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.
- God’s wisdom is not like the wisdom of the world. The world says, ‘Put yourself first, go after fame, fortune, and things.’ God’s wisdom says, ‘Fear (greatly respect) God first, and your attitude and thoughts should be about helping others’.
- God has the greatest power in the whole universe. He made the universe and everything in it, and God’s power keeps the whole universe going. But God does not use His great power to crush us, He speaks gently to us with love.
- Having great knowledge about God and about the Bible does not impress God. If our knowledge does not lead us into a relationship with God, then it will make us proud.
The next morning the Professor said, “I think it is time to leave this island. I do not want to enter into more contests, I want to continue my quest and really find God and make Him a part of my life.” Josiah agreed, “I hope you find God soon! Also, I should get home, they will be wondering what happened to me.” So, Shane started the motors of the flying bus and the Professor started the big propeller on the roof. The flying bus rose straight up into the air. Jim and his whole youth group came out and waved goodbye as the Professor started the front propeller and the flying bus left the island behind.
The compass still did not have a needle, so they still did not know what direction they were headed, but they guessed the right way and soon they were over land. Josiah was excited because he recognized some landmarks and soon, he saw the steeple of the Church that he went to. The Professor slowed down the big propeller on the roof so that they would land in the parking lot. Then it happened…Josiah yelled, “Look out! The parking lot is full of people, do not land, look out!” The Professor said, “Ooops!” People were running in all directions! The wind from the propellers tipped over tables and paper plates and cups were flying in every direction! The front propeller of the bus hit a table that had not tipped over, the propeller broke the table in half and a bowl of Jello and fruit flew into the air and landed on the Professor’s head! The Professor tried to say, “Ooops!”, but his mouth was full of Jello, so it sounded like, “Oophhh”
The frightened people began to come back. Josiah asked them what was going on, and they told him that they were having an outdoor picnic and fellowship time. The Professor said, “That is great! Hanging out with God’s people will help me to find God!” The Professor immediately went into the crowd of people and began shaking hands and introducing himself. It was a wonderful day; they all ate as much food as they could hold and met so many wonderful people. All these people loved God and loved each other. There was even a kid’s group, and Shane and Shelly spent the afternoon playing games and making new friends.
As the sun was starting to go down, Pastor Rod said, “We are going to have a big bonfire tonight! There are piles of scrap wood in the basement of the Church, bring the wood out here and let’s build a fire!” The people happily obeyed Pastor Rod, they ran to the basement and began bringing up the wood. The Professor, Shane and Shelly helped bring out the wood. The Professor was running up the stairs carrying an armful of wood when he stubbed his toe on the top step. The Professor fell forward and landed on the wood that he was carrying! The wood began sliding down the stairs with the Professor laying on top of it! There were five people on the stairs behind the Professor and that they were all carrying armfuls of wood! There was a terrible crash as the Professor slid into all those people and they all slid down the stairs! After the dust settled there was a huge pile of people and wood at the bottom of the stairs! The Professor said, “Ooops!” They eventually did get all the wood take outside and it make a huge pile, about 8 feet tall! Pastor Rod started the pile of wood on fire, and the flames roared up through the pile of wood. Just then the Professor came running up with one last piece of wood for the fire. The Professor threw the piece of wood up onto the top of the flaming pile of wood. The pile of wood began tottering back and forth, and someone yelled that the pile was going to fall! The people screamed and ran in all directions! The pile of flaming wood fell, and the fire spread into an area about 20 feet wide! The grass started on fire and a tree was burning too! The Professor came running with a garden hose, and Shelly turned the water on. Just before the Professor got to the fire, the hose got tangled around his feet and he fell to the ground while he screamed, “Ooops!” The nozzle broke off the hose and water sprayed in all directions, soaking the people, and putting out most of the fire!
