Answers About The Genesis Flood. Lessons from the NASCAR "Spotter". Update.

For “Scripture Sunday”:

Questions and Answers About the Genesis Flood

“The Genesis Flood is one of the most fascinating accounts in the Bible and also one of the most challenged. This blog post looks at some common questions that are asked about the Bible’s account of a global flood.

Noah’s Flood, as it’s commonly called, is one of the best known stories in the Old Testament. Yet in modern times many question the validity and historicity of Noah and the Flood. Is the Genesis account of the Flood an outlandish myth that could not have really happened?

Let’s look at some of the common questions asked about the Genesis Flood.

Question 1: Was the Flood really a global flood?

The Bible uses very descriptive terminology to describe the magnitude of the Flood. “The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered” (Genesis 7:18-19, emphasis added throughout).

Notice the phrase “all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered.” This literally means that the highest peaks around the earth were completely submerged. Remember that water seeks its own level. The only way for the highest mountains to be completely submerged would be a global flood.

In verse 20, we read this added detail: “The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.” Though we don’t know how tall the mountains stood in Noah’s time, the Bible is clear that they were completely covered by water.

Question 2: Is there evidence of the Flood outside of the Bible?

According to the book of Genesis, humanity was reestablished from a single place (the mountains of Ararat in modern Turkey). Genesis 10 describes the repopulation of the earth from that area by the offspring of Noah’s three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Since the post-Flood civilizations sprang from this common source, then you would expect that stories of the Flood would spread with them. The farther they got in time and distance from Noah, the more we would expect the details to morph and change. This is exactly what happened! Stories about a flood that destroyed mankind are found in many civilizations, from the Sumerians to Native Americans.

Since the post-Flood civilizations sprang from this common source, then you would expect that stories of the Flood would spread with them.Many doubt the accuracy of this story because of geologic dating methods. This topic is complicated and beyond the scope of this blog post, but I recommend you read the article “Geologic Dating Methods: Are They Always Accurate?” In short, modern scientific dating methods have often been shown to be incorrect.

Consider this: A high percentage of the rocks near the earth’s surface are sedimentary, which means they were formed through the solidification of sediment, usually deposited by water. This is exactly what we would expect if the earth was covered by water for a period of time. During and after the Flood, there would have been a massive movement of water, causing erosion and sedimentary rocks. In fact, many sedimentary rocks include fossils in them, which we would expect from a rapid burial in sediment due to a sudden flood.

Question 3: How did Noah get all those animals on the ark?

Skeptics have claimed it would have been impossible to fit all species of animals found on earth today inside the ark. But there are some things to consider.

Remember that Genesis says God created different “kinds” of animals (Genesis 1:11-12). Many of those “kinds” of animals have become varied as they reproduced and adapted to the different climates of the earth. But not all of today’s thousands of different species would have had to have been placed on the ark.

For example, there are many species of cats today, but it seems only one pair of cats would have had to have been saved on the ark. The variety of cats we have today would have descended from this one pair. To learn more about the animals taken on the ark, read “Clean and Unclean Animals on the Ark.”

Feeding this large group of animals would have been a challenge, but not impossible. Today there are many examples of animals that hibernate in the winter. Remember, the Flood was a supernatural event brought about by God Himself because of mankind’s evil. God could have caused many of the animals to simply hibernate through the Flood, which would mean they wouldn’t have needed to be fed every day. Many dangerous animals (such as snakes and bears) hibernate, which would also have kept those on the ark safer.

But regardless of the exact number or whether or not some went into hibernation, note this important point: The ark that Noah built was huge!

Feeding this large group of animals would have been a challenge, but not impossible.In Genesis 6:15 God gave specific instructions for the dimensions of the ark (in cubits). Most scholars believe the ancient cubit was roughly equivalent to 18 inches. That would make the general dimensions of the ark 450 feet in length, 75 feet in width and 45 feet in height. It also had three decks. There was a lot of space for the animals, and God could have also brought younger animals to the ark, thus taking up less space.

God was very strategic in His instructions to build this huge barge, so it’s probable that the selection of the animals to fit within the ark was just as strategic!

