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HIS PEOPLE. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

      As Christians we will all be judged by an all powerful, sovereign God as we stand in front of Him with all of our sins. Those that asked for salvation and later rejected all belief will be judged by God.

      Application

      Noah was an ordinary man with many frailties. However, Noah found favor from God and walked with Him because Noah was a righteous man who loved and obeyed God. He was a highly skilled hard working man capable with God’s direction of building a massive structure such as the ark. His unweaving obedience and loyalty to God was tested with continual ridicule and harassment by the local community. His skills also included being a farmer and herdsmen. He was also a loving husband and father of three sons and their wives.

      God will work through a person by providing inspiration. However, this inspiration will be forgotten if these new creative ideas are not quickly developed. Discipline also plays an important part in the process in developing new ideas and requires skills to be perfected for ideas to be implemented. God will open new doors that will resolve issues and will give direction when goals seem impossible to reach.

      Isaiah 58:11 reads, “And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a water garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”

      Proverbs 3:5-6 reads, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

      God is always there to guide us through each step throughout our entire lives. It is our responsibility to share all of our cares and burdens with God each day. We are His creation and He loves us and wants to protect us from harm and to provide for our every need. We are to place our trust in God and to wait patiently for His blessings. God’s word has been in place since the beginning of time and will remain in place for eternity. It is the only thing in this universe that does and will not change. Countless numbers of generations have passed and still God’s word remains the same. Hundreds of millions can attest that trusting in a loving God and obeying His word in love is the only path to fulfillment. We are all created in His image and we all long to one day to be one with our Creator.

      Noah, his sons, and wives were blessed by God and would be the only human beings allowed to survive the flood. This one monumental event would destroy all of mankind and at the same time provide a new start for all of mankind. This was one more example of how Satan has tried to destroy all of mankind and failed. God spared only Noah and his family to ensure that the royal bloodline would continue and that His plan would unfold with the birth of His Son within this royal bloodline.

      Abraham and the Covenant

      (Approximately 2166–1953 BC)

      Blessings found in the Old Testament are generally about God’s creation, His protection by providing us with our daily provisions, and a prosperous family. However, there were periods of time where God determined men were lost in sin and a new beginning needed to be established for the benefit of mankind. Noah and his family were blessed and selected by God to survive the flood and to begin the re-population of the earth. God at some time later created a covenant with Abraham, his son Isaac, Isaac’s son Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons. The twelve sons of Jacob would be the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel and the chosen nation of God. God blessed Abraham and the Israelites that established the nation of Israel. They were the people (the Israelites) that finally occupied the Promised Land. This chosen nation of God would serve as a leader to all other nations in following God’s word and living as an example of an obedient people. God selected Israel for the primary purpose of being a nation of priests, prophets, and His representative in a world of sinners. Israel’s message was the promise of a Savior and Messiah that would come for the salvation of all mankind. Unfortunately, as prophesied many did deny Christ and still today refuse to recognize Jesus as the Messiah and Savior for all of mankind. 1 Peter 2:9 reads, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

      However, the qualifier is that these blessings are directly related to the entire nation of Israel and not to the individuals. God does bless individuals on an individual basis and those blessings may vary with obedience, God’s plan for their lives, and their relationship with their Lord and Savior. God loves His creation (all of mankind) and wants to commune with each one and be part of their daily lives. Galatians 3:28-29 reads, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

      Mankind becomes the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Those that are baptized make a public declaration and are sealed into an intimate relationship with their Lord and Savior. This intimate relationship can be one that brings a greater realization of greater responsibility and a position where greater blessings are present.

      God called Abraham and told him to settle in the land of Canaan an area that today includes Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel. Sometime later God appears to Abraham again in the form of three men. Abraham at the age of 100 runs to meet them and bows his face to the ground.

      Genesis 18:2-3 reads, “And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground. And said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.” Abraham was visited by the Angel of the Lord and two angels for the purpose of blessing him with the message of a son.

      The message of a son seemed impossible to Sarah and she laughed in her heart knowing she was too old to bear a child. God again uses another situation to teach us that nothing is impossible with God. This child would be the promised child named Isaac. Isaac would be blessed and inherit all of the land that was given to Abraham.

      Abraham was known as a friend of God who actually pleaded and begged God not to destroy Sodom because of those few that were considered to be righteous. God heard Abraham’s plea and blessed Abraham when he was allowed to warn Lot, his nephew and his family to leave the city of Sodom. God sent angels to actually pull Lot and his family out of Sodom and Gomorrah before the cities were completely destroyed. This is one more example of God’s grace by allowing Lot and his family to escape and God’s patience with people who refused to obey His laws and commandments that had fallen in the depths of unspeakable sin. Today we see man’s morals decay as his society continues to accept depraved behavior as being normal. The result of this moral degradation has been the destruction of the family unit with many absent fathers and mothers with few moral standards and the resulting anger that is seen in many acts of violence. The respect for self and others has been lost with the refusal to love God, obey God’s commands and to love one another.

      One of Abraham’s greatest lessons was to follow God’s request to make the ultimate sacrifice to end his own son’s life. God was instructing Abraham by allowing him to experience the pain a father suffers when allowing his son to be offered as a sacrifice. God was allowing Abraham to get some insight as to the amount a suffering God would endure when Jesus Christ His only son would suffer on the cross for the sins of man. God chose Abraham out of a pagan world and blessed him and his descendants as he stepped out in faith and obedience. God demanded that Abraham meet the requirements of faith and obedience for his descendants to be rewarded with the Promised Land. Faith in a sovereign God reduces worry about the future and allows love, kindness, peace to grow, and is self-denying. Faith and obedience are two important requirements from a sovereign God that are consistently repeated throughout the entire Bible.

      Genesis 12:2 reads, “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:”

      Genesis 22:15-18 reads, “And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son. That in blessing I will bless thou, and

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