Genesis 13:6 – And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.

Genesis 13:7 – And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.

Genesis 13:8 – And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.

Hello readers, new blog today. Are your herdmen not getting along? We are going to be talking about strife and separation between Christians today. There’s a strife and separation point in Christianity. Christians are divided. And that’s a good and a bad thing. It’s good because separation is a godly principle. It’s good because God is always dividing between the true Christians and the fakes. God allows issues like the issue that we will be discussing to prove the heart and faith of each one of us. This life is a proving ground. But separation from lies, from error, from sin, from darkness, from this world unto God is always a good thing. Following Jesus Christ will bring division into your life. Following Jesus Christ has a cost, which if you are not willing to pay, you cannot follow him.

Strife and separation in Christianity happens because there is strife at the source. At the foundation of Christianity is the word of God. If it is not your foundation already, you have none. There is only one foundation that stands the test of time, and that is the foundation of the word of God. God’s word is the foundation and object of Biblical faith. But there is strife, because God’s word is a battleground. The Bible says in Psalms 119, “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven”. So God’s word is settled, it’s not up for debate or subject to change. But the problem is, there is many counterfeits to the real thing, designed to confuse you, distract you and shipwreck you. If God’s word is the key to your faith, you must surely expect the enemy to attack you at the source.

With the rise of new Bibles there has arisen a strife point between those who refuse to sell out on God’s word and those who traded in for something better. We didn’t learn from Naboth who refused Ahab’s offer for something better in exchange for his vineyard, no, we cut a deal with Ahab and Jezebel. And make no mistake, it’s at the source where all the issues are arising from. Recognizing where the real issue is key to dealing with the issue. All of Lot’s problems can be traced back to this event in his life. It’s time to trace back your worldliness, your disobedience, your compromise, your confusion to the source.

Having the same Bible doesn’t guarantee agreement, because you may have the right Bible, but still not believe and obey it and you can still wrest the scriptures to your own destruction. But it’s time to recognize that everything has gone wrong because this went wrong. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:17 “we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God”. Many are doing that. Many love the corrupted version of who God is because that “God” suits their sin.

The fact is, your faith and walk with God is only as good as the Bible you have. Without God’s word, we have nothing. Of course, Satan knows this, and so there is a big battle over what God has said and where you can find it. The Bible issue has been a big issue in Christendom. It shouldn’t be, yet is, for as we already said, God’s word is settled. And yet many are not settled on God’s word. They don’t trust it, believe it, or live by it. They have no confidence or assurance in it. And they have strife with those who do.

It shouldn’t be surprising that there is such a contention over God’s word, seeing as the very first thing Satan did, and how he still works today, was to cast doubt on, dispute and deny the word of God. And on this issue, which God has allowed, it separates between believers who want to be like Abraham, walk by faith and obtain the promises of God… and professing Christians who want to go like Lot, and we know that didn’t end well. This whole strife issue separated an Abram from a Lot. And the Bible issue will prove you to be an Abram or a Lot too. Are you on Abram or Lot’s side of the issue, the argument, the debate?

Abram and Lot had gotten on perfectly fine until their herdmen started fighting. When the herdmen are fighting, the only solution to the strife is separation. Jesus said if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And it can’t. One of the abominations to God in Proverbs is he that soweth discord amongst the brethren. The new Bibles have done that. New Bibles came in, and guess what followed, a new gospel, a new spirit, new music, new worship and a new God. A true Christian has to separate from that. We don’t want to bring a reproach on Christ with our conversation in this world, just as Abram didn’t want strife, because when you argue with other Christians, it’s a bad look for Jesus Christ. But you can’t have hundreds of different versions of God’s word, all saying something different, all portraying a different image of Christ, and all producing or excusing a different life, and that divided house not fall. When you’re a divided Christian with a divided Christ, you will be destroyed by Satan. If you’re divided about God’s word, you’re done. And a true Christian can’t be part of that division, they must divide themselves from issues which are not up for debate, and a faith not up for sale.

