The big lie

“And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:”

The woman took the bait when the serpent manufactured the lie. The first thing to do when the serpent tried to lead you astray is to follow the Lord’s example and tell him to get behind you (see Luke 4: 8), don’t answer his question. Even though Eve quoted God’s words correctly, she was engaged and ready to listen to the next part of the conversation. After creating some doubt in Eve’s mind the serpent told her that God was wrong. It is important to remember that liars tell lies and the father of lies tells lies as his heart language (see John 8: 44). It is also important to remember that liars tell lies, they do not keep the promises that they make. When Satan tempted the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 4), he promised to give him all the kingdoms of the world. Of course, he had no intention of giving him all the kingdoms of the world because he wants them for himself. He told Eve a lie and Eve believed him but God had told the truth and Eve experienced the full consequences of her choice. Notice that Satan didn’t try to defend her in any way. He tells lies and he rejoices when someone actually believes the lies. This encourages him to keep telling lies to other people as well. The only defence against Satan is to know God’s Words and to use them as the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6: 17). Don’t allow anyone to seduce into using some paraphrase that doesn’t have the true words of God but the words of man.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

The subtil serpent

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

God had made everything very good and He had given everyone choice so that they could increase their appreciation of His goodness. However, God has absolute integrity and this means that people can choose either way. Satan, the father of all lies, chose to take the form of a serpent and came with his lies. He doesn’t only tell lies, he manufactures lies as well. That is, he uses part of the truth but not the whole truth so that a person is led astray. In this case, God had spoken to Adam concerning the tree but, it seems, that Eve didn’t know the whole truth, either because Adam hadn’t told her or because she wasn’t really listening when Adam told her. Either way, Adam bears some responsibility for not making sure that she understood the message that God gave them.

Satan’s lies often start with a question that hints at the truth but are determined to lead astray. In 2 Corinthians 11: 3 we get an understanding of what subtil means when we see that the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty. He was able to corrupt her from the simplicity of the message that God gave. It is important for us all to remember that Satan is a liar and he never tells the full truth. The only way to fight Satan is to use the full armour of God (see Ephesians 6: 13-18). The first item is the belt of truth, God always tells the truth but Satan always manufactures lies. It is incumbent on every one of God’s people to know the truth. We have another powerful weapon to fight agains the lies and that is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Using the word of God we can follow the Lord Jesus Christ’s example and defeat Satan with the truth of the word.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

Commitment first

“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”

This is the section of the Bible that tells us about marriage. Some people try to suggest that the Bible doesn’t require marriage, however, the pattern is established in this section. The first step is to make a public commitment and the second step is to enjoy the benefits. A person is brought up in their parents home and, under God’s Law, are bound to honour their parents and live under their rules. At some stage a person is called upon to make a public commitment to leave his parents home and establish his own home. After the public commitment is made then the people can move in together and begin to establish their own family. Any other way is wrong.

The second issue here concerns our attitude to our spouse and to God. They were both naked and without shame. It is important for every person to have a completely open and honest relationship with God. If we have things in our lives that make us ashamed then we need to confess them before God and open every room of our minds to His cleansing presence.

In our relationship with our spouses it is important to be open as well. Each person tries to keep some secrets but these are better not kept. However, the person keeping the secret is not always in the wrong. If a person is completely honest with another person and the second person uses their honesty as ammunition is the struggle for power in the relationship then the second person is in the wrong.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

Bone of my bone...

“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

The Lord made all His creatures male and female, however, He only made Adam and then used on of his ribs to make Eve. This demonstrates that Adam and Eve are different, before God to all the other creatures that God made.

All the other creatures needed to have mates so that they can breed and fill the earth but the Lord gave Adam his wife as a special gift. This is partly because they were both made in God’s image and both designed to have a relationship with God. This adds the extra emotional component to both Adam and Eve as they were made from the same material and they are designed to live in relationship with each other. Even though there are some people who have been called by God to live single lives the majority of people are designed to live in a relationship with a person of opposite genetic code.

When God calls someone to live the life of a single person they are given special grace to live under those circumstances. This is something that each individual has to work out in their relationship with God (see Matt 19: 12). No one else has the authority to demand that another person has to remain single in order to serve God, this is a pagan superstition.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

For the task

“And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.”

This passage gives an explanation of why it was not good for the man to be alone. God gave him the task of naming all the living creatures and he was able to complete that task but all the other creatures had mates while Adam was completely alone. This reminds us of Moses when he was in the wilderness and spent most of his time dealing with the people of Israel. His father in law suggested that he appoint counsellors to help him with the task of leading the people and the Lord gave him the wisdom to select seventy men (see Num 11: 16). In this case Adam had the strength for the task that God had given him but he needed help for the day to day task of being God’s agent in the world.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

Help meet

“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.”

