I got hacked.  It took over five hours to clean it up and I don't even know right now if it's okay.   Tomorrow I will take my Mac to the Apple store and make sure.  If they keep it, I won't be posting for a couple of days.

The fourth chapter of Genesis ends with Cain being expelled.  Chapter 5 lists the genealogy of Adam from Seth to Noah.  Chapter 6 is the account of God's anger at how wicked the people had become.  "Now a population explosion took place on the earth... God said, My Spirit must not forever be disgraced in man, wholly evil as he is.  I will give him 120 years to mend his ways."

Noah was a righteous man the Bible tells us--living among an evil people. Left to their own devices, most people deny God and embrace sin.   I can't imagine how difficult that must have been for Noah.  It feels like I am living in a wicked America--but I have Christian friends and a church full of good people.  I am not alone in my devotion to God.  Noah was.

The people didn't repent, so Noah built a floating thing called an ark.  And once again the world was going to get wet.  There is some indication that it hadn't rained before that; a mist went up to water the earth. Gen. 2:5-6

Noah must have been ridiculed, taunted, scorned, laughed at and called names.  But he kept building the boat on dry land, in a place where there was no water.  Year after year he was taunted by the people.  Year after year he kept on doing what God had told him to do.

And that is what you and I are called to do.  Keep on keeping on.  Doing what is right in the face of ridicule, opposition, and taunts for believing the Bible.  We are different.  We are following God's precepts.  We are trying to become better and better by obeying God's standards.  We are not perfect, but we are depending on God's Spirit to correct and guide us in the right direction.

I hope we don't end up on a big boat in troubled waters.  I hope those who live in wickedness mend their ways.  I don't want them to drown.  I just want everybody to accept Christ before it is too late.  I don't think God is going to give us 120 years to mend our ways.