(Mini Bible Story) God's grace for stopping the construction of the Tower of Babel

1. A story based on Genesis 10, 11 

After the Flood, Beasts were increasing in the number. The earth had become more dangerous for humans to live. Excellent hunters were desperately needed. The popularity of hunters soared to the sky.  

"Oh, Nimrod! He is the best hunter ever."

There was a heroic warrior in Shinar named Nimrod. He was a mighty hunter in the Lord’s sight. His name became famous, and people would speak of someone as being “like Nimrod, a mighty hunter in the Lord’s sight.”   

Nimrod was so proud of himself. He asked people, "Look! Who’s protecting you from fierce beasts? God? or Nimrod?"

All shouted, "It’s you, Nimrod!"

Nimrod had risen as the leader. He said to himself, “I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars.”

One day, Nimrod came to remember the Flood in Noah’s days. No one had survived except Noah’s family from it.

'Beasts are rather nothing compared to the Flood! If God sends back such a flood, everything on the earth will be over.’

Nimrod came up with a flashing idea -Let’s build a tower the highest enough to survive any flood! He gathered all people and announced his ambitious plan.

"Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. The tower will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.”

They made bricks and bake them thoroughly. They used brick instead of stone and tar for mortar. The tower, namely The Tower of Babel, was being built higher and higher, day by day.

"Wow, How great we are!"

The higher the tower, the more forgotten God was. People didn’t worship God anymore. They worshipped themselves.

But One day, a strange thing happened that turned everything upside down.

"# $% @ ^ & ^"
"* & () & ^% @"

All of a sudden, people spoke different languages, and won’t be able to understand each other. It also happened to Nimrod. Whatever he commanded, people didn’t understand him at all. 

The construction of the Tower of Babel suspended. The ambition of Nimrod collapsed. His kingdom went down like dew that had gone in the morning.

It was a disaster for Nimrod, but a blessing for the people. If the Tower of Babel had completed, all humanity would have gone through another punishment like the Flood. God allowed people to return to him. God’s grace to save people stopped the building of the Tower of Babel.     

2, sharing

-Who is Nimrod?

In Genesis 10: 8-12, Nimrod is called a mighty warrior, and a mighty hunter before the Lord. His name became famous, and people would speak of someone as being like “Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”

He built the foundation for his empire in the land of Babylonia, including the city of Babel. Later on, he extended his reign to Assyria and Resen.  

Genesis 11: 1-9 is a record of the Tower of Babel. The Bible does not refer to the name of Nimrod regarding the construction.

But it is highly likely that he was the leader of the construction, given that his empire included the city of Babel. 

-What is the lesson in the story?

In genesis 6:15, God already declared, “Never again will there be a flood that will destroy all life.” But, people disregarded it. They rebelled against God by building the tower of the Babel to survive any flood.       

They didn’t worship God but worshipped themselves. Let’s ask ourselves. What about me? Who’s sitting on the throne of my life? God? Or Me? If the answer is me, we are going the path of the tower of Babel. We have to turn round right now. 

(Mini Bible Story) Abraham comes to understand what God’s promise means

*This story is based on Genesis 14,20.  

One day God’s words came to Abraham.

"I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing."

Abraham.thought, ‘Is God saying that I am going to become an emperor or something?'

He got so excited and left his country for Canaan, which would be the promised land.

But not long after, there was a famine in Canaan. Abraham.went down to Egypt for food.

Abraham.fell into deep concern. It was because of his beautiful wife, Sarah. The Egyptians might kill him to get Sarah if they found Abraham her husband.

He said to Sarah, "I'll call you my sister. If I were your husband, they would kill me."

Sarai said, “Do it, God will protect us!"

They acted like brother and sister. One day Pharaoh heard about her beauty and brought her into the palace. There was nothing Abraham could do for her. In the end, God saved Sarah.

Returning to Canaan, Abraham.trained his soldiers. They were 318 people. Abraham didn’t want to be a coward anymore who couldn’t even protect his wife.

Around that time, the international situation had changed rapidly. It was the empire of Kedorlaomer that had ruled the area for the last twelve years. 

The five kings, including Sodom and Gomorrah, brought forces together to rebel against the empire.

