Heya Peeps,

Happy post-Christmas time. 🙂 I am sorry I am 17 hours late on this week’s topic of thought. Yesterday at 1:30pm I had opportunity, but I did not quite have a sense of what I should write… due to being distracted over the last few days at me folks’ house. But I did think since that time and have a couple of verses to guide my message.

Recall we started December with Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

If you read on from there, you’ll see how God made everything, including the first person, Adam, and put him in the garden of Eden. Now as we continue, keep in the back of your mind the things we touched on about God; that He exists, He’s holy and righteous and He and His word is truth. If He says something will happen, then it will happen. Okay then…

Genesis 2:15-17 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord commanded the man saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Well well well… Looks like God gave Adam a test. Why, oh why did that tree with the “forbidden fruit” have to be in there God?

An answer can be found: John 14:15 [Jesus says] “If you love me, you will keep My commandments.”

So God made Adam and put him in a blissful place and also gave Adam an opportunity to obey or disobey… freewill to sin or not to sin, to trust or not to trust… to love or not to love. Thus Adam was not a pre-programmed robot was he? For how can one demonstrate such things as real and unforced love if they are programmed to love?

I like to give my kids “vitamin P” sometimes… (the P is for pester, heh heh). I’ll chase them around the house and when I catch them, I’ll nibble their bellies, administering their vitamin P. Other times, when they know I want to give them a deliberately sloppy kiss (eww yucky), I cry out “Love me…. love me…” They’ll run away as I stalk after them like Frankenstein, ha ha.

Even though I know my kids love me I also know I can’t force them to love me… just like I can’t force my beloved wife Melanie to love me. She can’t make me love her either. (FYI, everything’s okay between us… really 🙂 ) Now God could have made Adam love Him, but He didn’t. If love is to be real, it has to come from the heart on its own accord.

Thus the tree was also a test of love. And love for God manifests itself as obedience to His commands/ His word, (see John 14:15 above). Love is really not primarily an emotion, but is active. You know the old phrase, “Actions speak louder than words”, right? Anyone can SAY they love someone else, but if the walk don’t match the talk, then something ain’t quite right. 

God also gave Adam the truth about what would happen if he ate the forbidden fruit. Reaction always follows action. I think in another sense, reactions can be thought of as consequences. Let’s try a very simple premise on for size…

Obedience to God’s word brings forth blessings and disobedience to God’s word brings forth curses. Woah!

Deuteronomy 30:19 [God told Moses to tell the Israelites regarding their covenant with God] “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.” Pretty simple it seems. So I think God gave Adam that same kind of choice in the garden. (God is unchanging, so His rewarding good and punishing bad is unchanging too.) That tree really was a big deal. And the choice was simple… either obey Me and live or disobey Me and die. Wow!

Not too hard to fathom though… don’t break the law, don’t go to jail/ break the law, go to jail. Don’t smack finger with hammer, don’t get boo boo/ smack finger with hammer, get boo boo. Listen, hear/ don’t listen, don’t hear. It’s just that God’s word moves beyond our material/ physical condition and speaks to our spiritual condition. What is our spiritual condition when we enter this world? Well, let’s see what happened to the first couple? Sadly, as the account in Genesis states, Adam and Eve did not obey God. And if you read on, Adam and Eve live on and produce offspring too. But I thought God said they would die. Well, Adam eventually died at a ripe old age of 930 years old! But I suggest to you that Adam and Eve did die that very moment they disobeyed God in the garden… they died spiritually.

And we, as having ultimately come from them, have inherited their spiritual condition. (Gee thanks Adam and Eve). We come into this world disconnected spiritually from God our Creator.

Romans 3:23 All have sinned (disobeyed God) and fall short of the glory of God.

The big challenge for everyone who lives and can reason is recognizing this spiritual truth. We all have inherited Adam’s sin nature.

Oh but every great plot has some insurmountable problem huh? God wouldn’t just leave mankind no hope would He? Ahh… remember God is a God of love. Hmmm… Did you remember to listen to those classic Christmas song lyrics?

Peace,
Jim