This verse shows us that humans are divided in three separate parts: the first is the material part that God created, the second, shown here is the emotional part, that is, the part that needs companionship and the third part is the spiritual part that was made in God’s own image to have an eternal relationship with God. Even though people can exist with water and food, they have no quality of life without relationships with other people. Unless we have other people in our lives, our lives become barren and worthless. When we achieve something that is achievement gives us pleasure when we can share the joy with other people. This fact is also important in the church as well. Some people are Christians but they don’t like the church and won’t attend but it is not good for a Christian to be alone, each Christians needs the company of other Christians before they can enjoy the full benefits of their Christianity.

This verse does not consign women to an inferior role. The Lord may suggest that He is making a help for the man but this doesn’t mean a servant. While this is the first occasion of the word “help” in the Bible we can look to the last time help occurs in Rev 12: 16. In this case the woman is in trouble and the earth comes to her rescue. The earth is not the woman’s servant in that case but a fellow helper in her struggle and together the overcome. The Lord knew that Adam needed a fellow traveller to share the burdens of being God’s agent on the earth and He provided someone who was appropriate to the task. He didn’t give Adam another man so that Adam could get another perspective on every situation. “Meet” can be interpreted by looking in 2 Pet 1: 13 where we see that “meet” simply means appropriate. God knew exactly the kind of person that Adam would need to be his fellow traveller and He provided the appropriate person. This shows that each person has a different role but they are equal, however, God gave Adam the task of being His agent and Eve the task of being his fellow traveller in this task.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

Thou shalt surely die

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

This is the passage that sets the tone for the whole of the Bible and our relationship with God. we discussed this issue earlier but it is vital to a proper understanding of the way God deals with us. This is the place where the Lord first offered Adam a choice. Even though it looks like a command it really is the first offer of choice. God created man in His own image so that we could have a relationship with God however God didn’t choose to force us to have that relationship, He gave us a choice, for the command ends with the option of consequences for those who eat. A proper understanding of this will lead us to a proper understanding of issues like predestination and belonging to the elect. God has predestined the method whereby people can enjoy all the goodness that He has to offers. He elects that those who choose to enjoy His love will indeed enjoy His love in abundance. However, He also maintains His perfect integrity and allows any person to get whatever the choose. If we choose to reject God’s love then we will surely die. There is the long slow process of physical death that begins in our bodies when we are born, and as we are all born in sin and shapen in iniquity (see Psalm 51: 5) we cannot escape that. However, when we choose to ignore God’s death we immediately experience spiritual death. God, however, is gracious and He takes His time in giving us the final consequence of eternal separation from His love so that we can have a chance to change our choice. Of course all this is only possible, in a legal sense, because God chose to send His Only Begotten Son to die for our sins.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

A river out of Eden

“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”

The first thing to notice about this section is that it was written at the time that it occurred. The writer refers to places that he knows about and assumes that all his readers know about as well. We would have to assume that the original document was written before the Flood, otherwise how would people trying to reconstruct these things after flood know what to write. Apart from Adam and his family, everyone was dead.

But, some might say, how come there are two rivers that we know about today? There are two possible ways to explain this: the first is that Noah and his family, who came out of the ark in the same region that the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have their sources. Any person who lives in one of the newer countries like the US or Australia know that settlers will name rivers and towns after places in their homeland. Noah and his family would have wanted to name these rivers after some that they remembered from before the Flood. The other possibility is that The names of the older rivers were written in cuneiform script and different people read the same symbols in different ways so that scribes after the Flood read the original cuneiform and interpreted the names in their own language. However, the first explanation fits the story best.

In spite of Higher Criticism, a person reading these documents would have to accept that they were originally written to be believes as written. This happened long before the crazy Humpty Dumpty world of “Words means whatever I want them to mean”.

1 Cor 14: 33 reminds us that God is not the author of confusion but of peace. If God is not the author of confusion then He would not give us language for communication and then use word to confuse u.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

High and lifted up.

“And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

The amazing thing about this verse is that it talks about factories. Each tree contains many factories and each factory is called a leaf. These leaves capture energy from the sun, using chlorophyl as a catalyst and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to create the basic energy, carbohydrates, that every living thing needs. Carbon dioxide constitutes only about .04% of the gases in the atmosphere, while oxygen constitutes about 20% of the gases in the atmosphere. Isn’t it incredible that the LORD God is able to use only .04% of the gases in the atmosphere to produce all the energy that every living creature needs to live? Our job is to be impressed with the greatness of our God and His amazing ability to supply everything that we need with so little effort on His part. We live in a day when people talk about the importance in having great faith but we just need faith the size of a mustard seed (very small, see Matt 13: 31). It is the size of our God that matters not the size of our faith or ability.

