What Can We Learn From The Flood?

The Guest

Author Unknown

A few months before I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our small Tennessee town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome me into the world a few months later.

As I grew up, I never questioned his place in our family. Mom taught me to love the Word of God. Dad taught me to obey it. But the stranger was our storyteller. He could weave the most fascinating tales. Adventures, mysteries and comedies were daily conversations. He could hold our whole family spellbound for hours each evening.

He was like a friend to the whole family. He took Dad, Bill and me to our first major league baseball game. He was always encouraging us to see the movies, and he even made arrangements to introduce us to several movie stars. The stranger was an incessant talker. Dad didn’t seem to mind but sometimes Mom would quietly get up—while the rest of us were enthralled with one of his stories of faraway places—and go to her room and read her Bible and pray. I wonder now if she ever prayed that the stranger would leave. My Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions. But this stranger never felt an obligation to honor them.

Profanity was not allowed in our house—not from us, our friends, or adults. Our longtime visitor, however, used occasional four-letter words that burned my ears and made Dad squirm. To my knowledge, the stranger was never confronted. Dad didn’t permit alcohol in his home. But the stranger enlightened us to other ways of life. He often offered us beer and other alcoholic beverages. He made cigarettes look tasty, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished.

He talked freely about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing. I know now that my early concepts of the man/woman relationship were influenced by the stranger.

I believe it was only by the grace of God the stranger did not influence us even more. Time after time he opposed my parents’ values. Yet he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave. More than thirty years have passed since the stranger moved in with the young family on Morningside Drive.

But if I were to walk into my parents’ home today, I would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. His name? We always called him TV.

Teaching Our Kids about life through Noah and the Ark

Genesis 6

A. Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built

the ark.

We plan ahead in so many other areas-

Christmas shopping in July

Retirement accounts

Day timers and calendars

Are we planning ahead spiritually?

B. Stay fit. You never know when someone might ask

you to do something really big.

Today’s young people are the most obese

generation of young people. They spend far too

many hours sitting in front of a television or a

computer.

We need to be physically fit as well as

spiritually.

“for physical training is of some value….but

spiritual training…”

C. Don’t listen to critics- do what has to be done.

Live not to please the crowd or even parents…but

only to please Jesus.

D. Build on high ground.

Higher standards for them. You get what you

expect from them.

If we expect great things from our kids, we will

get great things.

The parable of the wise builder and the foolish

builder make this clear.

E. For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.

The most important relationship in life is with

Jesus Christ.

We shouldn’t go anywhere without him.

Friendships are important too. We must stick

close with other Christians.

F. Don’t forget, we’re all in the same boat.

Do people see the church today as a unified body

of Christ?

Do they see church as a place where everyone

fights?

Or do they look at all the different

Denominations and shake their head?

Instead of focusing on our differences and

pointing fingers at one another, perhaps we need

to spend more time in His Word discovering the

truth, and more time loving one another because

of the one person we have in common, Jesus Christ.

G. Remember the ark was built by amateurs and the

Titanic was built by professionals.

When our kids go off to college they will face

the belief that we are smart enough and talented

enough we don’t need God.

They need to see the power of God in our lives.

If young people don’t see our faith lived out in

our lives, they won’t accept it as real.

H. Don’t miss the boat.