Our Pastor is Reverend Tim Haas.
He can be reached at the Church, (727) 842-7674, Tuesday through Friday from 9AM to Noon.
Rebellion Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7, & Romans 5:12, 15, & 18
1st Sunday in Lent
February 10, 2008
A. Rebellion
If you would like to know more
Weekly devotion
for February 11 through February 15
Monday
Read Genesis 2:15-17. Why do you think that God put a limit on Adam? God gives Adam a wonderful place to live and a job to do that is worthwhile and meaningful and then He gives him that one restriction, not to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God could have not limited Adam at all. God could have left all possibilities open to him. But there is that one restriction. And the Bible doesn’t tell us why that one restriction is there. So all we can do is speculate about the whys of this restriction. But I think that the reason that God put that one restriction before Adam was because with this one restriction Adam had a way to show God that he loved Him and wanted to be obedient to Him. In the situation that Adam found himself in there was no other way that Adam could really show his love and obedience to God but to have some line that he was not supposed to cross and then not cross that line.
To me, this shows me how much God wants a semi-equal relationship with us. God gives us the power to choose to love Him or not, to be obedient or not; God even gives us the power to reject Him. That is the only way that God will know if we really choose Him, if we also have the power not to choose Him. And so there is the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.
Tuesday
Read Genesis 3:1-7. In this passage we read that the serpent tells Eve that eating from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will make her like God. What is wrong with being like God? Isn’t that what God wants us to be like? Yes, but to get that way Eve and later Adam had to be disobedient to God; crossing that line that God told them not to cross. In this way they reject God’s leadership in their lives and really attempt to take God’s place as they rule their own lives. And what is the result of eating the fruit? Instead of having the wisdom that they think they are going to get, they get something else. They simply seem to understand that they are naked. Although the Bible doesn’t say it, I think that what they got from eating from this tree was knowledge of the consequences of their actions. From eating from this tree they knew that being naked made them vulnerable. And so they lost their dependence on God and took over the operation of their own lives which lead to a lot of misery and human suffering.
Wednesday
Over past two days we’ve talked about the sin of Adam and Eve and how that sin was a rejection of God leading their lives. But their sin didn’t just affect them. It also has a direct effect on us. Read Romans 5: 12-14. Here we read that when sin entered the world through the sin of Adam and Eve it brought death with it. The Jewish people literally believed that they would not die if they did not sin but we tend to think of the death that sin brings as a spiritual death, which is an eternal consequence of not being able to be with God in heaven. So our sin, just like the sin of Adam and Eve, is a crossing of a line that demonstrates our unwillingness to follow God and have Him be the ruler of our lives. We participate in the brokenness of this world by our sin and cause ourselves to be removed from God’s ways and so we are in a hopeless situation unless God acts. And since the Bible tells us that all of us have sinned we are all in this hopelessness.
Thursday
Read Romans 5:15-17. Here we read that God has acted in Jesus Christ. Just like the sin of Adam of Eve changed the world for the bad, one man came and changed the world for the good. That one man is Jesus who was a gift from God who brought about the grace of God for us all through our faith in him.
Praise God for acting in Jesus and making a difference. No longer do we have to be separated from the love of God. By our faith in him we can choose to allow God to be the leader of our lives, with forgiveness for all our past sins. We are reconciled with God and because of that we have life eternal with Him. Amen.
Friday
Read Psalm 32. In this Psalm the writer celebrates that those whose sins are forgiven by God are happy. Of course those who sin, and that includes all of us, still have the earthy consequences of our sin. But as we have been forgiven by God things are made right for us with God and that has eternal consequences.
How does the writer of this Psalm have forgiveness for his sin? He says that he acknowledges his sin before God and seeks God’s forgiveness. Jesus adds to this idea that we should also acknowledge our sin before the humans that we have sinned against as well, and try to make things right with those we’ve hurt. As we do this we claim what Jesus died to give us; a new life with God. Amen.