Notes:


I'm back. Looking forward to connecting with many of you. However, I'm not sure if Father would have me continue this next chapter here or write a new one. Either way, I hope you will journey with me into the next phase with Jesus Christ through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.


Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Our Jealous God Part II

“And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die’” (Genesis 2:16-17).

Lord, help us to understand Your truth and Your faithfulness to mankind. Deepen our knowledge and wisdom of Your character and Your purpose for our lives. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I’ve been praying since I wrote the last lesson entitled: Our Jealous God. I wanted to understand more of how and why God became so angry with His chosen race. What stirred up His anger? He is after all the God of love and power. In the next several blogs, we are going to uncover the progression of man’s evil deeds.

Let us start with Adam and Eve. In chapter two of Genesis, we are told that God created Adam and gave him specific instructions to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Now, first of all He didn’t say that they could not eat from the tree of life. He said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…” I highlighted the word “any” because I wanted you to see that that word includes the tree of life. They could’ve eaten from the tree of life and live forever, but instead, the enemy chose to tempt them with the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Why?

It was not an order of the Lord to not do. Had they chosen to eat from the tree of life, they would have lived forever and Satan couldn’t do a thing about it. So, he used the only thing he could to tempt Eve: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which God specifically ordered to not eat. Notice who changed the wording of God’s command. All Satan did was added the word “not”. God said, “you are free to eat from any tree in the garden…” Satan (on ch. 3, v. 1) said, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”. So, if you compare the two sentences, the only difference is the word “not”. And Satan was the one to add that word to it. Satan left everything else intact. How skillful of him. He caused her to doubt first, then to deny the truth.

The second thing I picked up on is how Eve responded: “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” Notice she didn’t specify which tree. God planted two trees in the middle of the garden. God ordered them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of all the trees in the garden, the enemy chose to use the only forbidden tree to tempt Eve. She responded wavering with great desire to taste the fruit and gain knowledge and wisdom.

God gave them the whole kingdom of Eden. They were free to roam around the whole garden and eat whatever they pleased as long as they stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One command. Satan, in his subtlety, tempted them with the only thing God forbid them from doing. Satan caused them to doubt God’s goodness. Then he caused them to deny God’s truth, and finally to rebel against God. And, he has used the same method to this day; we continue to fail today. We bow down to the same temptation. It’s no wonder the author of Proverbs 31:30 said “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised”. To honor God is to show Him respect and obedience.


Friday, May 2, 2008

Be Encouraged!

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18).

Just being away from writing and blog hopping for so long and facing some mild issues in my life has really brought me down and mellow today. Writing today has been very challenging to me. Like one lady said to me, I know the Bible and what it says, I know the principles of positive thinking, but for some reason I’ve just felt very sleepy and mellow. Today, I jumped from a couple of blogs to Godtube.com. The messages are the same, Be Encouraged.

I listened to Kathy Troccoli sang. Ummmmh! What a song. It spoke to my heart. It blesses my heart to know that God is looking down on me. He knows my broken heart and crushed spirit. He’s very closed by and He’s working on bringing me happiness and joy and peace. I’ll let you listen to Kathy’s song and meditate on the scripture above. I will be back to post more. Now I have to go and debug myself. I think it's because I've not opened my window curtain nor drink my tea today. I'm not sure. God sure is good. Enjoy the song.