November 2014

Three simple kernels of corn at everyone’s place setting during Thanksgiving dinner… Mom Macchia’s family tradition, when after enjoying our meal we would share the top three blessings we are grateful for from the past year. Today 11/27/14 would have been our beloved Mom’s 99th birthday! We will gather as family to give thanks for our many abundant blessings. May you and yours have a joy-filled Thanksgiving Day 2014!

Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Here’s the account as recorded in Genesis 6: 13-22…

So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.  So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.  This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.  I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.  But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.  You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.  Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.  You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

When God spoke to Noah concerning the upcoming flood, he gave him super specific instructions. Apparently the details of ark construction mattered to Almighty God. And, since Noah loved God, he obeyed him right down to the last cubit.

Has there been a time in your life when you knew God had been specific with his intentions for you? Did you follow him to the final cubit? Or, did you take matters into your own hands and follow your self-will instead, cutting corners on the Master’s plan?

Listen carefully to God’s Word, for it’s the place where he seems to be the most specific. Then, obey the Word…down to the cubit…and watch how joyful and fruitful and love-full your life will become. May it be so, even today.

Fill in the blank…and ___________(your name) did everything just as God commanded.

Wow, that’s a faithful life!

In Genesis 6, the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” (Gen. 6: 5-7)

But, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord (vs. 8).

From the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, through the envy in the heart of Cain, to a generation filled with wickedness and evil, we see the downward spiral  of humankind. The Lord regretted that he made human beings, for they were disregarding His original intention for them. God’s grief had grown so deep he was preparing for mass annihilation of the human race he had created…but Noah…but (key word in the Scriptures!) Noah (great man of God)!

Noah: was a man who had found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Why? Because he was a righteous man, blameless among the evil people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God (vs. 9).

Imagine those words on your tombstone: Righteous. Blameless. Faithful. Favored.

When God speaks in this pericope he is both filled with anguish about the sinfulness of mankind, and yet delighted with righteousness in the heart of one faithful man.  And Noah was that one faithful man.

Consider those words for yourself. Righteous. Blameless. Faithful. Favored. Are these words that you hope are descriptive of your life? If so, then lean into and pray about how these words can become descriptions of your heart and life even today. What will you embrace, release or pray toward as you contemplate these God-fearing attributes?