I  had to rush when my flight was delayed as I now had very little time to catch a bus home. I saw the bus was at the stop but as I ran up to it - the door closed! I franticly waved through the window and to my great relief the driver opened the door. I flopped onto the seat happy to be on my way home.

  But we’ve all had the opposite experience to watch a bus, plane or boat pull away and realise - we’re just too late - we’ve missed it. Normally you can just wait for the next one to come along. But some things in life only come along once - or are for a limited time - when they’re gone, they’re gone.

   We sometimes wonder why God doesn't step in and stop all the evil in the world. We usually mean that God should deal with and stop the ‘bad’ people which in our minds doesn't include us. God does give people time to repent but the story of Noah in the Bible reminds us that God will judge evil but..

 God’s righteous judgement will be 

far more wide ranging than we think.

   At the time of Noah, the earth was filled with evil and violence - a situation that filled God’s heart with pain. So God in His justice and holiness decided that He must act in judgement and yet it was another one hundred  years before the flood came. It wasn’t total anarchy - most people were just getting on with their own lives, ‘eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage’ (Matthew 24:38), but without any reference to the LORD God who made them..

in His image and for His glory. 

  Jesus Christ reminds us that this is exactly how it will be just before He comes again to judge the world. And so He warns us  (in Matthew 24) to be ready for His second coming.

people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. 

Hebrews 9:27-28

God looked for those who were seeking Him and wanting to do what was right - He found only one man and his family. Yet Noah was not saved by his own goodness and efforts. The Bible says ‘Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD’ (Genesis 6:8). The Bible also tells us that ‘there is none righteous, no not one’ (Romans 3:10). So if we are to be saved from God's judgement it will only be through God's grace. Christians are told in the Bible that ‘it is by grace you have been saved through faith’ (Ephesians 2:8). Of course God wants us to seek Him and to do good, but He makes it clear that that is not what saves us. 

  We must simply..

Believe the Message

    And so the LORD God told Noah of His plan to bring the flood and that he should build a boat to save his family. Noah believed and obeyed and for the next hundred years he and his family were involved in this huge boat building project. It took faith for Noah to continue his task as those around laughed at and mocked Noah and refused to believe his message about the coming flood and the need for this boat which Noah was building on dry land.

  The people wouldn't believe that God’s judgement was coming and that there was..

only one place of safety..