Attitude

DEVOTION

GENESIS

ATTITUDE

Gen 4:6-7

6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

NIV

Well, our scholars are all about the fact God told Cain he should have brought an animal offering. That would have been the right thing to do. But there is something else here perhaps their predisposed thinking could have impeded finding. This may not have anything to do with Cain being corrected about his type of offering. The question the Lord asks him is, “why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?” The question is about his attitude, not his offering. It is interesting when we consider the fact that Cain was a farmer. The life of an agricultural family would not be nomadic in nature but steady and home bound. They were not wanderers as some anthropologists would suggest. However this is not to the point of which we learn our life lesson. It is in the exchange between Cain and the Lord. What was the right thing for Cain to do in order to be accepted? Is not bringing a fat portion as an offering sin? Perish the thought. It was his attitude that was bringing sin crouching at his door. How could he master bringing the right offering? What he could master is his attitude, this is what the Lord was bringing to his attention. He was angry, he was downcast, this attitude will lead to sin, and he must master it before he commits this horrible act which is building within. So what would be the acceptable thing for him to do? What did the Lord expect from him? A better offering? A better attitude? Although it is true the Lord did appreciate the fat offering of Abel and was not so pleased with the grain offering of Cain, this is not a reason to consider murdering his brother. If we visit all the laws the Lord instructed the people that is recorded in Leviticus we would fine all sorts of instructions concerning grain offerings. Grain offerings are acceptable to God. He does give specific instructions as to how they should be offered, but the point is he accepts grain offerings. Perhaps Cain did not fix the grain in the right manner, but then God had not given this instruction yet, at least that we know of. So we are still left with the point being about the attitude of Cain which the Lord is concerned with, and how this attitude is breeding sin. This is our lesson. We cannot allow our attitudes to breed sin in our lives. When we are either jealous or envious of others it leads us into a sinful condition. True we would never consider murder, as Cain is about to, but we certainly could develop a little hatred in our hearts toward those we are jealous of. This hatred is extremely dangerous.

1 John 3:15

15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

NIV

Cain and Abel were brothers, there should have been love between them that ran so deep nothing could ever come between them.

1 John 2:9-11

9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

NIV

Love overcomes any stumbling. If Cain truly loved Abel he would not have stumbled, but he did, and therefore the darkness was within him. We cannot ever allow this anger, this downcast jealous or envious attitudes creep into our heart and thus our thoughts. When we allow this kind of thinking, it builds into an attitude which is not acceptable to God. When this attitude is allowed to fester it can build to, yes even a certain degree of hate. Hate is simply not allowed. Could we just dislike a little without hating? That might be a fine line that we should not even get close to.  We need to stay far from it, doing that which is right, loving our brothers, loving our neighbors as ourselves. If Cain would have loved Abel he would have rejoiced at the pleasure God had in Abel’s offering and asked God how he could bring a more acceptable offering as well. He could have used that moment as a learning experience, this would have been the right thing to do. But he did not, and we are going to see the result of allowing a bad attitude fester into action and the result it brings. We cannot allow this to be a part of our lives, we must always have love in our heart. That is easier said than done. There are some people who simply rub us the wrong way. There are others who dare us to have a bad attitude by their words, their ideas, even their actions. Can we guard against having a bad attitude toward them by just ignoring them? It is doubtful as we know them, we have to be in contact with them at some time or place. So then we need to have love in our hearts, and that is doing what is right and we will be accepted. But if we allow those attitudes other than love in, sin is crouching at our door. Surely Satan did not leave that family. Surely he was still about tempting them to do that which would bring them condemnation from God. Certainly he was the one tempting Cain to have a bad attitude. He has not changed, as he tempts us in the same way.   Let us be on guard with our attitudes. We must be the master of our attitude. 

Brothers

DEVOTION

GENESIS

BROTHERS

Gen 4:1-5

4:1 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

NIV

Clearly God designed the man and the woman in such a fashion they would be able to produce offspring. This is the purpose for which he made each being different. He had already told them to be fruitful and increase in number filling the earth and subdue it. Certainly some people have perverted this design of a union between a man and a woman. We have seen such perversion in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and we have seen the response of God toward that type of behavior. It is clear how God intended mankind to live and reproduce. However this does not permit us to pass any type of judgement on mankind, for that is God’s right alone. Although we live in the manner, as well as do millions of others, there are people who, for whatever reason live in a different manner as which God has designed. Our command is to love our neighbor as ourselves. There is no restrictions, limitations or qualifiers on that love. We cannot say, “I will love, only if you are like me”. Nevertheless, God desired for them to have offspring, and this is the plan of God for the procreation of all living things. We do not know if Cain and Abel are the only two children at this point as the narrative moves rather quickly from their birth to they being grown men. It would seem that Adam and Eve would have continued being fruitful, however the other children are not germane to this narrative, at least at this point in time. We see that Abel became a shepherd and Cain a farmer. Both of them brought offerings to the Lord. How did they know they were supposed to do that? We have not seen any commands from God to do so. We are not told that Adam instructed his sons in that behavior. Perhaps it is simply a natural response to being in a relationship with God. We have to know that although Adam and Eve were disobedient in the garden and they were cast out, the Lord God did not leave them alone, without any relationship with him. What we do not know is what that relationship looked like. Did he continue to walk in the cool of day with them, or had he retreated to his throne in heaven and they only knew he was there, but no longer saw and heard him? We do not know, but what we are told is the two men brought offerings to him. Cain brought some grain and Abel some fat portions from his flock. We do not know why God favored the fat portions over the grain. We have been told that God shows no favoritism.

Acts 10:34-36

34 Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism  35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.

NIV

Yet it appears he favored the fat portions from Abel more than the grain offering from Cain. Of course this favoritism deals with salvation, God accepts all men as equal beings and will give eternal life to whosoever believes. But here it seems he did like the fat portions better. This angered Cain. Would we respond in the same way if we witnessed God blessing someone far more than he does us? How do we react when God shows favor to another person and it seems as though we are not either hearing from him or experiencing the same kind of favor? Do we become downcast? Do we think God loves them more than us? How could Cain have brought a fat portion when we was a farmer? He brought God from what his labor produced. This is all we can bring, a portion of that which our labor produces. Does God look with favor on those who can bring more than we can? Perhaps Cain should have bought or bartered with Abel for one of his flock so he could bring a fat portion, but he did not and brought the fruit of his labor. That is all we can do as well. So why did God respect the offering of Abel but not of Cain? This we may never know for sure. What we can learn is that God is God and he is sovereign and he has the right to bless each of us in whatever way he desires. We do not have the right to demand from God. We do not have the right to expect to be treated better than others. We do not have the right to complain as to how he moves in our lives, or compare his moving in our lives with how he moves in others. Cain should have known that and perhaps he should have responded with joy over the respect God showed to his brother. Then again perhaps Abel might have expressed concern over his brother Cain and offered him some fat portions to give to God. We have been told that when one member of the body hurts we all hurt and when one member rejoices we all rejoice. This is how our relationships within or between us should be, not as we see in this relationship between Cain and Abel.   

Banished no more

DEVOTION

GENESIS

BANISHED NO MORE

Gen 3:21-24

21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

NIV

If we ever questioned if God knew about evil this should banish that thought. Because the man ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil God said that he had now become like us, or him or the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God has always known about good and evil as we saw in the very beginning he separated the light from the darkness, which we understood as good and evil. But since this man now was like God in the sense of knowing good and evil he could not be allowed to eat from the tree of life and live forever. This is our story, this is our lot in life. Because of Adam our first parent, the parent of all mankind, we have the knowledge of good and evil. This tree of life is in the paradise of God somewhere. Certainly the garden is hidden from man forever, but the paradise of God is not. Just as God placed a cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life, he has placed another way for us to enjoy the fruit of that tree. Jesus said that he was the way, the truth and the life.

John 14:6

 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

NIV

There is no other way to get to the tree of life and live forever then to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Anyone who thinks any differently has been deceived by the evil one. Jesus is the only way to get back into the paradise of God and to eat from the tree of life.

Rev 2:7

7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

NIV

This overcoming is about not submitting to the deceptive schemes of the devil. In that particular portion of the letters to the churches, Jesus states they had lost their first love. These are the believers who have allowed the schemes of the devil to tempt them into seeking after the things of the world. They had been distracted by fame and fortune. If we want to regain entrance into the paradise of God we need to overcome those temptations and stay true to the one and only way into the paradise of God, Jesus. Once we attain entrance through the valley of death and are resurrected a new creature, because we have washed our robes in the blood of Jesus, we will once again be able to eat from the tree of life and live forever as God intended.

Rev 22:14

14 "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.

NIV

It does seem strange that man throughout the course of history has for the most part always chosen the evil instead of the good. We know this was certainly the case before the flood.

Gen 6:5-7

5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

NIV

We also see that because man chose evil over good it grieved God and his heart was filled with pain. Do we chose evil over good? Maybe not in our actions, but maybe in the thoughts of our heart. Are we inclined toward evil more than we are toward good? If we think that is not true, and that we are always thinking good thoughts and always doing good acts, maybe we are simply deceiving ourselves.

1 John 1:8-10

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

NIV

Although some would argue this only speaks to how we were before we accepted Christ and once we have become a believer we no longer sin, this is so far from the truth and is, once again, a deceptive scheme of the devil. The fact is we do fail, we do falter from being a perfect human being, never having any thoughts other than the thoughts of God. Yet because we have washed our robes in the blood of Jesus, because we have accepted the provision God made for the forgiveness of our sin, our imperfection, we will once again be able to eat from the tree of life and live forever. We are not like those who lived before the flood. Although we falter, we have not turned our back on God and forgotten all about him, having our heart bent toward evil all the time. We desire to please God, it is just we are not able to do that one hundred percent of the time because we have the knowledge of good and evil and the evil keeps creeping into our thought life. Yet because of our determination to desire to please God and because accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior is the greatest pleasure we will ever be able to give God, we will eat from that tree of life. We will not be banished.

