A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 05 February 2015
Read Genesis 9:24-29
A short history of humanity from Adam to
Noah:
Ø
God makes mankind (Adam and Eve) and He loves us
Ø
We sin horribly and suffer the consequences
Ø
God still loves us and makes provisions for our safety
Ø
Man (Cane) sins horribly by killing his own brother and suffers the
consequences
Ø
God still loves us and makes provisions for our safety
Ø
Mankind sins horribly – ‘doing only evil all the time’ – and suffers the
consequences of the flood
Ø
God still loves us and makes provisions for our safety
Ø
Mankind sins horribly with this incident involving Ham and Noah, and
humanity (Canaan) suffers the consequences
And
around and around we go…
What
about today? Are we any better? How many times do our lives get so overwhelming
that we cry out to the Lord, we see how miraculously God delivers us from our
problems; and then over time we drift further and further away from the Lord,
drifting closer and closer to sin and death in the process? How many people
have said at some point, “God if you do such and such for me, I will do such
and such in my life” only to have God help you and then you forget –maybe not
right away but over time you don’t uphold your part of the bargain? Or how
about those of us who have known God for a long time? There was a time when we
realized that we sinned and fell short of the Glory of God.
There
was a time when we came to realize we couldn’t make it without God. There was a
time when we realized that we needed to board the Ark of Eternal Salvation.
There was a time when we asked Jesus to come into our hearts and there was a
time when we turned our lives totally over to God. Then for many of us, as time
goes on, there is the temptation to either doubt or forget all that God has
done for us; for many of us then, as time goes on, there is the temptation to
either doubt or forget exactly how important it is what God has done for us;
and then, some of us, as time goes on, are we ever tempted to do whatever is
our equivalent of the sins of Genesis 9?
Today,
if there are any of us who haven’t boarded the Salvation Ark, I would invite us
to do so before we are engulfed in the eternal flood. And for those of us
already on board the boat, I encourage us to please keep strong. Let us
remember how God saves us and let us turn not on our Father who is in Heaven
but rather let us turn to our Father who saves us (cf. TSA doc 9).
A
question for those of us those of us who boarded the Ark of Salvation even many
years ago: have we now –like mankind to Noah’s time - been caught in that
seemingly endless cycle of sin, consequence and deliverance? Have we since
fallen into the waters of the sin of complacency?
[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, Genesis 9:18-29:
Idiomatic Noah. Presented to Swift Current Salvation Army, 29 Sept 2013.
On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/09/genesis-918-29-idiomatic-noah.html
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