The Professor, Shane, and Shelly were on their way to adventures in the flying bus! The Professor was hoping to find God! He knew a lot about God but did not know God personally. This adventure is the Professor’s Quest for God!
The Professor wrote on the wall of the flying bus the things that he has learned. So far, the Professor has learned:
- The beauty of nature points people to God. Nature so is awesome it just could not happen by chance, God created it.
- God has a plan for everything and everyone. God has a time for everything in His plan.
- God is kind. He shows His kindness to all people. No one deserves God’s kindness because we are all sinners. God’s greatest kindness was sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sins.
- God is just. Every sin must be punished. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to pay for all the sins ever committed. We must choose to accept Jesus’ payment for our sins or pay for our sins ourselves by being punished in the lake of fire forever.
- God pays attention to every detail. He knows every detail of your life and He loves and cares for you.
- God is faithful all the time. He will never leave you or give up on you. Even the best people are unfaithful some of the time.
It was morning and time to leave the forest and Chuck, the Forest Ranger and go on to another adventure. Shane started the three engines on the flying bus and Shelly started the big propeller on the roof of the bus. The flying bus went straight up into the air while the Professor, Shane and Shelly waved goodbye to Chuck the Forest Ranger. Shelly asked, “Which way shall we go?” Shane answered, “I do not think it makes much difference. The compass does not have a needle, so we cannot be sure which way we are going, and we do not even know for sure where this forest is located. All we know for sure is that the forest is close to an ocean.” The Professor said, “Why don’t we go in the opposite direction from the ocean and see what we find?” This was a good idea, so they pushed the heavy boxes to the left side of the flying bus and turned left and went away from the ocean. They flew all day in a straight line and did not see anything interesting. As the sun was starting to go down, they decided to land in the middle of a big field. There was no one around at all! They were looking forward to a peaceful night of sleep, but then it happened…
About 5 o’clock in the morning they woke up to loud noises and lots of lights! There were big trucks pulling trailers into the field, there were people yelling to each other, and there was a lot of noise! The Professor said, “Ooops!” The sky was just beginning to get light, and all of these people began to unload trailers and put up tents and signs! The biggest sign was right beside the flying bus, it said, “Welcome to the Flea Market of the World! Buy things to find your true potential and gain fame, fortune, and wisdom!” Shane began scratching his arms and head and said, “Just thinking about all those fleas makes me itch all over! Why so people want to sell fleas?” Shelly started laughing and said, “They do not sell fleas at a flea market! A flea market is where all kinds of different things are sold. You never know what you might find at a flea market, but this flea market seems kind of strange! Why would anyone try to find fame, fortune and wisdom at a flea market?”
After breakfast the Professor, Shane, and Shelly locked up the flying bus and went to look at the flea market. A man came running up to the Professor and screamed at him, “You need a green-striped yo-yo! This will revolutionize your life, and everyone will like you and admire your wisdom!” The Professor tried out the yo-yo and the yo-yo hit the man in the nose! The Professor said, “Ooops!” and gave the green-striped yo-yo back to the man.
A woman came up to Shelly and said to her, “You need to come to my tent and check out this new kind of makeup, it will make you beautiful and all the world will admire you and you will have the greatest life!” Shelly and the Professor ran over to the tent to look at the makeup. The Professor tripped over his own feet and landed on the table in the woman’s tent! Makeup flew everywhere and the woman was covered with blotches of blue and red powder, she looked so funny that Shelly began to laugh! The Professor said, “Ooops!”
At another tent, a woman tried to convince the Professor and Shelly to start their own YouTube channel. She said, “You can get thousands of followers! You can change the world! You will be famous, and people will adore you!” The woman got out her phone and began to record a video of the Professor and Shelly. The Professor and Shelly decided to sing and dance on their first YouTube recording! Unfortunately, they did not plan ahead, and they started singing different songs, the Professor sang ‘God Bless America’ and Shelly sang ‘Jingle Bells’. It sounded awful, so they decided to just dance. They did not plan the dance very well either, the Professor ran into Shelly, Shelly bounced off the Professor and tripped over the rope that was holding up the tent. The tent fell onto the woman and she dropped her phone and cracked the screen! The Professor said, “Ooops!”
The Professor and Shelly now realized that Shane was not with them, so they decided to look for him. They found Shane talking to a man who was carrying a sign. The sign said, “Beware of the wisdom of the world! This wisdom is not from God!’ Shelly asked, “What does that sign mean?” Shane answered, “This man’s name is Josiah. He has been telling me about the true wisdom that comes from God.”
