The compassion of Yahweh is something that we are thankful for but yet do not totally grasp. It is difficult for us because we can't fully understand our condition or situation in relation to our Creator. Most of us are not bent on death and destruction. We are fairly decent people, trying to be good to others, living a fair life. We don't see ourselves as evil or rebellious. We struggle to see that we were once the enemies of Yahweh. But we were.
Jesus once asked the question: Who would love most, the person forgiven a little or a person forgiven a lot? The answer of course was the person forgiven a lot because their wrong doing defined the quantity of the forgiveness, meaning, they owed more love to the forgiver. The darkness of our evil reveals the brilliance of Yahweh's compassion for us. Let's go back to the garden.
Yahweh had given Adam and Eve everything including his friendship. They had much joy just being with him. He also gave them only one simple rule: Don't eat from that one tree. There was only one way that they could mess this up, and that was by defying Yahweh by breaking the one rule. Of course that is what they did and as soon as they did it they became enemies of Yahweh. They had rebelled against him and brought chaos and destruction to all of creation. Because of their one act of rebellion, the brilliance of creation was suppressed and the relationship with the Creator was forever changed.
It is hard for us to relate to this because we never stood in that garden. We never walked with Yahweh in the cool of the evening. We never knew what it was to be innocent. It is hard for us to understand what was lost because we never knew what it was to be a friend of Yahweh. We cannot fully grasp how man's heart became redefined. That is why we need Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who put all these things in perspective and give us a glimpse of the conviction of our sinful rebellion. Why did Yahweh give us Jesus and Jesus the Spirit? Because of his great compassion.
There is something that stands out for me in the account of the Fall of man. We had become the enemy of Yahweh. He had passed sentence on Adam, Eve, and the serpent. He was removing us from his presence but not before he gave us a tiny glimpse of his wonderful compassion:
"Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them." (Genesis 3:21)
What? Why?
Yahweh, in his compassion, loved his enemy and clothed them before removing them. He didn't have to do that. He could have sent them out into the world naked and ashamed. He could have just turned his back and let them suffer their fate because of their hurtful rebellion. But despite the evil they had done; despite the hurt they had caused his heart; despite the fact they were his enemy, he took the time to care for them by clothing them. Look at this and realize the same heart that sent his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life, which is the opposite of the curse of their rebellious act. God is good, all the time. His compassion never fails.
Showing posts with label Genesis 3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Genesis 3. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Monday, July 7, 2014
The Lies Have Not Changed Since The Beginning Of Time
The tricks of the enemy haven't changed since the beginning of time. Why should he change when they work so well? Since the beginning he has muddied the water concerning Yahweh's instructions. He has planted doubt in what Yahweh has said and has even told lies in opposition to the truth. This is clear starting in the garden.
He came to Eve and planted a simple doubt:
“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)
What's great is that Eve did the right thing; she simply repeated what Yahweh had told them:
“We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (v. 2-3)
This is the same thing Jesus did when Satan came at him in the desert. In that situation the enemy tried to use Yahweh's words in a twisted way but Jesus straightened it out by responding with the Word. So it should be clear to us that our greatest weapon against the enemy's tricks is the Word of God properly applied. But in the case with Eve, he didn't just twist the words of Yahweh; in response to Eve's correct answer of truth, the enemy told a boldfaced lie mixed with truth:
“You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (v. 4-5)
That lie "you will not surely die", was enough to get Eve considering the fruit of the forbidden tree; the only thing Yahweh had withheld from them. Eve did not insist in the truth, even though she knew the instruction had came from the one who created and took care of her. It became a matter of trust. Who was telling her the truth. this serpent she did not know or the Creator who she knew intimately? If she had insisted in the truth her trust would have remained intact and she would have walked away from the temptation. This is why Jesus succeeded where Eve failed.
