Noah

By Matt Giamarco

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

--Genesis 1:1-2

Dear faithful reader,

This is how God begins His story. A long story of "creation, subsequent fall, and final restoration of fallen humanity that God accomplishes through the death, resurrection, and return of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Allen Bradberry).

As you read, you will see my life undergo a God-driven paradigm shift toward a stronger commitment to God with a fuller, more in-depth understanding.

As Jesus died on the cross He said, "It is finished."

Yes, it is finished, the forgiveness of all our sins. The greatest triumph in the history of mankind. Forgiveness. Absolution. Exoneration. Justification and righteous before our Lord. A free, undeserved grace deposited on our behalf to allow our souls to present unblemished on the threshold of God's eternal throne. It is a perfect unconditional love. Can you imagine a God who bends His will to loving wretches like us continuously and forgivingly without boundary? It surpasses all understanding and eclipses all free thought.

I hope you will see this play out as God intended in this version of a modern-day world succumbed by a long-term blitz of sin and moral depravity and its redemption.

Hi. I am Noah. I live in this mid-twenty-first-century world. A society in the throngs of Babylonian debauchery and will suffer a modern-day version of the great flood. Through a force majeure of God's will, this secular world view will bring about a real apocalyptic destruction to Earth.

It is true by Jesus's death, we are all forgiven, but have we all repented? This spiritual allegory is written in honor of God's will. It will hopefully force you to ponder and decide if you are aligned with the Holy Spirit, Jesus's representative here on Earth until we are reunited with him in eternity.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,

Noah

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885400077

Book preview

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Noah

Matt Giamarco

ISBN 979-8-88540-006-0 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88540-007-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Matt Giamarco

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Me

Valedictorian

Papa

The New Girl, Johnny, And The Project

The Librarian

The Interview

The Dream Date

The Batting Cage

Jennifer

Soul Cleansing

The Ring

Jenny's Plan

Almost Caught

Two Become One

Graduation And Marriage

Failure Is Not An Option

Armageddon

Liftoff

Reed

Mother Earth

The Vision

The Mission

Hubble

The Bingham Canyon Mine

Epilogue

Additional Reading

Notes

Sources

Scripture Index

About the Author

To Jesus, for dying to bare ALL my sins, to the Holy Spirit for discernment, guidance, and all things considered fruitful in my walk with Jesus and to our Lord God who created all things, the heavens, and the earth.

Foreword

This is a wonderful book that finds our main character Noah traversing through the many journeys in his life. Like Noah, we, too, may be curious about our life and why we are here.

Dr. G. has given us an opportunity to discover that question for ourselves as he has punctuated this book with chapter after chapter of Noah's life and also with the inerrant word of God, spoken through the prophets. Thus, the Bible is the logos (written) word of God, and rhema is the spoken word. That is why it is important to immerse ourselves in the Bible…basic instructions before leaving Earth.

Noah is a gifted prodigy both in study and athletic ability, albeit he has his struggles; however, the one thing this young man has, in his own words, is an insatiable desire to understand the why of things. In other words, Noah has a teachable spirit.

This is never more evident than when he meets the librarian Mrs. Jacobs. I believe this is one of the most important chapters for two reasons. First, the Lord has put someone in Noah's life, and second, she is following the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19–20). As a young man of twelve, I had a similar experience. The Lord in His infinite mercy put Mrs. Oliver in my life. I came into her seventh-grade class reading at a third grade level, and she saved my life in a different way. She said, Young man, you will not leave my class until you can read at this grade level. As Mrs. Oliver lives with me in spirit, I am sure Mrs. Jacobs lives in spirit with Noah.

One of Noah's first instincts is to blame God. Many of us can identify. We all have struggles and deep questions of life and death. These questions can cause us to become anxious and even discouraged about life. But in this moment for Noah, there was someone meaningful who could help this young man with what he was going through. Mrs. Jacobs helped Noah to come to KNOW God (John 17:3), not just know about Him.

As Dr. G writes, Sometimes, God allows us to go through difficult times. It's His way of testing us and our faith in Him. The author has laid out the ground work of the beauty of the Triune God through Noah's life—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

"For we are God's handiwork [another translation says Masterpiece] created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph. 2:10). Our Lord has gifted us all. It is up to us to seek Him to find our gifting and to use it for His glory.

With both humor and wonder, this book speaks to and guides us into a more committed relationship with our Savior. To all who read this work, may the love and peace of Christ be yours.

Pastor Jose Figueroa

Preface

Writing this book has been a lifelong process. What started as a short three-page story in my junior year English class finally became this book. It had been written and rewritten then put on the back burner for years then rewritten again and then tucked away again. This process was on the repeat cycle for so many years I lost count. I believe it was a honing process orchestrated by God until I finally and recently relinquished it to His will. God changed the story theme and charged it with His purpose.

Then it took off.

