A New Window on Revealed Truth

I am so excited!  I believe that God has revealed another window/angle for looking at His Truth and understanding Him.  Each time I see something from a different angle, it helps me to understand it better.  In this case, the window has always been there.  The problem is that some windows need to be “defrosted” before you can see out of them.  This window deals with Adam, The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil, and the purpose of the Garden.  Once this window is “defrosted”, it has the potential to change your view and your life.  But then again, that’s what Truth does…It sets us free.  This is going to be fun, and I hope that you enjoy reading this.

THE FROSTED WINDOW

Here is what I’ve always been taught about Adam:  “Adam and Eve were clothed with the glory of God. They shone as His image, and were radiant in the Holy Spirit. They were adorned with the grace of God and every virtue. At this time our first parents were perfect in knowledge, and in all that they said and did.”  Have you been taught something similar?  Have you been taught that Eden was perfectly utopian?  Have you been taught that Adam and Eve had perfect harmony and communication?  I was taught that Eden was full-blown, fully mature utopia.  I never questioned it.  Even as I began researching it, I could see how we came to these conclusions.  But are these the right conclusions?  Was Eden a full-blown, fully mature, perfect utopia?  Is that what the Bible teaches?  Does the Bible teach that Adam and Eve had a type of celestial clothing before the Fall?  Were they perfect in knowledge, and in all that they said and did?  Did they have no need for teaching?  Well, let’s look at the Scriptures, find the clues, and see what we can uncover…You may discover something new.  Chances are, you’re going to learn something about yourself…And that could change everything.

? Did Adam & Eve have some type of Celestial (Heavenly) clothing before they sinned? 

Were they clothed in God’s light/glory?  A lot of the basis for Celestial clothing is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Macarian homilies, and several Apocryphal readings.  They believe that Adam & Eve were covered in light similar to Moses’ face after Moses came down from the Mountain with God.  They explain their reasoning this way: “How else can you account for the fact that Adam and Eve only realized their nudity after the Fall unless they were clothed before the Fall.  They must have been clothed with the glory of God.  They were made in the image of God and were therefore clothed in something before the Fall”.  Because they can’t figure out how Adam could be naked and not be ashamed, they believe that Adam & Eve had to be covered in some way.

But what does the Bible say?

Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.  The Hebrew here for naked means NAKED, BARE.  It literally means bare naked.  Let’s grasp this.  Before God and EACH OTHER, Adam & Eve were naked physically, emotionally, spiritually.  In other words they could hide nothing about themselves from God or each other, and they felt no need to hide.  Catch this.  “Were not ashamed” means they had nothing to hide from God or each other.  If they were not ashamed, if they had nothing to hide from God or each other, then why would they need clothing?  They had no need for any type of clothing of any kind.  They were sinless and there was nothing to hide in any way, shape, or manner.  I can’t emphasize this enough; they had nothing to hide from God or each other.  Keep this in mind.

But wasn’t Adam stripped of the Image of God when he sinned?  Well, I Corinthians 11:7 says, For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. Looks to me like man still carries both the image and glory of God.

? Adam & Eve were sinless, but were they perfect?  Up until last week, I would have answered yes, but now I’m not so sure.  Just because they were sinless and God said they were “very good” didn’t mean they were perfect or mature.  Teachers speak of Adam & Eve as if they were near Deities or Gods themselves.  There is no doubt that Adam was smart.  He did name all the animals.  But does Sinless necessarily mean that he was perfect or completely mature? Was Adam so perfect and mature that he didn’t require teaching?

What did Adam have to do to remain Sinless? Avoid breaking God’s Law.  What was God’s Law for Adam?  Do not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  ONE LAW!  Do you see that?  ONE LAW!  Do you see where I’m going with this?  ONE LAW!  Guess what?  That was the only Law Adam knew…period. (God also told him to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the Earth. But this was the only Don’t Law). 

That was the ONLY law for which Adam was held accountable.  Think about that.  What does the Scripture say?  Romans 5:13 For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.  Romans 7:7”.. I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died.”  What does this mean???  It means that Adam was ONLY ACCOUNTABLE FOR OBEYING ONE COMMAND.  In the beginning Adam had only 1 command to keep and he had no conscience to tell him the difference between good and evil (that would come later through the tree).  Hypothetically, Adam could have lied, cheated, and stolen and it would not be imputed to him (Rom 5:13) It wouldn’t count.  It wouldn’t be sin.  It couldn’t be sin!  Sin comes by transgressing the law.  Sin comes by disobeying God.  But there was no other law and Adam had no conscience to sin against.  He could have done these things and it wouldn’t be sin by any standard, by any measure…And it certainly wouldn’t have been sin according to God.  If we even think that this would have been sin, we would be going against God’s written Word.  Adam could have been far from perfect and still be sinless!  If Adam did those things it would not be recorded in scripture because God doesn’t keep a record of things that aren’t held against a person!  PRAISE GOD!  That makes me shout now because I know where all this is going!

Let’s be real and graphic for a moment.  Adam was a red-blooded man who had never seen a woman before.  He was lonely and if all his organs were working, he was yearning.  All of a sudden God makes a naked woman who is the answer to all his yearnings.  Adam says, “For this reason shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh.”  That clearly shows that “cleaving” and “becoming one flesh” was on the forefront of Adam’s mind when he saw that naked woman.  Honestly, it was the first pick-up line.  Now what do you think happened next?  Do I have to pull out the Hebrew here?  Cleave means to join, stick together.  Adam wanted to do some Cleaving and be one flesh!  I doubt that he pulled out a chair and said let’s talk over dinner.  Let’s be honest.  He probably started reaching for things on her body.  Now, imagine you are Eve.  You just took your first breath and you’ve got a naked man breathing down your neck.  You don’t even know his name!  He’s a lot bigger than you, he’s got a wild excited look in his eyes, he’s breathing real hard, he’s grabbing at you, and he’s acting like the animals because that’s all he’s seen so far.  She’s scared for her life!  What does Eve do?  She knees him in the nuts and bites his hand.  Adam yells, cusses, and before you know it they are yelling, throwing coconuts, and having a knock-down drag out!  But all that fighting, and cussing isn’t sin.  There is no law against those things.  They haven’t disobeyed God’s one law.  They have no conscience yet.  God’s probably laughing his head off at them.  They’ve got a lot to learn about loving and relating. Adam and Eve are still sinless, but they aren’t perfect.  Now, this was all hypothetical, but the point is that the only sin they could be held accountable for by God’s Standard was, “Don’t eat from that Tree…” Anything else would have been unaccountable and remained sinless.  They could be imperfect and yet, be sinless (Romans 5-7).

