by Manfred Schreyer
(Num 6:24-26 NIV) "' "The LORD bless you and keep you; {25} the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; {26} the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."'
(Psa 119:135 NIV) Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees.
• Our life can be observed as a great paradox. There are those moments where we are overwhelmed by the wonderful gift of life and then there a times when some of us find ourselves strangled by circumstances in life.
• When we observe life, we can easily come to the understanding that life is corrupted with evil.
• I heard from those who lived longer then I have lived that our time is the worse of time. Well, it is NOT! Very early on in the history of creation God was so angry, because the world that he had created had become morally bankrupt. God had become so disgusted with the human race that He as ready to wipe it out.
• I recently spoke with someone who had committed a very violent crime and almost killed the person. And in that conversation the individual stated: “that person had it coming.” These are the statements of corruptness of the human mind, where all conscience is missing, where there is not a tear of hope.
• The person who was almost killed in fact (at least according to the this person) had indeed treated him in a very horrible way. Treated the person with no respect, dignity, fed the person with lies, cheated the person almost daily, etc.
• When I sat with the individual, I thought that that must have been the state of humankind during the time of Noah.
• Yet when you read the story about Noah, God took notice of Noah. The bible tells us that Noah was a pleasure to God. Noah was a pleasure, because Noah accepted the will of God.
• What God really wants from us is the deep desire from us to love God with everything we have. He wants us to take all of our own desires aside and make room for Him. God in a way longs for our love.
• There is no greater objective in this life then to get to know our God in an intimate relationship.
• Do you remember the commandment of Jesus to love our God with ll of our heart, mind and soul?
• Nevertheless, love alone is not enough . . . unfortunately.
• I know people who believe they have given their life to God, but they have only placed a safe bet. You see they see God being part of a religion. Here is their equation: If in fact there is another God like Buddha . . . Buddha seems to be more accepting of other Gods. Most of the man-made religions allow to worship multiple deities and the common phrase today is that “there are many ways to God” So people take that statement with the full knowledge that our God does not accept any other God. And that is where they place a safe bet: They commit their life to God with their tongue. They now believe that if they die and God should not exist as described in the bible they have nothing to lose since the other gods are accepting. But if the God of the bible exists they have placed a safe bet on Him.
• Those who are doing that live a lie! Yes, they even participate in church, they even participate in the life of the church, but the one thing that the God of our bible is asking of them they do not . . .
• They do not trust God completely. You see, when God told Noah to build the ark, Noah did so without any question. Noah built a ship not to survive, but because it was asked of him.
• All of this seems very simple to you and to me, but the reality is that we would have not built the ship. And I will tell you why:
• As we look today to the word of God, we end up in endless interpretation. Because when we do not know the reason for some of the things God tells us in His Word, we find a reason. Even when we do not know what the consequences are we establish them. Because we think we are so knowledgeable of everything. We just know . . . And if we do not know we just follow our instinct.
• Allow me to say this: When God spoke to Noah that He would flood the earth with rain, I mind you that Noah had never seen rain, because until that time God watered the earth from the ground up. Ref. Gen 2:5-6.
• If God would have spoken to us today about an upcoming flood, we would have not been so much concerned with building the ark, but we would have founded a think-tank to interpret the word: “rain.” And then we possibly would have come to the conclusion that we do not need an ark, but that we need to convince God that there is another way to look at the situation.
• But the story tells us that Noah built the ark . . . over a very long time . . .
• Trust in God . . . constant trust in the word of God, eternal trust in the love even in the moments of discouragement.
• We look at the Word of God and we think that God changed His mind over the years. We believe that it does not mean now what it once meant. We believe that God meant it differently than what it means now.
• Well, let me say this: It took Noah a 100 years to build the ark. Not a single day with a sign of rain. Days of mocking by others who though he was a nutcase.
• Noah could have easily said “the flood is not coming,” “there is no sign of the promise given,” “this is all crazy” . . . but Noah trusted God with all that he had. He placed his entire energy to follow the will of God. He did not sit down and re-interpret the word spoken to him; he was not influenced by those who ruthlessly opposed his doings. No, he loved God so much, that he gave it all and he trusted God with all he had.
• He obeyed every instruction, every detail God had brought to him, Noah did not alter anything . . . Noah followed exactly the model God gave him.
• God’s face was shining upon Noah, because the flood did come and it destroyed everything
• The moral of the story?
• God does not owe us an explanation as much as he did not owe Noah an explanation. God says that understanding of the things can wait, but not our love and loyalty to God. God wants our trust, and by our gift of choice we have the power.
• Not to follow His will lead to suffocation of the eternal glory. Disobedience will lead to the cries of those who are grounding in the waters after they die. Noah had no ropes others could hang on to; he did not offer last minute reservation, Noah did not open the boat to let those in who barely hung on to the trees which the flood uprooted . . . it was too late.
• With the Word of God and the commands we cannot pick and choose.
• The world we experience with all its horrifying stories is the decay caused by the standards we set for ourselves in society. We are to blame for the crimes that are committed. We are willing to trust our own will and interpretation of how things should be . . . but we are not willing to accept the offer God makes to us in His word.
• You can’t choose. You can’t have one foot on the ark and the other touch the ground.
• My plea is just like the one from King David: (Psa 119:135 NIV) Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees.
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