But the allies were defeated. The King of Kedorlaomer took the Sodomites to their city. Lot, the nephew of Abraham, also was taken captive because he lived in Sodom.

"Call all my men!"

Abraham pursued the king’s troops. During the night, Abraham.divided his men and made a surprise attack. 

He got a big victory. He recovered all the goods and brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people. 

Abraham became a hero. He muttered, "Oh, is it the time for God’s promise?"

He defeated the Emperor’s troops with just his men of 318. Abraham thought God was about to give him an empire. It’s just the beginning.

But nothing more happened to him after that. Time had passed. Abraham’s ambition for an empire had faded. He only wished for a son born to Sarah. 

It’s a small dream but a much more difficult thing to achieve than being an emperor. Abraham was already 100 years old, and Sarah was 90 years old too.

At the time, a miracle happened. Abraham and Sarah had their baby! At last, Abraham could understand God’s promise.  

"I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing."

God’s promise aimed for his kingdom, not the worldly empire. It will be fulfilled through Isaac, the son of Abraham. And we know the end. After all, Jesus the Savior will be born of the family of Abraham. 

In such a way, Abraham will be a great nation and a blessing. God has accomplished his words, as he said.    

                                           

(Essay) Let's follow the Lord!

Whatever you do, let’s not rely on your strength. Just follow Jesus. That’s everything you should do. The power of God will come down upon you.

Do not set too grand a goal for your future; Wait for the idea God will give. The dream could be small, but it doesn’t matter.  

When you feel some desire coming into your heart, you don’t need to be in a hurry. Instead, walk with it. That’s all.

Do not compete with anyone to achieve your goal. Make others your helpers, not competitors. 

Share love, pay respect and be happy with them. Then, your life will turn into heaven on the earth.

Winning is not always desirable. Jesus was crucified on the Cross, but his loss was the way through to win. Losing is just the beginning, not the end. Just look up at Jesus. Let us live the lesson of the Cross in our lives.

Troubles are always around us. Wherever we go, there will be another trouble like land mines underground. Jesus is the only map to avoid it. Just follow Jesus, then we will be safe.

No matter how excellent somebody is, do not go after the person; We are Jesus’ disciples. Just follow Jesus. That’s the way to eternal victory.

  

(Bus Episode) A spiritual war a new bus driver faced

I used to be a courier driver. The courier job requires much energy. I had to walk and run all day with carrying items.

At the first stage, my physical strength was able to cope with it. As I grew older, I became more and more tired.

When ten years had passed, I had begun praying for a new job. Gratefully, I managed to get a new job. I became a bus driver. It had been fourteen years since I started a courier job. At last, I could get out of the courier job.

Thinking back, it was all good with my bus driving. A bus is big, so I need to take a careful driving at all times. I did it, and everything was going well, at least for the time being.

But, it was not long before something happened to me. At one point, weird things occurred three days in a row. There were troubles on the final trip of each day.   

On Thursday, a female passenger complained to me that I was driving too slowly. Slow down might be desirable for a bus driver, but ‘too slowly’ is problematic.  She pointed it out.

On Friday, when I closed the back door, I made a mistake. The closing door hit a passenger getting off on the hand. I ran off to her, asking, “Are you okay?”

The woman stared at me, massaging her hand hurt with the other. I said, “Sorry, I am a beginner...” Hearing that, she became generous and forgave me.

On Saturday, I was supposed to do a change-over. I had to pass my bus to another driver, and receive a car from him to go back to the depot.

But, the other driver didn’t show up on time. I waited for him at the bus stop as much as 30 minutes. He had been in the wrong place. Later on, he hurried to our meeting point. I don’t know why he didn’t say sorry to me, but I had to forgive him anyway.

I was worried about bad things happening day by day. I wanted to find out what was going on around me. A question flashed over. “Is there any spiritual reason involved?”

Suppose it. A Christian is on the way to a bus driver. The job came from God by the answer to prayer. Then, what can we expect the evil spirit to respond? He is likely to interfere with a smooth start.

Thinking about it, I prayed to God for the salvation out of my troubles. During not in service, I shouted, “Satan! I am already dead on the Cross. Jesus is in my place. If you attack me, you will face Jesus, not me.”   

