The Door

This past week the 86th annual National Spelling Bee was held. The winner was Arvind Mahankali, a 13 year old from the state of New York. Twice in previous years he lost to words derived from the German language. Twice this year he overcame German derived words to become the champion of this year's spelling bee. The last word was "knaidel." I'm sure that most of us in Occidental would not know that it is a word used for a small mass of leavened dough. OK, maybe the Blanz's know. The participants study hard in order to know all the variations of words from multiple languages that somehow blend together into words on the spelling list. Leavened dough is used daily, sometimes multiple times each day to make our bread. In the Bible, leaven became associated with sin. Just a little bit of leaven affects the whole batch of dough. So it is with our lives that just a little bit of sin affects our entire life. To rid the dough of leaven is impossible. Once infected, it does it job. The evidence that sin has infected the human race is all around us. From fragmented lives and broken relationships to greed that often results in war and killing. Sin is all around us. In the time of Noah, God said that he was grieved that He had made mankind, for every inkling of their heart and mind was intent on evil. God did judge the human race then and wiped all but one family off the face of the earth. Noah found favor in God's sight. God promised to never destroy the earth by flood again. Jesus said that in the end times it would be like as in the days of Noah. It seems that every inkling of man's heart is full of sin again. It is in the last days that God will judge man again for his sin. The question then is how to survive God's judgment. Noah survived because he found favor with God. The Bible says that he was a righteous man. He did that which was right before God and his fellow man. The only way to please God is through faith in God. So we can conclude that faith plus doing that which is right is the key to surviving God's judgment. Noah expressed his faith by doing what God said to do. So he built an ark according to the specifications God gave. He installed one door on the side to enter in. When God said load up, he did so, along with all the animals that God brought to the ark. After everyone was in, God closed the door. Only those who went through the door were saved. For us today, Jesus is the door. Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." We enter the door through faith in God's provision for sin expressed by the sacrifice of His son on the cross. As with Noah, there is only one door. As with Noah, there is only one way to find God's favor, and that is through faith expressed in our actions. So many today say they believe in God and are Christians, but that is the extent of their profession. But if a person does not ever act upon that "faith" is it really faith? Genuine faith in God will change hearts and transform minds and result in life transformation. God brings about change from the inside out. It is when we live out our faith that we discover the wonderful purpose and will of God for our lives and find God's favor. Jesus, the bread from heaven, offers Himself to us, that we may take, eat and live. May we who profess Christ with our mouths also profess it in how we live our lives. May we bring the bread of heaven to the hungry hearts of a lost world. Blessings, Pastor Pete