Should I stay or go? That is the question that the people of the world were faced with shortly after the Great Flood waters receded into our distant memories. We might like to believe that following the Great Flood life on earth was… better! After all God killed every living thing on the plant besides the creatures and folks who were on the ark with Noah. It wasn’t better. This is God’s commentary on mankind, every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. Remember the question: should I stay or go? Should I stay and do what I want to do? Or… should I go and do what my God wants me to do?
Before we look at their answer, let’s scrape the surface of evil in our day. Allow me to introduce you to Penny Cost. He is a queer Methodist minister from Bloomington, IL. HERE is an article about his ministry and HERE is his blog post complete with a 5 minute poem/message (warning-vulgar). His message that God is nothing, the Bible is nothing and religion is nothing sounds alot like the snake in the garden whispering to Eve, “You will NOT surely die!” He’s not the first of his kind, but his message, on this Pentecost Sunday, fits our theme perfectly. Instead of doing what God wants me to do, I’ll do what I want to do.
These verses are from Genesis 11. Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. So far so good! Everyone spoke the same language. Life must have been comfortable. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Whoah! That didn’t take long did it? Let’s make a name for ourselves. Let’s not be scattered. Should I stay or should I go? The answer for these folks is let’s stay!
We might offer the same answer to God when we do what we want to do, not what our God wants. Want to hear more? …including the source of 6,900 languages, Jesus answer to our question, and what the tallest building in the world looks like? Watch this week’s lesson taken from Genesis 11, should I stay or go?
Book(s): Genesis
Tag(s): Pride
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg