Faith Inspiration - Oswald Chambers - Our Great Capacity for God - Part 2: Sin's Beginning

Last month we started a deeper dive into this quote from Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest.

“We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin——we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience...We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him...we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our ‘arguments...and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:5)——we have to do it.””

— My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers - November 18

I discussed what it might mean for us to have a great capacity for God. You can see that post here. This week we are going to start looking at the three things keeping us from experiencing this great capacity for God. The first of these deterrents is sin. Let’s do a quick Biblical review of sin’s origins.

Image by Petra Ohmer from Pixabay

Once again, we are taken to the beginning. In the book of Genesis we see the story of the creation of the world, including all that is living from plants and animals, to fish and humans. We see that God placed Adam, the first man, and his wife, Eve in a beautiful garden called Eden. He gave them everything they needed and they could eat from any tree in the garden but one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

“15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.””

— Genesis 2:15-17 (NASB 1995)

Image by NoName_13 from Pixabay

All we need to do is read the following chapter to see that Adam and Eve chose to do exactly what God told them not to do and from that tree they ate. Of course, they were manipulated by God’s enemy, Satan, who was disguised as a beautiful serpent.

“1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!
5 For God knows that in the day 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 tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 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 loin coverings.”

— Genesis 3:1-7 (NASB 1995)

Image by NoName_13 from Pixabay

We need to look at this passage and really understand how easily one wrong thought, one wrong choice led to the downfall of humanity. Let’s look at Satan’s tactics (and yes I have covered this before, but it is important), and look at Adam and Eve’s responses.

1 - Satan went to Eve first. We are not told where Adam was, but the serpent started with Eve. I don’t know why he approached her first. Perhaps he knew she was more easily persuaded by his charm and beauty.

2 - Satan immediately manipulates God’s words. He asks Eve, Did God say you couldn’t eat from the trees in the garden? I am assuming he already knew exactly what God had told the couple. He knew they could eat from all the trees except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

3 - Eve misquotes God. We can see in chapter 2 God told them if they ate of the tree they would surely die. He said nothing about them touching it. Eve adds the idea of physical touch also leading to death, as though that would seem more dramatic.

4 - Once again, Satan manipulates. “You surely will not die!” While we know it was not an immediate physical death, we also know eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did lead to both an eventual physical and spiritual death; just a little detail the serpent left out.

Image by Alex Yomare from Pixabay

5 - Satan turns the screw tighter. “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil.” Satan offered, not only the possibility of being like God, but he caused Eve to question whether God was trustworthy. Can’t you hear her thinking, “If God really loves us, why didn’t He tell us this from the start? Why is He withholding it from us?”

6 - Eve looked and desired. Instead of turning away from Satan and looking for Adam to seek his input, she looked at the tree and saw it was desirable for food, and a delight to look at. You can see the wheels spinning in her mind. She saw that it was beautiful, then she desired it, then she remembered what Satan had just told her, it would make her wise…so she took and ate.

7 - Eve took her husband down with her. We can’t say Eve did this with any bad intentions. She may have just been very excited and perhaps the fruit tasted divine and she wanted to share it with her beloved. Whatever her reasons for including her husband in this defiance of God’s command it lead to the fall of humanity from the grace of their loving Creator.

Image by Nika Akin from Pixabay

8 - Adam and Eve immediately experience shame and want to hide. The serpent was absolutely right about one thing, their eyes would be open and they would know good and evil. It would be interesting to hear their conversation as they suddenly came to the realization they were naked and as they sought to find leaves to cover themselves.

The reason I covered this in detail is to show you the progression that all sin takes and has taken from the very beginning.

1 - Satan finds us when we are alone and vulnerable. When do the temptations come in our lives? It is always when we are struggling and discouraged, and most often when we feel no one has our back. Sin will creep in when we feel alone, sad, angry, discouraged, overwhelmed, anxious, and not enough.

2 - Satan will manipulate God’s words. How often have you heard people say, “If God is good, why is this bad thing happening?” Or, “God must not really love me, or I wouldn’t be struggling.” Or, “Where was God when this terrible thing happened?” Satan takes the truth about our God: that He is good, that He loves us, or that is with us always, and turns it on its head. “God didn’t really say….”

Image by Fathromi Ramdlon from Pixabay

3 - Satan doesn’t just manipulate God’s words, he manipulates our circumstances and the voices we hear around us to reinforce the lies he has begun to feed us. God isn’t really loving if He condemns people to hell. God isn’t really good, just look at all the terrible things going on in the world. There is no such place as hell, we will all be in heaven one day. When we die we become our spirit animals and play happily in the clouds. I am sure you can list other thoughts and ideas you have heard.

If we do not know God’s word well, or we begin to question God’s love and authority, we will begin to question the authenticity of the Bible. I know many who were raised in the the church who grew up under the teaching of God’s word who now are questioning that it was actually inspired by God, and that the men who wrote it were just interjecting their own opinions and thoughts. It is not too far a leap to give up on the truth of the Word all together when going down that path.

4 - We no longer talk about sin. The word sin is no longer politically correct, or woke. This is exactly where our enemy wants us to be. Sin has gone into hiding, covering itself with the beauty of the world’s philosophies that everyone is okay and no one is bad.

Next month we will delve deeper into what the Bible says about sin, this obstacle that keeps us from our great capacity for God. I hope you will join me.

Let me know your thoughts by leaving me a comment. I appreciate all of your feedback.

When Darkness Comes - Part 3: Darkness Gone Bad

The last two weeks I have taken you through the first few verses of Genesis 1 and saw how God created the world, including darkness and light. We learned that darkness wasn’t evil. Darkness was the absence of light and to God there was no difference between darkness and light. When God separated the light from the darkness He did it with our benefit and the earth’s well being, in mind. He created the lights in the heavens including the sun, moon and stars, as ways to separate the seasons and to differentiate day from night. Day was made for work and night was made for rest.

When did darkness become bad? When did we start making the association that darkness wasn’t good and wasn’t for good people? When did darkness become associated with sin and evil? I want to show you a progression that took place. In order to understand this we need to go back to Genesis. If you regularly follow my Faith posts, you know I went over the passage in Genesis 3 when I did the series on Our Unseen Enemy. We need to look at this again. We can never look at God’s word too often.

“1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die!
5 For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 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 waist coverings.”

— Genesis 3:1-7 (NASB)

In the series on Satan, we learned that he was enamored with his own beauty. He became prideful and wanted to usurp the throne of God in heaven and take over. The first step in the darkness becoming bad was the choice of a created being to look within, rather than looking to God.

Step 1 - Self-Reliance

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

It all started with Satan’s choice to look at his own beauty and his obsession with it. He forgot about who God was and that God had created him, not the other way around. The very same thing happened when Satan went to Eve. He got her to focus, not on all the beauty she had in the garden; not on the husband and companion God provided for her; and certainly not on the God who had made her. Satan tempted Eve to look within herself and see just what she was lacking.

Step 2 - Misery Loves Company

Image by karosieben from Pixabay

The next step in the progression towards darkness becoming bad was Satan’s desire to take others down with him. What fun would it be to rebel all by his onesie? He gladly found others among the angels willing to follow him. In the same way, Eve was not content to be the only one to bite into the forbidden fruit. She had to tempt her husband to make the same mistake. Once this choice was made, there was no going back, for either Satan or Adam and Eve.

Step 3 - Anger and Shame

Image by Thomas Wolter from Pixabay

Our study reveals two prominent emotions: anger and shame. Satan’s response to not getting his way in heaven was anger and hatred. Satan wasn’t just angry, he became violent.

“15 You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created,
till unrighteousness was found in you.
16 In the abundance of your trade
you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned;
so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub,
from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;””

— Ezekiel 28:15-17 (ESV)

Adam and Eve, on the other hand, felt shame. Look again at Genesis 3:7:

Image by Сергей Корчанов from Pixabay

“7 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 waist coverings.”

