That cray cray Noah.

My final "installment" will be my favorite bible story of all time, Noah's ark. 

So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.  Genesis 6:13

Can you take one minute and think about the craziness of that statement. God created the world. He created human beings. And here He is looking upon His creation and saying, that's not what I expected. Think about how terrible the world is right now and how badly God might want to destroy it and start over. BUT, He made a promise that He would NEVER destroy the earth again by flood. 

God gave Noah instructions on how to build the a boat. Even though the world had never seen a drop of rain, Noah believed that God was telling him to prepare for rain. 

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.  Genesis 6:22

There isn't a definite time frame in the bible. Bible studies estimate 55-75 years of building. 55-75 years Noah endured criticism. That's a lifetime of people laughing at him. That's a lifetime of people saying, "Look at this lunatic building this 'ark' in preparation for rain that will never come." Noah worked for 'retirement' in a boat on waters that the world had never experienced before. 

All the springs of the great deep burst forth and the flood gates of the heavens were opened. And the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.  Genesis 7:11-12

God's promise had arrived. 7:24 says that the waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. Here's Noah, sitting in the ark for a very long time with his family, animals, food, and waste. And he had pushed through to see the end of this crazy plan God had for his life. Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! He was alive. He had his family. And he was obedient.  

You know a lot of times when God tells us something crazy we tend to push away from the idea. We don't want to believe that we actually can achieve something of that nature. Sometimes we have to have confirmation from another source. There is so many limitations that we put on ourselves. God has bigger dreams for us then we do most of the time. Noah was being obedient WAY out of the box. Thank God for that. Sometimes we have to think OUTSIDE the box.