Immediately following the flood, God told Noah and his sons to repopulate the earth. He wanted the human race reestablished and spread out all over the world. But mankind did the exact opposite. A few generations later, the human race consolidated their collective powers by building an enormous tower.

And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." (Genesis 11:4)

"A tower reaching up to heaven? What's that all about?" The motivation for creating this structure was to demonstrate the glory of mankind and how they could rival God when they stuck together. It was a form of defiance against the Lord, who wanted the people to disperse.

In response, the Bible tells us the Lord did something to change their dialects so they spoke various languages instead of just one. They began to "babble" in each other's ears, which is why this structure is now known as the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:7-9). As a result, mankind was limited by a language barrier and could no longer collaborate on a global scale, and language barriers still exist to this day.

But there's another interesting aspect of this. Historically, there were those who believed this biblical account was merely a legend. Then, in the late 1800s, an ancient stone tablet was uncovered in the Middle East. It was translated by an archeologist named George Smith, who was in the service of the British Museum. It describes the building of an enormous tower and says the structure offended "the gods," who scattered the workers by confusing their speech.

Obviously, this is describing the same event we have here in the Book of Genesis. It's a powerful testimony to the historical accuracy of God's Word and how worthy it is of our utmost trust.

Let's face it: The biblical account of Noah's Ark is an incredible story! God sees the sinfulness of mankind. He decides to send a great flood to purge the earth. He speaks to Noah and tells him to build a boat that will carry his family and all of the animals to safety. It's an account as epic and enduring as anything!

But for some, it's hard to embrace the reality of something so amazing. They relegate the Ark to a cute bedtime story or sweet décor for a child's nursery because, after all, those things couldn't really be factual. Could they?

It's interesting that the Bible includes the exact specifications for building the Ark (Genesis 6:15). When we compute the dimensions and proportions of this vessel, we see it would have been shaped like a rectangular box with a width to length ratio of one to six, the same ratio used by many naval vessels today. Not only that, but the Ark would have had the carrying capacity of about 520 railroad cars. So it was very seaworthy, and it was very big!

When we break down the number of required animals on the Ark, we find they would have occupied about sixty percent of the total volume, leaving plenty of room for Noah's family as well as storage areas. We also read that God told Noah to waterproof the inside as well as the outside of the Ark (Genesis 6:14), and to build it with windows for ventilation and gathering fresh rain water (Genesis 6:16).

The closer we look at the Ark, the more we see how it was based on excellent engineering and practical design. It's not a far-fetched legend like many of us assume.

When we connect this with the anthropological fact that most ancient cultures such as the Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Hindus, Greeks, Chinese, Brazilians, Peruvians, and even Aboriginal Americans have traditions of a great flood through which a man and his family were preserved, it's clear Noah's Ark is rooted in reality. And that's one more proof of the Bible's reliability.

The Bible is very specific and deliberate in telling us how God created the first human being. Without apology, and in unmistakable terms, Scripture states that the Lord formed man's physical body out of the dust of the ground.

Just in case we missed it, He goes on to call him "Adam" (Genesis 3:9), which is linguistically linked with the ancient Hebrew word adamah, which means earth or ground. So the scriptures leave absolutely no wiggle room; the prototype for the human race comes from the ground we walk on.

"Ha! See, that's why I have such a hard time believing the Bible. It's really hard to get on board with the idea that Adam was created that way. This sounds like something out of a fairytale. If anything, things like this are an argument against taking the Bible as true and trustworthy."

Hold that objection for a moment, and consider the following scientific fact. Every human being on the planet has a body that can be broken down into sixteen basic elements. Those sixteen elements also comprise the earth's crust - or in biblical terms, "the dust of the earth." So instead of being a far-fetched fable, the biblical account of Adam's creation is actually scientifically accurate. It tells us the one ingredient God used, and on an elementary level we see that same ingredient embedded in each of our bodies.

We're dirt! But that's not an insult. It's a testimony to why the Bible is worth believing. Long before mankind had any sense of chemistry or physiology, scripture identified where our physical frame ultimately came from. Look at your hand, your foot, your body as a whole, and recognize what it's made of. Then, be impressed at how the Bible declared it with absolute authority and accuracy.