? Were Adam & Eve Perfect in all that they said and did?

The simple answer is no.  Being Sinless doesn’t necessarily mean that you are perfect, complete, or fully mature.  Being Sinless means that you haven’t broken any laws or defiled your conscience.  Let’s look again at God’s ONE Law.

Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

He clarifies His command once again after they sinned. Genesis 3:11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Now watch this,

Genesis 3:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Did you see that? Eve said that God told them that they shouldn’t even touch the tree. God never said that.  Eve is putting words in God’s mouth that God never said.  If someone is perfect in all that they say and do, then they don’t put words in God’s mouth.  We could argue that this is just a minor technicality and that it doesn’t really affect anything.  But then you have to ask yourself, if this was just a minor technicality, then why did God in His wisdom think it was so important to allow Eve’s mistake to be recorded and included in the sacred scriptures?  As I said earlier, I don’t believe God records behaviors that people aren’t accountable for.  In light of that, my opinion is that I personally don’t believe that Eve’s mistake is something that you could ever call a sin.  However, I do believe that it is God’s way of letting us know that although Adam & Eve were sinless, they weren’t perfect either.  Utter utopian-like perfect people don’t make this sort of mistake.  Reader, you may be asking, “If this is all true, then why doesn’t God just spell it out for us? God enjoys a good mystery.  He likes to drop hints and clues.  Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. If everything was spelled out for us, then we wouldn’t need to seek Him for understanding.  We wouldn’t pray, ask or seek the Author.  God wrote the Book, but He doesn’t want us to worship the Book.  He wants us to read the Book and then come to the Author and ask Him questions, reveal truth, speak to us, and change us.  Adam and Eve were people, real people, red-blooded people who were sinless, but weren’t perfect. 

? Was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil a Sinful Tree?

I don’t believe it was.  Adam & Eve sinned by disobeying God.   Adam did not obtain sin from the tree.  What did Adam receive from the tree?  He received a Conscience, the ability to discern good from evil.  Some versions of the Bible translate the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as the Tree of Conscience.  God had this same knowledge that Adam now had.  Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said, “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil..”  This knowledge did not make God sinful.  It is not sinful to have this knowledge.  I personally believe that one day God would have later said, Now you can eat from this tree.  A Conscience is a good thing to have!  Hebrews 5:14 makes it clear.  It’s good to know the difference of Good & Evil. 

? Why do you think that God didn’t want them to eat from this tree?

I think it was all about the timing.  God told Adam, don’t eat from this tree.  If God had told Adam to wait, I think Adam would frustrate wondering when he could eat from the tree.  Maybe God never intended for Adam & Eve to eat from this tree.  I really don’t know.  But as I read Hebrews 5:14, part of me thinks that he would eventually let them eat from this tree.  I’m guessing that Adam & Eve just weren’t ready for the burden of Conscience.  If Love isn’t strong enough, Conscience/Discernment will have you pointing out everyone’s right and wrongs (Genesis 3:12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me–she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”).  If your Conscience is stronger than your Love, then you will be more focused on doing right and wrong, than on loving God and loving others.  As I said earlier, Adam hadn’t matured enough in Love Relationship.  He still needed several more walks with God in the cool of the day, before God would say, “Adam, now that you’re fully established in Love, now that you’ve received a fuller revelation of the vastness of my love, now that you fully trust in my Love for you and I know you’re mature enough, let me show you how to protect Love-relationship with me and others.  Adam, one of the ways to protect Love relationship is to know good from evil; holy from profane.  Now, I’m going to let you eat from that tree.  Yes Adam, that tree.  Adam, I needed you to wait and develop in Love so that Love would always be your main focus.  If I had allowed you to eat from that tree earlier, your focus would have been on pointing out right and wrong.  You and your descendants would have gone hog wild on doing holy deeds like giving all your goods to feed the poor and giving your body to be burned, but without Love as the established focus, it would all be vain.  Adam, now I want to teach you about Holiness.  Holiness protects Love.  Holiness is Love’s bodyguard.  Love produces Holiness like a snail produces it’s shell.  Every “do” and every “don’t” is meant to protect love, protect you, protect your honor for me, protect others, and protect the relationships between all of us.  Adam, that’s the purpose of Holiness: to protect and perpetuate love in all its forms.  Holiness is not an end in itself; it serves Love.  Remember that.  Oh, by the way Adam & Eve, let’s put some clothes on you now.  I know you don’t understand any of this but you are naked and there’s fixing to be a lot more people on this Earth.” 

? So What Happened When They Ate? Why Did They Start Wearing Leaves?

Adam & Eve disobeyed God.  As a result, things happened when they ate from the tree: 1. They disobeyed God and sinned.  2. They obtained a Conscience (Gen 3:7 “Then the eyes of both of them were opened”).  3. Their Conscience told them that they were on the wrong side of Good & Evil (Genesis 3:11″Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”)  4. They now felt overwhelming shame and guilt.  They felt the need to hide from God and from each other.  Not only had they sinned against God, but they had helped each other to sin and they knew that they had let each other down. Their sin had nothing to do with being naked, but now they felt exposed and needed to hide from God and cover themselves from each other.

? WHAT’S THE POINT OF ALL THIS?

