Following another Tuesday evening delving into the book of Genesis with Chris and Philip, and working through Chapter 6, the story of God calling Noah to build an ark brought to my attention one constant comment I find repeated in these first 6 chapters of the Bible.
There are four people who are identified to have had the pleasure to "walk with God".
The first two of these would be Adam and Eve, naked and unashamed, not only in front of each other, but in front of God, as they had the habit of walking in the evening with their Creator before the Fall .
The third is Enoch, who we are told walked with God and then was not, for God took him.
The fourth is Noah, of whom it is said that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and that he walked with God.
As I have tried these past almost 5 months to daily walk with God, following Jesus and striving to take every thought captive to the mind of Christ, and asking that I might have the eyes of Christ, seeing those brought to my path as He would, and have the ears of Christ, to hear our Father's voice clearly, as well as the voices and sounds of those brought to my daily path, the feet of Christ to go wherever He was led by our Father, I have had some good minutes, moments, but far fewer than in retrospect I wish I did.
I have chosen to sit, sleep, relax, entertain myself, eat myself into a catfish coma, but to say that I have walked with God daily for more than moments at a time, or that I have pursued Him with a vengeance, or lived each day as if it were my last, or the last of those brought to my path, seeking to save those who are lost and dying, would be many things, but alas, not the truth.
I walked away from my job as the air export manager this spring, waking up on 01April, a Friday morning, to begin a journey in which I have as one of my daily pursuits to walk with God, seeking Him with my whole heart, and asking Him to draw me close to Him, and that I would obey quickly what His asks of me. What I have found is that, at least for this 52 year old, once again, even though I am rarely the follower of Jesus I tell my Father I am going to be, He is always there every time I turn back to him, waiting to see me through, He don't ask why it took so long, He just says welcome back my little one, every time I turn.
My family and I recently watched the movie 'UP' again, and more often I am like Dug, easily distracted from the task at hand, and immediately at the sighting of a 4 legged bushy tailed rodent, the good intentions of the waking moments of the day are turned to distraction as opposed to both hands on the plow, yoked to Jesus, who still calls me daily, all that are burdened and heavy laden, come to the Man of No Reputation, who offers rest and abundant life, if you will only come and follow, walking with Him wherever the path may lead.
Only Enoch was to have a life with no regrets it seems, it must be good to be Enoch, taken without tasting death on this earth to walk with his Lord always. Adam and Eve must have walked with the Lord following getting chased from the Garden of Eden, as their child Abel knew how to bring a lamb to God, offering shed blood to atone for his sin. Don't you know that was a lesson to never forget, having mom and dad show you the skins that were provided by their Creator after their own weak efforts to hide death and sin with works of their own hands? I bet those aprons of leaves were also at hand, as a reminder, also never forgotten, that even though their walk with God would never be the same as before, with death now daily present in their dying bodies? Where grace was not needed originally, being naked and unashamed and pure and perfect as made, now thanksgiving and praise and worship were offered at the direction of their Lord. God in His grace had supplied a covering for their shame and shown the proper way to come to Him through the blood of a lamb.
Today, no current praise or worship song moves me like The Revelation Song, based on descriptions found in the last book of the Bible, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, about the scene revealed to John the Revelator taking place in Heaven, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is and is to come. With all creation I sing, praise to the King of Kings, He is my everything, and I will adore Him. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, holy, holy is He, sing a new song, to Him who sits on Heavens mercy seat.
Day by day, I get up, and thank God for another chance to choose to walk with Him, following the example given by His Son, who moment by moment, also chose to walk with Him, day by day, forsaking the world to seek and save those that are lost.
That is our call as the body of Christ today, to walk like Jesus walked, in obedience to His Father's call and direction. Jesus died and rose again so that we may have life and life abundant, walking as He did, with our Father. When we follow this call, we identify with those who walked before us with their Creator and Lord, whether Adam or Eve or Enoch or Noah. And one day, just as Enoch was found to be not on this earth, for God took him, we are told that in the twinkling of an eye, we will meet Jesus in the sky, to be forever in His presence.
Let us encourage each other and share the true truth given us and revealed through Holy Scripture, that mankind is sinful totally, but thank God that Jesus saves and makes old things new, and desires a personal walk daily moment by moment with us. We are declared His workmanship, created for good works that are already established for us to walk in, and are called to be salt and light in a dark and dying world, this is our hope, built on nothing less than the finished work of Jesus Christ and the blood He shed on the cross, covering our death and sin, just as in a garden thousands of years ago, when a real Adam and real Eve were shown their Father loved them just where they were, and loved them too much to leave them there, but supplied a lamb, declaring for all to see, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, holy, holy is He!
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