Category: Daily Devotionals

And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him. Genesis 7:5

This short verse is easily passed over in the entire dramatic account of Noah.  He did every single thing that the Lord had commanded him.  Not once did Noah rationalize or procrastinate.

God didn’t entrust him with an easy task either.  He gave Noah 120 years of detailed instructions to build a gigantic, wooden monstrosity.  When he was finished building it, no one knew what it was.  Through the decades, he never deviated from the blueprint.  He didn’t take shortcuts when something got hard and there was no one to call for advice.  His bystanders were scoffers.  Noah had God and the collective input of his family to figure things out. 

I probably won’t live 120 years.  I’m a little over half as old as Noah was when he built the ark.  In the span of time that I have lived so far, I have failed to do much of what I know God would have wanted.  I am absolutely struck by the stark comparison.

At the end of my life, I pray it will be said that I followed God, though it has taken time for me to get in His groove and to join the rhythm of the dance of the Trinity.  Though Noah did not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, He followed God’s call.  I don’t know whether he continued to hear the voice of His Creator throughout the great span of time it took him to build the ark but if God was quiet, no wonder Noah is in the ‘hall of faith’.  I know how hard it is to live on yesterday’s manna, yet for him it was ancient manna.  Still, he stayed on the path and felt the wonder of hearing the voice from heaven address him personally.   

Noah wasn’t perfect.  He sinned greatly on the other side of the flood.  Yet, despite the bad turn of events to come, he is a teacher.  What ‘yesterday’s’ word have I forgotten?  Remind me.  Amen

For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”  Genesis 7:4  ESV

Why, when death stares mankind in the face, do they still take pride in their freedom to deny the truth?  Wouldn’t a rational person do something different when defenses are down and their lifelong objections to Jesus are on the line?  History says no.

After 120 years of labor, Noah finished the ark.  Final preparations were being carried out.  Everyone except Noah’s family had ridiculed but now they saw pairs of animals entering the ark; coming from every direction, without being herded. Didn’t this unnatural animal behavior make them wonder?  It should have.  Yet, even though destruction stared them in the face, not one more person from that civilization approached Noah to inquire about salvation.

Those who have been reckless with their lives are usually reckless with their deaths.  While the end of life should be sobering, even frightening, it is usually not enough to open blind eyes. A lifetime of sin takes its toll.  Spiritual blindness intensifies slowly as their heart hardens through years of rebellion. Without the Spirit of God’s intervention, it is unlikely that an unregenerate heart will become humble enough to see the glory of Jesus.

What should I do if someone I love is approaching the latter years of their life and there is no sign that they will turn to Christ, their ark of safety?  First, I should give up trying to argue them into the kingdom. A heated debate makes no one embrace Christ.   Apologetic wrangling is futile.  The only tool in my hands to break the heart of stone is the Word of God and the Spirit of God.  The Word and the Spirit.  Like strategically placed dynamite, the crusty exterior of a sin-affected, deceived, hardened heart is imploded by the reckless love of God.

“Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”  Jeremiah 23:29

But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.  Genesis 6:18  ESV

Once God initiates a covenant, it is irrevocable. 

“But God, didn’t you know that on the other side of the flood, Noah and his family would sin greatly? Didn’t you know that his descendants would bow down to other gods?  Didn’t you know that they would throw their own children in the fire for sacrifices?  Didn’t you know they would hear You calling and choose to turn their backs on you after all You’d done for them?”

Yes, He knew.  And He chose to save people anyway even though Noah and all his descendants would mess up badly.  Their faults would not be glossed over, and their mistakes would be made public ~ giving all of us hope that if God can restore and redeem their sins, He can do the same with ours.

Do you believe that a promise this glorious could apply to you?  Or do you believe you’ve erred too badly, offending God beyond what your relationship with Him can withstand?  I’ve had my seasons where I feared both were true. 

But I’ve learned that our sin is not the point.  The power of Jesus’ death over sin takes preeminence.  Our faithlessness is not the point.  The power of God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant is unshakeable.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. 