If this is true, I guess the biggest thing for me is the stark realization that Sinless doesn’t mean Perfect.  I hear that I’m the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and yet there is a part of me that can’t fit that in with my imperfection.  If I’m so righteous than why am I so imperfect?  NOW, I know that you don’t have to be Perfect to be Sinless!  My frosted window, my incorrect picture of Adam has always held me back.  I thought Sinless = Perfection.  WRONG PICTURE!  Adam wasn’t perfect, but he was sinless. Why, because Adam wasn’t under the Law except for one.  He could be truly Sinless while being truly imperfect.  I don’t need to go around beating myself up and feeling rotten all the time…I’m Sinless in Christ.  Do you hear that?  I’m Sinless in Christ!  I’m not perfect, but I am Sinless in Christ!  I need that branded into my brain.  The guilt around my head is false guilt!  I am not under God’s wrath.  I can’t be under God’s wrath.  Christ has fulfilled the Law, paid the penalty, and I am now free from the Law! Adam wasn’t under the Law, and now I am truly freer than Adam.  I’m not going to go backwards; I am free to pursue Loving God, Loving Others.  I am free to get back to the Garden and fulfill God’s original intent to pursue Love.  Christ has freed us and leads us by His Spirit.  We are under grace.  This alone can empower us to live a life that pleases God.  I am free to please God!!!  Sin isn’t held over my head.  I could sin now and it would not be imputed to my account because I am not under the Law.  My deeds yesterday, today, and tomorrow are not capable of separating me from My Father because they are already removed by Christ’s blood.  What can separate me from the love of Christ? Nothing.  I’m not just forgiven (I got that), I’m not just redeemed (I got that), but I am Sinless even when I’m imperfect (that’s starting to sink in)!  I don’t have to be perfect to be sinless!!!!  Yahoooooo!  Glory to God, I’m crying!  He did it for me!  He really loves me and I can throw the guilty card away from over my head.  This is really Good news.  Romans 5:13b sin is not imputed when there is no law Romans 7:4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code..   

I’m so glad His truth has set me free from frosted windows,

Dan-o

 For years I have been walking around feeling like a crappy Christian.  It’s really hard to invite people to join you in the “crappy Christian cursade”.  My feelings effect my evangelism, my worship, my love, my entire life.  Would you want to join in that fun?  For the first time in years I had an understanding of who God really is.  On Sunday I was praying with a member of my church family.  I felt the Holy Spirit’s presence, it made us both laugh hysterically as the man leading me in prayer was praising God for who he is and speaking truth about God’s love as our father.  He loves me because I am his daughter.  Here is what God revealed to a man named Dan Baker as he was leading us in prayer and afterward as he was studying and fellowshipping with our Father that loves us.

The messages of late, and the prayer time on Sunday Morning have really stirred my thinking.  I’ve been up all hours of the night writing copious amounts of notes as thoughts and scriptures have been coming to my mind in a continual stream since Sunday morning.  I’m writing stuff that I’ve never thought, read, or heard about.  I’m a bit overwhelmed and I need to share this with you and be accountable at at the same time.  I’ve put together a Paper and I’d like to share some thoughts with you that relate to the things we talked/prayed about.  I don’t think that what I have written is “Chasing the wind, hot air” theology.  I believe it has real bearing with real outcomes.  I hope this helps you, because I truly believe that it is helping me.  Please be mindful that although I may write with a sound of being convinced, these are only my very recent opinions which are subject to change.  I’m going to present things from different angles, but they all add up.  I’m not preaching to anyone,  I’m just seeking to know Him and I need to bounce it off other people.

Amy, you and I were talking about understanding God, His anger, His Love, His thoughts toward us, and how our beliefs about Him have great hands-on effect. I’m about to attempt to address some questions.  What really happens when God is misunderstood?  How does it affect Him?  What was happening when God said, Adam Where are You?  What is the real basis for Father’s Anger?  What was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil all about?   Now watch this:

Angle #1 About Understanding God:  I believe that the most Misunderstood person in the annals of time is the Father. 

1/3rd of the Heavenly Host left Him.  Adam & Eve hid from Him.  The Israelites didn’t try to understand Him, wouldn’t believe Him, and went their own way.  His Son was completely misunderstood by those who yelled, “Crucify Him” (He clearly pointed this out when He said, Father, forgive them, they DON’T KNOW what they are doing.  Hence, he was saying that they’re ignorant, they’re misunderstanding.)  The disciples misunderstood His Son continually.  Even today, we misunderstand the Father and His nature.  What happens when we don’t continue to seek to know/understand Him?  We end up sinning against Him (Thy Word have I hid in my heart, so that I might not sin against God). All of these people listed above have sinned against Him.  Misunderstanding God opens the door of our minds to false thoughts, which has the potential to produce deception in the heart, which in the end produces sin that is against God.   

As a result of this, the Father has also been the most Alienated person ever in existence.  No matter how big of a following a world leader has ever lost, no one in history compares to the loss God experienced, when 1/3rd of Heaven forsook Him.  I believe the number exceeds any human standard.  I believe He felt that.  Added to that is the fact that every member of human creation has forsaken Him at some point (“There is none that seeketh after God; no not one”.  “All we like sheep have gone astray..”) That’s severe alienation! Again, I believe He felt that.  When we sin, WE LEAVE HIM, we are the ones who go astray…not the other way around.   What does the Bible really mean when it uses the terms “sin against God”, “sin against the Lord”, “sin against Him”, “sin against the One” etc. ??? It means that when we sin, He gets the brunt of it.  We leave Him, We go astray from Him.  Sin has caused Him to experience more alienation in relationship than any person that has ever existed.  When Adam & Eve sinned, they hid from Him, not the other way around.  Sin causes God to experience us leaving Him.  He gets the shaft, He gets the broken heart, His Love is shunned, He’s the one left standing there.  1 Cor 13 Love is not easily provoked…But it does get provoked.  In other words, I believe He felt it.  We hide, we leave, we stop seeking Him, and there He is walking in the cool of the day, calling for Adam, “Where are you?”  “Where are you” is a painful, poignant cry of One who has been left alone by someone He dearly loves.  Sin is against God.  He is the recipient of the offense.  That’s Bible.  Amy, my whole life the church has taught me wrong.  They taught me that when I sin, His presence lifts, the anointing leaves, the dove flies. Because He is Holy, He has to leave me.  And if I seek Him real hard, I’ll find Him again.  If I’ll draw nigh to Him, then He’ll draw nigh to me.  The truth is, HE NEVER LEFT!  The statement, “When I draw nigh to Him, He draws nigh to me” doesn’t mean that He left.  It means that He wants to gets closer to me this time than previously!  God isn’t back and forth, back and forth like we are!  He’s there and wanting to move closer (“Behold I stand at the door and knock” isn’t just for sinners, it’s for saints).  I believe that He, more than anyone else, understands that Sin brings alienation that is directed towards Him. And He feels the brunt of it.  It’s against Him.  (And He hates it when we sin against others because He knows how it feels to be the recipient.)