Josiah said, “All these people at this flea market believe that what they are selling will make you wise or famous or rich. They think that these are the most important things in life, and they will give anything to get these things, and they will try to sell these things to other people. It is all a big lie! These things do not last! At the end of life everyone must appear before God and fame, early wisdom, and riches will not save you! If you have not asked Jesus to be your Savior and asked him to forgive your sins, you will be thrown into the lake of fire and be punished forever! The Bible says, ‘Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom.’ This means that we are to stand in awe of God because He is the King of Kings and He has all knowledge and all power! The Bible also describes God’s kind of wisdom as being, pure, peace loving, and gentle. God’s wisdom is all about treating other people right, not just trying to make yourself look important. All these people at this flea market are blind to God’s kind of wisdom and I am here trying to get them to quit trying to be number one, and to make God number one in their lives.
Just then the Professor tripped over a tent rope and bumped into Shane! Shane bumped into Shelly and then fell head-first into a tent! Shelly tripped over a tent stake and knocked Josiah over! Josiah tripped over three different tent ropes and fell into another tent! The Professor, Shane, Shelly, and Josiah were all laying on the ground and six tents had collapsed and caused a huge mess! They looked at all the fallen tents and began to laugh, but the people in the tents did not think it was funny! The people in the tents were trying to get untangled from the tents and they were yelling, “Let’s get those troublemakers, we need to get even with them!”
Shane said, “We need to get out of here! We need to get back to the flying bus as quick as we can!” The four of them began running as fast as they could to the flying bus, and the people from the tents were chasing them! The tent people were throwing green-stripped yo-yo’s at the Professor and throwing makeup at Shelly! They made it to the flying bus, but the door was locked! Shelly said, “Quick Professor, get out the key and open the door!” The Professor said, “Ooops! I left the key in the bus!” Shane was thinking quickly, he grabbed a green-stripped yo-yo that was hanging from the Professor’s ear and made the string into a lasso and reaching in the open window and threw the lasso over the door handle. Shelly started throwing makeup at the people from the tent! They started sneezing and choking on all that makeup powder! Shane got the door open, and they all got into the flying bus and shut the door!
The Professor started the motors and Shane started the big propeller on the roof and that raised a huge cloud of dust on the ground and the people ran away from the flying bus! The flying bus went straight up in the air! There was makeup powder covering the windows and there was many green-stripped yo-yo’s hanging from the bus, but they were safe! Then they noticed that Josiah was with them in the flying bus. He was sitting in a seat and hanging on as tight as he could! Josiah said, “Is this thing flying? Is it safe? Where are we going? Shelly answered, “Yes this long bus is the Professor’s home, and it does fly. The compass is broken so we do not know where we are or where we are going, but we are on a quest. The Professor ‘s quest is to get to know God as a friend and have a relationship with God. The Professor knows a lot about God, but that is not the same as having a relationship with God.
Josiah said, “Having a relationship with God is most important thing in the world. I would be happy to travel with you on your adventures.”
The Learning Corner:
In this story we saw the people at the flea market selling things to gain fame, riches, and worldly wisdom. God does not say it is wrong to have money or be well-known, but we should not waste our life trying so hard to get these things. We should not waste our life being focused on ourselves and trying to get all the best things for ourselves.
God’s wisdom is very different. The first step in getting God’s wisdom is to fear God. In the Bible in the book of Proverbs chapter 9 verse 10 it says:
“Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.”
Having ‘fear of the Lord’ does not mean that you are ‘scared to death’ and hide from God like you would hide from a monster. It means that you are in awe of God and have the greatest respect for Him. God created this world and everything in it, He has all power and all knowledge, and He knows what is best for us! Too often we forget just how awesome God is and think of Him as if he was just another human being. Remember how great God is, and worship Him as the only true God!
The second step in getting God’s wisdom is to pay careful attention to the thoughts and feelings that we have inside of us, these thoughts and feelings will be reflected in how we treat other people. In the Bible in the book of James chapter 3 verses 17-18 it says:
“But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. If is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.”
Doing everything that is mentioned in those verses looks impossible, and if we were to try with just our own strength, it would be impossible. This wisdom is ‘from above’, it comes from God and only from God! Do not be afraid to ask God to give you his wisdom, God is happy to give His wisdom to anyone who has accepted Jesus as their Savior and wants to live their life for God! Do not be afraid to ask God for forgiveness or for His wisdom to live your life!