Student Devotional Week 5: The Flood

Key Verse: Hebrews 11:7 (New International Version)

"By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith."

Noah was a righteous man living in a time when the entire world was evil, not only their actions but their very thoughts were evil. Noah was an old man when the Lord came to him to build the Ark, 500 years old to be exact and it took Noah 120 years to finish the Ark. Think about all of the ridicule that Noah must have bore all of those years building an Ark the size of a football field in the middle of all of the evil and wickedness going on around him. It would have been easy for Noah to say I can't do it, it is too hard and I am too old. Excuses don't get a whole lot accomplished, and Noah was faithful to build the Ark and to take his entire family and the animals with him on the Ark. The water came and wiped out every living creature on the earth at the time and God basically started over with Noah and his family and of course the creatures he had collected. God made a covenant or promise to never flood the earth again and sealed it with a sign, the rainbow, a visual reminder of God's promise to us. Maybe nothing a major as what happened to Noah has ever happened to you, but you may feel persecuted at school for your beliefs and people laugh at you for believing in God. Not only do we have a great example in Noah of perseverance through difficult times, but we have a savior that was persecuted and tested just like Noah and was found faithful. How about you, are you faithful to do as God has commanded you even in the midst of everyone else doing the wrong thing? The Hollywood version of the Flood set to modern times is "Evan Almighty." It is a good example of how evil and corruption exist in the world today, not just politics, but look around and you will see evil just about everywhere you look, but there are those Evans that no matter how hard they may try to run from what God is calling them to do, they can't deny God's call on their life to make a difference in the world. I pray you listen to God's call on your life to take a stand for what is right and just despite what others may say or do to you!

Student Devotional Week 4: Cain & Abel: Unacceptable Sacrifice

Key Verse: Genesis 4:7 (New International Version)

"If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

Do you have siblings? If so, you know that siblings fight over the dumbest stuff. I once got into an argument with my sister over the televison set, which broke out into an all out brawl that left our living room lamps broken on the floor. Now these were no ordinary lamps, these were first generation touch lamps that my parents bought to match the living room furniture. The good news was they still worked, the bad news was the touch mechanism did not. So you can imagine the punishment we received for not only fighting but for presenting broken lamps to my parents when they got home. I would imagine God's rejection of Cain's offering would have been like if my sister got praised for confessing the wrong doing and I got grounded. Cain was furious and like all siblings he blamed his brother Abel and took his anger out on him and killed him. Now, I don't think most of us would ever do such a thing, but I would assume we all have blamed others for our own shortcomings and laziness. It was Cain's fault that the offering was not accepted, because he had not given his very best. How about you, do you make excuses by blaming others for your faults? Maybe you need to ask forgiveness from someone you have unappropriately blamed.

Student Devotional Week 3: Adam & Eve's Deadly Decision

Key Verse:
"The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you." Romans 16:20

Last Sunday we discussed this passages from Genesis that talk about God as the creator of everything and from the beginning of John. Let's review them for a minute.

John 1:1-5, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

Now skip down to verses 10-14. "He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed His name, He gave the right to become children of God-- Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

What an amazing passage! Where did all this begin? Well, now we can turn to the other book that starts with "In the beginning..." Genesis 1.

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

This God of creation is the same Word of Creation spoken of in John. This is the same God that became flesh and dwelt with us. So this text could say In the beginning, Jesus created the heavens and the earth. So why did this almighty and powerful God become weak and powerless flesh? The answer is in Genesis 3. Here we have the story of the first human sin. The story of how Satan, using the guise of a serpent, tempted Eve, and she fell , then Adam fell and they blamed each other and they blamed the serpent. How does this story come to an end? God has to sort it out. In Genesis 3:14 and 15 we have the conclusion of this story and the beginning of the salvation saga. Here we find the first prophecy.

Genesis 3:14,15. "So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life."

"And I will put enmity.." I looked that up in the dictionary. Enmity: severe hatred. I will put severe hatred "between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel."

I like how Dr. Jack Blanco puts it in his Clear Word paraphrase that he has done. Genesis 3:14,15 Then God said to the serpent, because you were used as a tool of Satan, I cannot continue to let you be the most beautiful creature in the garden. You will now be lower than any of the animals and will crawl on the ground eating its dust. Also, I will place a hatred of sin in the heart of the woman and her descendants, and this hatred of sin will find its ultimate expression in One of her offspring. Satan, like a striking serpent, will try to kill Him, but as a man crushes the head of a poisonous snake with his bare heel to save his children knowing he will die, so the Savior will sacrifice His own life to save those who love Him, and He will utterly crush the serpent s head."

It's amazing grace. God's grace devised a means, way back in the beginning, whereby His banished children need not be expelled from Him but only from the garden. Adam and Eve were saved from the eternal consequences of their sin. Adam trusted in the promise of a coming Savior, the Seed of the woman. He was clothed in skins at the expense of an innocent victim a clear fore-view of Calvary. He confessed his faith by calling his wife's name Eve, which means Mother of all living , in the face of the death sentence recently pronounced.

Have you ever made a deadly decision? Maybe you haven't made a decision that has doomed all humanity, but we all like Adam and Eve has a choice to make to either cave-in and let temptations to sin win or put our foot down and take a stand against evil and against our human nature to sin against God. To sin is literal us telling God we know better and that our ways are better than his. Sin is a serious offense, but "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." I John 1:9

Student Devotional Week 2: "God, the Perfect Creator."

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:27

Have you ever wondered where it all began, life on earth as we know it didn't always exist, but God the creator of the Heavens and the earth has. There are many scientific theories used to explain how it all began, 2 of the most popular are "The Big Bang Theory" & "Evolution". The Big Bang Theory says that a explosion of molecules started it all and Evolution says that all life forms evolved from lower life forms. Both of these theories have left out an important detail, where did that single cell or life form come from? There has to be a creator that set this universe in motion, it is too complex to say it happened by accident. God knew what he was doing when he created you and I, we were not created by accident, in fact God was very pleased with his creation, especially man and woman. So what is our response to creation? Do you do your part in preserving God's creation, taking time to care for the world around us?