The enemy's tricks have not changed but neither have the tools to deal with him. Many today are failing and falling in their faith and trust in Yahweh because they have set aside the Word of God. When we set aside his instructions all we are left with is our self-centered instincts. We do what we feel is right instead of what Yahweh has defined as right. Like Eve, we look at sin and see it is "good" to participant in, it is "pleasant" to the eye, and it makes us "wise" in the eyes of this world. This is what happens to us when we set aside the truth of Yahweh's instructions.
It always comes down to the clear statement that Joshua gave to Israel when he told them that all possibilities lay before them but they had to decide who it was they were going to serve. If you love Jesus it will manifest in your desire to obey him with all your heart, to hold to the truth, to trust the one who gave the instructions. To not obey him is to choose another master. It really is as simple as making a choice.
He came to Eve and planted a simple doubt:
“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)
What's great is that Eve did the right thing; she simply repeated what Yahweh had told them:
“We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (v. 2-3)
This is the same thing Jesus did when Satan came at him in the desert. In that situation the enemy tried to use Yahweh's words in a twisted way but Jesus straightened it out by responding with the Word. So it should be clear to us that our greatest weapon against the enemy's tricks is the Word of God properly applied. But in the case with Eve, he didn't just twist the words of Yahweh; in response to Eve's correct answer of truth, the enemy told a boldfaced lie mixed with truth:
“You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (v. 4-5)
That lie "you will not surely die", was enough to get Eve considering the fruit of the forbidden tree; the only thing Yahweh had withheld from them. Eve did not insist in the truth, even though she knew the instruction had came from the one who created and took care of her. It became a matter of trust. Who was telling her the truth. this serpent she did not know or the Creator who she knew intimately? If she had insisted in the truth her trust would have remained intact and she would have walked away from the temptation. This is why Jesus succeeded where Eve failed.
The enemy's tricks have not changed but neither have the tools to deal with him. Many today are failing and falling in their faith and trust in Yahweh because they have set aside the Word of God. When we set aside his instructions all we are left with is our self-centered instincts. We do what we feel is right instead of what Yahweh has defined as right. Like Eve, we look at sin and see it is "good" to participant in, it is "pleasant" to the eye, and it makes us "wise" in the eyes of this world. This is what happens to us when we set aside the truth of Yahweh's instructions.
It always comes down to the clear statement that Joshua gave to Israel when he told them that all possibilities lay before them but they had to decide who it was they were going to serve. If you love Jesus it will manifest in your desire to obey him with all your heart, to hold to the truth, to trust the one who gave the instructions. To not obey him is to choose another master. It really is as simple as making a choice.
Friday, April 25, 2014
What To Do When Sin Keeps Knocking
There is a lot of garbage going on which is shooting holes in the faith of many people. When you start wiping out sections of the Word it leaves you wide open to the influence of the enemy. Without the Word you have no solid ground to stand on. That is going to leave you wide open to all kinds of twistings to the morality taught by the Word of God.
As if things weren't already bad enough.
People have always struggled over sin because they try to take it on themselves. They don't understand that sin was defeated by Jesus on the cross and not by our conviction that it is wrong. Conviction has us turn to the only one who can give us freedom; Jesus. Jesus defeated sin and we have been set free so we walk in that freedom.
But what do we do when we keep being defeated by temptation?
We need to understand the nature of temptation. It is attractive. That is how it is designed, to be attractive. It wants to grab our attention and cause us to look at it. It wants to capture our attention so that our heart and mind are distracted from their intended focus. Just look how it played out for Eve:
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. (Genesis 3:6)
Eve had successfully fended off the initial lie of the enemy. When he suggested that Eve had misunderstood what Yahweh had said, she told him exactly what he said. That would be great for some leaders to remember these days. But then he managed to convince Eve to consider the fruit. Eve saw the tree. She thought about it, set her mind on it and considered that it was good for food.
Rationalization.
It is dangerous when we start to rationalize sin.
As she continued to look on that forbidden thing her rationalization made it become attractive. It became pleasant to her eyes. That rationalization progressed to the point where the attraction became a desire and she convinced herself that it would actually prove beneficial even though it was disobedient to Yahweh.
All because she gave her mind and her heart to that thing when they actually belonged to someone else.
