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The Tower of Babel - Genesis 11

“Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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.”

But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”

What were the people of Babylonia trying to do? Build a tower to make themselves famous

Were they being successful? Apparently

What made them successful? A common language - the ability to communicate successfully

Was that good or bad? Why?

What did God say about them? “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!”

Do you think God would say that about your church? Your family? You and your friends?

The people of Babylonia were united in doing something wrong, so God had to stop them. But what if a group of people could be united in doing something right? Nothing would be impossible for them - God said so.

So how does a group like that become so united together? How did the people of Babylonia do it? Look through the passage. They all spoke the same language - they talked - they understood each other. When their ability to communicate was stopped - they were finished. I think Satan has done a great job of keeping us Christians from communicating with each other because he knows that Christians who have that kind of communication - nothing will be impossible for them.

Think about it: When you’re at church, how often do you talk to someone about the things that really weigh on you heart? How often do you share your deepest hurts, how you really feel, what you’re really concerned about. The last time I was at church my conversations went like this:

Me: Morning.

Other person: Morning, Dave. How are ya?

Me: Hey, I’m doing great. You?

Other person: Real good. How’s work been going?

Me: Not bad. Keeping busy, anyway.

Other person: That’s good. How’s the kids?

Me: They’re good. Well, I better go find this kids. Nice to see ya.

Did we really communicate? Not really. Most of what was said wasn’t even true. That’s not communication - that’s not even fellowship. God doesn’t want us to only communicate with Him (although that’s surely important), He wants us to communicate with each other. The Christian life was never meant to be lived alone - God intends us to live life in unity with other Christians.

What would happen in your life if you had a small group of friends that you could really communicate with? A group of friends that you could share your biggest struggles with - no matter what they may be? People who ask you how you really are - how you day has really been. People who say they’ll pray for you and then actually do. Friends who don’t just talk about the weather, they talk about what God’s been doing in their life and what He’s been teaching them. I tell you, nothing would be impossible for a group like that.

Would you like to be a part of a group like that? I sure do. But it’ll require a change in the way we communicate. Casual conversation isn’t enough. Non-believers can have casual conversation. Christians need intentional conversations. Our natural tendency is to be very superficial in our conversations - even with close Christian friends. The “Hi, how are you? I’m great” kind of stuff. We need to intentionally make our conversations count.

Ephesians 5:16 - “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” Or “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.” Ask the real questions. Answer questions with truth. Take the opportunities you have to encourage one another and build each other up. Don’t waste your time on weather and politics - talk about things that actually matter.

Exercise: Pair up with someone who you know fairly well and spend five minutes being real with each other. Have an intentional conversation.

This devotional is a rehash of an earlier post, Livin’ on Strained Carrots. That devotional was written for grades 7 thru 12 and this is a re-write for grades 1 thru 6.

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Today I want to teach you guys something very important. The thing I want to teach you is pretty easy to do, but there are lots of grown-ups that still don’t know how to do it. In fact, the thing that I’m going to teach you is so important, that if you learn how to do it today, and you start doing it - you will never be the same! Do you want to know what I’m going to teach you? I’m going to teach you how to feed yourself.
Before you tell me that you already know how, I want to play a little game.

Game:

Three contestants blindfolded, guess what object they hold. If they are right, they win the object.(Pop, Smarties, and baby food)

Imagine that it’s Christmas time. Christmas day, actually. All of your relatives have arrived and it’s time for the feast. There’s a big turkey (or ham or whatever your family usually eats complete with all the trimmings. Name a few of the things you would have at your Christmas meal…
So there’s all this food just waiting to be eaten, someone asks the blessing on the food and everyone digs in - except you. For you, your mom or your dad opens a jar of baby food and starts feeding you that stuff.
How would you like that? No way! That would be gross. And besides, you’re not a baby anymore! You don’t need your parents to feed you - you can feed yourself!
But you know… you couldn’t always feed yourself, could you? When you were a baby, you had to be fed by your parents. You had no teeth and all you could eat was baby food. But aren’t you glad you grew up and learned how to eat regular food all by yourself?
Today, I want to show you how you can grow up as a Christian and feed yourself spiritually. If you don’t know what that means, that basically means that I want to show you how to be really good friends with God. Continue reading »

Recently I spoke at the chapel time for a Christian High School. It’s a little long for a devotional, but it can easily be chewed down to size. So without further ado, here is “Living on Strained Carrots”.

Game: Double or Nothing

Three contestants are blindfolded, and they try to guess what object they hold. If they are right, they win the object. Then if they correctly answer the bonus question about that object, they will double their prize. (Pop, Doritos, and a jar of baby food - for the bonus: What flavor?)

Imagine that it’s Christmas time. Christmas day, actually. All of your relatives have arrived and it’s time for the feast. There’s a big turkey (or ham or whatever your family usually eats complete with all the trimmings. There’s all this food just waiting to be consumed, some one asks the blessing on the food and everyone digs in - except you. For you, your mom or your dad cracks open a jar of Gerber’s “Broccoli, Potato, and Cheese Casserole” and start shoveling it in. Continue reading »

Just for those of you who are familiar with Camp Little Red (or at looking for a great Bible camp in central Alberta), check out the camp’s new blog.

Camp Little Red Blog - The Online Offbeat Inside Out

It just made it’s debut moments ago, so check it out! So far, you’ll find the latest Inside Out Newsletter and a few aerial photos of the camp property, but there’s lots more on the way so stay tuned.

Or just head straight to the main site - www.camplittlered.com for all kinds of info about the camp.

In going through this “Bible Overview” series, I wanted to make a Bible study where the kids did some of the foot work, not just listen to me. So for Noah’s Flood I gave them a really simple task broken into three parts as follows: (I put them into two teams so they could work together.)

Team #1

Read Genesis 6 & 7

Find 3 interesting facts that other may not have noticed before.

List 2 things we can learn from this passage.

Name 1 thing you can do this week to apply that principle.

Share your findings with the rest of the group.

Team #2

Read Genesis 8 - 9:17

Find 3 interesting facts that other may not have noticed before.

List 2 things we can learn from this passage.

Name 1 thing you can do this week to apply that principle.

Share your findings with the rest of the group.

Be prepared for them to be finished in 10 minutes, but also be ready in case they take the next 30 minutes.

This is a good exercise for them to start learning to study the Bible for themselves.

In the very first verse in the Bible we read “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” - Genesis 1:1 emphasis mine

The word ‘created’ here means ‘to form out of nothing’. God didn’t create the heavens and the earth from scratch - He created the ’scratch’ too! (So to speak…) He took a bunch of nothing, a handful or zilch, a truckload of zero, and made the universe and everything in it.

I find it amazing enough that someone can take some wires and silicone and make my computer - but to think that God created everything that anyone has ever seen all from absolutely zero - that just boggles the mind.

So if God can create the entire universe from nothing, can’t He make something wonderful out of my life? Absolutely. God can take my weakness, my failure, my emptiness - all the nothing that I have to offer God - and make it into something completely wonderful that will glorify Him.

Was Peter something great? He was a stinky ol’ fisherman with a big mouth. He even denied that he ever knew Jesus! What a zero he must have felt like! But God took that zero and made him into a great leader in the early church.

Or what about Moses? He was a son of a slave - a murderer running from the law. But look at how God took his pile of nothingness and made him into a hero to millions.

The Bible is full of stories of people who have absolutely nothing to offer God, but when they surrender themselves to God, He uses them in great and powerful ways. So next time you feel useless, worthless, like a big fat zero - great! You’re just the kind of person God’s looking for. Give yourself to Him and let Him turn your nothing into something.