The lectures yesterday were so cool - we had on e in the morning and one in the night!
MORNING:
We went the end of the lecture the previous day ... at the end of the previous lecture we talked about the ideal woman and the ideal man.
All the girls called out what they viewed as the ideal woman in the worlds view - the worlds view being the counterfeit...
All the things we called out were to do with appearance , e.g, clear skin, skinny , etc...
The guys called out stuff to do with appearance and character... I think it was along those lines.
But these counterfeit things distract us from the calling and purpose God has for each and eveyrone of us. We walk in the counterfeit/worlds way , because it is easy and we get comfortable!
We looked at the passage in Genesis 3:1-13:
The Fall
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
......
First of all, the serpent, the devil, came and decieved eve so that she began to doubt Gods character.
(God told Eve that she could eat off all tree'sexcept for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil)
After the serpent decieved Eve she began to doubt Gods character (faithfull, loving, only wanting the best for us) and she took control of the situation by eating from the tree God said not too.
Not only did she eat, but she took it to adam her husband and he ate of it too.
Yesterday when Johanne was speaking, she was saying how as girls we can struggle with control, just like eve took control.
And guys can tend to be passive like adam - Adam didn't tell eve to stop eating the fruit but he joined in.
When God came looking for Adam and Eve in the garden, they hid from him because after they ate from the tree they saw that they were naked. They tried to cover themselves with fig trees.
They were ashamed - shame can squash and hinder us from Gods will and purpose for us if we let it take over.
But when you read what God said as he came into the garden looking for Adam and Eve, he doesn't come across as angry.
He asks the questions:
Where are you?
And Adam replied that he hid because he was ashamed of his nakedness - before he ate from the tree he was not aware of his nakedness and he was not ashamed.
God asks:
Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree I told you not too??
Next Adam blamed Eve because she gave him the fruit, but Eve was not the only one in fault because he chose also to eat the fruit.
The Lord said to the woman:
What have you done?
The women blames the serpent.....
What we learnt when we read God asking these questions - God was giving them chances to repent, but each time they let shame squash them, then pass the blame,. and they didn't come and ask for forgiveness........I wonder what would have happened if they asked for forgiveness?
God heart was saddened by what they had done because , by their disobedience and not repenting God had to bring consequences and seperate himself from Adam and Eve, and us.
That was such a cool way to look at the passage - and a new way to see God!
NIGHT:
At night time, each of us made two even lines and we faced each other.
We were asked to lok at each other in the eyes and ask God to help us see the peole we looked at the way he saw them!
It was soo cool all the words God gave to people for others - It was so cool to because before that I was struggling a little bit and when I opened my heart to God and let him use me to encourage others, I felt so satisfied - God is all we need :)!!
So much has happened I would be writing forever if I had to tell you it all , and that would be hard!
I love God! And I want more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more of him in my life!
Jesus loves you so much!!
Let him take you where ever he wants you to go and day by day learn to lean on him and trust him more
You are fearfully and wonderfully made!
I am fearfully and wonderfully made!
God has amazing plans for each person in the world!
Godbless
Well, just a thought about "what would have happened if they asked for forgiveness"... I think things would have been pretty much the same outcome.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I think that is that the crucial thing had already happened... sin had come into the race of man... man is fallen. The whole reason that they didn't (according to this passage) ask for forgiveness was because of their pride, which was their sin: putting themselves in God's seat when choosing to disobey Him.
I would also like to note that the title of this entry pretty much takes up my entire title bar on my browser...