John Newton said, in a letter to his wife, “Remember two things: I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior.”   

People punish by withdrawing their love.  Yours never wavers.  Amen

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.  Noah walked with God.  Genesis 6:9b  ESV

God’s Spirit is moving as an invisible wind.  He is stirring up things in the people I love, in the church I attend, even in some of the strangers I encounter.  To walk with God is to discern where and how He’s moving and then be willing to add my part should He lead me.  I’m often called to give others words to what might be tenuous inside their spirit and to then encourage them to take a risk in their faith adventure.

My involvement is needed because the work of God can be confusing for someone when it’s in its infant stages.  Like all of us, each person wonders if it is God they heard.  They took that initial baby step and are now timid to take the next one. With gentleness, I can help them pinpoint their fear and applaud how far they’ve come.  I can call out of the deep what is unknown to them, both the strengths and the challenges.  My engagement will give them the courage to step further into the darkness where God’s hand awaits them.   

These interactions can sometimes be messy, but God goes where it’s messy.  He wants me to get involved in issues that will take great wisdom to navigate.  That’s how I grow ~ by sticking my neck out when my only security depends on a word from scripture and a hunch from the Spirit.

I must build where God is building; not tearing down what He wants to construct.  I must demolish what He hates; not continually patching up what He wants to put to death.  I must love what He loves; not ridiculing what is dear to Him.  I must hate what He hates; not secretly embracing what is repelling to Him.  I cannot protect what is good for me at the expense of being out of step with Him. 

You never said it was easy but success on the steep climb upward allows me to walk with You.  I’m in!  Amen

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.  Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.  Noah walked with God.  Genesis 6:8 and 9b  ESV

Live in a wicked society long enough and it has a numbing effect.  Either I will be willing to be lonely for the cause of Christ or my craving for company will tempt me to do whatever it takes to fit in.  If my church is asleep, I’ll tone down my zeal to blend in.

There is a cry to lay down our lives.  It is desperate, prophet-like.  As society regresses into lawlessness, it is a critical trumpet sound.  More like Noah are hearing God’s call to come out of the shadows. The Apostle Paul recalls Elijah’s words to the Lord as he despaired over the evil he was witnessing.  Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?  “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Romans 11:2-5

I want to be one of the 7,000. Let my heart burst with the cries of those who want to be fully awake, watchful, feeling what Jesus feels.  We won’t be popular.  We’ll need the wisdom to know how to manage the anger of being spurned while discerning God’s holy anger for when we see indifference.  Ultimately, we will need to be willing to have our hearts broken for the lost, to lay down personal comforts so that God’s call for repentance can be expressed through our tears. As God views this world headed for destruction and a generation of Christians anesthetized by pervasive moral decline, may He see us stand apart from the rest. 

I want to react to my world through the eyes of Your Spirit.  Give me Your visceral reaction ~ followed by crafted wisdom that only originates with You. Amen

And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.  Genesis 6:6  ESV

God is unchangeable. He called His creation of man ‘good’ in the garden but later expressed that he was sorry He made him. Question #1.) Does God change His mind? If so, maybe I should be worried about my sin causing God to change His mind about me.

The expression “I’m sorry!” means several things. I can apologize for doing something I knew was wrong, wish I could take it back and make the choice all over again. But the expression of being sorry also means something else. “I’m sorry you have cancer,” doesn’t imply that I did something to cause your cancer. It is an expression of regret that you are hurting.  I believe God is expressing regret over the way sin has destroyed people’s lives.

Question #2.) If God knew people were going to sin and break His heart, why did He go ahead and create them? In His omniscience, He knew this moment was coming.

All through childhood, I knew I wanted to be a mother. I grew up in the church, however, and knew that babies are born with Adam’s fallen nature. I knew my children would be like all other children and disobey, hurt my feelings, cause some sleepless nights through the teen years, but the joy of our future relationships outweighed the risks.