— Genesis 3:7 (NASB)

This was the final step in the progression of darkness becoming associated with all that is bad. The eyes of Adam and Eve were open. Before this happened we can assume, to them, there was no difference between darkness and light, other than that it represented a time change. Darkness wasn’t bad, scary or evil, but the sin of rebelling against God through disobedience suddenly made them want to hide. Darkness became a covering for sin and sinful actions.

In addition to this, even though their eyes were opened, Adam and Eve’s minds became dark. They no longer had the light of God, or the fellowship of His presence. They were banished, just as Satan was banished from heaven.

“22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out with his hand, and take fruit also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—
23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”

— Genesis 3:22-24 (NASB)

I want to leave you with this idea; darkness is still God’s. Satan does not own it. He did not create it. Yes, he dwells in it and makes the world believe it is his domain, but God is still hovering over the darkness and He can see everything, we can’t.

Next week we will look at where God is in the darkness. Thanks for following along. Have a great day!

Our Unseen Enemy - Part 6: Zoomorphism - The Serpent

I want to finish up this series on our Unseen Enemy before I move on to a new topic on my Faith page. It would probably be beneficial if I start with just a little bit of review, to refresh our minds. Satan is our Unseen Enemy. He is a very powerful angel; a created being of God, but one who became proud because of his beauty and decided to try to usurp the throne of the Almighty One. Due to his rebellion, God cast him out of heaven. He now roams about on the earth seeking to create chaos and destroy. We learned that he is a manipulator, a schemer, a liar and a divider. We are now looking at three images, found in scripture that describe the devil. In the case of the lion, which was the first image we looked at, we discovered that it is his predatory behavior that is most lion like. He prowls, he stalks, he harasses and he kills.

Image by antriksh kumar from Pixabay

This week we are going to look at the image of the serpent. Perhaps the most telling passage on this creature is at the very beginning of the Old Testament, where we see the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. Ezekiel 28:13-17 was mentioned in the introductory post of this series. If you remember it talks about a being who was in Eden, the Garden of God, who was very beautiful, and covered in all manner of jewels. This being, I believe, was Satan in the form of a serpent. (These are just my opinions, and conclusions I am drawing from the totality of the Scriptures. I am not a theologian or Bible scholar. You can do more of your own research by reading the Word and by looking at Bible reference materials like concordances, study Bibles, and texts on the original Hebrew language.)

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die! 5 For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.” ”

— Genesis 3:1-5 (NASB)

Image by Michael Siebert from Pixabay

I want to look at several snake characteristics first and then I want to examine the above passage in a little more detail.

Snake Characteristics

Loose, flexible jaw - Most members of the snake family have these loose flexible or hinged jaws. These jaws allow them to ingest their food whole, as they do not have normal teeth for chewing.

Backwards, curved fangs - Unlike most other creatures, including ourselves, whose teeth remain in place by a combination of jaw, roots and gums, the snake’s teeth are permanently fused to the supporting bones of the head.

No eyelids - The eyes, that remain open at all times, are covered by a transparent membrane, also know as ocular scales.

Make no noise - Unlike most animals, snakes make very little noise. Other than hissing and certain types with rattles, they make no noise at all.

Good camouflage - Many snakes live close to the ground in dens, or nests that are not easily visible to the human eye. There are numerous snakes that also blend in with their surroundings, making them less visible to their prey.

Ways they kill their prey - Most snakes prefer to consume their prey live. They do not feed off carrion. They will typically seek out a place where various prey come and go, then lie in wait until they see something they want. After they pick out a victim, they will stalk it, then strike at the opportune moment. Depending on the type of snake they will kill one of three ways: pinning prey to ground, squeezing prey so it can’t breath, or injecting prey with poison.