Angle #2 About Understanding God:  The Father clearly has Emotions.  He may be big, huge, and have all knowledge, but He isn’t “stone”.  Love isn’t all logic.  You can’t have complete love and not have some form of emotion that develops along the way.  God isn’t just agape love…He made all of it.  He starts with agape, He initiates with Agape, but He intends to have all of it utilized.  I Cor 13 love is not a stone love.  It’s not an unaffected love.  You see, Love suffereth long. Love begins as a decision, but emotions soon develop/attach/follow.  The Father is not exempt from having emotions.  Jesus was the perfect representation of the Father and look what the Bible says about Him.  Jesus cried, got angry, was moved with compassion, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and was touched with the feeling of our infirmities.  Another translation says He has sympathy.  Sympathy is not based on logic.  Logic is cold and calculating. Logic knows nothing of compassion, anger, sorrow, grief, sympathy, or feeling.  Yet, Jesus is a perfect representation of who? The Father.  A sub-part of my heart has always subconciously believed that Jesus was the emotional one because of His humanity, and that the Father was more calculating and based solely on logic/reasoning.  I once believed that God the Father was ruled by the core of Holiness and was more detached than Jesus.  The Father was this untouchable Holy Judge and Jesus was our bleeding Best Friend-Advocate.  But what does John 3:16 tell us?  Who did the “so loved” in that verse?  It was the Father!  I guarantee that there was some feeling involved when He gave His Son away.  This is the Son in whom He is well pleased, the Son who gives Him pleasure.  Pleasure = Eudokeo which is similar to the Greek Euphoria.  That’s feeling!  The Father has feelings just like His Son.  Not only does the Father love us,  I believe He can like us!  When He made Adam, He said it was GOOD!  I believe He looked forward to walking with Adam everyday.  I believe He missed walking with Adam.  I believe that God loved and liked Abraham.  He was called the friend of God.  Why was he God’s friend?  Because he was the father of faith, and faith is PLEASING to the Father (Heb. 11:6).  Again, the Father not only loves all of us, but He likes a lot of us (Psalm 149:4, Ps. 18:17-19 and more).  I am only now awakening to the fact that something has been terribly wrong with my heart-mind picture of the Father being some cool, detached being.  It has hindered me in more ways than I presently understand.

Angle #3 What Is the Basis for Father’s Anger?

Let’s look at one of the Father’s emotions.  the Father clearly got angry throughout the scriptures.  It is REAL emotion!  As we said earlier, the Father has real emotions.  God is a spirit, and a spirit has emotions like grief and such.  What is His anger based on?  God hates Sin.  Okay.  But why does he hate sin?  Most of us have believed in our hearts or we’ve been taught in our minds that God hates sin because He is holy. That is truth, but I believe that is only a partial truth.  If we believe that God’s hatred for sin is based solely on His holiness, then we are only scratching the surface and we will perhaps be hindered in our worship of Him.  If you base God’s hate for sin solely on His holiness, you will hide!  (I’ll explain this later).  I believe this is why parts of our hearts may be hidden in worship.  We will be like Adam & Eve who felt they needed to hide from God rather than seek Him out.  Now watch how this ties in. What does it mean to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil?  It means that you become much more knowing/aware of the gap between perfect and sinful to the point that you can’t see the overriding Love that could fill the gap, and so you hide rather than seek Love.  The knowledge of the gap between good and evil suddenly looked bigger than His Love.  Adam & Eve ate and suddenly became more vastly knowledgeable of their inadequacy/sin/nakedness than they were of God’s love that was still seeking them out even after they sinned.  After eating, they had more knowledge of the gap between God’s holiness (good) and their sinfulness (evil), than they did of God’s love for them.  (I’m not doing a very good job of explaining here).

Let me explain the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil this way:  Heb 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.   The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil was too much for Adam & Eve.  They weren’t ready to eat that tree yet.  I don’t believe that God put that tree in the Garden for the sole reason of testing them.  He could have used something else for the test.  It’s a very specific tree.  I believe the Tree of Knowing Good & Evil had a further purpose than just being a test. Ask yourself, “What’s so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil?  Heb. 5:14 promotes it!  But Heb. 5:14 makes it clear that you have to have your senses exercised first to discern good and evil.  You can’t just have it all in one big bite (pun intended).  I personally believe that God would one day allow them to eat from that Tree.  But they weren’t ready yet!  They had other lessons to learn first!  What do I believe God was trying to teach Adam & Eve?  Let’s look.  He made Eve because He saw that Adam was lonely. A progression was taking place.  I believe that He came walking in the Garden everyday to teach Adam about real relationship.  He was teaching Adam how to Love Him and Love Eve (Others).  He was spending quality time with Adam.  I believe that teaching Adam to worship, love, and relate to Him and others has always been God’s first priority.  He made man to have fellowship/communion/Love-relationship with Him…So what else would He be teaching Adam? How to have a pure love relationship.  That doesn’t come overnite.  Love is always a learning, growing process…Always.  He was teaching Adam & Eve the two greatest commands…and He hasn’t changed.  I don’t subscribe to the theory that says Adam was some Superman who already knew everything.  If Adam knew everything then He wouldn’t need God.  Adam didn’t even know that he needed a wife.  He didn’t know what a wife was!  Adam didn’t even know he was naked (Gen. 3:7)!!  Some say that Adam was previously clothed in glory.  No he wasn’t!  Gen. 2:25 says he was naked before and after!  Adam just couldn’t see the difference between that and anything else.  Adam wasn’t ready to learn about Holiness, being perfect, what was good and what was evil and how to see the gap between the two.  That would come later. Adam needed to learn to grow in love-relationship day by day.  There is a LOT to learn about Love-Worship-Relationship…And God was taking His sweet time.  Adam wasn’t mature in love yet, I believe he was still learning.  Adam was in process.  God was teaching Adam about Love.  Learning about what Holiness is compared to evil would come later in God’s plan.  Love needed to be magnified first and foremost.

