HERE IN THE REAL WORLD

DYING TO LIVE

He had been sick for a few years and it seemed at times the cancer would go into remission and then just start back. The drugs to kill the cancer had played havoc with the body. The once full head of hair would go away and then after the drugs were finished it would grow back. The body that had been so full of life would be reduced to bouts of nausea: favorite meals became gags. The body that had been strong and healthy became a body of skin draped over the skeleton. The most menial of task became the most difficult of chores. The normal aches and pains associated with the aging process went unnoticed as the pain of the disease ravaged the body leaving everything else to be nothing but memories of life now gone. But, this pain would only be temporary as the departure into eternity soon came.

As Christians we understand the temporariness of our state of being in the physical body. Paul likened our physical earthly lives as being in a tent: “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live…” (2 Corinthians 5:1 NIV). And, we know that a tent is a temporary structure. We may go camping for a weekend and stay in a tent and as the weather gets rough, the tent leaks, the temperatures fall, and all the unpleasantries of that weekend start to wear us down we long to be at home. Our physical bodies are just like that camping tent. They are subject to every malady and sin that has been introduced into the world since Genesis 3. Yet, we know as Christians there is a better day ahead.

Paul went on to write, “we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1 KJV). Paul likened our physical bodies to a tent, but when he spoke of our heavenly bodies he used words like “building” and “house.” He spoke of permanent structures as opposed to the temporary “tent” he likened our physical bodies to. These tents we live in here will suffer. The will leak allowing all the poisons of this world to enter in. And, of course, sometimes we punch holes in our tents and allow for more discomfort. We burn holes in our tents with cigarettes; we allow all types of sin to eat holes through our temporary structure. Sometimes it’s the actions of others that tear holes in our temporary dwelling. The actions of Genesis 3 have allowed all types of structural damage to attack our tents.

But, as Christians we strive along knowing that there are better days ahead. We strive along knowing that, “mortality might be swallowed up of life” (2 Corinthians 5:4 KJV). We are dying here on earth that we may live eternally in Heaven. From birth to the end of earthly lives we are dying, some at more accelerated rates than others, yet, we know that at the end of this earthly race we begin eternity in Heaven. We know that we move from the temporary tent that we live in and move in to a house, a permanent structure, built eternal in Heaven. Unlike the unsaved, we don’t have to live to die; we can have a life in Christ and die to live.

Bobby Cohoon
28 May 2006
little_sorrel@yahoo.com

PIER PRESURE

Anyone living along the coast of North Carolina is no stranger to storms. We get Nor’easters, tropical storms, but, I guess the most feared is the hurricane. I have personally witnessed the wrath of these powerful storms. Waves washing well over the tops of piers are not out of the ordinary, with the piers usually standing firm against the pressure. Piers standing as breakers break so high that you would never guess that there was even a pier there. Sometimes though, piers that have been there for many years give in to the pressure of the storms. One of the hurricanes that most people remember is hurricane Floyd a few years back. It not only tore a path of destruction, it left its flood waters around for days in places that never suffer floods.

The flooding of Floyd brings to mind Noah and the flood. I am pretty sure Noah didn’t watch a pier go under, but he saw much death and destruction from the flood. And though he never saw a peer collapse from pressure, in the years leading up to the flood the Noah family probably faced a lot of peer pressure.

When Noah was 500 years old God saw that the world around him was filled with wickedness to the point that God was sorry He had created the world: And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). Genesis 6:6 tells us that God was sorry that he created the earth. I wonder what God must think when he looks at our world today? God looked over his creation and saw nothing but wickedness. Well, that is until he saw Noah. Genesis tells us that Noah was a just man. Noah was not corrupt and in sin and wickedness as the others were. That doesn’t mean that Noah was sinless. It tells as us that as opposed to the others of his time, Noah didn’t walk in the habitual sin as his contemporaries. Genesis 6:9 says that Noah was “perfect in his generations.” What does that mean? It means that among his peers, the family of Noah was “inline” with God. He was blameless. His peers could find no fault in him. We could also look at it as being a good father, one who had brought his family up with a fear of God. In any case, Noah stood blameless before God. While others of his time, his peers, walked in wickedness, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). So at the ripe young age of 500, God commissioned Noah to build an ark.

While the others of that time were busy walking in wickedness, Noah was busy working on a boat as commanded by God. Noah could have easily told God, “You know Lord, we could just as easily use this material instead of the Gopher Wood, or maybe it doesn’t have to be quite so long.” “Are you sure inside and the outside needs to be covered in pitch?” But, Noah handled it a bit differently. Genesis 6:22 says, “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.” While his friends kept on in their lives away from God, Noah continued to walk with God and to obey his commands. All of Noah’s family didn’t even walk with God. Genesis 7:7 tells us that only the immediate family of Noah made the trip: “Noah, with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives.” If you add up all the genealogies in Genesis you’ll see that the grandfather of Noah, Methuselah (the oldest person to have lived), died on the year of the flood. Could the grandfather of Noah have been a victim of the flood?

That hundred year’s wait had to have been full of pressure for Noah and his family. When people saw him building the boat they had to be curious: “What you doing there Noah?” “Well, I am building an ark; God is sending a big rain. It’s going to flood this place.” “Oh yeah, sure, right!”

What about the kids of Noah? Peer pressure amongst children can be pretty rough. “Hey Shem, what’s that big thing your dad is building out in the yard?” “Oh, it’s an ark.” “Oh, and ark, what’s that?” “Hey Japheth, you and Ham want to come smoke some, you don’t have to worry about that ark thing every minute of the day do you?” “Boy Shem, your dad is weird.” “You know Japheth, we could play some football but your dad has the whole yard taken up with that boat gizmo.” “HAHAHAHAHA, Say what Ham? You and your family are going to live on this thing with all the animals?” Imagine this going on for a hundred years! It did. And, when the doors were opened Shem, Ham, and Japheth had withstood the peer pressures around them and walked on board.

During this hundred years’ wait the image of Noah wasn’t the only righteousness the peple saw. The message was preached to them also. 1 Peter 3:18-19 tells us “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” The people back then had the powerful witness of Noah to watch, and they also HEARD the Word preached to them. Yet, when the dorrs were opened only eight souls were saved.

Those eight souls, the family of Noah, could have walked in disobedience as were the others in their day. They could have listened to the preached word and let it fall on deaf ears. It happens all the time now as well as then. They could have drowned in the flood along with their peers, but they didn’t.

That verse from 1 Peter tells us that the heard the word. Their actions, by building the ark and following God’s commands, tell us that they believed God’s word. They repented of the things they needed to repent from; though they walked with God, they couldn’t have been perfect. They found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Were they baptized? First Peter 3:20-21 says this: “….eight souls were saved by water. …..The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us…” Did they confess the Lord? Yes, by living for Him everyday. And, ten when the water had gone down Genesis 8:20 tells us “Noah builded an altar unto the LORD.”

Is today the day that you walk away from peer pressure and walk with God, that like Noah, you may find grace in the eyes of the Lord?