The very origin of sin comes from the battle over Bible. Yea, hath God said? Guess who said that? Go to Genesis 3 to find out… it was Satan. The truth is, God had said, God has said, and God has made sure what he said is written down, so we can be sure, so we can know, so we can be furnished and equipped for salvation and service. God’s word can be trusted. If your Bible is being changed, revised, updated… you know you do not have God’s word. There are no multiple versions of truth, there is one truth, just as Jesus is THE way, THE truth, THE life. And remember, the first thing we learn about Satan’s character is he is subtle. The devil is in the detail, and that saying exists for a reason. That subtle change to God’s word can be the difference between heaven and hell, between an Abram and a Lot. Pretty big.

I’ve experienced this strife and separation, maybe you have too, maybe not. But this blog is going to prove without a shadow of a doubt that the Bible is teaching a very fundamental truth and reality of the Christian walk through the strife of the herdmen of Abram and Lot. The Bible is fundamental to our faith. The Bible is our herdmen. And the different herdmen are not agreeing, the different herdmen are not coexisting. The word of God doesn’t just butt heads with false Bibles, but also with all the false religions of this world. The Bible says, If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The answer is nothing. The reasons why so many professing Christians can do nothing is because they have no foundation. This Bible issue separates between Abraham the father of faith and a Lot. In Lot you see a man so out of tune with the word of God, will of God and wisdom of God it’s not funny. And all because the herdmen did not get along.

My King James Bible does not get along with your NIV, or ESV, or NASB,  or even NKJV. And because of that fundamental difference, there are issues between us. I won’t call you not saved, because Lot was a saved man. But there was a lot of difference between how things went and turned out for Abram and Lot. Changing the Bible is changing the image of Christ. Changing words is changing what the Bible is saying and teaching. If there is one thing we know about God, it is that he does not change. If he does not change, that means his word does not change. And at the end of the day, all we’ve got is his promises. All Abram had was a promise. That promise was a seed of hope and the seed of the Saviour, and the seed of all who walk in the steps of Abraham. Imagine for a second if God had changed his promises, and changed the covenant, and changed the deal Laban style? We’d have no hope. Our hope lies in the integrity of God’s word.

It’s amazing to me, but also not at the same time, how you can expect to have a different foundation yet walk together. This is teaching you can’t. There are many professing Christians I know, or have known, God knows if they’re saved or not, and some are sincere and whatever, but there is a fundamental difference, and that flows into all issues of life. Of course it does, how can it not? And when we should be fighting the fight of faith, instead there is internal strife. How can you tell others what God has said if you’re not even sure and convinced of what God has said yourself? Christians have become very weak, ineffective and they’ve lost their salt and light because they went with the new Bibles. They’re like Samson, shaved of their power. They fell for the Delilah lies of a better Bible, a better truth, a better love, a better word. An updated truth, an updated version of God’s word… is always a lie. God’s word is not the word of man. A man of God in 1 Kings 13 got told God had updated his word, and he believed an updated better version of what God had said because he put stock in a man’s person rather than just trusting what God had told him. And he paid very dearly for it.

To know that I’m not just making this up, or making the Bible conform to me, read the Bible yourself firstly, but also let’s let the Bible identify the herdmen and this issue. If you think this parallel from Abram and Lot and their herdmen is a stretch, just read your Bible. This was a very big strife and separation, they’d gone the whole way together, and from this point on they would be walking a different direction to each other. Lot’s life would spiral horribly. Who are these herdmen? We know that Abram and Lot had literal herdmen, and they weren’t getting along. But the Bible is written for a lot more than just interesting, or irrelevant and useless historical facts. Because of their herdmen not getting along, they could no longer walk together. You have to determine what direction you’re going to walk, because that strife point delineated between two very different walks of life. Do you want to be like Abraham or Lot? What future do you want? What kind of Christian do you want to be? These both took very different paths from this issue. And so will you.

So who are these herdmen? Well I was reading the book of Amos the other day and I saw this, and I would recommend reading that book, it’s written by a herdman. Amos was a herdman. God called him as a simple herdman to preach the word of God. His ministry was to a tough bunch, to the northern kingdom of Israel. See, Israel had been divided. We’ve seen Abram and Lot divided, and you also see Israel divided. Israel was now two kingdoms. There was a northern kingdom called Israel, and the southern kingdom was commonly referred to Judah. Here is the very first verse of the book.

Amos 1:1 – “The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.”