When Adam ate the fruit, he not only sinned but he now had knowledge that He couldn’t handle.  He hadn’t matured enough.  He became vividly aware that he was naked.  Previous to this, it didn’t matter to God that Adam was naked.  Clothing the outer Adam wasn’t big on God’s list of priorities.  In God’s plan, knowing the difference between good and evil would come later.  If you have a proper foundation of Love, the other stuff will come later.  Mature Love produces Holiness.  God wanted Adam focused on Love first…Understanding what is holy, what is profane, and knowing the difference would come later.  But now that Adam had eaten the fruit, everything was changed.  Adam was now more glaringly aware of what is Holy and what isn’t.  If Adam now saw how naked he was, what did he see when God came back to the Garden?  He saw how Holy God was compared to him and this was now more real to Adam than than the vast Love that God was trying to teach Him.  The Glaring realization of holy and profane blinded Adam to God’s love.  The gap between holy and profane was more real and looked bigger to Adam than God’s love.  So what did Adam do?  He hid.  And we have been hiding from God’s love ever since.  And our Adamic nature constantly believes that we have to deal with being holy enough to receive God’s love.  To our Adamic nature, God’s Holiness looks bigger than God’s Love and the gap between His Holiness and our profaneness is more real to our Adamic nature than God’s Love.  God’s love was always bigger and has always been bigger.  God loves profane unholy sinners.  A Holy God loves to sit and eat among them.  Love is His 1st priority and that why He sits among us. If you work on Love, Holiness will follow. 

Today our sin still blinds us to God’s Love and still causes us to focus more on the gap between our sin and His holiness (knowledge of good & evil) doing right and wrong, rather than seeing His vast love which can bridge the gap, and acting on love.  Adam & Eve became more focused on their sinfulness, God’s holiness, and could no longer see that His core was Love….So, they hid.  But did God really want them to hide from Him?…Even after they sinned, He was looking for them!  He KNEW they sinned and yet, He still came looking and calling for them!  That’s love reaching the unholy!  God loves profane unholy sinners.  He prefers to love people than to stay angry at their sin (Ps 103).  Holiness wouldn’t do that.  Holiness would not come looking for them.  Yes, they were banished from Eden; but, it was for their own good.  Today, we are STILL struggling with having eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil.  Many denominations, churches, and believers are still more focused on Holiness than Pure Love (Holy Love), at best they see them equally.  They see Him as Loving Holiness rather than Holy Love.  Like Brad said, “If it came down to one word…He is LOVE.”

Holiness does not produce Love.  You can give everything you own to the poor and give your body to be burned, you can do all kinds of holy acts and still not have love.  If Holiness produced Love, the Pharisees would be the most loving people.  On other hand, pure love produces holiness.  Does the Bible back up that underlined statement?  Yes, Romans 2:4 says that it is the Goodness of God that leads to repentance.  The greek is clear!  It is God’s love, benevolence, pleasantness, kindness, that produces a holy change in us!  God’s love is so, so, so extremely and ultimately pure that it makes Him holy.  Brad is right!  God’s utter core is Love; a love that has the quality of holiness.  Holy Love chastises, brings correction/punishment.  Holy Love gave the instruction, “You shall surely die”.  Holy Love will go to extreme measures and depths to make sure you have the clearest understanding that certain acts hinder perfect, holy love-relationship and you don’t want to do those acts.  God’s love is utterly extreme.  God’s love will kill another man, woman, beast, and child if He forsees that those people will corrupt a love relationship.  He IS Love.  Love is not based on Holiness.    But, Holiness is based on Love.  God’s utter core isn’t holiness.  That’s a God I can’t approach or grow close towards.  God’s utter core is pure love or holy love.  Because the bottom line is love, I can get really close to this God.  I can touch Him…And He wants me to touch Him. 

So, back to the question.  What is God’s anger based on?  God’s anger is based on His extreme love.  God hates sin so much because He loves so deeply and he knows that sin brings alienation against Him and separates Him from the ones He loves.  He hates being alone, He wants our fellowship.  That’s truth.  Really knowing this changes everything!  Look at the 10 Commandments.  If you believe that God is primarily Holy, the 10 commandments look like harsh rules from an utterly ego-centric type of being.  “Thou shalt have no other gods before me!” (It sounds like, “I’m number one, look at me, I’m Holy and I’ll grind you to dust if you don’t worship me!)  BUT, when you see God having a core of Holy Love, you can hear Him saying, “You shall have no other gods before me because I know that these others will leave you so empty, lonely, and barren.  That grieves me to see you that way.  I hate to see you perishing.  Look to me only and it will be the best thing for you.)  The 1st view sounds selfish; the 2nd view sounds self-less.

The bottom line:  If most of what has been written here is truth…Then it changes everything.

Don’t get me wrong, God is Holy and there is a Hell that people will go to.  I’m not a universalist.  I’m just a guy who is like the song from the Godspell play. “To see Thee more clearly, to love Thee more dearly, follow Thee more nearly,  Day by Day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqEHaQ1RbME

I’ve written a lot more, but I’ll stop until I hear from y’all.

Love is Supreme,

Dan-o

Why are we searching for it?

