Grace For Your Day January 30

Noah is one of the most interesting characters in the Bible. When you consider a summary of his life, it is very informative because the Scripture tells us that:

• Noah was a descendant of Adam and Eve (Genesis 5:30)
• He was a righteous man, blameless in his time (Genesis 6:9)
• He walked with God (Genesis 6:9)
• He is the one the Lord called to build an ark (Genesis 6:14)
• He is the one the Lord chose to make a covenant with (Genesis 6:18)
• He was 600 years old when the flood waters covered the earth (Genesis 7:6)
• He was 950 years old when he died (Genesis 9:29)
• He was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5)
• He was the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Genesis 5:32)

He is also the third person mentioned in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. He is described right after Abel and Enoch in order to remind us that the principle of faith stretches all the way back to the beginning of time. It did not start later in the Bible but it is found in the opening pages because Hebrews 11:7 says: 
The author states that Noah prepared the ark by faith. Why? Because the flood had not occurred yet when he was building it. It was still a future event but he kept working on it day after day until he finished it in order to demonstrate his trust in God.

His faith is highlighted even more when you consider how big the ark was because, according to Answers in Genesis, the ark was approximately 510 feet long which was large enough to hold three NASA space shuttles on the roof. It was also more than 50 feet from the ground—higher than a modern four-story house and it had enough storage capacity to hold about 450 standard semi-trailers. A standard livestock trailer holds about 250 sheep so the ark had the capacity to hold at least 120,000 of them.

However, Noah made all of that without the use of modern machinery. It was done without the help of 21rst Century tools which means that it would have taken him a long time to finish it. He would have been working on it for awhile but he kept going because of his faith which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to talk about the faith of Noah because he provides a powerful reminder to us that we need to persevere in our journey through this world. We do not need to give up just because things are hard for us. We need to continue to trust in God just like Noah did because that is the only way that we will escape the judgment that is to come.

It has been said that the Titanic was built by experts but the ark was built by an amateur. However, the ark never sank because it was held up by the hand of God and the lesson is that we will be as well if we trust Him. God will not let any of His people sink if they believe in His name.
Please join us as we talk about that this weekend. The service begins at 9:30.

– Jeremy Cagle