Amos is a herdman. He’s a prophet, he speaks the word of God. If you read Amos, you’ll see Amos had a tough and rough message. He didn’t sound like a preacher you’re likely to hear in your local church or online. His sermons didn’t earn him lots of money or favour with man. His message was unwelcome. But it was from God. And it was the truth. The problem is, Israel was a wicked nation with a wicked king. They’d forsaken God. But they still had their religion. So you can read it for yourself, but we go to chapter 7, and we read this…

Amos 7:10 – “Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.”

Amos has been preaching, and the priest of Bethel called Amaziah dobs on him to Jeroboam the king of Israel at that time. So this religious bloke, involved in the ministry of God, doesn’t like what Amos was saying. Amos had only been declaring what God had told him. He was, as it were, just saying what the Bible said. And the religious bloke didn’t like it! Amazing, a herdman has more grasp of God’s word than the priest! Amaziah was for all intents and purposes like a pastor of a modern church today. Most modern churches have rejected the word of God, they’re long departed from what God’s word says because it doesn’t suit them, it doesn’t fit with their sinful lives. Amaziah said, The land is not able to bear his words! Oh really. But that terminology sounds like what was going on in Genesis 13 does it not? The land wasn’t able to bear Abram and Lot, and here the land can’t bear Amos’s preaching.

And here, this religious bigwig is going to lie about Amos to king Jeroboam. See, Jeroboam didn’t mind religion, just he liked to control the religious system. He had no problems with the priests in Israel at that time, because they knew what to say to get people to like them and make the king happy. Bit like pastors today. They know what’s financially expedient to say and do. It was a great deal. Amaziah was on his pay roll, and Amaziah went running to him. And Amaziah lied about Amos. Amos wasn’t conspiring against Israel, he was just declaring the word of God. But Amaziah is like people today, oh you’re so hateful, you’re so judgmental, you’re so intolerant. See, Amos didn’t have that message of positivity that they all liked in that nation. And because God’s word didn’t say what they wanted him to say, and Jeroboam was used to his prophets saying what he wanted to hear, Amaziah got upset. Stop upsetting the apple cart Amos, we got a great thing going here!

Amos was showing Amaziah up. Here’s this nobody herdman standing with boldness and courage on God’s word, and the priest is a little puppy dog in the pocket of the king. He’s being showed up. And what do you do when you’re showed up for the fake you are? You start making lies up. Was Amos at fault here? Or was a fake, false, phony religious little set up at fault? See, we don’t lack for churches and religion in my country, but we do lack for churches that preach the word of God and stand by the truth. See, the truth was, judgment was coming to Israel, God was not accepting their sin at all. But they didn’t want to hear that. They’d rather a lie over truth. They didn’t mind religion so long as their religion conformed to them, rather than they come under the authority of God’s word. Why do you think the kings would often assimilate conquered kings gods into their own belief system? Because a god I can beat makes me feel pretty good about myself. We like to be in control. And at the heart of the Bible issue is we tell God what he says and thinks, not he orders how we think and speak and do.

So Amaziah wants Amos to leave, get out of here is what he said. Go to Judah, prophesy there. It’ll be easier for you in Judah as well. Take your message elsewhere! Man there’s so much here to talk about but Amaziah was saying go and do your deal elsehwere. Get lost! And don’t mix religion and government. But they were more than happy to, you see the kings of Israel were involved in the religious system, so it’s really just they don’t want God’s word being brought into any public sphere of life. But the truth is, what you believe does impact politics, because what you believe always affects what decisions you make. So he wanted Amos to get lost. Go and do your Christianity elsewhere. And people don’t mind you having your Christianity so long as it doesn’t impact them. True Christians are being told to keep their faith private and in their four walls, and now we’re getting to a place where it’s illegal to make any sort of public stand for truth. If you’re a Christian, you know what being unwanted and unwelcome feels like.

Just like you had Abram and Lot, you had Judah and Israel. He was saying to Amos, you belong in Judah talking like that. And that’s true in a sense, because despite both kingdoms being really one, they were divided as we have already said. Abram was divided from Lot, and Judah was divided from Israel. Judah had a lot of kings that honored the word of God and did right in the sight of God. Israel had NONE. There is a division in Christendom. There is the remnant that holds to the word of God, that stands by truth, and then there is the majority, just like ten tribes versus two that has religion, but it’s devoid of truth and God’s word. I know we are talking about Lot and Abram today, but really this part of Amos’s life ties in directly with Genesis 13. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established after all.