It's different now

DEVOTION

GENESIS

IT’S DIFFERENT NOW

Gen 3:16-20

16 To the woman he said,

"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about  which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

NIV

Apparently God did not expect as much from the woman as he did from the man as his judgement upon them is exceedingly different both in length and in harshness. We certainly should not dismiss the fact women have pain, some a great deal during that time of giving birth to a child. But we have to also see that not every woman experiences that pain. Surely in the days of the past, without the great medical procedures of today many women experienced this pain God was speaking about. Yet today women who do give birth, at least in this country, have the choice to receive local pain dulling medication. Others simply choose not to give birth at all and never have to feel any of the pain God told the woman she would have to endure. God also told her that she would desire her man, she would long for her husband. There is a great mystery in this, as she would long for, desire intimacy with her man, yet in doing that she would bear children with pain. Her desire, her longing would cause her pain.  Today we have surely interfered with that plan. Some women do not desire a man at all. Some women have the desire but choose never to have children the natural way. In addition to this desire and the pain he told her that the man would rule over her. We have departed far from this in so many ways it simply cannot be expressed in this small amount of words. In essence we see so many women today, at least in our country, who absolutely refuse any of the judgement God placed on the woman. But as for the man, God metered out a very strict and harsh judgement because he listened to the woman. God had commanded the man not to eat from that tree. Just one command, just one thing not to do, and instead of being the man he was supposed to be and instruct his woman correctly making sure she understood the command completely he listened to her and ate from that tree. So all the days of the man’s life he was going to have to toil for his food. The man would have to painfully toil the ground in order to produce food for himself and his family all the days of his life. God did not intend for him to ever be able to store up enough for himself and his family that he would be able to retire from his painful toil of producing the sustenance needed to live. What a departure we men, again at least in this country, have made from what God judged upon the man. Maybe this judgement was just for those two and we have nothing to be concerned about. But then we would have to make that kind of interpretation throughout all of scripture and that simply would not stand. We have to see the truth for our lives within all the scripture as this is the point God had it recorded for us. If his judgement was just for those two and it had no bearing on our lives today, there would be no point in having it recorded for us to read and discover the truths we are to live by. Seeing his judgement in this manner we men are to work all the days of our lives to produce the sustenance of life. This would mean we should not store up anything and retire from our labor. But that is far from what happens in many cases to men in this country. We have been indoctrinated by someone that if we are good upstanding men, we will store up as much wealth as we can so that we can retire in comfort, having enough to continue to provide for our lives and that of our family, in fact leaving as much of it as we can for our offspring. By doing this, are we interfering with what God intended for both us and them? If we leave enough then they will not have to labor for their food, but will be able to sit back and enjoy the fruit of our labor. When we search all the rest of scripture we cannot find any place God relented from this judgement and tells us to store up for our future so we will not have to work all the days of our life. In fact we can find so many places where he instructs us not to store up wealth on this earth. Surely God has no problem with wealth, but it is with the attitude we have in thinking we can store enough up so we do not have to labor all the days of our lives. We merely have to see that in the narrative of the rich fool with all his new barns. It is by the sweat of our brow we will have to produce our food until we return to the ground. No sweat no food. It is that simple, unless we ignore God completely and live according to the way someone else decided was better. We also see one more truth within this portion of the beginning. God intended the man and the woman to live forever, this is the reason he put the tree of life in the garden and had they eaten from that tree instead they would never have to return to dust. But because he listened to someone else other than God, in this case the woman, he will not be able to eat from the tree and life and he will now experience death, his body will return to the ground from which he was formed. There is not one of us men today who has been able to escape that judgment he placed on Adam, the first man. We all have to return to the ground, and so we also have to accept the first part of this judgement as well for all men, and all women. This is our lives. This is the way God ordained it to be until he returns for those who choose to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. We will rise again, we will be united with our Lord. One more thing, Adam now gives this woman a name, Eve. This word means giver of life, she is the bearer of children. Adam heard the judgement God placed on her in having pain in child birth. Maybe this was the first time Adam considered that he would father children and it would be through intimacy with the woman and that would cause children. So he gave her the name, giver of life, Eve. From this moment on things were going to be different. Life would be different. 

