There are so many questions swirling mankind. I was about to write "today," but the truth is, we have always been plagued by these questions...clear back to the first time we questioned God's goodness and failed in our answer. Eve asked the question - is what God said really good? Since the moment she answered "no," we have been consumed with the struggle of this issue. Is it ok to do this? Is it all right to do that? What does God say about this? What does God say about that? Can I trust a God that doesn't appear to care? Where was God when...you can fill in that blank.
Some have answered these questions by deciding there is no God at all. Some have declared that if there is a God, He obviously doesn't care about us. Some have decided to take the things He has said and interpret them in their own way. Others cling to the things God says, but they are like the clanging cymbals of 1 Corinthians 13...they do so without love.
As is so often the case...we are asking all the wrong questions.
Wrong questions lead to wrong answers. If I ask "why does 2+2=5?" it doesn't matter what answer I come up with. I can rationalize, I can adjust numbers, I can turn my back on the theory of mathematics all together, but the truth is, I will never arrive at the right answer because I am asking a wrong question. The only right answer to that question is "it doesn't." To answer "it doesn't," however, completely changes the nature of the discussion. It sets us on an entirely different path.
We need a different path.
We need to stop asking what is permissible, what is not, is there a God, how could a love God do whatever, and come back to the question that is the crux of mankind:
"Who do you say that I am?"
Jesus asked Peter this question, and Peter answered "You are the Christ." That was the right question and the right answer. If you answer that Jesus is the Christ, you can start to put all the other pieces in place. I once had a friend who went from being a vocal atheist to being a sold-out believer in Christ in a matter of moments. At his baptism, he said "I can't say life is easier, but it is a whole lot clearer." He was beginning to see that once you ask the right question and arrive at the right answer, all the other pieces begin to fall into place.
This morning, as I was in prayer, I was bringing to God a number of things that are troubling me - issues of the culture in which I live, issues in the Church, friends of mine making poor choices, struggles and needs of our own family. After praying through these things for around an hour, I turned on some worship music and began to worship Him. As I worshiped, I was brought to a place of understanding that all these things fade away in the light of Who He Is, and that if I start there, I can have the proper perspective that He is greater than all these things. His power, His might, and His glory in so much more than all these things.
So I am saying don't pray? Absolutely not. I am saying that when I come back to the crucial question - Who do I say He is - and answer - He is the CHRIST - that suddenly all these huge things don't seem so huge. I am then caught up in who He is instead of how weak I am, and my life is infused with power as I am caught up in the Great Love Story that is our life in Christ. In THAT place, my prayers go from being strained pleas for help to powerful declarations that God IS who He says HE is and He will DO what He says HE will do. When I take the time to stop and declare who Christ truly is, there is power in my life, the power of Holy Spirit, which Christ Himself promised His believers.
"Who do you say that I am, Sara?"
"You are the Christ, Jesus the Son of the Living God."
And all life starts from there...
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
It's Too Late, Part 5
The next seven days provide great
entertainment for the hecklers. There is
a steady stream of animals, some in sets of two, some in sets of seven. What can the crazy man be thinking? The mob grows bigger as word spreads. The insults grow louder, and the violence
grows stronger. Rocks are thrown at the
ark and at the animals. Several attempts
are made to rile up the creatures, and many times someone tries to shoot an
arrow into the line of procession to take one out. Somehow, though, every attempt is
thwarted. Several of the young boys try
to run into the area around the ark to cause a problem. But for some reason, they cannot come near
the contraption. Something stops them,
though they cannot say what. It is as if
an invisible wall shields the ark and the work of the family. So the mob contents itself with taunts,
jeers, and mockery.
By
the seventh day, the entire village has gathered. It is rumored that the family will be going
into the ark for good – a sight no one wants to miss! Was this crazy family really going to lock
itself in that monstrosity with all those animals? The smell alone would kill them in a few
days! This is too much. The entire village is laughing at this poor,
pathetic band of self-proclaimed “righteous ones.” All of mankind has turned out to watch the
craziest family line in existence kill itself in this, the crowning act of their
insanity.
Finally,
the last of the animals are taken into the ark.
The women come outside to take one more look around. They look to the crowd and see many old
friends and family members, now turned enemies, laughing raucously at
them. In tears, they turn back and go
into the ark for the last time. Then the
young men go in, each one determined not to give the mob the satisfaction of
even one glance. Ham, however, loses his
resolve for a moment and flings one last fierce glare back at the crowd. The villagers roar with pleasure. Ham turns back around, disgusted with both
himself and the mockers, and follows his brothers into the ark.
Finally
only Noah is left outside the ark. He
stands alone outside the door, looking upon the crowd with grief and pity in
his eyes. The mob yells and throws
things at him, but still he stands, simply staring. His lips move as if he is talking to
Someone. With a sigh, he finally turns
around and walks through the door of the ark, the last righteous man to see the
earth as it is.
As
the crowd stands laughing uproariously, a gust of wind like none they have ever
experienced sweeps through them. Some
are physically knocked over, other simply cry out in surprise. No one has felt such a wind before. The wind sweeps through mankind straight
towards the door of the ark, and with a fierce bang that resounds in the ears
of every man, woman and child, the door swings shut.
The
crowd goes silent for a moment. No one
is certain what to do. Then, slowly,
jokes began to be made, and nervous laughter begins to rise again. But even as they begin to recover from this
phenomenon, the sky begins to darken as it never has before. Clouds begin to gather together in massive,
menacing walls. The ground begins to
shake, and someone shrieks as they see a trickle of water spring up from the
ground. A terror begins to grip the mob
as everyone senses that something is happening.
Mothers grab their children, and men start looking up and pointing into
the sky. As mankind stands in horror, a
single raindrop falls from the sky to the ground. It is soon joined by another, then another
and another, until finally, the walls of clouds begin to break open into
torrents of raindrops.
Monday, July 9, 2012
It's Too Late, Part 4
It is the end of the day. The women wait in expectation. It would be unusual to see the men come back
to the tents until later in the night, but there is something different in the
air. The four wives, drawn together by a
common faith, gather by Noah’s tent, waiting for something to happen, though
they know not what.
Before
them stands a majestic sight. The ark,
now in the final stages of construction, is overwhelming. None of them had ever seen something so
large. New tools had been invented to
build something of this size. It was
incomprehensible to them that this monstrous object could ever float, but they
had learned much about trusting the Lord over the past century. As they stand staring up at the ark, the four
men walk up to them. Noah speaks, and
though his exhaustion is clear, there is a new glimmer of excitement in his
eyes.
“My
wife, my daughters. We have news. It is finished.”
The
eyes of all four women widen in disbelief.
Finished? Actually finished? After all this time, it is hard to believe
that the end has come at last…and the implications of a finished ark were
almost too much to comprehend. If the
ark is complete, then the time of judgment must be near.
Noah
continues speaking. “I have heard again
from the Lord. It is time to begin
gathering the animals. We must gather
two of every animal on earth, one male and one female. Shem, Ham, Japheth and I
will take care of gathering the creatures.
You four must go into the ark and prepare it for a long journey. Make enough food for all of us and for the animals
for a long, long time. The floodwaters
will come for forty days and forty nights, but I do not know how long after
that we will be able to leave the ark.
We must be prepared. Go and
prepare a place for the food, the animals, and for us. We will begin bringing the animals aboard
almost immediately. We have only seven
days.”
Japheth’s
wife gasps. “Seven days?! How are we to get everything ready in seven
days? How are you going to be able to
gather every living creature there is in just seven days? Are you sure you heard right?”
Noah
gives his daughter-in-law a weary smile. “If I don’t know how to hear from the
Lord by this point, we are all in a great deal of trouble. He has given us seven days. This means all can be done in seven
days. Have faith, daughter.”
Ham’s
wife bursts into tears. “So this is
really, truly happening? Everyone we
know is going to die? My brothers? My sisters?
My childhood friends?”
Noah
looks upon her sadly. “Yes, my dear, I am afraid so. Every man has had the same opportunity that
we have had to follow the Lord. Every
man has chosen to turn away. We are the
remnant, the hope of mankind.”
Shem
speaks up. “We knew this day would
come. Dwelling on it won’t help us. We must start working right away. Father, don’t forget to tell them to prepare
the place of sacrifice.”
“Yes,
Shem, thank you. I nearly forgot. There must be space and food for two of every
kind of unclean creature. For the clean creatures, there must be enough
for seven of each kind. We are to take
seven of each of the clean animals, a male and its mate. We will need more of these, for we are to
continue sacrifices in the ark.”
Noah’s
wife, recovering from the initial shock of realizing the time has come, snaps
into action. “We had better get
started. Daughters, gather everything
from the tents. We are moving into the
ark.”
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
It's Too Late, Part 3
A woman walks out of a tent pitched
near the ark and shouts, “The meal is ready!”
She knows there will be no stopping to eat – her husband and sons will
simply run over and grab something to take back with them. It has been that way since the beginning of
the actual construction of the ark. She
cannot remember the last time her whole family sat down to eat together. The only time the men stopped was on the
Seventh Day, and they were often so tired on this day that they simply
slept. If they weren’t sleeping, her
boys were making up for lost time with their wives. She smiles as she looks over at her
daughters-in-law in tents nearby, working on food and clothes, supporting the
men in their venture. She thanks the
Lord again for giving her such blessings for daughters. It was so hard to find pure and holy women
these days – and yet the Lord had brought just such women for her sons.
Shem’s
wife walks over to talk with Noah’s wife.
Both ignore the jeers and insults being shouted from the nearby
mob. They were used to it by now. They know there is no fighting the mob – the
best they can do is ignore them and trust in the Lord.
“Hello,
Mother. Is the noon meal ready, then?”
“Yes,
my dear, although we will be hard put to get any of them to stop and eat
anything. Sometimes I worry they will
work themselves to death over this ark.”
“Don’t
worry, Mother. They will stop when they
cannot go any longer…Mother, how much longer do you think this will take? The ark, I mean. Has the Lord given Father any sort of
indication as to when the destruction will come?”
“No,
Daughter, not yet. I believe nothing
will happen until the ark is complete.
The Lord has promised to protect us in the coming judgment. He will not allow anything to happen until it
is finished.”
“I
must confess something, Mother. I am
afraid of the destruction. I am afraid
of what will happen when the floodwaters come.
I mean, will we really be the last of mankind to survive? What happens to all the others? And how are we to rebuild, with only eight of
us?”
“Have
faith, my Daughter. Remember, the world
began with only two – and their second son was killed before he could start his
line. The Lord can rebuild entire
civilizations with only the eight of us – or even the six of you, as I am past
childbearing years. As for what happens
to everyone else…we only know what the Lord told Noah. Every creature will be destroyed except for
those we bring into the ark. That
includes all of mankind except the eight of us.
We must trust that the Lord knows what He is doing. Perhaps this destruction is actually his
mercy. If mankind was allowed to
continue the way it is going, it would surely kill itself in the process. There is no righteousness left in the
world. These floodwaters may be the last
hope of Adam’s race.”
“I
know, Mother. I just hurt for all those
others.”
“You
have a kind, compassionate heart. It
will hurt to see them go. Keep praying
for them. It may be that some can still
turn back to the Lord and come under His mercy before the end. And trust in the Lord above all other
things. Look, here comes your
husband. Go to him with food. He needs your support right now.”
The
women had not always been so supportive of the ark project. When Noah first came home and told his wife
what the Lord had told him, she burst into to tears and fled the house for two
days. Once she had come back, the two had
argued incessantly about the matter for weeks.
“Noah,
this is insane. What do you mean, a
flood? Water stays in one place. That is what water does. God is a God of order. He’s not going to disrupt the natural order
of things just to teach a few degenerates a lesson.”
