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I started a new Chronological Bible reading plan. Through the main story arc of the Bible in something like 60 days-ish.
Hitherto are the results.
S – Genesis 3:6
So 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 to be
desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also
gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
O – At it’s core,
sin is a selfish impulse to ignore God and satisfy personal desires. As the
serpent is tempting Eve with the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil, Eve has surely seen the tree before. She already knows that the
fruit on it looks appetizing, and that the tree itself is beautiful. The
temptation of Satan wasn’t to satisfy the desire of the eyes, the temptation
was to disobey God and gain something for themselves—wisdom.
I think, as time
went on, God would have revealed his wisdom to them and made them wiser than
they already were, but it would have been in his own timing and in his own
way. Adam and Eve took a shortcut.
A – Adam and Eve
disregarded the punishment of God when they sinned. Either they believed that
they wouldn’t die, or that once they “became like God,” they would have
different consequences. Basically they didn’t fear what God promised would
happen. Now it makes sense why Proverbs consistently says, “The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” (Proverbs 1:7) because if Adam and Eve had
just feared the Lord, they would not have sinned. The consequence of sin
wasn’t important to them anymore; they simply wanted something they thought
they didn’t have—wisdom; but they really had it all along in their
relationship with God.
For me, I see lots
of things that are good for me and a delight to my eyes, and naturally, the
temptation is to have them right away. Put things on credit, take out of
savings. I remember a few times being tempted to just steal some stuff. Those
impulses aren’t just driven by eye-candy; there’s a deeper thing in me that
says, “It doesn’t matter how you get this, you simply need it because without
it, you’re missing something; you’re life is lacking, because you don’t have
what you want.”
I think the company
Apple is the king of making people feel like this. They release a new,
heavily upgraded product every year, and every time you watch the release
videos you feel like you can’t live without the new iPhone or iPad or MacBook
or whatever. They could sell me anything. They could convince me that I
absolutely need to wear pink dresses because it’s more intuitive than pants.
But the one thing
that has that “Forbidden Fruit” appeal for me lately has been guitars. I
always feel like I don’t have what I need. Even younger, less experienced
players have better gear or more expensive guitars than me. It’s actually
really hard for me to admit that that’s simply not true. Even writing that
sentence is honestly difficult.
But here are some
questions to ask myself anytime I have the forbidden fruit urge:
o
Is this pleasing to God?
o
Can I live without it?
o
Does God actually want me to have this?
o
Can I have it if I wait?
P – Lord, I thank
you for leading me to that Don’t Waste Your Life photo I saw yesterday. You
are clearly telling me to treasure you above all things here on earth. When I
am tempted to sin, my heart’s desire is to stay face to face with you, not to
turn my back on you and hope you don’t see what I’m really trying to do
(remember how Lion turns his back to you?). I want to cooperate with the
desire of my heart. Help me Lord!
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