Tag: Garden of Eden

Where are You? ~ the Great Question

On By francesrogersIn GOD'S WORD13 Comments

“Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” Gen. 3:9

I remember as a young child crouching in the corner of a small coat closet. I don’t recall why except that I wanted to be alone. I had either done something wrong and dreaded facing the consequences or at the worst, been chastised already. I don’t remember how long it took my parents to find me. It was usually my dad who chastised me and knew where I was.

We can ask many questions in this life ~ “Who am I?” “Why am I here?
What is the purpose of life? “How did we get here? “Will there be an end?”, etc.

God asked the great question at the beginning of His creation to settle the consequences of our disobedience. When we know where we are, we know where to find the answer to all other questions.

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

The Lord was not looking for or calling Eve, but Adam, because it was to Adam He gave the commandment, “Do not eat…..”. 

So Adam said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 

Adam was not lost to the Lord, the Creator. He was hiding because of his shame and guilt. His disobedience separated Him from the Lord. Sin robs us of His presence with us.

11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

Adam shifted the blame for his sin to his wife, so the Lord turns to her to deal with her sin.

13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The Lord then turns to address the action of the serpent.

“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” Gen. 3:14-16

That done, He comes back to Eve to settle her account in the matter.
As the mother of all flesh, women fall under the same condemnation. 

But let’s remember the first promise of a Savior is made through the punishment of the serpent which applies to all creatures in future generations.

“He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
The serpent’s seed is the power and spirit of the evil one and her Seed is the power and Spirit of the promised Messiah, the Son, Jesus Christ. Though Jesus’ heel was bruised as He hung on the cross, the head of the enemy, his power and rebellion were overcome. “Death, (the punishment for sin,) was swallowed up in victory” through Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection.

“To the woman He said:“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”

We will not venture through all these verses, but focus on women’s “sorrow and conception,” and the pain of childbearing. We have seen how far the enemy has deceived so that women seem to have delivered themselves from the consequences of Eve’s sin. Refusing to bear children has come to pass by many forms of birth control, the most brutal of which we know as abortion.

“Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it? “Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.” Gen 3: 17-19

No longer would he have the joy of tending the Garden over which he had been given control, but to force it to produce what he needed to live. He became dependent on the earth instead of the Lord God who created him. That relationship was severed until the coming of the Redeemer who would bring reconciliation and restoration.

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

The Lord sacrificed the animals to cover them – another significant sign of His mercy and promise of care and restoration.

The question remains for all His creatures, “Where are you?”

We have many reasons and many places for hiding from the Lord our Creator.

We sometimes can be found  behind someone who has deceived us.
There are a lot of hiding places in this world.
The past has many closets, corners, holes, and crevices where we live our own lives independent of our Father who wants to bless us in our relationship with Him. 

The most common is our sin and guilt. From these, fear makes our hiding place much broader and makes us harder to find.

In this age, parents no longer call or text their children to ask, “Where are you?’ The tracking devices on their phones make it easy to know where they are.

Have you ever wondered how God our Father knows where we are and how to get in touch with us? 
He has His own tracking system.

“The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord,
Searching all the inner depths of his heart.” Proverbs 20:27

“O Lord, You have searched me and known me

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in [c]hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
Psalm 139:1, 7-10

Samuel and Isaiah
Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” 1 Sam. 3:10

And the call came to Isaiah.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

“Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Our Father is calling us today. Will we remain in hiding, or answer His call as Samuel, and Isaiah did?

Dear Father, open our ears to hear your voice, and know your holy, high, and heavenly calling and to answer, for such a time as this. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Fran

The Great Scam

On By francesrogersIn GOD'S WORD5 Comments

Anyone who has been scammed would probably say theirs was the greatest. When we know we have been scammed, we don’t take it lightly. Though angry and humiliated, we admit we took the bait and attempt to recover our losses.

Recently I read a report about pastors scamming the members of their churches. One woman gave her pastor access to her funds, supposedly to help women who were cancer patients.

She lost all her money to a deceiver she trusted.

In the Garden of Eden, our inheritance from God was stolen from the first man. Future generations were left destitute of anything valuable in this life. Gone was any hope for a relationship with our creator who provided all His creatures needed.

The deceiver has continued to manipulate every generation, attempting to keep men from their legacy.

Yet, from the beginning, the same God had a restoration plan, its beauty and glory revealing a more significant inheritance. Through another man, He makes us aware of the scammer. He gives us the knowledge we need to recover the Kingdom He promises His children.

Still, false shepherds are claiming to care for their sheep who do not know God and mislead the flock. They are blind, leading the blind to destruction. We live in a world of deceivers.

In His Word, our heavenly Father gives us explicit knowledge of Himself and His kingdom. We have His promises for all of life here and in eternity.

Through His leading, we know who to trust and are free to enjoy our fellowship with Him and with His Son, Jesus Christ, the true Shepherd. He is our prophet, teaching us; our priest, interceding for us with the Father; and our King, knowing and ruling over all things, protecting and providing for all our needs.

The apostle Paul wrote these words: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Gal. 5:1

Simon Peter left us this truth: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Pet. 1:3-5

Dear Father, Paul prayed that we may be filled with a knowledge of your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. We need this filling, knowledge of you, wisdom to live in this world without fear of deception and enjoy the inheritance you have given us through Jesus our Lord. Let us live in fellowship with you and Jesus, by the power of your Holy Spirit that we may be light and salt, a sweet fragrance of Christ, and fruitful for your name’s sake. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. 

Adamancy (Part 2)

On By francesrogersIn GOD'S GLORY, GOD'S GRACE, GOD'S WORDLeave a comment

The first post on “adamancy” was referring to Zechariah 7:12.

“Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.

The nature of being adamant is God-given, but in Adam it was turned against Him.  He desires that we be strong-willed in the right things.  In the antithesis, which began in the Garden of Eden with Adam, we see the continual nature of man against God.

If we do not learn to “stand in the truth of God’s grace” (1 Peter 5:12) we will be deceived and continue to live here on this earth under the wrath of God, walking in the paths of destruction.

 The only other reference is in Ezekiel 3:9.

“As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.”

 It has been said that if we don’t stand for something we will fall for anything; but it depends on what we “stand” for.

With the new heart (Ezekiel 11:18-20 Part 1) our minds and wills are with God, not against Him.  He gives us the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2: 16) so that we can “stand” for Christ, with Christ, “against the wiles of the devil.”  (Ephesians 6:11)  We cannot do it by ourselves.

 With the new heart we are called to, and given the wisdom and strength, to stand for the only thing that matters in this world and the next—Christ, and the kingdom of God, our Father.  If we stand with, and in Christ, we are, as God’s people, with all of God’s people called to “adamancy” in the following references.  Notice the link between Christ and the mind.

“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that ye all speak the same thing,
and that there be no divisions among you;
but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment.”
1 Corinthians 1:10

 “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
2 Corinthians 11:3

“Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ:
…that ye stand fast in one spirit,
with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”
Philippians 1:27

“That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God,
even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 15:6

 Dear Father, as with Ezekiel, and with all your people, set our “foreheads” “harder than a flint,” with “the mind of Christ,” that we may stand together in this world for your kingdom and your righteousness against the things of this world; to “live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age,” by the power of your grace.—for your glory and our joy. In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.