Lower Than

DEVOTION

GENESIS

LOWER THAN

Gen 3:14-15

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,

"Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

NIV

Are we really talking about a serpent such as a snake, which crawls on the ground? First of all we have to know snakes do not eat dust, so is this phraseology symbolic or actual fact. Did snakes talk? Did Satan employ an upright form that appears much like the snake of today to tempt the woman? Is Satan now in the form of a snake because this is the curse God put on him? It is doubtful any reptilian form has anything to do with any of this at all. What we do notice is although the man blamed the woman, and the woman blamed the serpent, that old serpent, the devil had no one to blame but himself. God did not even ask him what he did or why he did it. This gives us a very up close and personal view of the nature of Satan. His only purpose is to engage revenge on God. He only wants to destroy the relationship between God and his creation. Without asking him why, because God knew why, and did not need Satan to either admit or try to pass on the blame, God passed his judgement on him. What form he took on has no real bearing to the truth revealed here for us. But what we could observe is that Satan, who was once Lucifer, one of the greatest of all the angels, more beautiful than all the other angels, is now condemned to be not only lower than man, but lower than any of the livestock and the wild kingdom. Once he had a rightful place in heaven in the presence of God and now he is considered lower than any of the animals God created. What we also note in this curse is that God told Satan that the seed of the woman would crush his head. It is interesting God did not say anything about the seed of the man and the woman, as in their children. He made note it was the seed of the woman, the offspring of a woman without any reference to a man. This can only mean Mary, the virgin whom the Holy Spirit came upon and she gave birth to the Son of God. Jesus is the one who crushed the head of Satan. We are reminded of an older song written by Bob Dylan in which he sings that we have to serve somebody, we are either going to serve God or serve Satan, but we have to serve somebody. There is some truth in those words. Unless a person comes to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, admitting their sinful state, repenting of such, asking forgiveness of sin and accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they are in fact serving Satan. This is told to us by none other than Jesus when he was commissioning Paul.

Acts 26:17-18

17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

NIV

 Jesus is the only way to overpower the influence of Satan in our lives.  Satan will always be about being at war with humanity because we are the creation of God and he does not want us to have the eternal life God intended us to have from the very beginning. Satan did in fact strike the heal of Jesus getting him crucified, but that was the purpose for which he came, so Satan loses even in his efforts to win. What we learn here is not to pay any attention to the prince of lies, the liar of all liars. Knowing evil does not make us as wise as God. Knowing the difference between good and evil does not make us like God. He has lied from the beginning and he will always lie. He is incapable of telling the truth. Why would we give him any of our attention? There will always be enmity between us. We have nothing in common with this snake of a being, the lowest of beings which hisses at us. When Jesus told us his grace was sufficient, he was saying that his divine influence upon our lives and how that is reflected in the world is enough. We do not need all the things, the lies that Satan attempts to get us to be an influence in our lives. We do not need the influence of Satan, someone who is lower than all the livestock, lower than a cow, a pig or a sheep, lower than any of the wild beasts, such as a hyena or even a worm. We need the influence of the Son of God if we are going to be pleasing in the sight of God. We will serve somebody, and we choose to serve God rather than someone who is "lower than".  

It's not my fault

DEVOTION

GENESIS

IT’S NOT MY FAULT

Gen 3:10-13

10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." 11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" 12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

NIV

It’s not my fault. The first emotion we are told about in the beginning is pleasure. God saw that it was good, and very good. He was pleased with all that he had made. God experienced pleasure with his creation, with the man and the woman who he had created. But the first emotion we are told the man experienced is fear, fear of God. Certainly Adam had walked in the cool of the day with the Lord God many times before without any fear whatsoever, but since he disobeyed him and ate from the tree he was not supposed to, he now felt fear. Fear brings other problems along with it. So when they hid because they were afraid of what God would say or do when he found out what they had done, God called to them and he had to answer. But his answer was a result of his fear, and his lack of personal responsibility. “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." It’s not my fault, in fact, God it is yours. You gave me that woman and she is the reason I ate it. Adam blamed God for his sin. If you would have just left me alone and not had taken that rib from me and made this woman, I would have been alright. We can just imagine that was the thought process of Adam. But nevertheless he put the blame on someone else, it was not his fault. Then when God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” she too explains it was not her fault either, it was the serpents fault. If you have not created the serpent, or thrown him out of heaven, or allowed him to be in the garden in the first place, none of this would have happened, so she actually blamed God as well. We can hear that kind of thinking in her answer. Do we do that? When we fail God, do we blame someone else? Do we actually give control of our emotions and our responses or actions to another person? If we blame someone else for our failures then that is exactly what we are doing. Adam failed to obey God, it was not the woman’s fault. The woman failed to obey God, it was not the serpent’s fault. Of course the serpent, that ancient serpent, the devil, is extremely crafty. We are going to see God meter out justice to the serpent because of what he did. But he is also going to hand out some discipline to both Adam and the woman. But it is true that God allowed the serpent into the garden in the first place. He could have kept him away from Adam and the woman. God could keep all temptation away from us as well, but it seems he does not do that. Instead he tells us what our response to temptation should be.

