Devos for jan 4th 2011. First blog of the new year!

Scripture:

Genesis chapter 9 and Luke 4:14-30

Observation/Application

In Gen. 9 it blows me away and makes me sad and at the same time relives me a little bit. Noah, who was the one that amidst all the earth being corrupt found favor with God and walked with him. Noah was righteous and blameless in his generation. That was a generation that God saw fit to destroy because of the violence and immorality that they lived in. So Noah didn’t exactly have a lot of iron sharpening iron with fellow believers around him, yet was able to live righteously among adverse culture. In chapter 9, the flood was over, and God commanded Noah’s family to be fruitful and He gave them a covenant (the rainbow, and yes even the double rainbow J) to never flood the earth again.

So Noah had just seen the biggest display of God’s wrath ever known to man (besides child labor for the ladies perhaps) and he turns around and plants a vineyard and gets drunk off the wine he makes…really Noah? What was he thinking? At the beginning I said this makes me sad and relived; sad because God put His hope in Noah when the rest of the world had walked away, then Noah who was blameless now is a drunk. It’s sad for God whose heart is for His people. However, I’m relieved on some level that I would probably do the same thing (sin). Relived is an accurate word because God knew that Noah would do this, God is all knowing, yet He chooses you and I to reach the world. He chooses you and I to be His witness throughout the whole earth. Chooses you and I to speak life in to dead circumstances. Chooses you and I to be salt and light to all the earth. I’m relieved because I’m covered by His son Jesus.

Prayer

Lord, I am no better than Noah yet when I read this story I see Noah as a broken sinner. I wonder how you see me and still love me sometimes. Yet you see me through these glasses of love that has no conditions to them. You love me as I am. Sinful as I’ll ever be you take me. Continue in your grace because I need it so much Lord. You’re a God of forgiveness and we see that in your word. Enable us to walk in your light so we don’t find ourselves in compromising situations. I love you Lord. I pray in Jesus name, amen.