Lena Journals to Genesis 7

“When everything was ready….” Ready, meaning prepared.
“The Lord has gone to prepare a place for us; Prepare ye THE WAY of The LORD….”
“Prepare” has lots of meanings, some are….
to be firm, be stable, be established, to be set up, be fixed, to be firmly established, be secure, be enduring, to be fixed, be securely determined, to be directed aright, be fixed aright, be steadfast (moral sense), to prepare, be ready, to be prepared, be arranged, be settled, to establish, set up, accomplish, do, make firm , to fix, make ready, provide, provide for, furnish, to direct toward (moral sense), to arrange, order, to constitute, make, to be restored, to fashion, aim (as in towards a target), consider, counted, formed, made preparations for, get yourself ready, made provision for…
WOW, huh?
How is one prepared for the circumstances of life? They submit their lives to truth and to walking in it’s ways willingly being shown direction of the word of God and of others who teach and preach it.
After you have prepared a safe place, you’ve made that place ready, and even you yourself are found to be a safe place, then, at that time, when the place is a trustworthy and a sure and dependable place, invite others to come in also, load ‘em up! Bring your family in and ride upon the circumstances of life! Stay there until the circumstances change, and live that way in the midst of circumstances!
Be a part of building an ark, Be in the ark, be the ark!
When I say “Ark”, think about something that carries and houses the presence of the Lord. Something that values its worth and is privileged to responsibly carry God inside each and every day. A place that is protected and guarded and is holy, kept pure because its value is esteemed as so great that there’s nothing of greater worth in life. The most important thing is guarding His presence, in us personally, in our homes, and in our churches and communities!
What are we doing personally to protect our spiritually alive inner man, who has God living inside of us?
How are we protecting our families from having their faith stolen, or being flooded out with worry and cares that steal it away?
What about our churches, and our attendance and participation there, are we on guard of it and do we treasure it enough to not allow other things to sweep us away from learning and growing in the word? Or do we so easily allow other things to tell us how important they are, as if they are more important than Christ alive in us?
What are we doing to take that protected word we have, and what we have given our families in living color and whatever we’ve established and learned to make with our church body, into our communities?
It’s all about rising above whatever it is around us that may hinder carrying the precious presence of the King of Kings and then guarding His kingdom in us.
That does not just happen all on its own.
It took Noah about a year or so to build an ark for his family to go into. He had to make preparations and it cost Him to do so. He had to decide to and follow through with it. He had to live differently, for the cause set before HIM. We cannot just expect everything to fall into place without any effort. When one decides what is truly important, that person must prove it is important with his lifestyle choices. Noah couldn’t say building an ark was important to him and then go do another pursuit. If it was important to him, then he spent time on it, money on it, got help to do it and set up guards to keep thieves from stealing it away from him.
Noah did everything the Lord commanded Him to do.
Just as God commanded him to do.
It rained and rained and rained (the circumstances in life did not get better, they got tons worse, and Noah and his family were fine, and safe, and rose above all else).
We’ve lived under a deception within our Christian faith. The deception is, if we walk with and receive the Lord, then all of life is supposed to get good, be great, etc. Then if it isn’t, there’s a deception out there that tries to tell us we are not loved as much as the next guy who doesn’t have as many circumstances to deal with in his life! It speaks something like this – “Ya know if God really loved you, you’d not be swimming in this sea at all , everything would be peachy keen”.
I want to offer something to you today.
Did you build a boat, when He said to?
He does love you so He told you ahead of time to build a boat. It went something like this…. “Pastor from the pulpit gives you daily scriptures to read at home, encourages you politely to set up devotion times each and everyday…” God through your leaders, asks you to commit to a Bible Study group and make the meetings a priority in your life. He tells you through the Bible Study Group, how to trust and rely on Him more and more and how to reprioritize in life so that you truly value the kingdom of God first and build it more than you do your own kingdom on earth. He shows you by godly suggestions about how other things could try to take your time energy or resources away. Then He says take what you learn at church and apply it to your own personal life.
THIS IS the building of your boat. He loves you enough to tell you everything ahead, you just may have taken what was said as an option and a mere sweetly motivated suggestion instead of taking it as a valuable thing to spend yours and your families lives on.
He loves you enough to tell you where to get the stuff and how to make an ark, if you don’t listen or don’t treasure the words enough, you may be out in the rain rather than in the boat, now you are wet and then you have to swim. Maybe the water level will rise so high you’ll have to float or tread water, it could be you’d drown in a while, for all land mass is covered with circumstances…but that doesn’t mean God does not love you.
Do you understand this?
You are in the circumstances, but not made to be of them.
They are all around you like torrents of water, moving everything in their pathway, but your pathway is a pathway of peace! You are floating on the surface of very deep waters. THIS is your destiny!
Floating above, with your family in the house of the Lord!
You prepared for this ahead of time, because you chose to love Him back and show it by obeying Him in all subtle suggestions. That humble attitude paid off in this day! Wow you are glad in heart, living no regrets, floating….
You built a boat, brought your family in and are floating in a boat with provision on the waters that have covered the earth and have destroyed everything else around except you and yours!
You listened, obeyed and did, the words of the Lord, wow!