In the middle of prayer, Joshua 21:43 came to my mind.

“So, the Lord gave Israel all the land...and they took possession of it and settled there.”

Yes! It was the answer I needed. The word proclaimed I already took possession of the territory of a new job, that is, a bus driver. I remembered Joshua 1:3, as well.

“Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you.” That was God's promise to Joshua initially, and to me next.

A bus driver’s job itself could be a little thing. But, in terms of God’s answer to my prayer, it is precious enough to be priceless. Even though the evil one is trying to stop me, God lets me keep going ahead. The Lord is walking with me, so I am safe.

Halleluiah!

(Bus Episode) My City of Refuge

This morning, I read Joshua 20 regarding cities of refuge. According to the Scripture, the law is not just a cold one. It contains warm grace in itself, saving even a murderer by mistake.

I experienced the same grace just before, so I got moved deeply. 

At the final stage of training to be a bus driver, I made an accident by mistake. My bus got smashed by the front panel.

When I filled out the incident form, I was angry at myself. But soon after, I realized that the Lord Jesus became my city of refuge in this event of an accident.

Above all, no passengers were injured because the bus was empty at the time. And, the insurance of the company entirely covered the incident. I was free of the accident financially. It was amazing to me.

The salvation was not the end of God’s grace, but he also gave me an unforgettable lesson.  

The Lord put my mind down not to be arrogant before finishing all training. It was as if the accident was shouting, “Be careful in the street at all times!” 

I remember 2Corinthians 12:10. Apostle Paul confesses, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” Now, that is my confession too. I admit I am weak in driving so I can make a safe driving from now on. It's the most valuable lesson for my future driving during my lifetime.

I praise God, who will make my driving perfect in weakness. (2Corinthians 12:9)

(Bus Episode) What should be a Christian response against biting fleas?

Fleas seem to love me. They enjoy touching my body; I mean bite. Indeed, I am clean, I believe. The insects must have come from outside, somewhere on the bus.

They attacked me three times in the last two weeks. The first thing happened in a passenger seat, where I sat during a meal break.

I got the second attack while I was on my driver's seat. Because my body was undoubtedly clean, I presumed the flea came from another driver.

I didn't know how to defend myself. Where can I be if neither driver seat nor passenger seat?

A third flea turned up while I was at a loss of what to do. I had no idea where it had jumped in me. At a certain moment, it bit me.

I was in fear of what's happening. When I asked some other drivers if they also had the same experience, they shook the head. My case was the worst.

I prayed to God. It was no holy issue for prayer, but I had to. During the prayer, I got an unexpected understanding of this happening.

As a bus driver, passengers are the neighbors for me to serve. I am driving for them.

If somebody on the bus should offer their body to fleas, it must be me. I was bitten by the fleas instead of my passengers. I protected them by offering my body to the insects.

I must be happy that my passengers are safe! I gave God wholehearted thanks.

"Oh, Lord! Thank let fleas bite me instead of passengers." And I kept praying, "Now, I command in Jesus' name, 'All fleas be gone away out of my bus forever!' " 

  

(Bus Episode) My bus driver's life not going well with Sunday worship service

Since I started a bus driver, I have not been able to keep Sunday church services sincerely. 

All drivers are supposed to work any five days a week. When Sunday is rostered to me as a working day, we can't avoid it. There's no exception, even for Christians.

When I applied for a bus driver, it was the biggest issue. I prayed to God, asking for his guidance.

The answer came through Matthew 12, which is about the Sabbath. The disciples of Jesus were hungry, so they picked to eat the heads of grain.

The problem was that the work of picking grains on the Sabbath was unlawful in terms of Jewish law. The Pharisees blamed the disciples. 

But Jesus stood behind the disciples. He went even further, healing a man with a shriveled hand. 

Jesus proclaimed, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath," and, "It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

I understood the Scripture to let me go for a bus driver's job. God was leading me to a bus driver's life. 

If it's true, what about Sunday church service? What if I don't observe it?

For me, serving passengers is offering a service. That's what Romans 12:1 says.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship."

When I work on Sunday, I worship God on the bus. Serving passengers is my Sunday offering as a living sacrifice. 

Therefore, my worship will never stop forever. Halleluiah!