What is it?

Will we know what it is when we find it?

Why is it that sometimes we think we’ve found it?

Do we know who we are?

Are we trying to make a glass slipper that is one size fits all?

Why do we chase the next shiny object?

If all the flavors were limited to one, would you eat it?

Would it sustain you if all you had, was one?

What would you do if there was only one?

These questions come from the thoughts that I have when I drive around and read church advertisements and billboards. 

It’s been a while since I have written about Bipolar or mental illness.  The last 2 months of my life have been hell and I am not using that word lightly, I mean hell or at least a glimpse of what that place is really like and I tell you this, you don’t want to go, you don’t want to even chance it.  Coming off of medication that I desperately need to carry a baby has been difficult, unfortunately this time around I will not be able to abstain from all medications as I did with my last pregnancy.  I will just tell you that things got real bad for me, real bad.  For the most part I suffer this with the support of my husband and those who truly love me from my church family.

My pastor have been given sermons about love and he asks the question “what would love do?”  One of the things that suffer during the hard times for me is my relationships with friends, family, loved ones or just people in general.  Unfortunately, I have a better education on “what love wouldn’t do”.  What I mean by that, is over the years of dealing with his terrible disorder, those who tell me they love me run for the hills when I become unstable from Bipolar.  I can’t really say that I blame them, it’s not easy to understand, nor it is easy to have a relationship with someone who has a mental illness and I don’t hold it against those who run.  I have just come to expect it and I work through the process of forgiveness.  I would become very bitter if I wasn’t capable of forgiving and I don’t think anyone would describe me as bitter.  It doesn’t mean that I don’t grieve those relationships that I lost, because I do.  I just don’t dwell on it, I have to keep moving forward.

I have been told all of my life that I am difficult to love.  God has put some people in my life to change the warped perspective of love that I have, they know who they are and the blessings that I am receiving from their love is amazing, healing and sometimes I think it’s too good to be true, but it’s true, they love me.  I may be difficult to love, but that’s ok, God puts me in people’s life for a reason and I am sure he uses me for his glory.  I can tell you what love doesn’t do, it doesn’t run.

Many Christians are wondering if they can smoke pot and or if smoking pot is a sin.  Unfortunately the church’s main argument on the subject is that you shouldn’t smoke pot because it’s illegal.  Allow me to give my opinion of the legality argument.  IT IS LAME!!! IF THAT’S ALL YOU GOT, PLEASE KEEP QUIET !!!  YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY CHRISTIANS ARE CONFUSED BY “IT’S ILLEGAL” AND HOW MANY OF THEM THINK IT’S OK TO SMOKE POT BECAUSE OF THAT LAME, SHALLOW ARGUMENT!!!  Dig a little deeper people! That’s the same as saying if you live in AK, CA, CO, HI, ME, MI, MT, NV, OR, RI, VT and WA, it’s ok to smoke pot since it’s legal there, and it’s not!

In this blog post I will illustrate with scripture as to why smoking pot is clearly a sin.  I don’t like reading long winded blogs, and since I could probably go on for hours about the blazing trail of sin that pot smoking can bring into your life, I will just stick with a few basic bullet point thoughts and give scripture for reference.

1 Peter 1:13  Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, you shall be Holy, for I am Holy

1 Peter 4:7  The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.

Given that marijuana’s entire purpose is the hallucinatory effects that it has upon the mind, I would counsel that to use this substance is to seek escape from the reality of God’s creation in preference for some chemically induced fantasy. This is directly opposed to being alert in one’s service to God.  You can’t do God’s will or work while you are stoned.

  Have you ever notice that when we sin, or do something we really shouldn’t be doing, we do it in darkness? We do it hidden from view of others and ourselves?

Isa 29:15  Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us?  Who will know?’  You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!

The amount of scripture that pertains to “dark” and “darkness” is astounding!  Everything you do in the dark will be brought to light.  If you are reading this blog then you have access to a concordance to reference all that God has to say about what we do in the dark.  Check it out.

If you are tying to justify smoking pot and you are looking to “the alcohol issue” as a reference, let me clear that up.  Wine is a blessing from God and it is not a sin to drink it or any other alcoholic beverages.  It is a sin to get drunk.

Eph 5:18  Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.  Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 

Na 1:10  They will be entangled among thorns and drunk from their wine: they will be consumed like dry stubble.

There is plenty of other scripture to support the statement “getting drunk is a sin”, check it out.

Since God is obviously against getting drunk, how can you justify getting stoned?  One can drink a small amount of alcohol and have a “buzz,” yet not be subjected to its influence. One can ingest/inhale a small amount of marijuana and be subjected to its influence, even though you are still in control of the majority of your actions. Notice I say majority. People who are high from marijuana use poor judgment and normally wind up lazy couch potatoes with the munchies.  They also become self absorbed, paranoid, and also suffer from anxiety issues.  Ever hear the phrase “Me, myself and marijuana?”  They also engage in risky behavior that ultimately leads to more sin.  One sin leads to another and another an on and on.

God cares about every detail of your life, including how you spend the money that he gives you.  Read the book of Exodus for a better understanding of just how much God cares about the details, even the tiny ones, right down to the smallest thread.

Mal 3:8  ”Will a man rob God?  Yet you rob me.  “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’  “In tithes and offerings.  You are under a curse- the whole nation of you- because you are robbing me.”

Pot is expensive, an ounce of pot can cost as much as an ounce of gold.  The money that we are given by God is his, not ours, and he expects us to use what he has given us responsibly, for his glory and for building the kingdom.  I can’t see how blowing money on pot could be a righteous act.

Like I said, I could go on and on about this subject and how smoking pot leaves nothing but a blazing trial of sin.

This video is about how your children learn from you.

Let’s begin with the whole reason any of this creation is here. Simply put, God wanted to reveal Himself and enjoy a relationship with those who accept that revelation.

In order to reveal Himself God would need three things:
A stage to reveal on – that’s creation.
Someone to reveal to – that’s people.
The conditions needed to make revelation possible – a world of contrast.

