This week I have been listening to messages about the life we are called to as Christians. The messages have triggered many thoughts in my mind and I will indeed share them in bits so that we will make great assessments of the texts and lessons to be learnt…

The first thoughts I will share are based on reading Genesis. In Genesis I found an example of faith that I had never really seen. I have read this scripture over and over but I have never seen the things I was seeing now. In Genesis chapter 11, the record of the tower babel is told.
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar[b]and settled there.
3 They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and bitumen 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; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’

Key things:
• Used different materials from the norm – brick not stone; bitumen for mortar
• Put in greater longer effort – baked the bricks thoroughly
• United in purpose – build a city & a tower to the heavens
• Had a clear goal – to make a name for themselves, to stay together
• Unique characteristics – all spoke the same language

In the divine scheme of things the behaviour of this generation caused God grave concern. God in His wisdom knew what life would be out of hand if this people were left to remain one. They would work to become gods and He wouldn’t allow that. The thing I see too is that they pursued the things of this world and not the eternal. God in His mercy knew that this was not going to help the world as a whole so he dealt with it.
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 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. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’ 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth,

Don’t mistake God’s actions for failure and inability. It can imagine what the world today would be like if we all thought alike and spoke the same language. Indeed there is a case for the thought that it would be a greater more connected world, yet it would be easy to be destructive and lead to great levels of manipulation. The differences put in by God was for the good of the people as they had to learn to understand each other and they could spread out so that the world would not be depleted.

I am beginning to understand that God is indeed in control and will do what He deems as necessary to get us to focus on him and to understand that He is in control whether we understand it all or not. As I sit here writing I realise a fresh that nothing will derail His plan for our lives except us. God has a plan but we are responsible for our response to Him and His plans for us. We can either do it His way or our way and each of them have consequences.

What are you doing today that will directly affect your life tomorrow?