James 4:7-10

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

NIV

We know the woman did not have the letter James wrote to quote in her mind as she was being tempted, but she had the direct command of God to not eat from that tree. This would have meant God intended and expected her, just as he does us, to resist the devil, resist his crafty schemes, his temptations and as a result he will flee. If the woman would have just told that sly serpent that he was wrong, that God is right, and we are not allowed to eat from this tree, and that is that, so I will not do it, the devil would have left her alone, knowing he had lost his chance. But that was not the case and she allowed him to deceive her and then she brought her mate into her failure. Do we do that? When we fail God, do we first blame others, then we bring them down with us? Do we, in our efforts to shift the blame to another, cause them to become either defensive or aggressive, fighting back, not taking the blame, but accusing us of worse than what we actually did? A battle ensues and we both feel and say things we regret later. The devil has won the day, but not the war. As we will see, he was able to tempt the woman so she would fail God, and as a result have to leave the garden and for thousands of years all of mankind would be without that paradise. But God has provided a way back in, Jesus. We would think we know better. We have all the scripture, we have this story, and we have all the truths of God explaining everything to us. We would think we should not ever give any credence to any of the temptations the devil brings to our mind. Yet it seems we do. It is that ancient war that battles within all of us. The things we want to do, we do not, and the things we do not want to do, we do. How can we win this battle? We even have the help of the Holy Spirit. Will we ever learn? The simple fact is, in this life, we will never attain perfection. We can try, we can make every effort to live a life that is pleasing to God, but the truth is we are going to make a few mistakes along the way. Is that an excuse, no! We cannot blame our failure in the fact we are but human. That would be in essence blaming God, because he made us this way, or blaming that woman and Adam for starting it all. No, the blame is all on us, each failure is ours, and ours alone. We choose to ignore the truth. We choose, or decide to give in to a temptation. Thank God, we are covered by the blood of Jesus. If it were not for the choice we made to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we would be in a very bad place, expelled from the paradise of God. Our names would be blotted out of the book of life. But, praise God, we are in Christ, we have been redeemed, we have been justified and sanctified by God himself. Although we should not simply go on yielding to every temptation, we have forgiveness when we do, if we seek it. But the one thing we always need to be aware of is not ever to tell God, “it’s not my fault” 

"Where are you?"

DEVOTION

GENESIS

“WHERE ARE YOU?”

Gen 3:8-9

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

NIV

So now they felt shame because they knew the difference between good and evil. They had eaten from the one tree they were not supposed to have tasted the fruit. One simple command and they blew it. Had they not eaten from that tree we would never know evil. We would not have to deal with our own evil desires. But here it is, they did eat, they felt guilty, they felt shame, they covered the intimate portions of their bodies. Then they hear God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They knew what God looked like. This must not have been the first time he had walked in the garden in the cool of the day because they know the sound he made as he was walking. They were familiar with God. This is the reason he created them, to have fellowship with them. He wanted to walk and talk with them, teach them about all the world he had created for them. We know that be brought all the wild life and livestock and birds of the air to Adam so he could give them all names. He wanted to spend time with his creation. So here he is walking in the garden looking to spend time with the man and the woman. This does make us wonder as to what form God took when he walked in the garden. Was he as we know Jesus is? Was he God in the flesh? We know that Jesus was always there from the beginning, as the Spirit was. We are told that everything that was made was made by the person we know as Jesus.

John 1:1-5

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

NIV

Was it Jesus who walked in the garden? Was it the Father, himself? We know the Father spoke directly to Moses and wrote the tablets with his finger, and passed by Moses as he hide him in the cleft of a rock and put his hand over him until he had passed because no one could see the face of God and live. Yet Adam must have not only seen him, but walked and talked with him in the closet of relationships. But now they hide from God because of their shame and guilt. Do we actually think God did not know where they were? That would be foolish to think God could not find them, he knows all things, he sees us at all times, he knows the number of hairs on our head. There is nothing about us that God is not aware of. Yet he calls out to them, “Where are you?” This is the question that should be in the forefront of our thoughts. Where are we? What is our position? Are we trying to hide from God because of our shame? Why do we have any shame in the first place? Didn’t Jesus die for our sin, our guilt and shame?

Rom 7:21-8:4

21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Romans 8

8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,   2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,   4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

NIV

This is where we are, we are in Christ, and we live according to the Spirit. Yes, there is still a war that wages within us. We want to do good, but evil is right there with us. In our inner being we delight in God, but in our bodies we see another law at work. When we read that whole portion written to the Romans we understand exactly where we are. We are free from the law that brings death. There is no condemnation for us. We are not condemned to die, we are able to live forever. When God asks us, “Where are you?” we do not have to hide somewhere in the world, we can answer, “We are in Christ”.  We need not feel any more shame, we do not have to cover ourselves from God. We can once again walk and talk with him, be in a close and right relationship with him, feeling his love, compassion, direction in and for our lives. We can listen to him as he teaches us the truth about what he created for us here on the earth and what he has created for us in the future earth. We can be free and open with our maker, for we are not hiding, we are in Christ. We do not have to fear when we hear him call, “Where are you?”