Amos 7:14 – “Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:”

Amos 7:15 – “And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.”

Amos was a herdman with God’s word on him. He said to Amaziah, the Lord took me as I followed the flock. And in this is a principle, get with the right flock, get to where real preachers, where real men of God are preaching the word of God, and God will use you also to tell the word of God to others. Amos said to Amaziah, I’m not a bigwig, I’m not a religious elite, I haven’t been to Bible school, I’m not philosophical and fancy, I’m not a theologian, I’m just a herdman, I’m just an average Joe. But God said to me, and because has given me something to say. And I say what God said, and here’s what God’s word says. Amos knew God’s word and contended for it. Amaziah tried scaring Amos away, and true Christians are trying to be scared and bluffed away from their Bible and their faith. Many succumbed to the lies and pressure and convincing of the enemy, but Amos didn’t, and so shouldn’t you. Amos wouldn’t be scared off by the lies and the reputation of the “priest” and his connection to the king and all the garbage he said and did.

So all that to say, and you see a strife point between these two, and a strife point between every true Christian who holds to God’s word and a fake or worldly Christian who is compromising on what is true to get ahead in life. What was the strife point between Amos and Amaziah? God’s word. Because of God’s word, they couldn’t get along. This is Amos versus Amaziah, this is Abram versus Lot. Amaziah and Lot had pretty bad endings. After this God would show Amos a basket of summer fruit. And God said “the end is come upon my people of Israel”. You know, the end is coming for all who forsake and reject God’s word. You’ve been given so many chances. We live in such a privileged time. We don’t need to travel to Israel to see a prophet, you have been gifted the word of God, the complete, full and final revelation of God to yourself… and you spurn it. God sent many prophets, many men of God, to this wicked nation. They preferred their version of “God”. They had all the religion, they looked religious, they claimed the Lord, everything, yet they were totally against God’s word. Notice, God was speaking to Amos, but we have no record of God ever speaking to Amaziah or calling him to do anything. It was a little old herdman who knew God’s word. Big religion with fancy Bibles, and not worth a dime.

The Bible says in Amos 8:4 – “Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,”. This is next chapter, Amos keeps preaching. Sounds like Amaziah that he’s talking about here! By the way, this wasn’t Amos’s message, this was God’s message. Amos just carried the message. What’s he saying? Who are the needy? People, us, you and me. People need God’s word. They need truth. But the needy are being devoured by this big fake religious system which is totally deficient of true food, true manna, true water of life… the word of God. They’re making a spiritually poor nation fall. That’s what we are. You go to churches and they’re in spiritual poverty. Abject poverty. They don’t know what God’s word says. They don’t know what’s coming. They don’t know what to do. They’ve been swallowed up by religion. Amos’s message is for today.

But back to Lot and Abram. The fact is, different Bibles produce different faith and different walks, different decisions, and different outcomes. They don’t say the same thing. When the herdmen had strife, it’s my Amos disagrees with your Amos. My Bible disagrees with your Bible. They can’t co-exist. And they can’t. Coexisting is a lie. Jesus said he came not to send peace on the earth, but a sword. On the issue of God’s word, God divides between faith and unbelief. Between obedience and compromise. Between obedience and disobedience. This Bible will divide between every compromiser and truth seeker. Solomon offered a compromise to two women both claiming to be the true mother, and his compromise quickly revealed who the true mother was and who wasn’t. This Bible issue is just proving the true believers from the phonies, it’s separating the Abrams from the Lots. Read about these men’s lives, it’s very different reading.

Amaziah had said of Amos to Jeroboam, the land can’t bear all his words. There’s a lot of people who can’t bear the words of the old book. Unsaved and compromising Christians, they both separate themselves because of God’s word. Christians changed out their Bible because they couldn’t bear the territory it demanded. You have so many different Bibles, yet it really just comes down to the King James Bible versus the rest. That’s the real issue. The other versions are all friends like Herod and Pilate were because they had a common enemy. Pilate and Herod didn’t get along, but in the matter of Jesus they became friends. Common theme, they both hated the word of God. The KJV is the proven Bible, it has the legacy of faith, of truth, of the power and moving of God. These new Bibles have a legacy of doubt, disobedience and departure. New  Bibles produce Lots, but the old book produces Abraham. They can’t coexist, they won’t coexist. No man can serve two masters. It’s time to get honest. Amaziah was not honest, as a priest he was meant to be a shepherd, like a herdman of Israel, but he led the nation into sin and looked the other way. There is no record he ever told anyone the truth, there is no record that he was anything but a religious charlatan. He had a nice little niche carved out for him in life, no trouble, Jeroboam loves me, he had it all worked out. But the sword was coming.

