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by Buzz Dahlen I sure we have all given some thought to the moral and spiritual decay of the society that we live in. It may not be as evident here on the prairie as in other areas but our society is in the state of decay and it is obvious. One does not have to look too far to see the changes, the negative changes that are taking place in our world. One does not have to travel very far to have their life affected by these changes. Why is all this happening? Good question… To find the answer we must look in the book of Genesis. Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Genesis 2:8,9,15-17 God had given man a choice to trust Him with his life and man chose to take his life into his own hands. That has been the problem from the very beginning and continues to be the problem to this day. Man wants to run his own life independent of God, but man was created to live dependent upon God. Every time man made a decision independent of God, he moved farther and farther away from Him. When you move away from the source of life you begin to decay. If you continue to move away from the source of life, you continue to decay. Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a decision that they made independent of God. just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men Romans 5:12 Man continued to live independent of God and we read in Genesis chapter 6:5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The only way to fix this situation was to start over. So, God called on Noah to build an ark. Now Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God… Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Gen. 6:9&22 You can read about the ark in Genesis chapter 6 & 7, it was a big vessel, 450 feet long and 45 feet wide. Big even for today’s standards. But the size of the task was not what tested Noah’s faith; it was the time and location. What most people do not understand is that Noah was asked to build this boat at a time when there had been no rain and at a location surrounded by dry land. And I might add, at the age of 500 years old. And a side note, it started to rain when Noah was 600 years old. Anyway, that is not the point of my story. The point is that mankind had morally and spiritually decayed and God offered salvation to all who would trust in Him, who would by faith be dependent upon Him and only Noah and his family had the faith to enter the door of the ark. Here we are today in the midst of the same kind of moral and spiritual decay. Although God did promise: “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." Genesis 9:11 it does not mean that man is not headed toward destruction. God does not have to destroy man with a flood; man is causing his own destruction. But God does offer man a way to be saved from this destruction, just as He offered a way to Noah. Jesus said: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Noah trusted God for 100 years and then entered into the ark through the door, won’t you trust God today and enter into eternal life through Jesus? |
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