Shame on you

DEVOTION

GENESIS

SHAME ON YOU

Gen 3:6-7

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

NIV

How can something so bad be so good? When God put the man in the garden he gave him only one thing he was not supposed to do. One command to resist one thing, the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and he told him if he ate the fruit from that tree he would die. Did Adam not enjoy living? Was his life that terrible that he would do something to cause his death? Did he not understand the concept of death? Surely in those times when God walked with him in the cool of the day, he explained all about life and death. Maybe he even told him about Lucifer and his actions in heaven. Surely Adam must have explained to the woman God made for him all that the Lord God had told him, especially about that tree. She knew of its nature, what would happen if she was to eat from it. She knew the name of the tree and that it would give the knowledge of good and evil, although she had no idea what evil was except perhaps it was the opposite of good, which is the definition of the Hebrew word used for evil, or bad. Yet here is the temptation. “Did he really say you would die?” Sure, he doesn’t want you to be as wise as he is. She looked at the tree, maybe for the first time. Maybe Adam told her not to even go near that tree. But here she was, near it and now looking with a longing in her heart as she saw it was good for food and it was pleasing to her eye and it would gain her wisdom. How can something so bad be so good? When we think about sin, for the most part it looks good, it is pleasurable, and it offers us something we do not have, or that we want. She was not thinking about the consequences of her actions, she only thought about how good it looked and what she would gain. This is the deceptive scheme Satan used on her and it is the same old scheme he uses on us. It might seem there could be a slight difference between us and that women in the garden. We already have the knowledge of good and evil. True it is because of her, but nevertheless we know evil and at the time of her temptation she did not. We know that when we are enticed it is because of our own evil desires as James tell us.

James 1:13-15

13 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

NIV

Did the woman already have evil desires? It would seem not, but we cannot really be sure. However when she saw how good it was, she succumbed to the temptation and took some of the fruit and ate it. Now here comes the really bad part, she gave some to the man as well. Not only did she disobey the command of God, but she tempted her mate to disobey as well. Yes, he ate it. What was he thinking? He knew the command of God, he know he was not supposed to eat the fruit from that tree. Why did he? Did the Serpent tempt him the same way? Did the woman tempt him with the same words the devil used on her? We are not told, all we know is she gave some to the man that was with her. Was he with her while she was being tempted by the serpent? The wording could be seen in that manner, or it could also mean the man who was with her in the garden. Adam could have been somewhere else, not directly at her side when she was tempted as it was her that was tempted not the both of them. Nevertheless when she presented him with the fruit he ate it. Did she tell him it was from that tree? Was her eyes open to the knowledge of good and evil before she gave it to him? Did he think that because she ate that now she was going to die, and because he loved her so much he could not bear to see her die without him? We know absolutely nothing about why she gave it to him or why he ate of it, but the fact is she did and so did he when they both knew that were not supposed to. It would seem we do the exactly the same thing. We do things we know we should not, yet we still do them. The list of those things we do that we are not to do is too long to list, yet we know them by heart. We are aware of our failures, our sin, and we are aware of what God has commanded us to do and not to do. They had no shame before eating from that tree, now because their eyes were opened to the knowledge of good and evil they felt shame because they were naked. Who was going to see them? They were all alone. Yet shame, guilt were in their hearts. This is the effects of sin, along with death. For this reason God sent his Son to die for our sin, for our shame, our guilt. Because of Jesus we have been declared innocent. We should not feel the shame and the guilt, but Satan comes and tells us we are guilty we should be ashamed of ourselves, we have disobeyed God.  But that does not mean we should just freely go in sinning either.

Rom 6:1-3

6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

NIV

There is a difference in living in sin and sin. We can never be totally without sin, we cannot be perfect in every way, if we could we would not need the blood of Jesus to cover our sin. But to live in sin, we would reject his blood and go on our merry way fulfilling our every desire to please ourselves. This we do not do, we make every effort to live a life that is pleasing to God, but we fail at times and continue to seek his forgiveness under the blood of Jesus. Did the man and woman seek his forgiveness? This we will find out next.  We know they now knew the difference between good and evil and they felt shame and covered themselves, hiding their intimacy from each other. This is something we cannot afford to interfere in our relationship with our mate. We cannot hide our intimacy, not just in the flesh, but in our hearts, our spirits. We must not allow shame to be a cloud over our lives. We see signs that say, “No fear” but we need that sign. “No shame”. No one should be allowed to say, “Shame on you”.

No Doubt

DEVOTION

GENESIS

NO DOUBT

Gen 3:1-5

3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 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.'" 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

NIV

Much discussion has been written about the identity of the serpent. Some scholar types have gone into enormous detail in an effort to determine what form this serpent appeared to the woman. It is interesting that we are not told of her concern or surprise this creature spoke in her known language. The other interesting issue is centered on the form of this serpent. Here is where the various scholars have spent their words. The main reason is due to the curse God put upon it, to crawl on its belly and eat dust. This would indicate the serpent walked upright as he approached the woman and spoke to her. None of this discussion is germane to the point of this narrative. But for the record as we are in the beginning we find the answer to who the serpent is in the end, the revelation.

Rev 12:7-9

7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

NIV

We also have one more reference to the identity of this serpent.

Rev 20:1-3

20:1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent , who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

NIV

We know Satan is the great deceiver, he has been identified as such in scripture. He is the serpent, he appeared to the woman in some form that she did not recognize him for who he was. His form has no bearing on the truth revealed to us in this narrative. The curse regarding crawling on his belly and eating dust does not refer to the snakes we know today as they were already created by God as snakes. This curse is toward Satan, the ancient serpent.

