November 14, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth. His heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’ But Noah….“

(Genesis 6.6-8a)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

But Noah…. was the exception to the rule of God’s regret. Speaking yesterday of “if there was only one righteous man, would you save them all,” we must clearly understand how much God valued the work which He did. He had placed Himself in our DNA. He is forever with us. Imagine the sorrow, God must have felt as judgment literally swept over the world and parts of Himself suffered because of man’s sin. That sin chooses self before God. That sin chooses self over God. That sin chooses self instead of God. That sin wants to believe there is no God. Imagine choosing what truly makes you live to no longer be a part of you. Can you do it? Can you take yourself off of life support as if you could live without what keeps you alive? That is what the lie of sin desires to convince you to believe…that you can. Remember how God took the dust of the earth and shaped it into the “form” of the man? His model for that work was His own Son. God created us in His image. It was the finished product, however. God then breathed Himself, His Holy Spirit into what amounted to a cadaver and animated it into a living, breathing being. Adam was a puppet on a string who had a desire, like Pinocchio, to be a real person. Before God, Adam did not know who or what he was. He had no sense of person, place or thing. It was not until God came into his “life” that he began to grasp his reality. He did not know it instantaneously. He was learning. Without God he couldn’t truly learn or grasp himself of God. I believe it must have been very exciting to see all things. All things were new. Adam engaged his own version of “Begin the Beguine.” He was learning to dance to the rhythm of life in all its purity and wonder. I think we can all imagine in our minds the concept of such an experience. We cannot imagine the fullness of it anymore than we can grasp the fullness of Heaven. One day we will.

I think of the vision given to Ezekiel of the potter’s house. It was a vision of God’s effort for redemption. Ezekiel watches as the potter works the clay on the wheel with steady and intentional hands. He uses water to help keep the clay “alive” until the work is finished. Even so, in the corner of the room were flawed pots. While we dare not attempt to analyze all parts of a vision or a parable, it is clear that God had something in mind and wasn’t finished yet. He did not remake the fired pots to create another. He used the same clay as before and poured Himself more and more into finding the right shape, form and function of the clay for its true purpose. The point of the vision for me is that God never gives up until the work is truly done. In truth, there may be something to the thought that it would be the willingness of the clay to submit to the potter’s hand that might determine its future. It was not the failure of the potter which heaped up in the corner of the potter’s house. It was the failure of the clay. Back to the Garden of Eden. In all of Adam’s discoveries, there was the reality that something was missing. He noticed the difference between himself and the other living creatures. While we never hear Adam say it, he must have thought it loudly because God heard it. God, in a sense, regretted that He had made “man” as a solitary creature. Again, I would not dare read into the mind of God anything that He has not revealed. I ask myself the question, however, of why did God, in Genesis 2, only create Adam. God declared one day, “It is not good for man to be alone.” Of course, Adam wasn’t alone. He had God, Immanuel, with him 24/7. But, it was all about that state of “good” that was in question. It was the same, I believe, for the vision of the Potter’s House. It was about that sense of “good.”

For those who are new to these reflections, let me quickly present the biblical understanding of the word “good.” “Good” denotes the place where the intended purpose of a thing was coming into being. It was doing what it was intended to do as the creator God had knowingly and intentionally conceived it. Whenever you read that word in scripture, hold up that definition and recognition and you will see what is being truly said. When God declared, “It is not ‘good’ for man to be alone,” He was recognizing the longing for Adam to be truly fulfilled and fulfilling. It wasn’t that God wasn’t “good” enough. It was that the God in Him longed to be connected and functionally complete. It was a cry from the inside of Adam for his creation to do what it was meant to do. From that recognized reality by God, Eve came into being so that the two who were in one could become two as one. It was the creative expression for each of us in our spiritual lives. We yearn for that “good” in spirit and in truth. The truth was, in the days of Noah, that God couldn’t wipe out all of creation. Instead, creation had to be saved, redeemed, reconciled and renewed.

Mighty ones of God, this is part of the “good” of baptism by water. It also speaks then to the “good” of baptism by the Holy Spirit. It is about coming alive, being made new, being renewed so that the good in us becomes fully functional and accomplish the purpose for which it was conceived and brought to life. As you can tell there is more to reflect on and we shall do it in the days to come as we lead up to Thanksgiving and Advent. Until then, shalom, y’all.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.