2017-12-16
Hebrews 10:36 NIV
Try to imagine what life on the ark must have been like for Noah. He probably didn’t get much sleep. He was feeding, cleaning, and caring for thousands of animals around the clock. And it must have smelled to high heaven. Did you know that African elephants produce eighty pounds of waste per day? It was smelly and messy. And that’s a pretty accurate picture of what obedience sometimes looks like. It’s hard work, and it gets harder. The blessings of God can complicate your life. But unlike sin, they bring a level of joy and fulfilment you have never known (See Proverbs 10:22). No matter what vision God has given you, it will take longer and be harder than you ever imagined. Noah offers a little reality check, doesn’t he? If a decade sounds like a long time to patiently pursue a God-ordained passion, try twelve decades! It’s amazing what God can do if you just keep hammering away year after year! We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a year, but we underestimate what God can accomplish in a decade. The key is to be a planner and a plodder. Planners see into the future and cast a vision; plodders put one foot in front of the other and keep going one day at a time. Success is not just about getting where God wants you to go, it’s about who you become in the process. It’s crossing the finish line the way the apostle Paul did: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful” (2 Timothy 4:7 NLT). So, do what God has told you.
Soul food: Job 1-4; John 21:1-25; Ps 57; Ecc 7:13-15
2017-12-15
1 Corinthians 1:27 NIV
As long as you need man’s approval, God is limited in what He can do through you. Faith is the willingness to look foolish. That’s why faith and humility go hand in hand. Noah looked foolish building an ark in the desert. Sarah looked foolish buying maternity clothes at ninety. Moses looked foolish asking Pharaoh to let his slaves go. The Israelite army looked foolish marching round Jericho blowing trumpets. David looked foolish attacking Goliath with a slingshot. The wise men looked foolish following a star. Peter looked foolish stepping out of the boat in the middle of a storm. And Jesus looked foolhardy hanging half naked on the cross. But the results speak for themselves, don’t they? Noah stayed afloat during the flood. Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Moses delivered Israel out of Egypt. The walls of Jericho came tumbling down. David defeated Goliath. The wise men found the Messiah. Peter walked on water. And Jesus rose from the dead. There comes a moment when you must quit hedging your bets, quit playing it safe and doing what you’ve always done. You need to build the ark, or at least plant some trees or saw some planks! Faith is acting as if God has already answered our prayers, and acting as if God has answered means acting on our prayers even if, as in the case of Noah, it takes 120 years. Jesus said, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24 NIV). What has God told you to do? Start doing it!
Soul food: Est 5-10; John 20:1-31; Ps 105:37-45; Ecc 7:9-12
2017-12-14
Genesis 6:8 NIV
You ask, “What is the favour of God?” It’s God doing for you what you cannot do for yourself. It opens doors of opportunity. It turns opposition into support. It can help you land a promotion, make the list, or seal the deal. The Bible says, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men” (Luke 2:52 NIV). Note, just as you can grow in wisdom and stature, you can also grow in favour with God and men. So instead of being content with the level of favour you enjoy, ask God for an increase. You ask, “How do I find favour?” Obedience! It begins by surrendering your life to Christ. “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11 NAS). And God’s favour is not limited to the spiritual realm; it extends to the material realm as well. In Noah’s life, it translated into ingenious inventions. He didn’t just build the first boat and pioneer the shipbuilding industry, he also held a wide variety of patents. According to Jewish tradition, Noah invented the plow, the scythe, the hoe, and a number of other implements used for cultivating the ground. The favour of God translated into good ideas. It doesn’t matter what you do, God wants to help you do it. He wants to favour your business plan, your manuscript, your lesson plan, your legal brief, your sales pitch, etc. But you’ve got to position yourself for that favour by acting in obedience. If God knows He’ll get the glory, He will bless you beyond your ability and beyond your resources.
Soul food: Est 1-4; John 19:18-42; Ps 105:23-36; Ecc 7:5-8
2017-12-13
Genesis 6:9 NKJV
What went through Noah’s mind when God told him to build a boat in the middle of dry land? Nobody had ever done it before. Yet the Bible says, “Noah did everything just as God commanded him” (v. 22 NIV). How did he do it? Answer: “Noah walked with God.” Walking takes place step by step. The trouble is, we want God to reveal the second step before we take the first step of faith. But until we take the first step, He won’t reveal the next step. We’ve got to be obedient to the measure of revelation He has given us, if we want more of it. That’s why we get stuck spiritually. We only want to follow Christ to the point of precedence – the place where we have been before – but no farther. We’re afraid of doing what we’ve never done before because it’s unfamiliar territory. So we leave unclaimed the new gifts, new anointings, and new dreams God wants to give us. You’ve got to push past the fear of the unknown. You’ve got to do something different. The African impala can jump ten feet high and thirty feet long, yet it can be contained in a small enclosure with four-foot-high walls. Why? Because it will not jump if it cannot see where it’s going to land. We have the same problem, don’t we? We want a money-back guarantee before we take a leap of faith, but that eliminates faith from the equation. We are called to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). So the word for you today is: Do what God has told you.
Soul food: Gen 50; Hag 1-2; John 19:1-17; Ps 18:1-29; Prov 26:24-27
2017-12-12
Hebrews 11:7 NIV
Noah built the ark because God commanded it. It’s what he was called to do in life. Sawing planks and hammering nails for him was an act of obedience. And when everything was said and done, it was the longest act of obedience recorded in Scripture. From start to finish, Noah’s one act of obedience took 43,800 days! And with each daily act of obedience, he glorified God. No matter what tool you use in your trade – a hammer, a keyboard, a mop, a football, a spreadsheet, a microphone, an espresso machine – using it is an act of obedience. It’s the mechanism whereby you worship God. It’s the way you do what you’re supposed to do. The Bible says, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17 NIV). Stop putting yourself down and thinking what you do is not important. Remember the old proverb, “For want of a nail”? It goes like this: “For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the message was lost. For want of a message the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.” In God’s eyes, small acts of obedience are big things. When you joyfully do little things like they are big things, then God will do big things like they are little things. That’s how His kingdom advances. So the word for you today is: Do what God has told you.
Soul food: Gen 47-49; John 18:25-40; Ps 105:8-22; Ecc 7:1-4
2017-12-11
Genesis 6:22 NIV
Noah’s ark measured 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in width, and 30 cubits in height. A cubit is the equivalent of 17.5 inches. That means the ark was the length of one and a half football fields. The internal volume of the ark was 1,518,750 cubic feet – the equivalent of 569 train boxcars. If the average animal was the size of a sheep, it had capacity for 125,000 animals. To put that into perspective, there are 2,000 animals from 400 different species at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. That means you could fit sixty National Zoos on board Noah’s ark. And since it was the first boat ever built, it’s not like it came with an instruction manual. It was back-breaking work that required blood, sweat, and tears. And it took an incredible amount of faith to build the ark. Who builds a boat in the desert? Who hammers away for 120 years on something they might not even need? Who banks their entire future on something that has never happened before? According to Jewish tradition, Noah didn’t just start building the ark. He planted trees first. After they were fully grown, he cut down the trees, sawed them into planks, and built the boat. And here’s an interesting piece of information: Not until the late nineteenth century did a ship that size get constructed again. Yet that design ratio is still considered the golden mean for stability during storms at sea. Noah’s act of obedience literally changed the world. And obedience will change your world too, so do what God has told you.
Soul food: Gen 44-46; John 18:1-24; Ps 105:1-7; Ecc 5:13-16