Question 4: How did Noah gather all the animals of the world?

Continued at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/god/blog/questions-and-answers-about-the-genesis-flood/?

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Lessons from the NASCAR "Spotter"

“Daytona 500 recently kicked off the season. What can be learned from the crucial role of the spotter?

Transcript of YouTube: https://youtu.be/kq6lgY9qOlA

[Steve Myers] “The NASCAR season has begun. Daytona 500 recently happened. And now, we are off and running. In fact, it is interesting, when you look at NASCAR and the millions of people that love NASCAR. There are some intricate things about the races that occur that really have drawn my attention into the idea of racing. And one of those things is not just this crew that works on the cars during the race. There is an important member of the crew that isn’t in the pit with them. It’s known as the spotter.

The NASCAR spotter actually overlooks the race. And what they do is they watch for challenges, difficulties, maybe a little smoke coming out of that engine, maybe the tires that might be having problems. They stay in constant communication with the crew in order to help that driver do the very best that he can in order to finish that race in pole position, number one.

And so this spotter is so critical to the success of the racer. And if you begin to think about that in a spiritual sense, we have a spiritual spotter who wants us to do the best in this spiritual race that we’ve been called to. In Psalm 121, it speaks to this idea of God being our spotter. It says, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help.”

You know, God is looking down on our life and He wants to help us. He wants to stay in touch with us and communicate with us. The question is, will we listen to His direction, His guidance, like the NASCARs listen to their spotters?

He goes on in Psalm 121, “The Lord is your keeper,” verse 5, “The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun won’t strike you by day, nor the moon by night.”  Because we’ve got a God who cares about us, who loves us and wants the very, very best for us.

And so like the spotter in that race, we have God’s direction. We have His guidance. But, of course, we’ve got to listen to Him. We’ve got to stay in constant communication with Him.

Psalm 121 ends like this, “The Lord shall preserve your going in and your coming out.” And so as we look at Him like that race, like that spotter, our loving God cares for us. And so let’s make every commitment in our lives to listen to Him, to stay close to Him, to watch for His guidance in our life.

And like that spotter in the NASCAR races, our spiritual spotter will lead us and will guide us as we submit our lives to Him.”

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Update.

The really cold weather (to us Texans) has surely put a damper on any outside activities.  I had acquired some 24” tall metal garden border fencing, so Zack and I tried to stick it in the ground outside my hedge so that people couldn’t walk into my back yard from the main road behind me.  I will be so glad when the subdivision replaces the fence.  Even wearing two pairs of gloves, it was so cold that we had to quit.  He did get the mower going and mowed my straggly front yard, but then he had to quit that, too.  Everyone around me seems to have come down with a cold, except me. 

My computer keeps on acting up and shutting down suddenly, so I keep on losing my work. Google Photos and also Google Drive are leaving us, so I have been in a panic about getting my pictures into a cloud so that I can access them from anywhere before this computer breaks down.   One of the used flat screen TV’s that I just bought suddenly got that “Black Screen of Death”, so  I am very vary of all this new trechnology now. 

I thought My Picture were going into Google drive, but they weren’t.  I tried putting them on an external drive, but my old, sick computer wouldn’t recognize it nor a flash drive.  I was so upset that I spent most of my time this week trying how to figure out how not to lose all My Pictures as I have several hundreds of photos of the things I have for sale listed in there.  I had to find a way to get to My Pictures from my laptop.  Finally, I got them in DropBox, so I hope that I can access them now.  

I made Cincinnati Chili for the Sabbath potluck.  It has lots of seasoning in it, including chocolate, and is served over spaghetti pasta.  Now that was a hit!  Other dishes were BBQ and lasagne.  All beef dishes this week!

The Bible verses were Exo. 1-2:22, Isa. 27:6-13, Heb. 11:23 and all of Mat. 9.  It was the pastor’s turn to give the Teaching and it was more on “The Messiah, Our Advocate” , this time on Righteousness. It was a warmer day, so now they were running the air conditioning in the church.  Back to wearing a coat for me!

 The weather is finally decent for several days.