The Fall

The FALL
Genesis 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 certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  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.
When looking at these scriptures I recognized a couple of things

1.       Eve told the serpent way to much information she entertained him with a conversation that should have never taken place.  How many inappropriate conversations that we may have had? A simple conversation with the wrong person can lead to a path to destruction which can be adultery, fornication, drug use, or anything else that can separate you from God.

2.      The serpent sounded so convincing and knew God’s Word and twisted them to get her to bite.  How many serpents in our lives sound good, some of them might even know God’s word and don’t care if we are separated from God? They say things like, It is ok we can have sex because we love each other, or it is ok if we can shack up, it is ok to do what you want to do God will understand and He wants us to be happy.

3.      Eve wanted to be like God knowing good and evil, problem with that is God knew we couldn’t handle it.  When they ate the apple their perspective changed, what was normal to them at first has now turned into guilt and shame it was all because she wanted to have something that God never intended for her to have.  In order to know the difference between good and evil you have to experience them both and God doesn’t want to keep anything good away from us He just wanted to protect us from the evil or harm.  Just like any loving parent will do for their child. 

4.      When all the deeds has been done and they realized what they have done they take things into their own hands to fix it by trying to cover themselves like we do we try to make things right by justifying things.  I know it was wrong but, I did this because he did that, justification is just like the fig leaves is just covers the surface. God goes beyond the surface. 

Looking at this, the apple (temptation) I wanted to bite or touch doesn’t seem to be worth the scrapes and bruises, the spiritual disconnect that will occur after fall.  If you are faced with a tempting situation pray for guidance from the Lord, don’t be like Eve and entertain someone who wasn’t even on her level, wasn’t even her equal. Ask yourself is this temptation worth the possibility of changing your entire life or walk with Christ? Some falls you can walk away with minor injuries and recover from but there are also some falls that could paralyze you and your life will never be the same.  God bless!

Grounded

Grounded
By Carolyn McCardell
On the way home from lunch with my family, my son’s curiousity encouraged him to ask a question. We had just eaten at a restaurant which was newly constructed. There at the restaurant there were trees that had cables tied to their base. The cables were secured in the ground by stakes. My son wondered why the trees had the cables tied to them. His dad answered him by saying that since the trees were not there from the beginning when they were newly planted, they had to be stabilized by the cables. I took the liberty of researching the answer to my son’s question. I found that all newly planted trees should be staked with rope for a period of 1-2 years or until they have had time to firmly establish their root system. Staking is an important part of their proper growth & stability. Similarly young trees which are planted in a particularly windy location or on an incline may eventually begin to lean in one direction as a result of the constant wind blowing against them. It is important to the strength of such a tree to keep it straightened upright before it is too big to correct.
Staking is done at the time of planting to help stabilize the tree form the effects of strong Winds.
On the spiritual side when trials and tribulations come if we are planted firmly in Christ we can’t be so easily uprooted when trials come. Just like staking is important in planting trees, it is also important in our walk in Christ. This may include hanging out with more seasoned Christians to help stabilize us until our root system is connected to Christ. Why do we need to be rooted in Christ? If you have ever been through a place that had a hurricane or tornado you can see the trees that have been pushed down where their root system is exposed or uprooted. As Christians, if we are rooted in Christ that will not happen because our roots are strong and firm and that’s the picture we get here of a firm foundation with strength and stability through his Word. No matter how your circumstances may toss you to and fro your anchor in God is stronger than your problems.
God Bless

Chasing the Wind

Chasing the Wind
Carolyn McCardell

In Greyhound racing I wondered how they got the dogs to start running at the same time. I found out that the dogs are trained to chase a lure (traditionally an artificial hare or rabbit. Although there is a winner in the race, the thing they were chasing is never obtained.

When I thought about this it reminded me how we as Children of God chase after things that are artificial. The word lure means an inducement to pleasure or gain, enticement, appeal, or attraction. Sometimes the enemy puts a lure right in front of us as a distraction for or a derailment of our purpose. Sometimes we create our own lures based on our fleshly desires. It is important in our walk that we recognize the distractions in our lives and how to discern what is from God, what is from the enemy, and what is from our own flesh.

The meaning of artificial is something humanly contrived often a natural model, man-made. If we are not living for Christ then we are living for the world, which means we are chasing after artificial things.
Living for the world is much like the dogs in the race chasing the lure, except the dogs never obtains the lure. Sometimes we win the lure that we chase so hard after only to later discover that it is only artificial. For a time what’s artificial might seem to sustain the flesh, but in the end we are left emptier than when we began the race because in chasing after the lure we ran even further away from God.

In 1 John 2:15–17 it says: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Our purpose in this World is to glorify God and be the light in the dark. We can not glorify God by chasing after our own fleshly desires. Whatever it is that you are chasing let it be the ‘real McCoy’ (from God). We don’t want to get to the end of our race (lives) to find that what we have been chasing was artificial. To sum it all up I will leave you with a quote from Ecclesiastes 2:11, “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, as chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”

In case you have been chasing after lures in your life remember this, in greyhound racing is most of the greyhounds eventually end up being adopted!! How wonderful is that after chasing after nothing and gaining nothing we are still able to be adopted by God!!

How do you know if you are chasing after a lures? This question can be answered easily. If it is not from God then it is from the world.

God Bless

GPS

I made my first trip driving on my own to Fort Worth, last year with my four boys.  In order to make the trip I had to use a GPS navigator for directions.  For those who don’t know, GPS stands for Global Positioning System and is a means of precisely determining your position by measuring the time it takes satellite signals to reach the surface of the Earth. In order to use the GPS navigator, you give it your starting point and your final destination. These devices are so sophisticated that they can give you turn by turn directions.  If you miss a turn (or two or three) like I did the good thing is it recalculates its position to get you back on track.  I made so many wrong turns it seemed as if electronic lady’s voice programmed in the system was getting frustrated, but after missing the turns the detours that the GPS navigator gave me allowed to make it safely to my destination.

 

This was amazing to me because Children of God have their GPS (God Positioning Spirit).  With every missed turn that we make in our lives God recalculates our direction to get us on the right path.  We may have made some bad decisions in doing things that take us off the path of God. For example, falling for the things of the world, following our flesh such as sexual immorality, or anything that detours our walk with God.  We have to allow God to reposition us when we get lost, and let Him bring us back to him through His Word.  In Psalms 119:105 its says “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”

 

Obedience and faith is so important in walking our path.  For whatever reason, I was the one who didn’t heed to the directions, whether it was because of distractions or leaning to my own understanding.  It was me doing my own thing that caused me to miss the turns because the directions given by the GPS (God Positioning Spirit) flawless.  As soon as I knew I was off track I looked to the GPS and carefully followed the directions turn by turn to get me back to the path I had before me.

 

We all miss turns or make wrong turns, or even try to find our own way. By leaning to my own understanding I got myself off track.  In Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) it says “ Trust in the LORD with all your heart  and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy path.”   Trust me, after learning this the hard way I beg you to please heed to the directions GPS (God Positioning Spirit) it saves time and unnecessary detours in your life.

 

God Bless