It is a creative story that will be the first of a series bringing main characters into real conflict, becoming saved and paying it forward as a disciple like Jesus taught us. In becoming saved, the character still has challenges and real struggles reflecting what God teaches in James 1:2–3. This scripture verse became a focal point for me in my personal struggles and is what began the cascade of my rising faith and climb out of my extreme personal struggles with sin and my being forgiven.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to my church, Grace Chapel, in Lexington, Massachusetts. It is there I was introduced to Jesus and my new family of believers and brothers in Christ.

These people I am about to acknowledge have no idea the impact they had on me in writing this book, and most have no idea I am writing a book. Their impact in my life each in their own way led to my renewed faith and baptism, which, in turn, led to my refocusing the story line to what God intended it to be.

To Pastor Rich Rhodes for my baptism that changed my life. Also for his spiritual strength as a long-standing pastor of Grace Chapel, but more so for his physical strength in being strong enough to lift my heavy body out of the water while baptizing me. Pastor, I know I am not a ninety-pound weakling.

To the men of the Wednesday morning and evening Bible study men's groups. These are men living real life struggles and dealing with that by leaning entirely on the faith God gave them. I am indebted to them for my continued study of His word, which enlightens me every week to the immense love God has for us and for allowing my loquacious nature to flourish. They are truly the iron sharpening iron (Prov. 27:17).

To Mel Lima who, with his steadfast faith, patience, and love of God, spent his precious time with me every week sharing the gospel and God's love. Burton's will miss us.

To Tim (Hyunsuk) Lim, who coined the phrase Either way, I'm okay, referencing Paul's terms with death while in prison in his letter to the Philippians 1:21, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." This scripture has become a mantra I am still struggling with.

To Pastor Jose Figueroa for his undying love of God and unselfish weekly devotions with me, discipling me in His word and praying to this day. The first thing he taught me was, Grace…is God giving us what we do not deserve. Mercy…is God keeping from us what we do deserve. I am and will be eternally grateful.

To the creators of Zoom. Through their technology, I was able to keep in close personal contact with ALL my Christian brothers.

And ultimately, I am just glad to serve Him.

Dr. Matteo Giamarco

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

—Philippians 1:21

Either way, I'm okay.

—Timothy H. S. Min

Prologue

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

—Genesis 1:1–2

Dear faithful reader,

This is how God begins His story. A long story of creation, subsequent fall, and final restoration of fallen humanity that God accomplishes through the death, resurrection, and return of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Allen Bradberry).

As you read, you will see my life undergo a God-driven paradigm shift toward a stronger commitment to God with a fuller, more in-depth understanding.

As Jesus died on the cross He said, "It is finished."

Yes, it is finished, the forgiveness of all our sins. The greatest triumph in the history of mankind. Forgiveness. Absolution. Exoneration. Justification and righteous before our Lord. A free, undeserved grace deposited on our behalf to allow our souls to present unblemished on the threshold of God's eternal throne. It is a perfect unconditional love. Can you imagine a God who bends His will to loving wretches like us continuously and forgivingly without boundary? It surpasses all understanding and eclipses all free thought.

I hope you will see this play out as God intended in this version of a modern-day world succumbed by a long-term blitz of sin and moral depravity and its redemption.

Hi. I am Noah. I live in this mid-twenty-first-century world. A society in the throngs of Babylonian debauchery and will suffer a modern-day version of the great flood. Through a force majeure of God's will, this secular world view will bring about a real apocalyptic destruction to Earth.

It is true by Jesus's death, we are all forgiven, but have we all repented? This spiritual allegory is written in honor of God's will. It will hopefully force you to ponder and decide if you are aligned with the Holy Spirit, Jesus's representative here on Earth until we are reunited with him in eternity.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,

Noah

1

Me

Life's funny. It's filled with so many surprises—some sweet, some sour, some you want to cherish forever, and some you wish you could erase completely. There is nothing more desirable in the pursuit of or more enriching and more honorable in its association with than the honor of the highest academic achievement from your class of a prestigious university.

Earning the achievement of valedictorian at MIT was the crown jewel of my accomplishments, but it had come at a high price. I just turned eighteen and void of youth. Yes, it's true; no one my age in the history of this prodigious institution had ever pulled off this Cracker Jack box surprise.

The long hours of study and eye-blurring research I could do without. The missed adolescence, however, was an irretrievable loss. I would do anything to have it returned or on loan for just a few more years. If valedictorian had anything to do with maturity or life's preparedness, forget it. I was lucky if I knew a cartoon, had a best friend my age, or cared about being cool.

