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.)