Direction, not intention, determines destination.

  

What is the loftiest goal? How do we get there?

More consequences for thought and action follow the affirmation or denial of God than from answering any other basic question.

-Mortimer Adler (Great Books of the Western World (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), p. 561.)

This can be the Year of Re!

The pursuit of God: Revival!

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'?' The woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' You will not certainly die,' the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' 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. 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. 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. But the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?' He answered, 'I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.' And he said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?' The man said, 'The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?' The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'

-Genesis 3:1-13

We must acknowledge that there is such a thing called, “Sin.”

  

In short, I call for a revival of sin. 'What would be the good of that?' you ask. 'Why do we need more breast beaters? Why not a no-fault theology? No one to blame. Things just happen. Oops.' Alas, here is why. The assumption that there is sin implies both the possibility and an obligation of intervention. We want to help ourselves and others and hence sin is the only helpful view when evil appears around us and no one is responsible and no one is guilty, no moral questions are asked. Then, there is in short, nothing to do. So, we sink to despairing hopelessness. Therefore, the consequences of my proposal for a revival of the consciousness of sin would not bring more depression but less.

-Carl Menninger - Whatever Happened to Sin?

Genesis 3 shows us the nature, the ramifications, and the remedy of the thing that is destroying our ability to experience God.

1 -  The Nature of Sin

  

And he said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?'

-Genesis 3:11

This is the definition of sin.

  

God says, "Don't eat from that tree."

We ask, "Why?"

God replies, "Because I commanded."

We say, “If I can’t see the reason, then I will not obey.”

  

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.

-Genesis 3:6

Did God really say that?

  

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’?'

-Genesis 3:3

So, the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden

-Genesis 3:23

2 - The Ramification of Sin

  

The foundation of sin is playing God.

The ramification of sin is alienation.

'Cursed is the ground because of you....'

-Genesis 3:17b

Sin cuts us off from ourselves: Internal frustration.

Sin cuts us off from God.

The man said, 'The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?' The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'

-Genesis 3:12-13

To the woman he said, 'I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.'

-Genesis 3:16

Men will try to dominate women because the ground is cursed.

Women, on the other hand, will make a god out of their husbands.

  

'Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.'

-Genesis 3:16b

'This time I will praise the LORD.' Therefore, she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.

-Genesis 29:35

'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.'

-Genesis 3:19

The main enemy in my life is dirt! Dirt in the diaper. Dirt on the plate, on the rug, on the sheets. You stand at the end of the house and work your way to the other end, and by the time you finish, the first end is dirty again! And what do you get at the end of your life for all this trouble? Six feet of dirt!

-Irma Bombeck

If you see a clam, or a frog, or a pigeon on the way home, take notice, the Pigeon is glorifying God better than you are because the Pigeon is doing and being what God made it to do and be.

-Elizabeth Elliot

Have you ever noticed that when you get near the minions of nature, why do the birds screech at you? Why do the dogs bark at you? Why do the reptiles hiss at you? Because they know you have a quarrel with their master. And the deeper the quarrel the more aggressive the creation.

-George Whitfield

Romans 8:19-21 tells us that:

One day the King returns and sets everything right!

  

"No more let sins and sorrows grow

Or thorns infest the ground

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found."

-Isaac Watts - Joy to the World

3 - The Remedy of Sin

  

So the Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

-Genesis 3:14

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

-Genesis 9:13

'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.'

-Genesis 3:15

Proto-euangelion: the proto-Gospel! The first preaching of the Gospel.

The first step of salvation and redemption comes when God puts in your heart a hatred of Satan and all his ways.

"Return O Holy dove return

Sweet messenger of rest

I hate the sins that make me mourn

And drove thee from my breast

The dearest idol I have known

What’er that idol be

Help me to cast it from thy throne

And follow only thee."

-William Cowper - Speaking to the Holy Spirit

Repent.

  

  

  

  

  

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