The other interesting things about this verse is that it introduces the concept of choice into the human story. God gave us the ability to choose as a sign of His grace (see The Scarlet Thread for a full justification of this). If we choose to enjoy God’s love then our enjoyment of that love is significantly greater than if we are forced to enjoy God’s love. However, as God has perfect integrity, He gives us whatever we choose, with the overriding codicil that He takes His time in giving us the consequences of any choice not to enjoy His love in case we want to change our minds. This is another fact that gives evidence to the majesty and greatness of our God.

This is now the time for every Christian to devote their time to enjoying the greatness of our God and to put every thought of our own effort or ability to one side. Christianity is always small people doing small things in a small way, in conjunction with Almighty God doing almighty things in His almighty way. All we need is to be like Isaiah and have a vision of “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up...” (Is 6: 1)

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

A garden in Eden

“And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.”

In His wisdom and grace the LORD God gave us a complete record of the process of creation. He left nothing out and handed the record to Adam so that he could understand what God had done. However, when God finished the entire process we read that He rested. The LORD God rested because His creation was very good and there was nothing left to do. The LORD God was not tired in any way from the work of creation but He knew that, one day, some of His creatures would be tired so He set aside a day of rest. This is still not the end of the story. Why did God go through this whole process? He planted a garden eastward in Eden and put the man there. God had a plan and a purpose and this involved supplying the man He had formed with everything that He needed and giving him a purpose as well. This sets the pattern for God relationship with every person on earth. Within the context of the curse, which came later, the Lord God always supplies His people with everything they need, more than enough, and gives each one of us a purpose to live for as well. Our job is just to make sure that we do all that we can to appreciate the majesty and greatness of our God and lift up His Name in everything that we do.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

Recycling

“And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

At this stage of the earth’s history there was no rain. The Lord watered the plants with a mist and all the animals ate plants at that stage. It is interesting to note that that there is a bear in North America, the brown bear, that has an carnivorous intestinal tract but it is herbivorous. There is evidence in nature to support all the facts that are stated in the Bible if you are willing to observe and interpret with an open mind. The Lord also formed man out of the dust of the earth. It is interesting to note that when a person dies they eventually return to the dust. Another fact that we can enjoy is the fact that the Lord God invented recycling. One of the fist facts that students learn in elementary science is the fact that matter is neither created or destroyed, it just changes form. The theory of relativity expands this to show that matter can be transformed in energy under special circumstances. God, in His wisdom, established this pattern so that every living thing will eventually return to dust so that all the matter can be recycled indefinitely.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

The first colophon

“These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,”

This verse gives us the first of the colophons in the book of Genesis. Archaeologists have discovered cuneiform tablets with this kind of colophon at the end to show who was the author. There are a series of these colophons in the book of Genesis but they don’t occur anywhere else in the Bible. This is because the original material for the book of Genesis came from Mesopotamia and these tablets were written according to their methods. The source material for the end of Genesis came from Joseph but he was trained in the style of the Egyptians so he didn’t use a cuneiform colophon. When Moses left Egypt, he had the original documents and collected them as an introduction to the other information that he received from the Lord.

This first document was written by the hand of the Lord, just as the tablets of the Ten Commandments were. There is no such thing as two different accounts of creation, there is God’s account, which He gave to Adam and then there is Adam’s account that begins with his introduction to the scene on the sixth day. If we are willing to see these documents as high quality historical documents then we will save ourselves a lot of confusion and even unbelief.

Isn’t it better to accept God’s account that to believe in Darwin’s attempts to prove that his race was superior to all the other races.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

Finished and rest

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”

This verse connects three aspects of God’s work permanently: very good, finished and rest. God doesn’t ever do anything that is less than very good. He doesn’t consider anything until it is finished and when the work is finished then there is rest. God doesn’t rest because He is tired, He rests because He is finished and there is nothing left to do. To imagine that the Gap Theory has any truth and then see that God rests because He has finished a very good work is to imagine that God is content with something that is less than very good.

There is another issue that every Christian should immediately consider when they read the word “finished” and that is the Lord’s cry from the cross: “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” (John 19: 30) and the words from His prayer “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” (John 17: 4) If we compare spiritual things with spiritual (1 Cor 2: 13) things then we can rejoice that the work that Christ finished on the cross is very good and leads to eternal rest, which is equivalent to everlasting life.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)

It is very good

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

When God finished the work of creation, he observed everything that He had made and saw that it was very good. Along the way, God looked at the things that He had made and step by step they were good but when the whole of creation was complete God sees that everything is very good. This establishes an important principle for the whole of the Bible, whenever God does things they are always very good. God never does anything that is less than very good. This is the main reason why God sent His only begotten Son to be the Saviour of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ was the only One Who could actually do a very good job. No one else was in His league but now that He has purchased our salvation with His own blood we have the kind of salvation that is very good. This means that no one can improve on the salvation that was bought by the blood of the Lamb of God. Anyone who wants to say that this salvation is less than sufficient is saying that God does things that are less than very good. However, God only does things that are very good and, If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)