THOUSANDS of trees. (With no pre-cut Home Depot lumber or fancy saws.)
Years upon years of hard labor.
To build a boat.
Which, I believe, was an unheard of object to Noah. Also unheard of was rain, which had not yet percipitated the earth.
And in this boat a pair of every living creature that walked on the earth, and a pair of every bird, plus enough food for all of them to last however many days and months they lived on that boat.
“Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” Genesis 6:2
If my father came to me and told me he was going to build a boat, a HUGE boat, longer than a football field, to house our entire family plus a pair of every living creature that walks on the earth, because God was going to flood the world and kill every living thing, I’d roll my eyes and throw him into a mental hospital.
This entire idea is pretty absurd. And yet, in the three chapters in the Bible that tells us of the story of Noah and the ark, we find NO dialogue from Noah. I’d imagine Noah had plenty of words… Hey maybe he didn’t. He was “a righteous man” and “blameless among the people of his time.” Either way, the author of Genesis puts no dialogue of Noah in there. Why? Because the story of Noah is not a story about Noah, it is a story about God. The entire Bible is God’s story in fact.
In the same way, our life story is not our own. It SHOULD be about God, advancing His kingdom.
I tend to be an “I’ll believe it when I see it” logical type of person. The Noah’s ark event is fairly impossible of a phenomenon and scientifically improbable.
Pretty much. But yet I believe it.
God can and will call His people to do impossible things. Have you ever heard a Christian say, “God will not give you more than you can handle?”
I think that this statement is out of context with the scripture it refers to. I’m 100% positive Noah could not have built this ark without God’s direct guidance and orchestration.
Likewise, God might call me to do something impossible. My proper response is to obey everything that He commands me and God will handle the rest.
The incredible testimony of our obedience to God is the proclamation of His kingdom. The Bible tells us that Noah was a “preacher of righteousness.” Whether Noah used words or not, we do know that He lived differently than all of the people of his time. He preached through his life.
When people look at you, do they notice someone who is living differently?
How does all of this relate to me?
I know that God has called me to this journey, the World Race. It is a huge act of obedience on my part. On the one hand, certain parts of this journey that I am facing and will be facing made the decision difficult, on another hand it was easy for me to commit to. I can’t hardly explain the contradiction going on there. What I do know is that this decision was much easier for me to commit to than say, all of the daily commandments that God calls us to.
The choice to go on the World Race wasn’t too difficult a decision because of how important it was of a decision, I chose to follow God’s command no matter what. However, compare it to God’s everyday commands and I can’t always say that I choose to follow Him.
My obedience is not 100% all the time. I applauded myself for saying yes to the race. But what I really need to work on is doing EVERYTHING the Lord commands me, ALL THE TIME. That is true, faith-filled obedience.