So how does he tempt the woman? He questions the intents of God. He caused the woman to doubt what God said was true as well as the reason God commanded the man he was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is another interesting point. When we were seeing God command this man he put in the garden he had not yet caused him to fall into a deep sleep to create the woman from his rib. The woman may not have actually heard the command from God, but was told what God had said by the man. This would agree with the scriptures that indicate the man is to be the head of the household. Why didn’t he tempt the man? Why the woman? Is it because she only heard the command of God from the man?  But that is not the issue here and we need to see how deceptive that ancient serpent, the devil is. Temptation is very appealing as she noticed the fruit of that tree was nice, as we will see later. Satan will attempt to deceive us in the same way. He will try to bring questions about the authenticity of the scriptures. He may not come right out and say it is not the word of God, but he might well attempt to make us believe it has been changed by man through translating for their own purposes thus it is not valid. He might attempt to convince us it is not complete, that there is more texts which have not yet been found and thus the real truth has not been revealed to us yet. He might attempt to influence us to believe untruths, or false truths. Over the years there has been many who questioned the dating of the various writings, especially the letters of the New Testament. Some would suggest, as influenced by that ancient serpent, the letters were not actually written by the Apostles as a firsthand account, but by others writing in their name to give authority to their letters, but this would mean the truth may not be the truth, but just the words of men trying to influence others to believe the way they do. All of this is the work of that ancient serpent, the devil, just as he did in that garden. “Surely God did not say that” “Are you sure God said that? “Do you really think you will die?” Always causing doubt. We cannot allow that kind of temptation into our lives, if we resist the devil he will flee from us. That is the truth.

James 4:7-9

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

NIV

We cannot be of two minds, we either believe it all or none of it. We cannot pick and choose which is true and which is not. We cannot allow Satan to bring any of the truths of God into question. We believe in God, we believe God. We have no doubts.

Singular

DEVOTION

GENESIS

SINGULAR

Gen 2:18-25

18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

NIV

It seemed appropriate not to divide this portion of the beginning into smaller segments as it's whole purpose is to show the creation and reason for the woman and the response of the man. Considering how we live today and that we may have departed from the original intent God created both the man and woman, we still should consider the truths within this story and discover just how God wanted us to live. First we can see that all the wild kingdom was brought to Adam and God allowed Adam to name each of them. That must have taken a few days or weeks or even months. But the point is that Adam or man named all the living creatures God had created. There was a partnership between God and Adam. Speaking of Adam, we never heard God name him, so why do we call him Adam? Looking in the Hebrew, the word used here is ‘adam or the English transliteration speaking is aw-dawm which means ruddy or is used for the human race, man. So we really do not know if Adam actually had a name or whether he named himself along with all the other living creatures. For that matter we do not know the language this man used, but he did use a language and that would also reveal he was not an ape-like primitive, less the Homo sapiens species. The truth which we need to see here is that throughout all which God has created there was no suitable helper for the man, Adam. There was no aiding counterpart or mate as the Hebrew words would mean. Here is where we could get into a little stickiness as it would seem many in our society today would have difficulty with this concept. Although God formed the man from the dust of the ground, he did not use the same method to create the suitable aiding counterpart, woman. It is also interesting we have yet to hear this woman referred by a name. It is not until later, after the birth of their first son does Adam give her a name. So this woman, this suitable aiding counterpart was created from a rib of Adam. Now Adam called her woman which the Hebrew word here means the feminine form of another word used for man or mortal, human in the general sense. All this makes quite a bit of sense in the great scheme God intended for us to live. Adam knew this woman was from his own flesh. This had to make him feel a complete total connection with her, as if they were one flesh, one being, which is exactly what is recorded for us to read. This comment of the man leaving his father and mother and being united to his wife and they will become one flesh, has to be a commentary God gave to Moses after the fact as Adam had no father and mother to leave to be united to the woman and become one flesh. But the point is exactly that, we men are to be united with our wives to the point of being one with them, and they are to be a suitable aiding counterpart to us. This certainly would dismiss any thoughts about man dominating woman. Yet throughout the ages we see this was much the case and even today in the Middle East we see this is very much the case. We might even see this in some of our families in this country where the husband acts as though he is the king of his castle and demands the service of this wife. Men have abused women in many ways, but this is not how God intended it to be. He intends for the man to leave all else behind and be united, to cling to adhere to his wife. This is an active word. The man is to actively adhere to his wife, stick to, stick with, and be one with her. This carries so much implications as to how we men should treat our wives. But also this carries a truth for the wives as well. They are to be suitable aiding counterparts. This does not imply they should rule the household, rule over their husbands, being domineering in manner or attempt to take on the role of the husband. We have said many times in the past that we believe God created both man and woman as equal beings but with different roles. This certainly bears out in this portion of scripture and is the reason for how we think. We are one being, united with each other, as God intended us to be. We cannot be two distinct people agreeing to live together. There is no other reasonable conclusion then God intended the man to have a suitable woman to be one with. These two, the man and the woman had no clothes on, as they were naked, and they were without shame. This is the way God designed us to be, without shame in the presence of our mates. This is complete intimacy in its truest sense. Do we live in this manner? Have we allowed the world to infiltrate our relationship with our spouse? Do we think about our relationship based on our society’s standards or how God intended it to be? Are we truly one with each other, well in fact then, there is no each other, as we are supposed to be one flesh. Really there is no we, it should be I. No plural but simply singular. 

