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THE LAWS OF SEPARATION
Throughout Scripture, including the
parables of Christ, there is clearly a “law
of separation.” One of the earliest ex-
amples is Abraham and his nephew Lot.
God instructed Abram to depart from Ur
of Chaldea, leaving his kindred behind
(Gen. 12:1). This was a clear instruction
for Abraham not to drag along his rela-
tives.
However, Abraham invited his neph-
ew Lot to pack up and go along. For
months all seemed well, until the herds-
men of Lot and Abraham fought over
whose animals would graze in the bet-
ter grass lands. Lot became baggage, as
Abraham, on one occasion, had to raise
up a camel army of 318 servants to res-
cue Lot and his family. Later, Abraham
was pressed to intercede that Lot, his
wife, and his children would not be de-
stroyed in Sodom (Gen. 18). When Abra-
ham invited Lot on this trailblazing trip,
it might have looked good, but it was not
of God.
Christ also spoke of the separation of
wheat from tares (Matt. 13). A tare in a
field will grow with the wheat, but if you
mingle it during harvest and eat it, you
will become sick. Another separation is
the sheep from goats (Matt. 25). Sheep
graze peacefully in a field and shy away
from potential attackers. A goat will eat
just about anything, and an aggressive
goat has the potential to bully the sheep
and be a dangerous attacker. There are
also good and bad fish that are separat-
ed when caught in a net (Matt. 13:47-48).

RULING WITH DRAMA
In ministry, as with life in general, we
encounter individuals who could win
an academy award for their dramatic
skills. Some folks have a rare talent of
using their imaginations to turn a mole-
hill into a dangerous mountain. Any
negativity they hear or see becomes
their ammunition or spear. James al-
luded to the tongue, the smallest mem-
ber of the body, and how it can set on
course an uncontrollable fire (James
3:6). Words can start national wars,

10 VOICE OF EVANGELISM | JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2022