Monday Morning Encouragement -- As Noah Walked, and a Giveaway

 

"Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God."

Genesis 6:9

In the midst of a decaying culture so violent God had determined to destroy it with a great flood, one man stood out. A godly man. A man who didn't follow the crowd. A man who walked through his life with God. His name was Noah. 

Imagine the pressure society placed on Noah to conform. He was probably labeled a Religious Nut, Holier Than Thou Believer by his neighbors. Perhaps he was called ignorant by the enlightened thinkers of his day. Or maybe the community just considered him a zealot to be avoided. 

No matter how Noah was treated by others, he didn't cave in to popular opinion. He was a man of faith and obedience. He took God at His word and did all God told him to do, and his faith and obedience were rewarded. God spared Noah and his family in the ark Noah built. 

Lest we think Noah's life and story have no bearing on us today, consider Jesus' words in Matthew 24: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be." Jesus is speaking of His second coming. We don't know when this will occur, but it could be in our lifetime. 

May we never walk like those who "did not understand until the flood came and took them all away." Instead, may we walk as Noah walked: with God in faith and obedience.

Today's music video Find Us Faithful by Steve Greene is an oldie, but a goodie. The words of this song encourage and inspire me to walk faithfully with the Lord. I hope it will do the same for you.

And now for the giveaway. . .

The talents of Cheryl Smith are amazing. Not only is she a devoted wife and mother, she is also a gifted musician, songwriter, author, and who knows what else. Since 2011 she has blogged over at Homespun Devotions, where she shares snippets of her life along with wisdom from the Bible. I'm always blessed (and a little envious. . .in a good way!) by her ability to take the truths of God's word and succinctly apply them to life's challenges, often through the joy and sometimes pain of her own personal experiences. 

Out of her many blog posts she is compiling a series of books, the latest of which is Homespun Devotions Volume Two, a copy of which Cheryl sent to me for review.

From the moment I opened this book I was hooked. Cheryl's style of writing reminds me of sitting in my mother's farmhouse kitchen as a child, and listening to the conversations she had with her best friend Martha over coffee. Honest and real.

One of my favorite devotionals in this volume is Over My Mixing Bowl, where Cheryl tells the story of making a pumpkin cake for her mother's 84th birthday. As she measured the sugar for the batter, she thought of how "life is fleeting", and that just as one individual grain of sugar doesn't have much impact on the cake, so it is with the choices we make in life. We may not see the daily choices we make as significant in and of themselves, but when collected over time they combine to impact our lives, just as one grain of sugar collected with a whole cup impacts the cake. 

These words from Cheryl resonated with me:

"The older I get, the more I realize the importance of often stopping to take an honest look at myself on this life journey. I can't change the past, and there are no do-overs, but thank the dear Lord, He allows U-turns and gives opportunities to make adjustments when necessary. If we identify that our life's story is not how we would like it to be read, we can start writing it differently today."

As a woman who has had her share of U-turns, I appreciate that reminder.

One of the things I love most about this book is that it can be digested in small bites. By that I mean each devotion is just a few pages. For someone with a busy schedule such as mine, it's refreshing to be able to pick up the book between activities and glean the wisdom Cheryl shares.

Cheryl has graciously offered a copy of her book as a giveaway here at A Joyful Cottage. If you would like a chance to win your own copy of Homespun Devotions Volume Two,  just leave a comment saying you'd like to be entered in the giveaway. The giveaway will be open through July 17th, and a winner will be selected on July 18th. 

If you'd like to purchase a copy of Cheryl's book, you can find it on Amazon.

As always, I love you, I'm thinking of you, and I'm praying for you.