After visiting the Ark Encounter in Kentucky with some youth from Sandy Bay First Nation, I was mesmerized with thoughts concerning Noah and his family. What must it have been like to listen to the rain come down upon them for forty days and forty nights? They were safe in the Ark, but friends and distant relatives all would have perished as the raging waters covered everything on Planet Earth as they knew it.
The Bible, God’s Word, says that every living creature died. Every human that chose not to believe God and as a result, chose not to enter the door also perished (Genesis 6:17). What must it have been like as a torrential downpour that lasted over a month stopped, and they heard silence for the first time?
Certainly those days must have been doused with so many questions as they lived in the Ark. Noah and his family would also have had a silent assurance that God gave them through His Word, as they trusted and obeyed Him alone. God’s writing records that Noah did all that God commanded Him (Genesis 7:5).
If Noah and his family were going to be saved, they needed to enter the door to the Ark, as God instructed. The Ark was their only safety from a holy God who has every right to judge sinners. Noah wasn’t perfect, but His heart was for God’s Word, he was a friend of God. Today, Jesus Christ is our “Ark”. Do you agree that you are a friend of Jesus Christ? God says our sins have separated us from a holy God (Isaiah 59:2). The Lord Jesus said, “I am the Door, by me if any person enters in; they will be saved” (John 10:9). Jesus came to this earth for sinners.
We could choose not to believe what God says, as those who perished during the flood. Or we can choose to come to a loving God, who WANTS to forgive us and save us. The payment we must make for breaking God’s rules is death and separation from God, but Jesus Christ bore your judgment and mine in His own body at the cross because God thought of us, just as He remembered Noah (Second Corinthians 5:21; Romans 6:23).
What must it have been like, as Noah and His family exited the door of the Ark to begin a new life in a brand new world? A believer in Christ has an idea. When you put your faith in Christ as the door to God, as the only One who can make us right before God—you will see things in a new way! God’s Great Spirit comes to live in you, and everything really does become new! Never to be alone again and to always have a friend who sticks closer than a brother! Those who trust Christ alone are forgiven and they have a new quality of life with God all the way home to Heaven (John 10:28). God’s Holy Word says, “If any person is in Christ, they are a new creation and the old is passed away and the new has come” (SecondCorinthians 5:17).
Would you like to know the wonder of a new life and a new world, just as Noah and His family did as they stepped through the door? Would you like to know your past forgiven and know your future as being totally secure? Would you like to have your present life furnished with the power of God’s Great Spirit? (John 10:28; Galatians 2:20).
This new life is only possible by being born again (John 3:3). A physical birth requires a time and a place; an actual moment and so does the spiritual birth. It can’t happen through any means of our own strength or anyone else’s efforts. It happens by God’s power when we come to Him helpless, understanding we deserve judgment (John 1:12-13). If this is you, step through the door by trusting Jesus Christ as your Savior, and find a new life and a new world by walking God’s path!
Becky Kew shares Good News at Sandy Bay First Nation, Manitoba, Canada. BeckyKew@outlook.com