Knowledge

DEVOTION

GENESIS

KNOWLEDGE

Gen 2:10-17

10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12(The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.   14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 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."

NIV

What a vast array of opinions exist in an effort to locate these four rivers and from whence they start. Some would say they have no bearing on the location of the garden as it was only a spiritual place. What the others say is just wishful thinking. There is absolutely no empirical evidence to prove any current location of this garden that God made for the man he formed from the dust of the ground and breathed the breathe of life into his nostrils. Of these four named rivers two still carry the same name today but neither starts nor finishes from the same point. The other two rivers some contend the names are close enough using some form of converting Hebrew to Greek and coming up with existing rivers of today. But that still gives no proof as these two other rivers do not intersect or have their head waters anywhere near the others.  What we are left with is simply all conjecture by a whole lot of people and that is simply the point. If we could find the location, someone would certainly make a temple or shrine or make it a holy place of worship and we would miss out on what God wants us to know about him. Again these four rivers and their current locations today have to be different to some degree after the flood then where they were before the flood. This fact we know from the ever changing flow of rivers today as a result in part from great flooding of their banks. So let us leave these rivers and their investigations to those who need to know for whatever reason. Let us consider that God put the man in this garden wherever it was, which is not the point anyway, for the purpose to work it and take care of it. Again we should be careful with these words work and take care. In the Hebrew this word translated work also carries the meaning to dress it, or till or causatively to enslave. That means to make it do what he wanted it to do. This is the action of farmers, causing the ground to produce what they what from it. This is the action of miners, to cause the earth to produce goal, or other minerals. This is the action of those who drill for oil, causing the earth to give up its energy source. It does not mean to serve the garden to be subservient to the garden, but to make the garden provide that which the man needed to live. The words take care of have a little different meaning in the Hebrew word used. It implies to keep guard, to protect. This could also imply that the man was not to abuse the garden, but to be careful as to how he used the supplies of the garden. He surely was not to stand guard, against who? He was the only one there. The point is that God intended the man to have an interaction with his environment. To both use it for himself and at the same time not abuse it. This seems to be a lost art today. It seems we have divided ourselves into either one or the other. We have the group that wants what the earth can provide, while others would argue we are abusing the land and the environment in the process. Then others would argue that in our efforts to work the garden we are destroying the habitat of the wild kingdom. Yes we need to work the land. But then also we can see another truth here. God never intended the man to just sit around and play all day. He formed the man and placed him in a place he was supposed to work in. Man is designed by God to work. We know that after God had to remove the man and his mate from the garden because of disobedience he told him he would have to toil, to labor hard all the days of his life. Perhaps God did not intend man to labor hard, to toil, but he did intend for him to work. When we do not work we lose out on a portion of how God formed us.

As to those trees in the garden which were there to provide food for the man, God established one rule, one command for the man. Today it seems we have so many rules, so many commands it is difficult to remember them all. But this man, Adam, had but one to remember. He could eat from any tree in the garden except one. It is interesting that God did not tell him if he ate from the tree of life he would live forever, but he told him if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would surely die. This takes us back to when we consider that God created evil. He made a tree to grow in the garden which would provide man the knowledge of evil and the knowledge of good, or stated differently the difference between to two. This would have to make us believe that man, who was formed in the resemblance of God was without any other knowledge then everything good. We are not so fortunate, because Adam did eat from that tree, we are faced with knowing both that which is good and that which is evil. We have to make the choice which we are to engage in. We know the progression of doing evil as James so clearly states for us.

James 1:13-15

13 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

NIV

We all have this knowledge of evil and it can certainly have a terrible result. It would have been much better if God had never created that tree, but he did and it was for a reason. He wanted the man he formed to choose to listen and remember his one and only command. Adam chose poorly. How do we choose? We have commands of God in regard to what we are to do and what we are not to do. Some people today would make that into a list of do’s and don’ts and of course add some of their own which are actually not in the scripture. But what we do need to do is consider with the help of the Spirit how we should choose wisely. The best choice is accepting Jesus who has covered all our sin with his blood. He has reestablished our place in the garden. Will we ever be free from the knowledge of good and evil? Maybe not in this life, but surely in the life to come. Can we live the perfect life God intended the man to live in the garden? Not as long as we have the knowledge of good and evil. But a day is coming when all that will change.

1 Cor 15:50-54

50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed . 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."  

NIV

So for now we have to be content having this knowledge of good and evil and live accordingly under the blood of Jesus. What it all comes down to is what do we do with that knowledge.