Genesis
"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." -Gen 6:8
Most of us carry the scars of some kind of violation: betrayal or rejection, abuse or neglect. Maybe the saddest thing about it is that the wounds that affect us the most are usually from people we care about, or at least want to care about. Can you even measure that hurt? It can be so pervasive, so invasive of our lives by messing with our hopes and dreams and expectations that it becomes hard to even see the future as possibly being brighter.
As I read from Genesis Chapter 6, where it says something like, God saw that all He had created was corrupt and that all of the thoughts and intentions of man were evil, so He was sorry He had created man on the earth and decided to wipe the slate clean, I found myself asking this question: Can you imagine being so disappointed and disgusted with your own child that you could want to literally destroy them and all that they love? I imagine the parents of a rapist or murderer. Even in that situation I could never picture myself loving my children any less, but maybe out of obligation to God - for justice and the sake of the world around me - I could see myself so troubled in my soul that I regretted their birth and wished I could take it back.
Genesis 6 tells us that is where God was in the days of Noah. I cannot imagine those feelings. But I think I can understand how it happens. You've literally poured yourself out to create a life that has your very nature. Every bit of who you are and all you have ever worked for goes into putting your babies in the best position to succeed. God gives them Eden. He walks with them. They throw it all away and within a few generations are bent hard toward their own wickedness and destruction. What could hurt more? I am reminded of the disciples. They walked with Jesus for three years and sat at His feet - saw the miracles firsthand - and still they denied Him, scattered, and went back to their old lives when they left. I could draw a hundred illustrations from my own life of how I have done the same.
But verse 8 tells of the God I have come to know. It tells the same story from the days of Noah that Jesus' death on a cross tells thousands of years later. It tells of exactly how God reached into my broken life and released me from the bondage of addiction, the guilt of sin, and the shame of failure...Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." -Gen 6:8
Most of us carry the scars of some kind of violation: betrayal or rejection, abuse or neglect. Maybe the saddest thing about it is that the wounds that affect us the most are usually from people we care about, or at least want to care about. Can you even measure that hurt? It can be so pervasive, so invasive of our lives by messing with our hopes and dreams and expectations that it becomes hard to even see the future as possibly being brighter.
As I read from Genesis Chapter 6, where it says something like, God saw that all He had created was corrupt and that all of the thoughts and intentions of man were evil, so He was sorry He had created man on the earth and decided to wipe the slate clean, I found myself asking this question: Can you imagine being so disappointed and disgusted with your own child that you could want to literally destroy them and all that they love? I imagine the parents of a rapist or murderer. Even in that situation I could never picture myself loving my children any less, but maybe out of obligation to God - for justice and the sake of the world around me - I could see myself so troubled in my soul that I regretted their birth and wished I could take it back.
Genesis 6 tells us that is where God was in the days of Noah. I cannot imagine those feelings. But I think I can understand how it happens. You've literally poured yourself out to create a life that has your very nature. Every bit of who you are and all you have ever worked for goes into putting your babies in the best position to succeed. God gives them Eden. He walks with them. They throw it all away and within a few generations are bent hard toward their own wickedness and destruction. What could hurt more? I am reminded of the disciples. They walked with Jesus for three years and sat at His feet - saw the miracles firsthand - and still they denied Him, scattered, and went back to their old lives when they left. I could draw a hundred illustrations from my own life of how I have done the same.
But verse 8 tells of the God I have come to know. It tells the same story from the days of Noah that Jesus' death on a cross tells thousands of years later. It tells of exactly how God reached into my broken life and released me from the bondage of addiction, the guilt of sin, and the shame of failure...Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
I have found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
All the world has found grace in the eyes of the Lord. In Noah's day, grace came in the form of a divinely commissioned ark and the promise of peace toward men that God offered Noah after the flood. Today, Grace is offered to us personally by the hands of Jesus the Christ, a man with the full power of God who chose to endure all of the wounds of this life and then die for us so we could live free of guilt and eternally with God.
It would not have been hard for God to have reset the game when He saw that all of creation had turned evil. I mean, God spoke and creation began. But God's power is tied to His heart. His heart is for His children, even in our worst and most depraved condition. His heart is to search men for just an inkling of faith and desire for Him and to respond with the kind of grace that can save all of creation. His grace reaches out to us, His grace heals us, His grace sets us free. His grace hung on a cross and bled out, went to the grave, and then into the fire of Hell on our behalf. His grace suffered our punishment and then His power conquered death in Hell as Jesus rose to eternal life in Heaven.
And gracefully, He saved a seat in Heaven for me.
It would not have been hard for God to have reset the game when He saw that all of creation had turned evil. I mean, God spoke and creation began. But God's power is tied to His heart. His heart is for His children, even in our worst and most depraved condition. His heart is to search men for just an inkling of faith and desire for Him and to respond with the kind of grace that can save all of creation. His grace reaches out to us, His grace heals us, His grace sets us free. His grace hung on a cross and bled out, went to the grave, and then into the fire of Hell on our behalf. His grace suffered our punishment and then His power conquered death in Hell as Jesus rose to eternal life in Heaven.
And gracefully, He saved a seat in Heaven for me.
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