In The Word

(HT:Reformed Geek)

THE DAY GOD CRIED, a STORY of NOAH

(And the Lord regretted that He had made man on Earth and His heart was saddened.)

What happens sometimes when we feel this sad? Does God cry? Perhaps he tried to contain his great sadness but, as person after person refused to listen, the tears kept building up inside more and more. But even though we had hurt Him so much, He wanted to save us and God just kept trying and trying until finally someone listened, Noah.

And what a thing God told Noah to do. Build a boat, the biggest boat in the world. In the middle of the desert build a huge boat.

No matter what he thought of the idea, Noah obeyed God. All his neighbors laughed at him and all that gopher wood and pitch sure cost a lot of money but Noah obeyed. We can picture him building the ark step by patient step as perhaps God even put pictures in his head to show him how do things just right. You see, God will tell us how do things right, if we listen to His Word.

(…Noah found favor with the Lord.)

Finally, Noah finished building; then he had an even harder job. You see, God loved the animals, too. He made them just before he made man. The animals had done nothing wrong because God hadn’t given them a sense of right and wrong. So Noah listened again and gathered up the animals in pairs, seven pairs of each clean kind and one pair of each unclean kind. And he had to hurry. G-d’s sadness was building and he could only give Noah a week for all that work. But Noah did as God asked and He promised Noah his whole family: himself, his wife, his three sons and their wives would all be safe in the ark with the animals.

And then God cried. His sorrow was so strong that He cried for forty days and forty nights. His sorrow was so deep that His tears covered the whole Earth, even the highest mountains.

This is a wonderful testamony to the power of God to change the heart of the lost.  One time high profile gay rights activist Michael Glatze renounces homosexuality.

Jeff de Ruyter from Worlds Apart shared this video today , published by the Dove self esteem fund. What a great perspective!

It got me thinking self esteem in our culture, and how, really there are two forms which often get mixed up.

“But everyone tells me I’m a great singer”
We have one type of self esteem movement which says “everything you do is good”. It’s encouragement beyond reality. We see this illustrated on American Idol all the time. That’s what makes it funny. We can’t believe these people are serious, and inevitably they are shocked when they hear the judges responses. Then comes the line…..“But everyone tells me I’m a great singer” And the camera cuts to shots of mom and dad outside of the audition room comforting their broken child saying “there there honey, I don’t care what they say you ARE a good singer”.

The point is that the encouragement given by the parents is misleading, and in my opinion is doing much more damage than good. I want my girls to find their gifts and develop them, but I’m shouldn’t coddle them and tell them things just to make them feel good. As a dad it’s my job to make sure they grow up with an accurate picture of the world and a sense of where they fit into that.

“Fool me once…”
The dove ad highlights the good type of self esteem. I think the key is that if we are distorting reality in order to build our children up we’re on the wrong path. That’s why I think this campaign ad is great. It brings our minds back to reality in a culture where we are constantly being lured into a fantasy land, constantly being fooled by billboards, TV, radio etc. about what is important in life.

John 17:15-17 (Listen)

15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (ESV)