NoahÕs Ark. Through the story of NoahÕs Ark the evil corruption of the worldly system was destroyed thousands of years ago. Myth or truth, it points to the fact that good triumphs over evil. But if this event is a historical truth we see the consequences of GodÕs judgement poured out, or more appropriately rained down on an evil society.
Could this ever happen in our generation? We are taught in a worldly educational system that this could never take place. At least if we all practice random acts of kindness, have a positive self image, and seek to be all we can be. But then again, those very forces could be the source of the evil we desire to overcome.
We create our own universe by our actions, or so goes the mystic genre. This is true not only in the world but also in the church. ÒGod has a wonderful plan for your life.Ó But it seems to be always interpreted in the message as Òa wonderful plan that you would envision.Ó This concept is a half truth spun with a lie. That lie being that the cost of that plan is cheap and within the reach of anyone who only believes.
I once watched 12 hours of video by some ministers who believed that God wanted to heal everyone who was sick or infirmed. All you had to do is believe with all your heart, and not falter in that belief.
I also went to their meeting where they prayed that all the sick were to be healed. To the best of my knowledge none were. The incredibly sad thing was to see desperately sick and dying individuals who had hoped with all their power and faith to believe in their healing. They were not healed and their hopes were crushed in the God proclaimed from the podium.
In another venue, I also met a woman in her early years consumed with cancer. On her death bed in a local hospital, she remembered that God had at one time called her to be a missionary to Africa. Summoning all her remaining strength she set out for that destination. Somewhere between a death bed in Seattle and the mission field in Africa, the sickness was cured. At our meeting some thirty years hence, she talked and acted as someone in her twenties.
One thought that has always crossed my mind, is how Christians expect to be healed, or receive financial miracles, when those miracles would in no way change their life of quiet desperation. Sure they might testify in church what God did for ÒthemÓ but for the most part, they would still be quite content to remain the self seeking parasites that do not understand the true meaning of faith. One day, they and many pastors and church leaders will be called to account for their slothful idolatrous lives and teaching.
Faith is not about what God did or will do for you, faith is about what God wants to do for you through your limitations. A life of whining and complaining is not the essence of the victorious Christian life. The heresy of modern evangelism is that grace is free. The period is not the end of the story. Grace might be free but it is not, cheap. Cheap grace is an anathema out of the pages of hellÕs play book.
God sent His son Jesus Christ to die as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of man, not because He had too. But because God chose to make that sacrifice costly to the Trinity as a whole. God could have just as easily said, ÒAnyone who has a hangnail, will be saved!Ó And it would have been so.
But God chose as an illustration, and played it out in the drama of human history, the most costly example we could imagine, the sacrifice of your only child, your only son. That is a cost that we find difficult to understand as a voluntary sacrifice, one that should stop and let us take notice.
ÒThatÕs all right for God, while he claimed to be human, that God part must have helped him through the hell on this earth.Ó
Even if that is true, and we wonÕt venture into that discussion, let us look at another Bible character and GodÕs grace and a personal sacrifice, Noah and his ark. In light of the man Noah, let us look at what Noah was called to do, but also look at this subject in its true historical context.
In that context, as GodÕs revelation of His saving grace throughout history, Christians today are a part, a board, a log, some pitch for a covering in an out, of that picture of a saving ship first portrayed thousands of years ago. Without that historical understanding the Bible is nothing but stories about a bunch of dead people, all of whom are quite different than us today.
However, here is just a brief discussion of what might have taken place between Noah and God early in NoahÕs ministry.
So are you building your portion of the ark that will one day usher in that final flood of judgment, or are you eating and drinking until that final day? When is the last time you attempted to believe God for something you could not understand? Seeing is not faith, no guts no glory. What really is the cost of living in your self righteous idolatry, whether that is high self esteem, or no self esteem. Both are two sides of one sin called pride.
The world talks about Òlife outside the box,Ó but it is an adventure that few ever take. It requires a step of faith, unique to each individual. Beyond that frontier of self control is a wilderness and also a promised land. As Christian in ÒPilgrimÕs ProgressÓ learned, it is a difficult path, but it is the only path that leads to that heavenly city. And it is never too late to begin that journey.
Last week in Spokane moved very well. Almost all of the work of settling my motherÕs estate is now moving toward completion. I also have made strides in how to move this ministry forward, prayerfully outside my box.
I have been shown again, just how much our stuff, can get in the way of doing what we were created to do. Old stuff can be replaced, with stuff that we need for today. Also, many times we consume our resources on stuff that will be obsolete by the time we really need it or can use it. If we were content with present stuff our (my) life would be easier.
What remains, is basically a continual sorting of stuff that does not add to personal enjoyment or security, temporal or eternal. That present stuff, God promises to provide. May our prayer for each other be that we begin to get the stuff in our lives in harmony with GodÕs eternal plan. That is where GodÕs rest and provision can be truly seen, and we can truly have time to enjoy the friends and the family that God has given us wherever they may be in this world.