Now that we have a better understanding of snaky characteristics, let’s see how Satan works like snake. I am using the terms serpent and snake interchangeably.

Image by Denis Doukhan from Pixabay

He knew the habits of his prey - I wanted to address this first, because I feel it is important to the rest of the story. Satan knew where Eve would be at that particular time, on that particular day, because he had been watching her. Don’t underestimate the patience of our Unseen Enemy. He is used to waiting. He waited and watched until Eve was alone. If you read on in the Genesis account there is some debate on weather Adam was actually with Eve when she was tempted or if time had passed and when she convinced him to eat the fruit he was with her. (Here is an article on that point if you are interested.)The main point to take from this is that our enemy knows our weaknesses and he most often attacks when we are alone.

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

He uses his jaws - There is an old idiom that most of my older subscribers would be familiar with - flapping your jaws - which means to talk in a meaningless, aimless or idle manner. Satan used his jaws to speak to Eve. He immediately caused her to question God’s love and authority. “Has God really said…” The use of the word really indicated that beautiful serpent was out to deceive Eve from the moment he started flapping his jaws.

Image by Karsten Paulick from Pixabay

He sinks in his teeth and swallows - The wily serpent was, no doubt, beautiful, but don’t look at his smile. Those sharp fangs are ready to grab on and not let go. Isn’t it interesting that Satan didn’t speak complete lies to Eve. He just set her on a path and then gave her a snippet of truth; just enough to get her questioning and wondering. Isn’t it often the case that when we start to obsess over something bad that has happened or the way someone has treated us, that we eventually start begin consumed? A snake swallows his prey whole, slowly causing death by asphyxiation. Satan uses the same tactic. If he can get the bite on you, causing you to overthink, overreact, fuss and fret, then he will gradually attempt to swallow you whole, burying you alive in the villi of his hate.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

He never stops searching - Remember how we talked about the lion prowling, well the snake is similar, in that it waits for its prey, then stalks its prey. While the snake is waiting, his eyes are always open. Satan is always looking for prey, or for the opportunity to trip up those who follow Christ. He never closes his eyes.

Image by rebekaillesova from Pixabay

He doesn’t make noise - Satan is proficient at quietly creating havoc. Sure, the outcome we see is typically noisy, violent and hateful, but no one would attribute the events going on in our country to an unseen enemy. We are creatures who want to have someone to blame. It used to be funny to say, “The devil made me do it.” Now the devil is merely looked at as a fictitious creature with red skin, horns, a tail and a pitchfork. He is an entity that is used to mock those who actually believe in an Almighty God and the enemy who hates Him. Evil has gone through the cartoon box and come out the other side looking like a character who might have interactions with Bugs, or Daffy.

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

He is good at camouflage - One of the reasons I began this series on Satan was to help you identify his behavior out in the world. When we review this past year and even what happened recently as people stormed the capitol, we need to recognize that this is not just people with diverse opinions and simmering frustrations. These are blatant manipulations of the enemy. He is hiding behind the scenes, but clearly waiting for the opportune moment to encourage hate, and violence.

Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay

His ultimate goal is our death - Satan doesn’t just want to lie, manipulate, scheme and divide, he wants to destroy. The only thing the snake is concerned about is feeding his appetites, whether it be his appetite for food, safety or sex; his desires are primal, unaffected by compassion, goodness or joy. Satan wants to crush that which the Creator begat, the crown of His creation, us.

Next week, we will look at the last zoomorphic analogy, that of the dragon. I hope you will continue to follow along.

Have a great week!

Traits of a Godly Person: Moral Excellence - Part 1

The phrase, moral excellence, to some, might conjure images of judgment and prudishness that they want nothing to do with. However, moral excellence is simply the desire to do what is right, and the choice to avoid doing what is wrong.

We all face moral choices every day. Most of us will not kill, even though that customer we dealt with might be deserving. Most of us will not harm, especially those who are weaker, like a child or a person who is ill. But does this trait of moral excellence come into the world with us or does it have to be taught and learned?

