Encounter the Ark

Have you ever considered what thoughts were going through Noah and his family’s minds when they eventually stepped off the boat?

Imagine being in a weird family where your dad spent seventy-five years preaching to people who mockingly rejected his radical message while busily building a big ole’ boat in the middle of land-locked nowhere as a part-time family enterprise. Every time you look at that huge monstrosity, it seems it is an unavoidable sign of either your fringe cult foolishness or the ominous truth of the world’s demise. If you were Noah’s kids, your whole life has been boat-building for a storm that your dad, a mostly unsuccessful minister, has told you is coming… “because God said so.” Your daily life, for your whole life, has been surrounded by wheels-off human depravity and debauchery. The vile condition of your world is the worst it has ever been, in fact, it is of legendary status and will go down infamously in the dark story of humanity. They lived in a woke world before woke was cool. Yet, it is your, “new normal,” because you have known nothing else.

There are quite a few parallels to our status today. I am sure you can connect many of the glowing dots.

Then it rained. A storm like never before.

The Noah clan spent about twelve months living on the Ark. Their entire life for one whole year was inside the increasingly dubious environment of restless wild animals who filled the air with their stale aroma and hungry-sounding noises mingled with the anxious reality that the whole world was dying on the other side of the hull in wrathful, deserved punishment. To add a bit of fretful concern to the already difficult-to-navigate life conditions, no one said how long this cruise was scheduled for. Forty days to flatten the curve, maybe?

Stuck in a floating zoo with nothing but family and your own thoughts can make twelve months seem like an eternity. For some people, the scam-demic lockdowns were longer and harder than for others because they did not, nor do they now, know what we know, Beloved.

Then the ship comes to an abrupt stop.

What’s the plan now… where do we go from here… is this change going to be better or worse… where are all the other people… what is the purpose of my life now… will there be another worldwide calamity… do we stay here or go into the unknown? Ponder their thoughts as they emerged into a totally different world, their eyes seeing a completely different landscape, and their ears hearing the eerie silence of emptiness, a worldwide loneliness.

This is why we are surrounded by a directionless populous with listless purpose who can be easily molded by our broken culture into gender-confused, addiction-controlled, unspirited, syncretic, oppressed souls aimlessly wandering around pretending like they got this. Our culture is trying its best to fake it and the church ain’t much better. They will buy any lie because reacting in fear to the deception is better than the vacuum of hopelessly navigating their, “new normal.”

The Ark did not have a rudder. God was the pilot.

Society has had terrible leadership for quite some time, and just like Noah and his family had to make a faith leap, the remnant people are going to have to recognize we are in a completely different era, a whole different world.

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD.

Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who tend My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the LORD.

Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock from all the lands to which I have banished them, and I will return them to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or dismayed, nor will any go missing, declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:1-4 BSB

The American government is corrupt… possibly beyond repair at this point. I do not know what it will take to clean house in DC, but it will be akin to a tsunamic flood. The church has also been corrupted by the modernized, progressive influence of a human populous who would rather eat, drink, and be merry outside the boat (church) than listen to the preachers of righteousness. They would rather have the shepherds who just say, “You do you.” The politicians are evil but can find mercy because of their incomprehensible ignorance. But the ministers of today are under a much different level of divine accountability.

The church was supposed to be the Ark of humanity protecting them from the storms of life and culture, but the shepherds did not honor their callings and went along with the crowds, leading their people to the wide road towards destruction. Masked-up, tele-churching, jabbed and boosted, trans/gay-affirming, socialist-sympathizing, anti-biblical hired hands pretending to be ministers of the Most Holy God.

“For both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD.
Verse 11

It is not the first time that God needed to clean His own house. Here is what God said to those messed-up ministers in verses nineteen and twenty:

Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone out with fury, a whirlwind swirling down upon the heads of the wicked (ministers). The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart. In the days to come you will understand this clearly. (Parentheses mine)

The way out of this current, cloudy quagmire of a society is for the church, the Ekklesia, the Bride to purify herself first before we go all screamy at the brokenness. Broken people break people, but whole people make whole people.

But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?
1 Peter 4:16-17

The way into this Great Awakening is going to be tended by shepherds. Humble ones… authentic ones… wise ones… ones submitted to their Master in heaven.

Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Jeremiah 3:15 BSB

I will raise up shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or dismayed, nor will any go missing, declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:4

These will be the leaders who follow hard after The Great Shepherd. They will only speak His Words, follow His ways, and have His heart. In Beloved we are raising these shepherds through discipleship and accountability. They will shepherd families, businesses, and realms for their Lord.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf pounces on them and scatters the flock. The man runs away because he is a hired servant and is unconcerned for the sheep.
John 10:11-13 BSB

These are the new breed of Kingdom leaders who can love their family, preach righteousness, and build a boat at the same time. They have truth in their lips, God’s love in their heart, and discipleship tools in their hands. And… they are working hard. The generation they are raising in the Ark will see a world like never before and have a chance to rewrite history.

This transitional, liminal space is only temporal and we need to mentally treat it as such. We need to trust the stability of the Ark, the navigation of God our captain, the sacred map of scripture, and the shepherding of our King and his genuine leaders.

There is a rainbow of covenant promises on the horizon, can you see it? It is beautiful. Let’s head there together, Beloved.

In Great Love,
Steve