More than a carpenter

   Once in my youth, I was sitting in the waiting room of Fairfax Hospital in Virginia.  I do not remember who in my family was hurt and I do not remember exactly how old I was, but I remember seeing a blue “children’s” Bible with pictures on the table among other books and magazines.  I do not think I had ever opened a Bible.  I picked it up and started to browse through it.  There was a picture of Noah’s Ark which I started studying.  The rain had started to come down, and people outside of the giant wooden vessel were drowning.  I had a serious question: “Why would God drown people?”  I wondered if God was truly loving to do such a thing.  That was a question I harbored for many years, one that went unanswered.  I did not learn from Bible reading; I only read a little of the Old Testament in my youth, including a bit of reading of Genesis for a “literature” class assignment my senior year of high school.  I did not learn from anyone else; I was not around many Christians in my youth or when I was at Virginia Tech, and those who were friends rarely discussed the Bible or Christianity.
   Yet I did start reading the Bible after I gave my heart to Jesus in 1990 at the age of twenty-two.  Thus I soon learned the reason God flooded the earth: because people were committing much violence and sexual wrongdoing.  This is all explained in Genesis 6:1-13.  For example: “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.  God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways” (Genesis 6:11-12 NIV).
   God does not want anyone getting hurt.  Violence and wrongful sex always result in people getting hurt.  How could a loving God pour out wrath by flooding the earth and drowning people?  Because He was willing to cease the pain and despair that resulted from people getting hurt from wrongful violence and sexual sins.  People were hurting each other; such a horror goes against the will of God.
   One of the first five Christian books I read was a paperback I purchased at a thrift store entitled More Than A Carpenter.  The reason I bring up that special book in discussing the subject of God flooding the earth is because I had the privilege of hearing Josh McDowell give his testimony yesterday at a chapel service at Colorado Christian University.  The testimony of Josh McDowell involves violence and sexual abuse unfathomable for me.  As a child Josh lived a reality full of horror due to violence and sexual abuse.  In the midst of it all, his sister committed suicide and his one brother ran away.  He dealt with the tragedy by becoming a “fighter.”
   Tragedy was compounded until Josh believed in Jesus.  Then his story involves incredible redemption; Josh even told his dad, a man he at an earlier time wanted to kill, that he loved him.  Then Josh’s dad ended up believing in Jesus and being saved.  Josh’s story is a reminder Jesus offers forgiveness to everyone.  The Good News of Jesus Christ is there is redemption in Jesus.  Secondly, Jesus will sanctify His children.  There is change from the start and through-out the life in this world for the follower of Jesus.  And the result is goodness.
   The story of Noah’s Ark does not end with the destruction of mankind, rather eight people, and of course many animals, were physically saved.  Yet continuing history included continued wrong doings, thus people continued to hurt themselves and others.  Redemption remained a need for people and the core of that need of redemption was in the soul of every person.  People were not loving God.  People were not loving other people.  God calls for both.  To make true love possible for people, Jesus Christ came into the world, loving people, loving us to the extent of sacrificing Himself on a cross as the atonement for sins.
   Even those of us who have not committed such horrible sins like the people who hurt Josh McDowell still need forgiveness.  When I was in high school, peers considered me a square Eagle Scout, and I fit the description.  Yet even I in my heart was a sinner.  “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6 NIV).  Jesus Christ is who we people need; He is God.
   Jesus Christ died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone.  He was the atoning substitute for the consequences of sins.  If you believe in Jesus, you will be forgiven of your sins, and you will have everlasting life with Jesus in heaven forever, and you will be changed in this world, sanctified, to be a more loving person.
+ Thank You Jesus for loving us!!!!!
Hunter