This week I'm reposting my summer series back from the old Tumblr called “The Shelter.”
I definitely wanted to tie something summer-y into the series this week, but I didn’t really come up with much. But I can tell you one thing, it’s been a hot week. For those who don’t know, me and my home church traveled down to New Orleans last week to “Love the City” through the missionLab program. And let me emphasize one thing, “It was HOT!” Not even the dry heat I’m used too but humid heat, kind of like you’re inside heated up Jell-o. So, I thought it would be cool down these next few weeks, and whats better to cool of with then water right? And what person knows more about water then anyone else in the Bible? Noah, that’s who!
But, seriously, God spoke too me through this passage about our responsibility as the House of God and even more personal, to ourselves as Christians, to reach out and help each other as people (despite color or creed) in this broken and dieing world.
Noah lived in much similar society we do today, one that is far from God. And that is what Chapter 6 of Genesis makes much of it’s focus. The Nephilim were the people on the earth at that time. And too save you time in reading about them (which I would post if I knew you probably would just skim over it) I’ll sum it up in one verse. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth- men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and the birds of the air- for I am grieved that I have made them.”
I don’t know what kind of translation you have, but what I love about the way it says this is how it rounds the men right in with the animals. The people at this time had forgotten where they came from, and we see that we as people, even long ago, can truly do nothing outside of the Grace of God. We truly are bent toward sin, that’s why we need to keep in mind, that we as the Shelter of God, need to keep God as the focus, because if it becomes about us, we’ll not even be able to do anything for ourselves much less for those who are hurting around us.
Now God’s Word points us towards Noah, who had found favor with God. He was blameless among the people, the Bible says. He, at least in my opinion, seems like he had everything going for him, a wife and three kids, we’re told. I just said he was blameless so, he must have been liked even among the people of this time, but while being “in the world” he managed to stay away from becoming “of the world.” Most people would think that this was Noah’s happy ending, but God had a plan for him, and his family.
God tells Noah that He proved what Paul wrote about centuries later in the book of Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death…” These people far from God were going to get there punishment from a Just God, just as it will be for everyone who has not found there peace with God (not in form of water, but in Righteous Judgment.) Noah knows this, and I’m sure He goes out and tries to warn the people (though Scripture does not say so) and probably gets laughed at and called “crazy.”
I saw a bit of that down in New Orleans this last week, as we drove down Bourben Street (which I do not suggest) we say people who were blind to there standing before God, the god of this age (Satan) had blinded them with drinking, drugs and sex, and nothing I could have done at that point could have changed some of the people there. Now, I’m not condemning the people of New Orleans, there are many Christians down there and nice people, I met many of them anyway, but there are some who are don’t know that one day God is going to rain down judgement after they die. And “…Will not the Judge of the Earth do what is right?”
The task ahead of us as a church is similar to Noah’s, daunting, to say the least. But lets look at my first Shelter God shows us here in His Word, the family. With the family being under attack and the definition being so misconstrued, it’s hard to bring this message to you without going off topic a tad, but I’ll stick to the point.
God blessed this man with a family, a wife and three kids, Scripture says, and through all of it they are there. I’m sure even when they mocked him or he told them about what God had told him and what he was planning too do, they too had there doubts. but through out it, the remanded what God not only calls every family too be, but the church, faithful. Imagine, wives, if your husband came too you saying he wanted to build a 45 foot high boat, I’m sure you don’t like the one he has now, much less on that big! But, through it, they stayed faithful to him, through the floods and beyond. Why? Because they had family with an upward focus.
Firstly there family had God at the head, and I call you, if you’re family is falling apart, look at the root.
I love the quote from Craig Grogeshel “If the grass looks greener, it’s time to take care of you’re own lawn.” I know I’m young when I say this, but I have thousands of years of authority to back me up on this, a house build without God is one that will not stand.
This family carries the message of God, a message we each individual carry today. That our sins leave us with a distance from God, and that our “good works” gets us nowhere. The message that says that those who live with the culture and follow the broad road of sin that clouds this generation, are heading for destruction. But this message gives a solution, Jesus Christ. He came, suffered, and died on the cross, canceling our debt too the Holy God. God showed His love through Jesus the Bible says, and gives us a path to walk with Him and a path to peace with Him, through excepting and trusting Christ, repenting from our sins and becoming “new in Christ” as 1 Corinthian 5:17 says. Noah and his family had a focus on a loving, merciful God, and they knew what they had to do.
My question to you, “What do you have to do?”
It’s time we take this message to a world that isn’t ready for God full power to come on them, much like they were in passage here. But, with the support of his family, Noah fulfilled what God had put forth for him to him. Noah wasted no time, so we also shouldn’t, there are consequences to not heeding these words. Scared? So was Noah and his family I’m sure,but he had support and so do you, in God, in your family, in a church, you all have a Shelter greater then any one of us can understand.
Nothing can tear apart something built on Christ. I saw that down in New Orleans as well last week, those who truly knew the Lord, remained faithful to Him even after Katrina, and those who didn’t, ran. But let me tell you one last thing before this closes, God is faithful through all things. He restored the world after the flood and He can make us white as snow before Him, in Heaven. If we trust in Christ and turn from our sins, we never know when we’re going to die and face God, the flood, Katrina, and so many other events in history prove to us feeble life is in this fallen world. But it also shows that God is there, He’s sovereign, and that we don’t have to go through life alone.
We’ve got a shelter, not made by human hand, a blessing so great, though somehow we forget. It’s time we love the world, and with the support of our families, both in blood and in faith, and this world can changed, by the power of God, salvation. Lets love our families today, thank God for them, thank them for being there, and continue to support each other. I shall close with these words from Paul to the church at Philippi, another passage I will be breaking apart this week. This from verses 25 and 26, 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.
God Bless you!
No comments:
Post a Comment