am in the choir, I give tithes regularly to my church’... etc... and the list goes on endlessly. ‘Am I not making a godly influence?’, you might ask.
I have some questions to you personally, and you need to answer that frankly.

1. Are you a born-again believer? (meaning, are you touched of God, to such an extent that you have a inner craving for a Christ centered and pure life? Or, Is Jesus Christ, the greatest passion of your heart? or, Do you have a clear assurance that your sins are indeed forgiven by God and that you are a child of God? - all are synonymous questions)

2. Are you having a burden in your heart to give the gospel of Christ to the people who cross your life and the sinstricken society, so that they will not perish in their sins and moral defeats?

3. Are you hearing God in your personal life (NOT messages from a man of God), so that your heart is thrilled by a sense of direction and comfort you receive from God?

If you cannot answer the above questions in the affirmative, you are indeed a negative influence. In fact you are spiritually dead, as per God’s word. An outer covering of ‘religious life’, will not make us spiritually alive. The life of God has to dwell in us and it is then, we become born-again. To clarify what I am trying to impress upon, let’s look at the life and influence of Abraham and Lot. Abraham is a picture of a spiritual disciple of Christ, whose life becomes a blessing to many. Lot is a picture of a carnal and religious man, whose negative influence brings upon a doom on him.

THE INFLUENCE OF ABRAHAM
Abraham, an idol worshipper in the land of Ur (the present Iraq), received a call from God in the pure mercy and sovereignty of God. He responded to that call whole-heartedly, leaving that godless nation proceeding to the land and blessing God had reserved for him.

He was so gripped about his destination - that heavenly country, whose builder and maker is God. For him, the life here on earth was only a pilgrimage to that celestial city and he became a real worshipper of God.

Abraham’s influence on his family members is exemplary. His wife Sarah was so submissive to him that she called him ‘lord’, out of the deep respect she had for him. The word of God says that she was having a meek and quiet spirit, which was so precious in the sight of God (unlike the flamboyant and gaudy wives of our generation, who commands and controls their pethusbands!). By unswerving faith in God, they received Isaac - the son as a miracle, when both Abraham (at the age of 100) and Sarah were physically impotent to have a child.

At one point, when God tested Abraham’s devotion to Him, by asking him to offer his only son Isaac as a burnt offering, he journeyed three days to Mount Moriah and made an altar there. Isaac would have been a teenager by then. Abraham in his great love for God, prepared even to kill his son, by tying Isaac on the alter. Again we see the beauty of submission, where Isaac is willingly obeying his father to be tied on the altar and there is no trace of retaliation in him. Isaac knew the integrity and the faith of his father. He very well understood that his father’s will was the best for him at that time.

We also see that when there was a quarrel between Abraham’s servants and Abhimelech’s (the king of Phlistines) servants over a well of water, Abraham settles that peacefully by offering some gifts to Abhimelech for a covenant. Abraham’s devotion to God was so glaring that, the Philistine leader told him - ‘God is with you in all that you do, so please don’t do me any harm’.

Later Isaac, as he grew up also faced a similar situation, when the servants of Abhimelech kicked up a quarrel with him. But he gracefully moved away from strife and even made them a feast. Definitely, this charming behaviour was his father’s influence.

When God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (the place where Lot was living) because of the sexual filth an d violence going on there, He spared the family of Lot at the request of Abraham. The word of God says that God ‘remembered Abraham’ and spared Lot’s family.

THE INFLUENCE OF LOT
Lot -the nephew of Abraham, as we understand didn’t have a proper call from God and he just ‘accompanied’ Abraham in leaving the land of Ur. He is typical of so many believers who move along with a crowd, without personal convictions about God’s call. Such people speak the right religious language (imitating the spiritual language of the church), but lack that direct relationship with God.
As the company of Abraham and Lot moved along in the land of Canaan, there arose a strife between the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham. Abraham peacefully stepped in and calling Lot as his brother, allowed him to choose the land of his liking. Lot in his carnal frenzy chose the ‘best and fertile land’ for himself, toward Sodom and Gomorrah. Later God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah with fire because of their grievous sins (sexual perversion and promiscuity). As Lotinformed that news to his family, he seemed to be joking to his sons-in-law. What level of respect they had for Lot is evident from that reaction! The angels of God warned Lot and his family to escape from Sodom and not to turn back. But his wife, being a worldly and carnal woman couldn’t stop turning back (because her heart was in Sodom and not in God) and she became a pillar of salt. What a contrast from Sarah, whom God commends to be a holy woman of God and a woman of faith!

The daughters of Lot who were exposed to the sexual muck and culture of Sodom followed the same example of unbelief. Out of the fear for ‘no prospects of marriage’, they made their father drink excess wine and committed adultery with him. What a shame and tragedy! Even those children born out of them - Moab and Ammon and their generations were cursed of God. What a contrast from Isaac, as God was not ashamed to be called his God (in revealing himself as - the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob to Moses and to others)

What kind of an influence are you making in t his generation?