How do you resist temptation? Cut it off at the roots. Get your mind and heart off of that thing and get them where they belong:
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3)
Don't make the excuse that the temptation is too strong for you. It has no power over you because sin was stripped of it's power. Now it comes down to your love. Who do you love more, Jesus Christ who died for you, or yourself with all your selfish desires?
Sin has been defeated. Satan has been defeated. You only have one King. Get your eyes off of the "tree" and on the King. Get you mind and heart out of the garbage and get them set on the Kingdom things. Decide who you love and act accordingly. He has empowered you to live a godly life. It's your choice.
Look in the mirror and speak the truth into your life, "I am set free!"
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Are We Still Falling For The Lie?
Many of us in the Church are victims of the enemy's lies without even knowing it. In fact, he has done such a good job that we defend his lies as being good for us. We have gone so far off of God's path for us that God's ways have become something foreign to us. The thing is, the enemy is still using the same old trick and we keep falling for it.
From the very first day God desired to have a rich relationship with us. Many of us consider the walks Adam had with God something precious and for which to long. It wasn't complicated with God in the beginning; there was only one simple rule. But that one simple rule was enough for our enemy to use to separate us from God. Do not eat from this tree, was all God stated, and then all the enemy had to do was plant a seed of thought.
Eve did a good job in correcting the enemy when he tried to twist God's words. Eve told him that it wasn't what God said and then repeated back to the enemy what God had said. She did better than many of us do today. She did exactly what Jesus did when he was tempted by the enemy. But then the enemy planted a thought that Eve found hard to resist; he promised her knowledge. We bear witness to the progression of thought as Eve faced this temptation and in it we see the logic of our own thinking.
First Eve actually took the time to look at the tree, which was her big mistake. The enemy actually got her to consider what he was saying, even though he was accusing God of lying. She looked at the tree and considered that it was good for food. We reason away our disobedience. God didn't say it wouldn't be good for food but it was never about the benefits of the tree and always about obedience to God. But she looked and her intelligence told her it was good for food.
In looking she discovered that the tree was a delight to look upon. It was a thing of beauty. Surely something that brought so much pleasure to her senses could not be bad. Even as the thought settled in she was subconsciously saying God was indeed a liar. It stopped being about obedience to God and became a thing that made her feel good.
In accepting the pleasure it brought, her logic then took her to the great benefit it would bring. It was a tree that would give her wisdom, making her better than she was. After all, isn't wisdom a great thing to have? She placed her desires above the thing of singular importance in her relationship with God; obedience.
I am sure you can see how this applies to this continuing lie of the enemy. We place obedience to God as secondary importance to many other things in our life. Human logic prevails. Anything that doesn't seem to make sense in God's commands and desire for us we simply dismiss and replace it with rational thinking. Anyone who does not have a relationship with God would find my words foreign and silly. Of course rational thinking is what we should be seeking. Knowledge is what we seek. Even if it takes us to places God told us not to go. Or, at least that is where our thought process takes us; our human wisdom.
No one would deny our focus on pleasure these days. We once worked for fulfillment but now we work so we can afford our pleasures and it is the pleasures that give us fulfillment. Everything is focused on what makes us feel good. It doesn't matter that any of these things go against God's morality and will; all that matters is that it makes us feel good, so it must be good.
Logical thinking sees a pastor and congregation support homosexual marriage and keeps us silent on everything else. But homosexuality is not the big sin we make it out to be because it is the denial of Jesus for which we will be judged. Many of us, if not all, deny Jesus in many ways as we disobey God in our hearts as we seek after the lies of the enemy. We can confess him with our lips but deny him in our disobedience to his will. It doesn't matter what we consider to be good. The only judge on that matter is God and it is why we cannot obey without trusting that he is good.
We should be very thankful for this age of grace because all of us would be lost without it. However, falling for the lies while relying on grace is not going to see our relationship with God increase. We are not going to discover the wonders of spiritual maturity. We are not going to progress in what matters most. No, in order to enjoy the rich fellowship of our God we need to foster the desire to be obedient to him. Not obedience in a cold religious way but in a deep fellowship of love, where our every desire is to live the will of the Father, just like Jesus.