"He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103:14 NKJV)

Perhaps the greatest proof we have of the Bible's authenticity and reliability is the one we tend to take most for granted: the world around us. "How so?" We need to go back to the beginning of the biblical record, back to when God had just created a perfect paradise populated with two perfect people, Adam and Eve.

Everything was ideal. But God warned Adam and Eve against one thing: partaking from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If they did, things would change forever. Death would enter into their condition, at first spiritually and then, over the course of time, physically. Their perfect world would become a perishable world.

According to Genesis 3:6, Adam and Eve did eat the fruit of that tree, they did disobey God, they did invite sin into their existence, and they did initiate the process of death and decay. God's word of warning came to pass, and we still see the evidence everywhere we turn.

Earth isn't a perfect place. It's a perishing place. There's a popular push to portray our world as tracking in a positive direction. The theory of evolution clings to this notion with whitened knuckles. It says Planet Earth is progressively evolving into a better place with better people.

But that's not true, according to the Law of Entropy. This scientific law, also called the second law of thermodynamics, is one of the most fundamental laws of physics and is universally accepted as true. Put forth by physicist Rudolf Clausius in 1865, it says the natural world tends to devolve from order into disorder. On their own, things generally don't get better. They become worse. They perish.

This is perfectly consistent with what the Bible stated in the very beginning: Our world is getting worse, not better. So the next time you see an example of earth's imperfection, let it remind you of the Bible's perfect presentation of truth.

Samuel was an answer to prayer. For years, his mother Hannah cried out for the Lord to give her the ability to conceive a child. Then one day, according to God's perfect timing and will, her body showed signs that it was carrying another life. Years of prayers were answered.

So it came as no surprise that when Hannah decided to choose a name for her God-sent son, she settled on "Samuel," which literally means "asked of God." Samuel's very existence was due to his mother asking and asking and asking again for him.

This theme of asking God, of petitioning Him in prayer, was woven throughout Samuel's life. He never strayed far from it. Samuel was in continual communion with the Lord for the sake of others. And like the summit of a majestic mountain that pierces a shroud of mist, Samuel loftily expressed a perspective on prayer that rises above every earthly attitude and misconception about it:

"Far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you." 1 Samuel 12:23 (NKJV)

Samuel saw it as sin to not pray, and not just for himself, but also for other people. In conception, in name, and in the fabric of his life, Samuel is a character characterized by prayer.

Lord, we pray that You would touch our hearts in such a way that we would be more like Samuel and that our lives would be characterized by continual and constant communion with You. We pray that You would help us to grow past the things that keep us from having our hearts unceasingly tethered to Yours through prayer. May You change us in the deepest places of our soul so that our perspective on prayer is transformed from a task to a natural outflow of who we are in You.

Some Bible characters are so strong in one particular attribute that you immediately think of it whenever they're mentioned. In Jonathan's case, we immediately think of his faithful friendship towards David.

Jonathan defines all that a friend should be. He never once wavered in his support or loyalty towards David, which is all the more impressive when you understand the historical context of their friendship.

Keep in mind that Jonathan's father was Saul, the first-ever king of Israel. Conventional wisdom would say that the king's son, Jonathan, would be next in line to inherit the crown. But in this case, God had different plans. He chose to strip Saul of the kingdom and give it to an irrelevant shepherd boy named David.

If there were ever two people who seemed to be on a collision course, it was Jonathan and David. And yet, they were the closest of friends. Jonathan put loyalty ahead of his own desires. When it became clear God had chosen David to rule Israel, Jonathan didn't go into self-preservation mode. He faithfully stood by his friend, even at his own personal expense (1 Samuel 20).

What a precious commodity to have a Jonathan in your life! To have a friend who is tried and true, who stands by your side no matter what, who even puts the sanctity of your friendship ahead of his or her own desires.

In all likelihood, many of us don't have a friend like that. If not, why not let it start with us? Take the challenge to be a loyal and faithful friend, even if it comes at a personal expense. That kind of friendship has a way of being reciprocated, and if we're lacking that "Jonathan" in our lives, perhaps the solution is for us to be one.

A man who has friends must himself be friendly... Proverbs 18:24 (NKJV)