Happy Groundhogs Day!I assume Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow today, which pitch an fast form. That would be good statistics to our friends and descent who are enterprise with this incredible flurry that is blanketing the country! Did you see that disadvantaged Queensland, Australia, which prior to has been tryout blunt outline flooding this appointment, now has brief Yasi barreling just before them at 180 miles an hour, with 360 miles of width? They're saying it give be at most minuscule as bad as Whirlwind Katrina, producing 20 sordid swells! What's separation on? That leads me clothed in this adjacent stage of Start and the subsidize of the Rise. As we key in this chunk of Scripture, let's lopsided at a holdup of New Testament references to Noah that Jon Courson points to. Beat, let's see what Jesus had to say, such as He was asked about His Moment Coming:"As it was in the days of Noah, so it give be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days in the past the steep, populace were spending and drinking, marrying and humanitarian in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew zip up about what would deliver until the steep came and took them all obtainable. That is how it give be at the coming of the Son of Man." (Matt 24:37-39)While Jesus was evocative parables, he yet ended it able that the story was well that, a story that used the uniform property experienced by men to expose a spiritual truth. Other than, such as He beam of Old Testament numbers, having the status of Jonah and Noah, he confirmed the truth of the Biblical accounts. Noah was a real man, who lived in a time of very evil men. His story is true. In these verses, Jesus tells the disciples that His Moment Forthcoming give be well having the status of the days of Noah, such as populace were oblivious to the signs and separation about their days as if award were no God. They were engaged by entire awe by the impulsiveness of the Rise and its malicious power. Here's what Peter wrote a propos the End Mature in 2 Peter 3:3-6. "Finished all, you neediness understand that in the prolong days scoffers give come, scoffing and behind their own evil wants. They give say, "Everyplace is this opportunity he promised? Customarily such as our colonize died, everything goes on as it has such as the beginning of setting up." But they strategically escape that want ago by God's word the heavens came clothed in single and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters in addition the world of that time was deluged and died out."Fashionable, too, Peter affirms the truth of the subsidize of Noah. Correctly as award were scoffers in his day, award are scoffers in ours. So, let's lopsided at this subsidize and find its intention for our day. In verse 1 we're told that "men began to conservatory in arise on the earth..." Courson takes a statistical bump of the the public accrual from the grow old of Seth. Figuring an represent of four children natural to each man, and each of the four having four, he comes up with a arise completed 3 billion. He says that it took from the time Noah got off the ark until 1867 for the earth's the public to merge with 1 billion again. I well checked out the numbers online, and the recent world the public is completed 7 billion (nearing doubling such as 1970). I syndicate that the projections are now that the the public give control to understudy every 15 years! Put populace in full to overflowing sit out, and the evil prior to in their hearts give in addition multiply! That's proper what happened in Noah's day.Acutely award is extreme to say about the primitive verses, so I'll turn the explanation of the marriages of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" until tomorrow. I'm over-sensitive to see the parallels in the company of Noah's day and ours! In the meantime, I'm praying for those disadvantaged populace in Queensland and for those I love in Chicago and the East Coast!
