​My husband Jake had been reading in his devotions about Noah’s Ark and something struck him.  He began to think about all the dynamics involved in building that Ark and housing all those animals in that small place for that length of time.  He asked me: “Did you ever think about how much wood Noah needed to build the Ark?  He probably had to pay for it somehow, or at least go and chop it down; I wonder how long it took to build? And after they were all on the Ark, animals included, do you realize just how much poop they had to shovel?”  I laughed and thought about it.  If you’ve ever owned a dog or pet, it’s kind of amazing just how much bodily waste they let go of.  And what about the food to feed all those animals?  This must have been a huge amount to feed them all for approximately the year spent on the Ark.  We had a golden retriever, and I was amazed at how much food she consumed.  I can’t even imagine what all those animals consumed every day, never mind for the year they were on the Ark.  

​As I thought about this, it struck me that God worked their salvation from destruction in a very supernatural, natural way.  He didn’t place Noah and his family in a supernatural bubble for the duration.  No.  He instructed them to build the Ark, fill it with food, fill it with animals, and get ready for a flood.  He in essence provided their salvation, but there were very specific natural things they had to do in order to survive and thrive.  It’s like he said: “Behold your salvation!  By the way…there will be plenty of poop to shovel.”  They had to build it, stock it, work it, keep the animals alive in it, and survive in it.  It reminded me of our lives.  God has provided salvation, but we too will need to shovel poop—the sometimes-unpleasant task of getting rid of sinful ways and habits, the by-product of dying to the flesh and growing up, spiritually.    
 
What would have happened, if Noah and his family went into the Ark to be saved, but never lifted a finger to do anything else?  Their environment would have become pretty repulsive.  No, there was plenty of work to be performed, and if they didn’t do it, they might have perished from disease, even though they had been saved from the flood.  Hm.  The entire Ark would have been an open sewer.  Not a very healthy place to live even temporarily, that’s for sure.
 
We are very much like Noah and his family in many ways.  We too have been saved from destruction; but in the Ark of our salvation, how healthy is our spiritual environment?  What are we doing to dispose of sinful habits that have formed in our lives?  Do we let them hang around until our lifestyle gets really offensive to Jesus, or do we dispose immediately the sin that Jesus shows us, by repenting and asking for help to overcome next time, keeping our lives fragrant?

​Building our lives to float on flood waters, stocking our lives with spiritual provision—the meat of the Word of God so we can feed ourselves and others, working to keep on moving forward with where God needs us to go, and not only surviving our “floods”, but thriving in spite of them, will all take us through similarly what Noah had to go through in the natural.  We have at least one thing in common with Noah:  All he had to begin with, was a righteousness and faith in God.  We have one huge advantage, though.  God was with them, but better yet than that, He is now in us, equipping and helping us get rid of the sin that pollutes our lives by the indwelling Holy Spirit. 
 
Just as God got Noah and his family through, He will also work in very supernatural, natural ways in our lives.  People often expect God to miraculously intervene and deliver them from a sinful habit without them lifting a finger to do what obviously needs to be done, and although he does do that, God more often than not leaves us in our Ark until things get really smelly to motivate us to do something about it.  It’s amazing how God will supernaturally help us, if we’ll just try.  We all know the areas of our lives that do not please God, and we all have them.  The question is, what are we doing about them? Are you done with a sinful habit?  Then get rid of it!  Make a careful, thought-through quality decision.  God will back you up. Noah got a free ride, but he wasn’t on a Cruise Ship, but an Ark.  Surrendering all your struggles to Him, and keeping them surrendered, is a key.  Once you’ve made that decision, don’t back down. There will be work for us our whole lives, in keeping our spiritual environment clean and healthy.  We’ve all been saved from death, Hallelujah.  But the quality of your journey, is largely up to you.  Remember too, that a whole new world awaited them after it was over…

We are in a new year, praise the Lord. A little over a year ago we lost our dear son-in-law to cancer. The Lord impacted me today with a blog that may help some of you going through a loss. I pray it blesses you.

We all face difficult circumstances throughout life.  Sometimes, extremely difficult circumstances, such as losing a loved one through illness. If we believe in Jesus Christ however, we can count on Him to be directly involved and because we’ve invited Him in to the situation and have put our faith in Him, our outcome could and often does become fulfilled as we’d hoped. 

But what will we do if it doesn’t? 

​In the natural, I will receive a good outcome or I won’t. Knowing the worst can happen is our default so we are already sensing fear. In other words, I can live expecting the worst, or live believing God will come through. The problem is that believing God can be tough. It’s far easier to fear, than to have faith.

​I used to say that having faith in believing God for the best outcome costs us nothing because one of two things are going to happen:  I will receive a yes, or a no, from Him. I’m already naturally disposed to no, so if my faith has bearing on the situation why not go with yes?  It doesn’t cost me anything to believe, right? The things is, I was completely wrong. Having faith in believing God for the best outcome does not cost us nothing. It costs us everything. Hook, line and sinker. Getting out of the boat and walking on water towards Jesus so far that you can’t even see the boat anymore. Knowing that if He doesn’t save you, you will drown.  I hate to say it, but this is where Jesus needs us to be. However, God does, and always will have, a bigger plan for us despite the thing we’ve lost.

The hardest part of having faith is not necessarily staying steadfast in the belief that God will give you what you are earnestly believing him for; the hardest part of having faith is believing that God will deliver you, even if you lose the thing you were believing God for.
​
Despite many people praying and doing all we knew to believe God for a miracle, we still lost our dearly loved son-in-law Jeff to cancer a year ago. Today God once again reminded me of where I need to be.  I need to be in the same place Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were when being faced with the very real possibility of being burned to death. They found themselves in a pagan land. They found themselves with two choices: Compromise their faith and bow down to a golden idol and be saved, or refuse to bow down and be burned alive. I know what I’d be thinking: I’d wonder if God would forgive me later for bowing down this one time to literally save my skin, but whether or not they thought that, they didn’t do that. Here is what they said:

“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

They said that God could do it. God will do it. But if God doesn’t do it, we’re done. But you can’t take our faith, full stop, period. Even if that event had ended with them being burned alive with Nebuchadnezzar being the apparent winner, he wasn’t. God would have had a bigger plan, despite them being burned alive. As we know, God sent an Angel into that fire with them and with his physical eyes Nebuchadnezzar said “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

​And so, in looking back at our families’ tragic loss, albeit a year later, I have chosen to continue to believe the same way they did despite our outcome, God help me. It would have looked something like this:

“If Jeff continues to become more ill, the God I serve is able to save him from cancer, and He will rescue Jeff from cancer. But even if He does not, I want you to know, Satan, that I will not serve you through unbelief or say that you won. It’s not over yet, not by a long shot. You cannot have my faith, full stop, period!”

We too have gone through the fire, and perhaps you too are now going through your fire. Despite that, God does, and always will have, a bigger plan for us despite the thing we’ve lost. Even if it costs you everything, just continue believing.

For an incredibly uplifting song which reflects this message, listen to Even If, by MercyMe
​(Thank you Edie!)