Of course, the blame falls mostly on me. I suffered from an instinctual drone like aptitude for space and earth's meaningless incidentals, like why colliding objects deflect in various angles or the effects of different mediums on propellers as they flow through them. I studied astrophysics, which combined so many of these and more of my eccentric interests. A perfect union of student and major. Yes, pondering, studying, experimenting, and logging the data of these phenomena to me is the same feeling as hitting a baseball off the sweet spot of a pine Louisville slugger. I know because I was a gifted ball player as well. My mother, a pure-bred Boston Italian, called it God's gift.

They proved to be of pivotal significance in the design of my space project at MIT. These mathematical occurrences I knew were designed to be taken for granted by normal people, like walking and breathing. I just had an insatiable desire to understand the details, the why. Get to the microscopic level and beyond if there was a beyond, and I am in my happy place.

As a result of this determination, my childhood was brandished by an intellect at an exceptionally young age. It resulted in chastisement, bullying, and the typical boiler plate anti-behavior toward me as one would expect, I guess. The neighborhood kids, classmates, and occasionally, even my parents were guilty of this enigma where I am not understood AT ALL.

There was, however, one exception. She showed no bias, just what appeared to be innocent affection or curiosity. She was a cute girl my age who lived just a few blocks on the south side of town, Jennifer Whitmore. While playing hoop in my matchstick-sized driveway, I caught her many fleeting glances during her ride-byes on her bicycle. It wasn't random. No way. It was obvious. She was baiting me.

She was not an only child. Her precocious younger brother, Jimmy, openly exposed her one day, Jennifer has a crush on youuu! Jennifer has a crush on youuu, haha! he irritatingly screamed.

She was embarrassed, elusive, and disappeared as quick as a snap. It still aroused a puppy-like curiosity in me that lasted.

This daily ritual ended the very next day. It made me wish she was an only child, no irritating little brother to ruin what we may have had. My ritualistic hoop shooting no longer baited any other Jennifer Whitmore ride-byes. In fact, I never saw her again for a long time after. She had become an evanescent memory. As if a reality turned to a dream. After a while, as her memory faded, I began wondering if her apparent attraction to me was ever really true.

My reward for being addicted to learning the science of life, space, and its continuum became my inescapable cause to my cluelessness of life's more important mysteries—dating and human social behavior. These were true conundrums. It got worse as I immersed myself deeper in my research. Jennifer was not forgotten but placed in a memory file for later…hopefully, maybe.

Unlike her, I am an only child. My mother gave birth to me in a place that no longer exists, the defunct Boston Lying Inn. Its termination had been befitting that of an old army veteran who died alone, anonymously and without a living relative.

There had been no traceable account no headstone depicting its years of existence including an address, which had been 13-A. Its address sat between numbers 13 and 15. There was never a 13-b so there was no remnant address left behind as well. There was not even a metal skeleton, nothing, except the flat parcel of dirt it once occupied that is now an asphalt parking lot.

It had once stood in the face of Harvard Medical School across The Row known as Longwood Avenue. The hospital had fought long, hard battles in much the same way as that anonymous soldier. There it had taken all the indigent cases Harvard turned away, including my family. It had forged its way as a makeshift hospice over the years. A facility that had settled on a sort of socialized medicine assisting the needy to-be families.

Harvard Medical had been too strong, too full of alma mater lawyers and investment bankers and too fearless to put up with any more embarrassment. It used its power to shut down the facility. Once the appropriate papers were signed and proverbial arm twisting accomplished, it was just a flash of an explosion, and the facility was torn down and its remains shoveled away as if it were roadkill. Nothing remained.

It simply vanished. Fourteen stories of hundred-year-old concrete, mortar, and memories of origin of the indigent like mine were gone in an instant. When Harvard and MIT were actively pursuing me to attend their universities, MIT was an easy choice for me.

Ironically, I had grown up only a stone's throw from my illustrious university just across the bay in the famed harbor town of Chelsea. A small city teaming with simple folk that had been squeezed tightly into a small geographical area—human sardines.

It contained within its diminutive parameters a favorable population density of economically challenged blue-collar people. A tempting money morsel for small business marketing ventures. It, however, bared an average income level too low for a tycoon attack.

Unlike the other surrounding communities, it remained a thickly settled township rich in mostly Italian Catholic and Jewish ethnic tradition and culture, uncontaminated by big-chain moneymakers. The values held by these faiths allowed this Mayberry town to keep its clean, traditional neighborhoods and town center free from the unsightly scenery blocking billboards and vast asphalt parking lots.

Being raised there with my parents, mainly Papa because Mama was just happy I was healthy, brought with it great expectations of a major league baseball career. A career that was to exist not just with any team but with the Boston Red Sox.

Papa was a real living and breathing blue-collar carpenter from the deep south…South Boston. He was an Italian implant in an Irish world. Eventually, he moved to Chelsea but the accent never left.

They were Papa's favorite team of all time. He felt their farm and minor league teams were the birthplace of baseball's historically most talented ball players that the MLB has ever seen. Any of Papa's conversations eventually evolved around the team's rich history. An attempt