After Pastor Rod got everyone settled down and gathered around the small bonfire that was left, he said, “Tonight we have so much to be thankful to God for, we need to spend time giving testimonies and telling of the things that God has done for us!” This was a great idea, and many people were ready to share their testimonies. Shane whispered to Josiah, “What exactly is a testimony?” Josiah answered, “That is when a person stands up and tells the rest of the people what God has been doing in their life recently. It encourages other Christians when they hear that other Christians are facing the same problems that they have, and that God is faithful and will help us get through those problems.” The testimonies were wonderful, many people had testimonies to share, and it went on for a long time. All the people were encouraged and were praising God except for the Professor. The Professor was not feeling encouraged, he was feeling left out and very sad. Shelly asked the Professor, “What is wrong, why do you look so sad?” The Professor said, “I feel left out. All these people know God, and I still do not know Him. I thought that if I spent all day with these wonderful people, I would find that missing clue that I have been look for, and finally get to really know God. But it has not happened. I still do not know God the way I want to know Him, I want to be God’s friend. I can tell that all these people here know God, but I am left out! Is there any hope for me?” Shelly answered, “Yes of course there is hope for you. God loves you and wants to have you for a friend, but the only way that is going to happen is if you give your life to God’s Son, Jesus, and ask Him to forgive your sins.” The Professor said, “You and Shane have told me that so many times, but I still do not seem to be able to really understand it or believe that it could be true! Am I hopeless?” Shelly answered, “No you are not hopeless. The Bible teaches that many times a person who is not a Christian is blind to the truth. Shane and I will pray for you and ask God to open your eyes so that you can see the truth and believe.” Shelly gave the Professor a hug and then led him back to the bonfire and sat next to him for the rest of the evening. There were more testimonies, and they sang many songs. The Professor still had a sad feeling, but he was comforted because Shelly and Shane were praying for him, and he hoped that one day very soon that God would open his eyes to the truth, and he would finally find the relationship and friendship with God that he longed for.
The Learning Corner:
In today’s story, Professor Ooops learned two very important lessons:
- A person cannot get a relationship with God by just hanging out with Christians.
- Many times, a person who is not a Christian is blind to the truth. It seems that they have a very hard time believing the truth about God and His Son Jesus.
In the Bible in the book of Matthew chapter 3 verses 8-9 it says:
“Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God an create children of Abraham from these very stones.”
These verses were said by John the Baptist when he was preaching to the people of Israel about Jesus. The people of Israel were very proud because they were descended from Abraham. Abraham was a man who loved God and knew God very well. The people of Israel thought that just because they were related to Abraham that they should automatically have a relationship with God, but it does not work that way. Each person must believe in Jesus and repent of their sins. Repenting means that they want to leave their sins behind them and follow Jesus for the rest of their life. They begin this process by praying to Jesus and asking Him to forgive their sins. The Professor had the same kind of idea; he thought that by hanging out with Christians that their relationship with God would kind of ‘rub off’ on him, but it does not work that way. The Professor needs to decide for himself to believe in Jesus and come to Him in prayer and ask for his sins to be forgiven and turn from his sins and follow Jesus.
The Professor knows all this by now after he has had so many experiences and learned so much about God, but he is blinded to the truth. In the Bible in the book of II Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4 it says:
“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”
I need to explain a couple of things to help you understand this verse:
When it says that Satan is the god of this world, this does not mean that Satan is the true God (notice that Satan is a ‘god’ with a small g not a capital G), Satan is the enemy of the true God and the enemy of all humans. Satan wants the whole world to follow him and to not get their sins forgiven or have a relationship or friendship with God.
In the last sentence of the verse it mentions ‘Christ’. Christ is another name for Jesus. This verse is telling us that Satan blinds people to the truth about Jesus dying on the cross to pay for our sins, then rising from the dead. Satan does not want people to understand the good news about Jesus, so he blinds them to the truth. In our story, this is exactly what is happening to the Professor, but there is great hope! Shelly and Shane are praying that Jesus will remove the Professor’s blindness to the truth so that he can finally understand the good news that Jesus can forgive our sins and that we can have a friendship with God! Jesus (God) is all-powerful (we learned that a couple of weeks ago), and Satan cannot stop Jesus! It will be interesting to see how Jesus answers the prayers of Shelly and Shane.
What about you? Have you believed in Jesus and repented of you sins and asked for forgiveness or do you feel that you are blinded to the truth? Ask Jesus to remove the blindness to the truth so that you can understand. If you would like me to pray for you, please send me a message in the comments section (I will not post this comment that you send, it is personal).