Why Have I Never Heard This Before?

Genesis 8:21-22

21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse[a] the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”


I read these verses this morning and it answered a long standing question. Why has God not struck us down AGAIN like he did by the flood? I mean I know he had promised not to destroy the world by flood. But I did not realize he had promised not to destroy the world again, period. I know God has plans for us. I know God is at work and there's a second coming etc. which rules out first being another destruction but for some reason I didn't connect the dots. In my mind there has always been a chance God would wipe us out by fire or plague or something, BUT HE PROMISED not to "strike us down". This is big to me because it accounts for a lot of tolerance and patience on Gods part. I don't know about you but for me, wrapping my mind around Gods character means asking, "what would I do in this situation if I were God?" Obviously this has a lot of room for error in the answer to the question but that being said my answer has, a lot of times, been "wipe 'em out". Never-mind patience! That has to run out sometime. Never-mind tolerance! You can not be tolerant of absolute evil. But if you say you're going to do something or not going to do something (and if you are God) you stick by that promise. What a relief.


I believe a lot of peoples unbelief in God is due to not reading the Bible and understanding it. I clear up a lot of issues I have with God through reading it and through real simple straight forward statements in the Bible that either I never read or never noticed.

Chew on This

2nd Peter- the whole letter. It's not long. Read it. It will set fire to your soul so as to refine it like precious silver. If you believe in Jesus, and I do; if you believe he has once rescued you from the pit you dug for yourself, and I know he did this for me; then pay close attention to 2nd Peter 2:20. Then the reference to Prov. 26:11.

And if you are wondering what this has to do with art, chickens, or homesteading remember, none of this matters if you lose your own soul.

God holstered His pistol, but why?

“You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.”- Psalm 86:5

There might not be any greater truth in all the world.

"Vices Like Toys" by chad brownThe path of men is wrought with destruction. Their paths are covered in ruin and blood. I could give you lots of personal examples but I'm not too excited about sharing my sins on the world wide web. trust me I am no good. God has had plenty of reason to pop a cap in me. I have more than once given God the proverbial slap in the face. Yet he continues to bless me.

Now you might say its coincedense. But I don't believe so. because of two reasons. 1) I have made a regular cycle of trusting and obeying God and then walking away from him to pursue my own selfish desires. Guess when I feel the most miserable. Yep when I am away from God. And when I return he is always faithfulto take me back. I guess he rejoices like the Father of the prodigal son story because it feels as though there is a party in my honor when I return. I can't believe that is just coincedense. 2)there have been a couple of real experiences with God in my life that are un shakable to me. times when I have called on him and he has responded, leaving little doubt it was Him who answered me.

Call on Him. And feel the love that abounds.

chad