To progress in maturity we need to discover the spiritual strength of denying the enemy by denying ourselves. Our pleasure is not found in the things of man's thinking and imagination; it isn't found in rational thinking; it is only found in the rich relationship that fosters obedience. At least ask the Father to open your eyes to your true spiritual condition under the influence of the enemy.
From the very first day God desired to have a rich relationship with us. Many of us consider the walks Adam had with God something precious and for which to long. It wasn't complicated with God in the beginning; there was only one simple rule. But that one simple rule was enough for our enemy to use to separate us from God. Do not eat from this tree, was all God stated, and then all the enemy had to do was plant a seed of thought.
Eve did a good job in correcting the enemy when he tried to twist God's words. Eve told him that it wasn't what God said and then repeated back to the enemy what God had said. She did better than many of us do today. She did exactly what Jesus did when he was tempted by the enemy. But then the enemy planted a thought that Eve found hard to resist; he promised her knowledge. We bear witness to the progression of thought as Eve faced this temptation and in it we see the logic of our own thinking.
First Eve actually took the time to look at the tree, which was her big mistake. The enemy actually got her to consider what he was saying, even though he was accusing God of lying. She looked at the tree and considered that it was good for food. We reason away our disobedience. God didn't say it wouldn't be good for food but it was never about the benefits of the tree and always about obedience to God. But she looked and her intelligence told her it was good for food.
In looking she discovered that the tree was a delight to look upon. It was a thing of beauty. Surely something that brought so much pleasure to her senses could not be bad. Even as the thought settled in she was subconsciously saying God was indeed a liar. It stopped being about obedience to God and became a thing that made her feel good.
In accepting the pleasure it brought, her logic then took her to the great benefit it would bring. It was a tree that would give her wisdom, making her better than she was. After all, isn't wisdom a great thing to have? She placed her desires above the thing of singular importance in her relationship with God; obedience.
I am sure you can see how this applies to this continuing lie of the enemy. We place obedience to God as secondary importance to many other things in our life. Human logic prevails. Anything that doesn't seem to make sense in God's commands and desire for us we simply dismiss and replace it with rational thinking. Anyone who does not have a relationship with God would find my words foreign and silly. Of course rational thinking is what we should be seeking. Knowledge is what we seek. Even if it takes us to places God told us not to go. Or, at least that is where our thought process takes us; our human wisdom.
No one would deny our focus on pleasure these days. We once worked for fulfillment but now we work so we can afford our pleasures and it is the pleasures that give us fulfillment. Everything is focused on what makes us feel good. It doesn't matter that any of these things go against God's morality and will; all that matters is that it makes us feel good, so it must be good.
Logical thinking sees a pastor and congregation support homosexual marriage and keeps us silent on everything else. But homosexuality is not the big sin we make it out to be because it is the denial of Jesus for which we will be judged. Many of us, if not all, deny Jesus in many ways as we disobey God in our hearts as we seek after the lies of the enemy. We can confess him with our lips but deny him in our disobedience to his will. It doesn't matter what we consider to be good. The only judge on that matter is God and it is why we cannot obey without trusting that he is good.
We should be very thankful for this age of grace because all of us would be lost without it. However, falling for the lies while relying on grace is not going to see our relationship with God increase. We are not going to discover the wonders of spiritual maturity. We are not going to progress in what matters most. No, in order to enjoy the rich fellowship of our God we need to foster the desire to be obedient to him. Not obedience in a cold religious way but in a deep fellowship of love, where our every desire is to live the will of the Father, just like Jesus.
To progress in maturity we need to discover the spiritual strength of denying the enemy by denying ourselves. Our pleasure is not found in the things of man's thinking and imagination; it isn't found in rational thinking; it is only found in the rich relationship that fosters obedience. At least ask the Father to open your eyes to your true spiritual condition under the influence of the enemy.
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