Daffodils and Grace

O.T. #20  "Daffodils and Grace"
April 8, 2013
Genesis 6-Part 1
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.  Genesis 6:8 KJV

LET IT GLOW

I stopped the car in the field where the old house used to stand. Then I wade through the tall green grass. I know they are there, beautiful yellow daffodils, early spring flowers seen from my country dirt road. Aha, there they are. I bend down and pick a handful, sniff their sweet fragrance, then my mind wanders down memory lane.
Our neighbors, when I was growing up, lived there in an old brown stucco house, without running water or indoor plumbing. She was a Sunday School teacher in my junior department. He was a farmer that rode an old tractor that went putt-putt across the field in front of my house. Such sweet people, they were the age of my grandfather. Anyway, the house has since been torn down.
I take another sniff of the flowers she planted at least 60 some odd years ago. The fruit of her labors so long ago can still be enjoyed if one just looks beyond the tall grass.
And so a loving God bends down, picks me up out of my field of problems and sin, and shows beautiful grace to this heart full of sin, cleansing and making it a sweet fragrance of His love again.

Grace comes from a root meaning "to bend or stoop;" thus the condescending or unmerited favor of a superior person to an inferior one is implied. (Falwell)

Grace, meaning graciousness, kindness, favor, pleasant, precious, well favored. (Strong's Concordance)

This is the first occurrence of grace in Scriptures. Why was there a need for grace?

• Man had become so wicked. (verse 5)
• Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually; (verse 5) imagination is derived from the potter's verb formed, and implies a design or purpose;
• It repented  the LORD that He had made man on the earth (verse 6); repented  doesn't mean God made a mistake in His dealings with men, but rather indicates a change in divine direction resulting from the actions of man.
• It grieved God in His heart (verse 6);
• God planned to destroy men, animals, and fowl He created from the face of the earth.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

God would call out a remnant unto Himself. God showed His grace and favor upon Noah. Noah was chosen to be the person to be saved through the coming judgment. Noah had faith and believed  in the promise of God, in the coming Savior, to save him. As a result, Noah and his family were spared, saved, from the Flood.

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
Every person is saved just like Noah was: by the grace of God through faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ.  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Have you asked God for this grace?

LET IT GROW

Man became lawless as well as immoral in developing the first society. There were giants in those days (verse 4), which means fallers, apostates from true religion; falling on men with violence; strong and robust in body, and leaders of others. (William Wilson)
 They were strong, lawless, lustful, immoral, self-gratifiers. The children of Cain and Seth became living for and in the flesh, not for God. Who do we know that was behind all of this? None other than Satan himself. I'm not going to list such sins, but they can be found in Galatians 5 and 2 Timothy 3.

Mankind became so bad that God wanted to wipe him off the face of the earth. Now that is bad, huh?
And He did, except for the remnant of Noah.

Is our society heading down the same road? What with homosexuality, adultery, murders, break up of the family, all out in the open and unashamed, aren't we headed for judgment, too? Except for the grace of God go I.

Are we warning people?

LET IT GO

Repent of my sins and seek God's grace.

Have giant faith in Jesus, not a giant in sin.