God knew when He created us that we would use our moral choice to sin greatly. Yet, He loved us from before the foundation of the world and considered the relationships He would have with us to be worth it all. Even in the moments of regret – those moments when He wished we had chosen to love Him more than we loved our sin, He anticipated the joys He would experience with us.

Oh Father, I anticipate the joys we will share today.  Amen

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  Genesis 6:5 ESV

Maybe you’ve witnessed a tragedy like the following. A pastor, husband, and father of three flips out, packs his bags, and leaves the ministry and his family.  His actions seem to come out of nowhere.  Behaviors can be hard to explain even by those who are most intimate with the one who has done the unthinkable.

For the past week, my devotionals have centered on the tragic story of two brothers, Cain and Abel.  When Cain murdered his brother, did his parents see it coming?  Maybe not.  This horrendous event wasn’t aa spontaneous act.  Though it might have seemed like it to Abel, Cain may not have been surprised that he took his brother’s life. 

Evil deeds originate from the heart.  Inside each of us is a world of simmering thoughts.  We each have our individual, default thought processes, the things we choose to think about most often.  Cain’s murder of his brother began long before the day he struck him down.  Jealousy, rage, disgust, these were the longtime breeding grounds for murder.  Agitation in his soul fed Cain’s thought life.  Perhaps daydreaming of a life without his brother was his favorite pastime.

In today’s scripture, God saw people’s demonic behaviors and declared them evil.  His condemnation was of things outward.  He also commented on the hearts of the people and declared them evil too.  That condemnation was of things inward. My actions today are the summation of my thoughts.  Jesus said so.  “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.  Matt. 15:18  If I heed the Apostle Paul’s advice to take every thought captive, and if I follow David’s example and ask God to search my heart, I won’t be a casualty.  I won’t do something catastrophic and then wonder how in the world I could do such a thing.

In our prayer times, we often pray for someone’s behavior to change.  That doesn’t target the root of the problem. It doesn’t address the place where sin is born.  I need to pray for that person’s internal world that simmers with evil thoughts.  Man sees the outward manifestations of the heart, but God sees the heart and hears the ruminations that precede sinful behavior.  It’s the heart that needs His transformation.  Behavior will follow.

If I don’t like what I do, if I’m discouraged about all my bad habits and longtime strongholds, take me to their source.  Show me my heart, Lord Jesus.  Amen

The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.  The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them.  Genesis 6:2,4  ESV

The phrase ‘sons of God’ is found in other places in scripture and most agree that it refers to the fallen angels who were cast to earth along with Satan, the leader of their rebellion.  These fallen angels saw the beauty of the women of that time and desired them.  Perhaps Satan wanted to pollute the gene pool to prevent the coming of the Messiah.

Angels have always appeared as men so it should not surprise us that the angelic realm could disrupt God’s order of things and choose to engage sexually with mankind.  (We encounter angels unaware too, sent by God.  Angels can still take on human form.) 

The Nephilim were the children of these unholy unions between demonic beings and human women and they were giants.  No wonder judgment was coming.  Mankind was no longer mankind but a strange mutation of the intermingling of two worlds.

Any of us who were raised in the church can be naïve and shudder at the thought that such a thing could be. But Jude said, “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire.

Unless I take my head out of the sand and know, to what extent, Satan loves to take something holy and pervert it, I will be of little use when it comes time to take the Gospel to situations where profound evil exists.  It is possible for me to be holy while still being street smart.  Jesus was never shocked by evil but saw it in all its ugliness and dealt directly with it.  He didn’t hide from society and relegate himself to synagogue life.  And I can promise you that our kids and grandkids are seeing more evil in school than we can imagine. ‘As in the days of Noah’ scriptures says.  In these days, manifestations of the spirit world are everywhere.  We can feel the kingdoms clashing and the Gospel has never been more relevant to draw those from captivity to the kingdom of God’s dear Son.