“It’s
not a lesson, my love. It’s a major shift in the course of mankind. Everyone but the eight of us will die. And who are we to say what the Lord will
do? It is also the natural order of
things for men to die, but you know as well as I do that my ancestor Enoch
never did.”
“But
total destruction of every creature on earth…Noah…”
“I
know, I know. But we must trust the Lord
in what He says. I have no doubts about
what He told me. And I must gather the
boys and start on this ark right away.”
“That’s
another thing, Noah. This ark. How on earth are we to build anything so
big? No one had ever seen anything as
big as you are saying. What can you be
thinking?”
“These
thoughts are not mine, my dear. They are
the Lord’s. If He says to build an ark
450 feet long, then that’s what we will do.
He will provide for us, I know that for sure.”
“But
Noah, the village already hates us. We
are the most hated family on the face of the earth. Our line has been at odds
with the world for generations. This
will only make things worse. How will this make us look? How will we be treated?”
“Does
it truly matter? In the end, it is only
what God thinks of us that matters.
Everything else will fade away.
These people will be dead in a few years while we will still be alive –
what on earth does it matter what they think?”
“Noah,
I just don’t think…”
“Nowhere
in the instructions did the Lord say this would be easy. He has not promised us anything but that we will
be saved. I have no doubt that this will
be the hardest task of our lives. If you
leave, I understand that. That is your
choice. But as for me, the choice is
made. I will serve the Lord. I will do what He says to do.”
“But
Noah, a flood…”
Around
and around they went, Noah’s wife coming up with more reasons why this was a
ridiculous plan, Noah standing firm on what the Lord had told him. It had been the greatest test of their
marriage. Noah’s wife had almost left
him more than once, one time going so far as to pack a bag and start
walking. However, in her heart she knew
Noah was right. In her heart, she knew
she must trust her husband’s leadership and his relationship with the Lord. Over time, God softened her heart, and in the
end, she accepted Noah at his word and the Lord at His.
Noah’s
sons had each had similar encounters with their wives. The women cried, screamed, refused to
cooperate, sulked, and fought what was happening in every way they could. Ham’s wife had taken it the hardest. While she was a pure and righteous woman, she
was the most social of the three wives, and the thought that her friends were
going to die was more than she could stand.
She had actually gone to live with her sister for a month, fully intending
to stay as long as Ham persisted in what she called “this madness.” But God worked on her heart, and eventually,
she saw the truth in what Noah was saying.
She had finally come into an acceptance of what was to happen, and with
a tearstained face, she had returned to her husband’s family and taken her
place by her husband’s side. In the end,
each woman had to choose: who would they follow? Their own fears or the God that had never
forsaken them? And in the end, it was
the Lord they each chose.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
It's Too Late, Part 2
The mockers stand
at the edge of the yard, shouting jeers at the village idiot. They laugh deep, wicked laughs as they guzzle
down their wine. By this point, Noah and
his family had no friends, no support left among the people. At one point, there were those who defended
them, mostly from a sense of loyalty, some out of pity for someone who had
obviously lost his mind. They all hoped
it was just a phase that would pass. As
time wore on, however, it became obvious that Noah and his family had no
intentions of giving up this idiocy.
Slowly, one by one, the defenders had drifted away, and now the only
ones that paid any attention at all were the scoffers who made it a daily habit
to ridicule the family.
“Got all those
measurements right, Noah? Would hate to
see your God strike you down. After all,
he’s apparently in the destruction business.”
“Seen any of that
water yet? By the way, how do you expect
the water to ‘flood’ as you say? Is it
just going to come walking out of the ocean?
How’s this happening, holy man?”
“So we’re not good
enough, is that it? Well, if this God of
yours won’t let me have a good time, the hell with him, I say. What a fool!
Spending a life pursuing a God that just wants to take all your fun
away!”