So God creates everything. And He creates it all so that it can experience the vast range of contrasts: from love to hate, hot to cold, war to peace, good to evil…

If God had created a perfect world, then He really could not reveal Himself. He would say something like, “Hey people, I am loving”. And we would respond, “Yeah, us to”. Then He wouldn’t be able to say, “But I am more loving”. If we were in a perfect world then there could be no “more than” – perfect doesn’t come in degree. So God really couldn’t reveal Himself. He would need contrasts for that. So love can only really be appreciated against the backdrop of hate. Light can only be understood against the backdrop of dark and so forth. So to the degree that God wanted to reveal to us His greatness, then to that degree He would need its opposite.

This is why there is such suffering in the world. You are right, God could stop all the pain now if He wanted to. Since He doesn’t, we must conclude that He is either evil (and we don’t think that) or He has a purpose for evil and suffering. One of those purposes seems to be that God uses suffering to draw us to Himself in a deep relationship so that He can reveal Himself to us. God is all about relationships. Without this world of contrast there could be little revelation and only shallow relationships.

And God doesn’t exempt Himself from the pain!

It is not a world of pain for us and luxury for Him. He came and suffered with us.
   
Check out His life experiences:
Jesus was born a human. He was not less man because He was also God. He was 100% God and 100% Man. We know. Its impossible sounding…the kind of thing it would take a God to pull off.

And as a man He bled and felt pain and emotion just like you. The nerve endings in His body worked just like yours. If He touched the stove it burned Him just like you. When people hated Him it wounded Him just like you.

So he comes to earth, born of a virgin who was pregnant before marriage. Even her fiancé` Joseph thought about leaving her. Imagine how other people talked about Jesus’ mama.
Then Jesus…

Is born in a stable because the Hotel was full and chivalry dead.

Had to start life on the run from King Herod who wanted to kill Him.

Was born to an apparently poor family since Mary gave the kind of sacrifice that poor people were allowed to give.

Something happened to His father Joseph somewhere along the way. He probably died.  Joseph is never mentioned again after he is twelve. That had to hurt.

After Jesus began His public ministry at 30 years old He told his disciples, “I don’t even have a place to lay my head at night”. He knew homelessness.

Even Jesus’ family didn’t believe in Him for the first period of His ministry. They thought He had some mental problems.

Jesus knew the pain of rejection. After teaching one day, many of His followers abandoned Him. He even turned to His twelve and asked them, “Are you leaving Me also”? John 6:67

He even suffered aggravation and “I can’t believe you don’t get it”. He said to one group, “How long will I put up with you”? He also said, “How is it that you have no faith”?

He dealt with betrayal. One of the twelve men He chose, Judas, actually sold Him to His enemies for thirty pieces of silver. And even worse, Peter, the man He was closest to on earth, swore and cursed in Jesus’ presence that He didn’t even know Him. All of His disciples abandoned Him.

Then there was that fateful day when after being beaten all night and scourged and spit on, they made Jesus carry His own cross to a hill where they NAILED Him to it. They completed the torture with a crown of thorns, nakedness, derision, and even a sign that declared Him the “King of the Jews”.

He died.

Then the God part really kicked in…
        He rose from the dead.

That’s what the Bible says. 3 days dead. Now that’s not passing out and coming to! That’s a miracle. That’s God stuff.

And the best part…
            He came out of that grave looking for you!

He likes you and loves you.

He said things like…
“There is a killer out there, but I came to give you real life.” John 10:10
“I am the way, the truth, and the life, you can only get to God through me.” John 14:6
“And this is eternal life – that they know God the Father and Jesus whom He sent.” John 17:3

And the coolest part is that you can know Him. You can develop a real relationship with Jesus.

The content of the blog was brought to you by  http://www.dontcometoourchurch.com the art work brought to you by The Raging Genius.

The first negative thought that I encounter after sharing Jesus with an individual is their dislike or plain disgust with the church.  I hear the word “hypocrite” used very often in my discussions.  I think people have the wrong idea about who attends church, which is not perfect people, but rather sinners.  Most people think that Satan spends his time in bars, brothels, meth labs and so on, but I don’t think he spends much time in those places at all.  Why would he?  Most likely he already has those people right where he wants them.  Satan enjoys making those of us who attend church look like fools by dividing us and reeking all kinds of havoc within the body.  It’s the perfect excuse for an outsider to look in and say ”No way!”.  

The introduction to the book of James in the Message Bible, in my opinion, describes what I believe the majority of people who stand on the outside looking in is missing, and would just rather call those of us who attend hypocrites and run in the other direction, so I would like to share the introduction of the book.

When Christian believers gather in churches, everything that can go wrong sooner or later does.  Outsiders, on observing this, conclude that there is nothing to the religion business except, perhaps, business- and dishonest business at that.  Insiders see it differently.  Just as a hospital collects the sick under one roof and labels them as such, the church collects sinners.  Many of the people outside the hospital are every bit as sick as the ones inside, but their illnesses are either undiagnosed or disguised.  It’s similar with sinners outside the church.  So Christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behavior.  They are, rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced, and dealt with.  The letter of James shows one of the church’s early pastors skillfully going about his work of confronting, diagnosing, and dealing with areas of misbelief and misbehavior that had turned up in congregations committed to his care.  Deep and living wisdom is on display here, wisdom both rare and essential.  Wisdom is not primarily knowing the truth, although it certainly includes that: it is skill in living.  For, what good is a truth if we don’t know how to live it?  What good is an intention if we can’t sustain it?  According to church traditions, James carried the nickname “Old Camel Knees”  because of thick calluses built up on his knees from many years of determined prayer.  The prayer is foundational to the wisdom.  Prayer is always foundation to wisdom. – Eugene H. Peterson- THE MESSAGE BIBLE//REMIX

I hooked up with a friend from high school on Facebook several months ago, just in time to learn of our 20 year high school reunion.  I went to Newfield High for the last 1/4 of 11th grade and all of my senior year.  When I first learned of the reunion I didn’t want to go.  My fear of attending the reunion didn’t have anything to do with the school or anyone who attended, or that I had a bad experience there.  I didn’t want to go, because of the horrible things that I had done while I was there and I just didn’t want to face all of the people who knew me then.  I changed my mind and went.