Do I feel like You feel as You look at my world today?  If not, wake me up.  Infuse my heart with Your perspective and Your emotions.  Amen

When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah…  Genesis 5:28-29  ESV

At four different points in my life, I’ve deeply despaired.  It appeared at each juncture that life was never going to change.  There was too much wrong.  There was too much evidence that a resurrection of any kind was impossible. 

It is an awful thing to witness the degeneration of anything.  A marriage, a child’s future, someone’s health, a business.  All self-efforts to save can matter little.  The end seems inevitable.  And if one witnesses this slow degeneration over a long period of time, God can appear powerless as evidence of His presence is absent.  This reinforces the lie that He’s not going to do anything to rescue.

God is never out of options.  Never.  God is never stewing, wondering how He will pull off a resurrection.  Never.  God never withholds to be cruel.  Never.  God is never scrambling at the last minute, throwing something together in haste.  Never.

The birth of Noah is proof of God’s faithfulness.  When the world was sinking into evil and lawlessness, how would God’s promise to Adam and Eve ever be fulfilled?  How would a Savior arise out of a world that God was going to destroy?  Certainly, it appeared that God was nullifying what He had guaranteed.  If we had lived in the days of Noah, watching evil reign on the earth, we would have doubted the ancient whispers of a God who spoke to our forefathers.

In some cave or primitive dwelling place, a baby was born.  His name was Noah.  The meaning of his name was “comfort.”  God brought a baby to the scene, not some spectacular Red Sea deliverance.  He brought a nine-pound bundle of joy instead of a spirit of repentance to the whole of society.  God’s plan of redemption was ushered in without fanfare and the power of this tiny life would not be seen for hundreds of years.  Yet, God’s saving plan was in place.  

God is always active.  Always.  God is working on my behalf.  Always.  When I can’t conceive of a salvation to all that is wrong, He’s already put one in motion in the eternal realm.  When I’m looking for an earthquake to prove His power, He often brings the answer in the sound of a baby’s cry.

In every place someone is fainting today, let them declare that You are the God of beginnings.  In Jesus’ name, In Jesus’ name, Amen

After he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God for 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Genesis 5:22 ESV

Various numbers have eternal significance in the Bible. The number seven is one of them; forty is another. The seventh place in a genealogical line is often significant and none more than in the lines of Cain and Seth. Lamech, from Cain’s line, perpetuated violence. Wild and unregenerate, he was like his father – only worse. Enoch, from Seth’s line, perpetuated righteousness. True and unwavering, he was like his father – only better. I have learned this ~ the righteous and unrighteous propensities in family lines escalate. Nothing stays the same because each generation plants seeds that produce a harvest because God put us in a sowing and reaping world.

Oh, the beauty of Enoch’s life. We only know two things about him. He walked with God and God took him home and spared him the experience of physical death. He walked with God as did his first father and mother in the Garden of Eden. Enoch cultivated this same relationship and turned away from everything that would threaten it.

Life in the Garden of Eden is envied. I long for perfection, but even more, I long for a fellowship with God that has no cobwebs caused by sin. Because sin’s curse is so pervasive, I can give up on my pursuit of a relationship with God like the one Adam and Eve enjoyed. I conclude that it’s not really possible. Enoch disproves all that. He didn’t have the written scriptures. He didn’t have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Yet, he sought God and enjoyed Him like few others and all on a cursed planet.

Faith must be fought for. Intimacy with God must be pursued relentlessly. My flesh must be subdued by unwavering vigilance. This is a race that won’t be won if I coast through life. The Christian life is an upward climb and I take each step relying on God for the grace to desire Him above all others. My daily prayer, “Show me Your glory!” is my insurance against being wooed away by the false promises of sin. As I keep my eyes on Him, the beautiful One, I’m energized to keep going. 

When all is said and done, Lord, I pray for myself and I pray for every woman who reads this today. May it be said of each of us.  ‘She walked with God!’ We may even be like Enoch and never see death. Even so come, Lord Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen