Creation & The Fall

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!