What this story in Genesis 13 shows is that our herdmen are going to have strife, and they do today. That strife is a reality today. The Bible issue is separating professing Christians. And if we can’t even agree on what God’s word is, where it is, what it is, how can you even begin? Amos would say “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”. They can’t. But consider the end of Abraham and Lot. Abram had fellowship with God, Abraham obeyed God, Abraham was blessed by God. Abraham’s life was one of faith. Lot, however, he was carnally minded. He had been living on Abraham’s faith, and when separated, look what not hiding behind Abraham revealed. He chose the well watered plains of Sodom, ignorant of the dangers of going there. He was stupid. When we should be smarter, we are stupid. He couldn’t see what was going to happen to his family, his business or his city. He aligned himself more with the sodomites than with God. Nowdays I speak to Christians who rail on God’s word and defend sodomites. God speaking to Lot when he’s brought him out of Sodom and Lot says “not so Lord”. Who does he think he is? Is God somehow wrong Lot? He had been so infected with unbelief, doubt, compromise and disobedience, he was quite literally useless for anything.

Do you want to be a useless Christian? Do you want to be a Lot Christian? Lot had two sons, Moab and Ammon. Trace them through the Bible, they’re also dealt with in the book of Amos. He had a bunch of ungodly descendants, who opposed Israel, God’s nation, the nation from Abraham. What a legacy. These new Bibles have a legacy of systematic destruction of faith. Oh, they’ve got religion, but they answer to Jeroboam, not to the word of God. There’s nothing to it. It’s empty. It’s carnal. There’s no wisdom. There’s no understanding. And they’re not impacting others for Christ… they’re losing souls. Lot lost his family because of his compromises. He didn’t save one solitary Sodomite. Maybe he thought he was reaching them, yeah, how did that turn out. In fact, Abraham cared more about life and salvation than he did, he was pleading with God to spare them if he could (surely?) find just ten righteous men in there.

But Abram was the guy in the tent. He was the stranger and the pilgrim. See, Abraham took God’s word over acceptance, approval, business, getting along and so on. It was a lonely road, he wasn’t part of city life and where the action, events and fun was… but it was a better road. Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, but he was pitching his tent toward destruction. Why invest a whole life in what is going to be burnt up? Fire is going to try us, and if there isn’t the foundation of Christ and a life built on that foundation, it’s going to be burnt up. God is a consuming fire. If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly appear? You may have got your strange fire estimation of who God is… but the fire of the most High, his fire will lick up every ounce of disobedience, transgression, lie, sin in wrath and fury. This is not a time to be messing around in the shallow water of religion.

You have the opportunity to read God’s word, hear God’s word, believe God’s word and obey God’s word today. Look at this verse… Amos 8:12 – “And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.” Does that sound scary to you? Do you know what the Bible says? Do you know who God is? Israel had religion, they had the form of godliness, but there was no power. There was nothing real to it, no substance. Let’s get straight on one thing. The land can’t bear them both. True versus lie. Incorruptible versus corruption. Pure or perversion? They can’t coexist. At least be honest about that. And they don’t. Amaziah wanted Amos gone, the religious guy wanted the little sheep herder who had  a grasp of God’s word that he would never know gone. God’s word isn’t about being intellectual or elite, it’s about just taking God at his word, and being under the authority of what God’s word said.

One day it will be too late. I speak to Christians today who are already wandering, and they can’t find God’s word, though it be presented to them. They’re in the devil’s funk, because the previous verse says there is a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. They don’t want to hear God’s word. They’re looking for the bright city lights of Sodom rather than honouring God with their lives. Abraham chose God’s word, Lot did not. Lot foolishly separated himself from God’s word pursuing his own successes and ways in life. And it was disaster. Will you go Lot’s way with Lot’s herdmen, or Abram’s way with Abram’s herdmen. Give your flock, give you substance, give your success, give your dreams and life to God, he’s a good keeper, and when you commit your life and way to him, that will be the eternally wise choice for your life.

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