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e-Sword.net – The Sword of the Lord with an Electronic Edge
levendwater.org – Bullinger ’s Companion Bible
Philologos Religious Online Books
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gladtidingsfellowship.com How to Read the Bible for Understanding and Power
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Family Christian StoresLetter from a Friend: God Shut Them In
Posted By Ken Brown on January 31, 2010
Dear Ken, as I was reading Genesis this week, the story of Noah stood out as especially relevant this time. We all know the story of the “Arky, Arky,” but the serious side of the story made me take a hard look at some facts:
1. Something very evil was going on in the world — something more evil than we can conceive of. “Every intention of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6.5, ESV) This evil that human beings were doing must have been so bad that it somehow involved all living creatures, for God said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry I have made them.” (6.7) What sort of terrible thing could be so evil that it would include all the animals, everything living that God had made? I think we who are alive today cannot conceive such a thing in our hearts, because God killed all the ones who WERE able to conceive of it! And I do not want to know what that sin was. I do not want that in my brain. The sins we can imagine today are bad enough.
2. Noah, who “found favor in the eyes of the Lord,” (6.8), did so by obeying God exactly. “Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.” (7.5) This is the same way we find favor in God’s eyes today. Noah heard God’s voice directly; we have his written word to refer to any time we want to. Obeying the word, or should I say Word, doing exactly what the gospel says by trusting Jesus Christ for salvation, is what gives us the righteousness that is by faith — favor in God’s sight. There is no room for interpretation. Look in the book — find God’s will — do it. Obviously I am shortening things a bit, but I want to make the point that we can be as Noah was.
3. After Noah loaded up the ark, just as he was told, and went inside himself with his family, God did something: he shut them in (7.16). There they were, in a relatively small darkish place, not knowing what was going on outside, but having to shovel a lot of poop in the inside. This was not a punishment. In fact, it led to their salvation. This happens, my friend, to us today. God will decide to shut us in, to a spiritual place that seems cramped and rather dark, full of poop, with no room to maneuver and no idea what is going on outside, because God himself has put us in there, not to punish us, but so that he can clean things up on the outside. Sometimes He shuts us up in a box of safety, so that when we emerge, it is to a new, clean world just waiting for us to go out and plant.
Perhaps these ideas could be a jumping off point for those like yourself who have the gift for making God’s wonderful word speak to us.
May your world be cleansed today so that all you plant grows straight up to heaven.
hugs, TerryC
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