Obeying God, Noah and his family entered the ark before the storm began. For forty days and forty nights, rain fell and the fountains of the deep poured forth water, flooding the entire world until the water stood twenty feet above the highest mountains. For a 150 days, water covered the earth. Noah and his family waited, locked up in the ark, amid the greatest menagerie ever assembled, unable to see what was going on outside, wondering what God would do next.

 Passage: Genesis 6:5

Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:37; Luke 17:26). So, what was it like in the days of Noah?

 Passage: Luke 24:13

Even if we do not recognize Jesus, he is there all the time.

 Passage: 1 John 5:1 & 1 John 5:10

In the last chapter of John's first epistle, he identifies the characteristics of authentic Christian faith. What he says reminds me of my grandfather's milk stool; it needs three legs to stand firm. Let's see what John says about those who have a faith that will stand, one on which they can rest their very soul, a saving, overcoming, true faith.

 Passage: Romans 8:16

Methodists do not celebrate the day on which the founder of the movement, John Wesley, was born, but the day on which his heart "strangely warmed" on Aldersgate Street in London, May 24, 1738. That was the day that Wesley received the inward witness of God's Spirit assuring him that he did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and that Christ had taken away his sins and saved him from the law of sin and death. The Witness of the Spirit became the most controversial doctrine in early Methodism. That truth, though still controversial in many theological arenas, remains at the very heart of not only Methodism but evangelical Christianity.