All is a lie

I recently read a devotion from Proverbs 31 ministry that just won't let go of me called All About Eve. Eve and the nature of sin and the problem of evil have really been occupying my thoughts the last few months.

This devotion pointed out the fundamental lie that Satan enticed Eve with - all is better, all is the best - God has all and He is God. He is holding out on you so you won't be equal to Him. There is more and you don't have it so you should get it for yourself. And God was holding out on Adam and Eve. He was withholding the knowledge of good AND evil because He knew how terrible the knowledge of evil is. Eve fell for the lie that all had to be better because it would be all good. It never occured to her (probably because she didn't have the knowledge of good AND evil) that "all" could include something that wasn't good.

I think we fall for the same lie still. The continual lust for more is driven from this same naive belief that "all" means only all good. We forget that "all" includes all evil as well. Would that apple be so enticing if we remembered it includes all the terrible, horrible, vileness this world can summon? The hope of Heaven is the promise that there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, all our tears will be wiped dry, evil will be overcome once and for all. And yet, I think there still lingers the trace of the lie that not having "all" means we are missing out on something...something good.

Perhaps all the terribleness of this world is to help us reach a point where we choose to believe the truth...that the only thing God is holding out on us is something we don't need and don't want, that all good is enough, more than enough, and that having it "all" does in fact lead only to ruin, destruction and death.

And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
for when you eat of it you will surely die." -- Genesis 2:16-17

And The Truth Will Set You Free

Two weeks ago I attended the Women of Faith Amazing Freedom conference. It was the best one I've been to yet. One of the key concepts brought up at the conference was the idea that freedom comes when you trust what you know to be true about God even when the circumstances of your life make it appear not to be true.

The quintessential example of this being the age old "problem of evil." How can God be both loving and powerful when evil, awful, absolutely horrid circumstances occur to people around the world every day? Innocent children are abused, abandoned, neglected. Does God love them but lack the power to help them? Circumstances, say that must be true or that He has the power to help them but chooses not to because He doesn't love them. Evil circumstances tempt us to say that God must be EITHER loving or powerful. He can't be both or He would intervene and end the evil circumstances. The Bible says circumstances are deceptive. The Bible tells us unequivocally who God is...

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. - 1 John 4:16

To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. - Isaiah 40:25-26

The Bible tells us what is true - God is both loving and powerful. We are called to know that is true even when circumstances tempt us to believe something else is true.

It occurs to me that the original sin in the Garden of Eden was exactly this choice. Adam and Eve walked in the Garden with God. They knew God face to face. Then they were faced with a circumstance in which they had to choose what they knew to be true about God over what appeared to be true at that particular moment.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” - Genesis 2:16-17

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. - Genesis 3:4-6

Eve looked at the circumstances - seeing that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, etc. and made a decision based on the circumstances - rather, than on what she knew to be true about God.

Contrast that with Jesus's response when faced with circumstances:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'." - Matthew 4:1-4

Knowing God, memorizing Scripture, Bible study, praying etc. are vital to our lives because they allow us to rise above circumstances and choose to follow what we KNOW to be true about God rather than what circumstances make appear to be true.

When we know God so well that we automatically respond with what we know to be true regardless of circumstances, we begin to find true freedom.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. - John 8:32

Effort and Rest

I have been wrestling for some time with the implications of my last post about walking in the light always requiring effort and why it is so difficult to do. It occured to me that part of the difficulty arises from Jesus' promises of rest...

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." -- Matthew 11:28-29

I think we long for rest. So much of what we do that is ultimately destructive is because we are trying to numb out, veg out, just be and not do. The idea that we have to make an effort to enter into rest rather than just let it come upon us and over take us like sleep is rather disconcerting to us. And yet, that is what we are called to.

"There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. " --Hebrews 1:9-11

This all came together for me this week when I reread a devotional that is originally from "Won by One" by Ron Rand:

In 1857 a tightrope walker named Blondin stretched a two-inch cable across the gorge of the Niagara Falls, attracting a large crowd. He said to the onlookers, "How many of you believe that I can carry the weight of a man on my shoulders across this gorge?" The crowd shouted and cheered their belief that he could do it. Sure enough, Blondin picked up a sack of sand weighing about 180 pounds and carried it across the falls.

Then Blondin said, "How many of you believe that I can actually carry a person across the gorge?" Many people in the crowd indicated that they thought he could do it. Then Blondin called out, "Which one of you will climb on my shoulders and let me carry you across the falls?" Suddenly there was silence. Everyone wanted to see Blondin person across the gorge and many believed he could. But nobody wanted to put his life in Blondin's hands.

Some time later, Blondin did carry a man across Niagara Falls. The man was Blondin's manager, who had known the tightrope walker personally for many years. "You must not trust your own feelings, but mine," Blondin told his manager as they prepared for the crossing. "You will feel like turning when we don't need to turn. And if you trust your feelings, we will both fall. You must become part of me." (emphasis added)

That's when it all started coming together for me. We want to be carried but we don't want to do the work of TRUSTING the one who carries us. We don't want to feel like turning when we don't need to turn. We just want to be part of him, to be one and not question, to know his ways and do them because we understand what He is doing.

But that is not the deal. We know he is 100% able to do what he is offering. We KNOW it. We've seen him do it in other's lives, maybe at times even in our own. (Just imagine how many people would have taken Blondin up on the offer to go across the tightrope if there were a hungry lion prowling around.) No the deal is to trust him and move with him when we don't understand what He is doing or why. We put our trust in His ability and who He is not in our understanding of what He is doing. This has given fresh perspective for me to the well known verse:

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." -- Proverbs 3:5-6

I am now starting to look at challenges in my life to do what I know I should...but resist because well, frankly, I just don't want to (eat right, exercise, consider other's needs ahead of my own, walk in the light)...from the perspective of is this me wanting to turn when we don't need to? Am I resting in His ability, acknowledging Him and allowing Him to make the way for us? His peace comes when we understand that we don't need to understand WHAT, we just need to understand WHO and that comes from coming to Him, fellowshipping with Him, knowing Him, becoming part of Him.