If you have ever taken the time to watch children, you will know the answer to this. Children can be taught kindness, goodness, honesty, and other morally excellent characteristics, but left up to their own choices most will choose to demand their own way and demand it immediately. Moral excellence goes out the window when a coveted toy is involved or when competition to win the game is at stake.

The Bible confirms our sin nature:

“All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”

— Psalm 14:3 (NASB)

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

— Romans 3:23 (NASB)

“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”

— Romans 5:19 (NASB)

“He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification”

— Romans 4:25 (NASB)

We live in a fallen world. It is easy to turn away from that which is morally excellent in order to have fun, feel good and be accepted. Our minds are filled with messages that tell us, if it feels good do it, if there is a rule break it, and anything that is conservative and restrictive is bad, while all that is freeing and pleasurable is good. We are inundated with bad news which causes us to wonder if it all is worth the effort, but even amidst all the chaos, God is still good and He is still working.

Here are a few quotes on excellence:

“Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”

— Aristole

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

— Will Durant

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”

— Vince Lombardi

“We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent. ”

— Barack Obama

As you can see, most of these quotes, other than Aristotle’s are not specifically referring to moral excellence, but you could take each quote and plug moral excellence in for excellence to get the idea. If moral excellence is something that comes about only by habit, then what sorts of choices do we need to be making to be morally excellent?

I think the first thing we need to understand is the word morality. What does Webster’s online dictionary say? Here are several definitions related to moral as an adjective.

1 - of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior

2 - conforming to a standard of right behavior

3 - capable of right and wrong action

These definitions work from the perspective that there is a moral standard and that is what I want to address.

There are two other definitions that speak to a perceived morality - which means it is someone’s idea of what morality is.

4 - expressing or teaching a conception of right behavior

5 - sanctioned by or operative on one's conscience or ethical judgment

My belief system revolves around a moral God. God is not only morally excellent, but He is perfect. A being that is purely loving, good, kind and just, cannot be morally corrupt. I also believe that God is the author of morality. He was the one to create us and to put us into a world dependent on choices. He also made us with a free will. We are able to choose to do right or to do wrong.

In the Garden of Eden, God set a moral parameter.

“15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.””

— Genesis 2:15-17 (NASB)

The command that God gave Adam, was straight forward; if you do this then this will happen. There wasn’t a plethora of other voices telling Adam, “Dude, you can make up your own morality.” Well, there was one voice, and that was all it took.

Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay

“1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day 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 tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 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 loin coverings.”

— Genesis 3:1-7 (NASB)

How quickly this all came about. One day Adam and Eve are grooving in the garden, enjoying the beauty of their relationship with God and each other, in a setting beyond what we could possibly think or imagine. They had purpose in their lives to care for the creation God had given them and actually walked with the Almighty in this amazing place. BUT, that wasn’t enough. Eve was tempted by that which wasn’t known.

Isn’t that one of the major problems involved when we stray from the right and wrong that God laid out from the beginning of time? We want to know. We want to know what that tastes like, looks like, feels like and sounds like. We want to take our lives into our own hands, but in reality what we do is exchange a good and gentle master for one that is harsh, and unrelenting.

Image by 진혁 최 from Pixabay

When it comes to moral excellence it becomes a matter of choice. Adam and Eve chose to do wrong. I choose to do wrong when I get angry, eat too much or become fearful. We are no different from our forefathers. The Bible is full of real people who were less than morally excellent, yet God loved them and used them anyway.

Not wanting this post to get too long, I’m going to save what moral excellence looks like for a Godly person until next week. This week, do some homework. How often do you think about the choices you make? How often do you hear those messages that say you are the one who decides what morality is for you? If you come across something specific, or have a thought from the Spirit, I’d love to hear about it.

Have a great week, everyone and thanks for joining me on the blog. If you know anyone who might benefit from reading these blog posts, please pass it on. I appreciate all your support.