I still remember the first day I saw my new school.  Newfield Trojans… “Great”, I thought, “my new school is a giant condom advertisement.”  I was not happy at the sight of this tiny school that wouldn’t let me eat my lunch off campus and compared to the school I was going to before, it seemed like a little prison.  The school did not offer the advanced classes that I was in, so for the next year and a half I took classes that I had already taken.  I slept through my entire senior year and graduated with a B average just by doing my home work and I couldn’t have cared less about my grades.  I didn’t have many friends in high school and I didn’t really care either, I was angry at the world.

I was extremely rebellious when I got to this little school.  I got a lot of detentions, as a matter of  fact, after our graduation ceremony I had to go back for 6 hours of detention before they would give me my diploma.  I am probably most famous for putting crap in another girls locker, getting my school bus pulled over by the police and so on.  I’m sure my fellow classmates thought I was extremely weird.  I kept hearing “You’re so different”  all of the time and I believe I was.  Before I arrived to this little school………..

I had spent approximately 4 years living deep within a canyon in C.O. with no running water and no electricity.  It was kind of like those T.V. reality shows where they take a suburban family and catapult them back 100 years except for there was no whining and complaining.  We lived off of the land.  I could probably write for months about this experience.  Life was extremely hard in the canyon.  We could only bathe 2 maybe 3 times a week.  Sometimes the 6 mile road home would be too muddy for travel or we would get stuck in the mud and have to walk home.  We had an outhouse which I do not miss, animals to take care of, three thousand small pine trees that we planted and mulched that needed to be waterd using five gallon buckets which landed me in the hospital with a hernia. I had very abusive step father.  Beatings were regular, so was verbal abuse and sexual abuse, he was angry at the world due to an accident at the age of 18 that burned 80% of his body and took it out on me, my mother and his own children as well.  At the time I thought my life was a living hell.  That life that I was living came to an abrupt screeching halt all in one day.

On that day…… I knew something was wrong the minute I opened the door to the truck and saw his face at the bus stop.  I knew something terrible was going to happen,  I felt it in my bones.  He said “Hi Amy” in a way that sent chills down my spine.  I got in the truck and sat right next to him, funny thing was, my place was always next to the passenger door, but not today.  The silence on the way home was eerie.  When I got home I went to my room and I waited, I knew it wouldn’t be long.  It didn’t take longer than five minutes before hell on earth began.  I heard my mom screaming in the R.V. for help, I saw him come back out of the R.V. and into the addition that we built.  He grabbed the fire poker and went back in side the R.V., the next thing I hear is lots of little things hitting the floor which I later learned were bullets .  My mom screamed for me to go call the police, I could hear stuff hitting the walls, her being beaten.  Normally I would use myself as a human shield when I could get in-between the both of them during her beatings, but this time I knew that I was not to go to her.  We had a walkie talkie type of phone in the truck and I started to go through the living room to run to the phone, he parked the truck accross the meadow, I had to run fast and the only thing on my mind was to call someone before he killed her.  He came out before I could get to the front door, pointed the pistol at my face and told me to pack my bags.  I instantly felt my body go numb as I pissed all over my self.  I turned around and went into my room.  I looked around, I picked up my curling iron and a pair of socks.  I was obviously in shock.  The next thing I remember was seeing my mom on her knees out side.  He had the gun pointed at her head.  I stood there and watched as she begged him to spare her life.  He let her up and ordered us to start walking.  While we were walking he said “I’m going to walk you to the pearly gates of heaven”.  I felt the gun pointed at my back, my head, I felt it every time it was pointed at me.  I remember my exact thoughts, “Will the bullet go through my head?  Maybe he’ll shoot me in the back, I hope its quick, I am ready to go, I am ready, he can’t hurt me anymore after this, I wish he would hurry up and get it over with,  my head?  my back?, my mom first? or me?, I hope he doesn’t shoot her first, I want to be the first to go.”  We got to the property line, it was the longest walk of my life.  Then he turned around and started heading back to the R.V.  If he said anything I don’t remember what it was.  I remember being angry at him that he didn’t finish what he started when he turned around, death was an invitation that I wanted to take.  I was not impressed that he let us go, I wasn’t grateful in the least.  We walked the six miles out of the canyon to someone’s house we knew and called the police.  After that we were placed in a safe house for battered women, in a few short months on would be on a plane headed back home to N.Y.

When I got back to N.Y. I tried to move on and pretend nothing horrific had happened, I did that for many years to come.  I should have been placed in therapy, but I just went to school instead.  I actually didn’t deal with all of this trauma until I was 26 and had a complete nervous breakdown.  My mind just couldn’t take what my life had become as a result of my self worth being diminished that way.  When I think of the way I acted in school, well, my behavior was awful, but I do forgive myself.  I was just a young girl, traumatized, and in need of love and major therapy and of course Jesus.

If you are wondering what I think of my step father, the honest truth is:  I have no ill feelings for him at all.  I called him 15 years later and told him that he hurt me and that I forgive him.  What amazed me was how much he needed my forgiveness.  I belive that when you do not forgive someone for trespassing against you IN ANY WAY, that it’s like wanting them to die while you drink the poison.  This is something I know, as I drank the poison for many years.  I also understand that “Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdomof God” (Acts 14:22).  If I hadn’t experienced that trauma, I wouldn’t be the Amy that I am today, a talented artist, a deep thinker and lover, very forgiving and all of the other wonderful fruit that the Lord brought forth in my life.

I am glad that I went to my reunion. I sure shocked a few of my classmates when they found out I was a Christian and I think that’s exactly they way God wanted it!  When I see rebellious young children misbehaving and acting terribly, I say a prayer for them, you never know what’s going on in their home.