One of the young
boys waits for Ham to finish measuring a plank of wood. Ham has worked on this plank three hours,
honing exactly to God’s instructions. It
is perfect, a work of hard labor. Ham finally
finishes and puts it down with a tired smile, turning around to start on the
next plank. The boy, acting on a dare,
runs into the yard and steals the plank, running back to the mockers and waving
it around in victory. The men all laugh
and clap the young boy on the back as Ham whirls around, his face falling as he
realizes his work is lost. Now he must
start all over. He takes two steps
towards the crowd, determined to finally teach these heretics a lesson. Just then, he feels a firm hand on his
arm. He turns around and sees the sad
but determined eyes of his father looking up at him.
“No, my son. No revenge.
It’s not ours to take.”
“But Father! For decades they have gathered to mock
us! When will we be avenged?”
“Vengeance belongs
to the Lord, my son. You must have
patience.”
“I’m so tired of
this, Father. When will the Lord
come? When will He come and make things
right, as you have said He would?”
“When the time is
right, Ham. When the time is right. Give your anger to the Lord. He will take it from you. Trust Him.”
“I’m so tired,
Father. I’m so tired of working here,
day and night. I’m so tired being mocked
every day. I hate going into the village
any more – mothers draw their children away from me, and people part in the
street so as not to come near me. And
the yelling! People yelling insults as I
pass! Why must we put up with all this?”
“Because we choose
to serve the Lord most High, and they do not.
Wait on the Lord. He will do as
He says, and then it will be up to us to start over for mankind.”
Shem walks over as
this conversation is going on to join in. “I, too, am tired, Ham. We all are.
Some days it is hard to make myself come to the yard. Sometimes it is hard to look my wife in the
face, knowing what all this is putting her through. But in the end, God will make it all
right. I just keep clinging to
that. I have nothing else to cling to at
this point. Whether I live to see it or
not, God will make it all right. Have
faith, brother.”
Ham sighs in
resignation. “I know, I know. It’s just so hard.”
Noah smiles and
says, “We, mankind, have made it hard.
It did not start out that way.
Remember the stories of your ancestors.
They are true. God loves us, and
it is not Him that makes it hard. Now He
has provided a way of redemption, a way to start over. When the time comes, He will show His love
and mercy to us in fantastic ways. Did
He not remove us from the garden so we would not eat of the Tree of Life and
live forever in our sin? Has He not
provided us with the means to work the land and feed ourselves? He has always provided for us, and He always
will. The Lord keeps His word. Have faith, my son.”
Japheth comes
walking up and says, “If we’re going to get that side finished today, we need
to get moving. Ham, I’ll help you redo
that plank. We’ll have it done in no
time. Don’t worry.”
The four men, tied
together by a legacy of faith, turn back to their work, turning their backs on
the jeers roaring out from behind them.
Vandalism
had been a problem over the past century.
Many times Noah and his sons had come to work in the early hours only to
find that they had to repair massive damage from the previous night. The village men seemed to find joy in being
destructive. Then again, these were
violent times. Vandalism, violence,
murder – all these and more were part of daily life now. You couldn’t walk down the street without
fear of being accosted. It got worse as
the day went on and the drunkenness ran deeper.
Men – and not just a few women – started drinking when the sun was high
and didn’t stop until they passed out deep into the night. The result was all sorts of violence and
evil.
Violence ran deep even in those who did not drink too much. Overall, mankind had become a volatile, murderous race. And the murderous attitude of the people found the perfect target in the local crazy family, Noah and his sons. As the righteous ones pursued God’s directions, they were often subject to attacks and beatings. About 20 years into the project, Japheth didn’t come back from what was supposed to be a short errand into the village for supplies. His father and brothers had eventually found him abandoned on the outskirts of town, beaten almost to death. It was three months before Japheth was able to rejoin the project, and the loss of manpower created an even bigger delay. From then on, none of the four men went anywhere alone, and their wives were no longer allowed to go anywhere without male protection. Rape had also become rampant, and Noah’s family knew it was only by the grace and protection of the Lord that their women had been spared this horror.
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