The influence of Bible women is more widespread than we may think. Take Mother Eve as the prime example, the most influential female in human history. All the generations, of every kind, have lived, and continue to live till Jesus returns, in the result of her sin against God’s word.
However, Adam in her name established a useful model for all mankind to follow when things go bad in life, and nothing can change it. It’s found in Genesis 3:20. “Adam named his wife Eve—meaning Living—because she would become the mother of all the living.” In other words, what to do when problems rise with no solution, death occurs to those we love, disagreements occur between friends, people trusted with our secrets seem to betray us, etc., etc.? Get on with what is left…disregarding what is gone. Don’t become a victim of a mistake, a sin, a failure, an argument. As the old song said, “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again.” Take Paul’s advice if you feel wronged: accept the wrong without brooding over it and turning it into vengeance I Corinthians 6:7-8. Do not take refuge in the old canard, “If he apologizes, I’ll forgive”. Take rather the scriptural approach Jesus taught in Matthew 18:15-20: the offended party, not the offender, takes the initiative in resolving the issue. Then, if not resolvable, repeat the process with widening authority involved. Remember the spiritual truth Paul taught in Ephesians 4:32….”forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you”. And how did God forgive? Romans 5:10-11 emphasizes that God expressed his love to us while we were sinners; again, God took the initiative. In summary, first don’t let anger tear you to pieces Job 18:4; second, remember what we experience in failed relationships and goals is a common possession of all people; third, forget what happened and get on with life; fourth, do not spend energy on regret or revenge that is better spent devoted to rebuilding life; fifth, accept more of the blame for what happened than you have coming; and give more credit to the other person than he deserves; sixth, and last, always let the Holy Spirit in us surface our better, and diminish our lesser, nature. Increase our deeper and decrease our shallow nature. Trust Christ’s ability to make us VICTORS, not our native willingness to be VICTIMS. He made us more than conquerors; don’t let yourself be the OVERCOME! Thanks, Father Adam for keeping what hadn’t been lost by your sin. Thanks, Mother Eve; for all the damage you caused, you left us a positive model for responding to the bad things in life.
0 Comments
Using I John 2:15-17 as our model, we can see how Eve established the world's response, and how Jesus re-established God's response to temptation. First, in a state of innocence, potentially-perfect Eve SAW in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil:
SEEING what she considered possibilities, into sin she plunged by eating its fruit. Second, experiencing 40 days and nights of fasting that reduced his physical body-mass to dangerous levels, Jesus SAW:
And answered Satan's temptation with God's Word every time. He SAW, but without:
Two models on how to respond to temptation exist, then:
The apostolic model followed Christ's:
Summary: Christians can either rise to God's expectation or fall to our soul's desires. Which will we choose? Which will we have as our goal every time tempted? Fini The search for wisdom in knowledge continues to disembowel the positive influence of education today, beginning with Post-War America. The liberalism of the 1950's and 1960's systematically removed God from education. A removal that became the violently anti-God attacks in each decade since.
Now, in 2022, believers cannot mention God in the classroom while unbelievers have the freedom to denounce God as a myth, the Bible as fiction and Jesus Christ as the creation of disciples who dreamed a conquering Christ from a failed Jesus. Nevertheless...let Christians shoulder a major share of the blame by:
The charge offends godly people who led in the development of those schools. The decision, however, had the unintended consequence of encouraging secularization of culture. Consider briefly four ways this writer has developed more fully in his study Factors That Have Secularized American Society. First, it removed the Pro-God, Pro-Biblical societal atmosphere that demanded inclusion in education. Second, it deprived public school faculties of Christian influence. Third, it deprived the public education system of Christian teachers, school boards, writers, curriculum and superintendents. Fourth, private schools brought a mere familiarity with Christian teaching that testing in public schools would have developed as confident faith and enduring discipleship. End Part II, with one to follow. Consider Mother Eve. Following James 1:14-15, she sinned mentally, spiritually and emotionally before the inevitable physical act of eating the fruit. For a simple reason:
KNOWING God's VOICE, she also knew:
The very difference:
Nevertheless, by desiring what God forbade:
Which, however loud:
She allowed a creature, not the Creator, to be her instructor, honoring his imitation over God's ORIGINAL voice. No wonder she could be deceived into thinking knowledge equaled` wisdom. She desired, not the Truth of God, but what the arch-criminal promised through his corrupt oily mouthpiece. End Part I Eve, who admitted the devil deceived her Genesis 3:13c. Of course, had she listened to God, she wouldn't have been. The wisdom she thought existed in knowledge comes only from obedience to God. But, then, her admission of sin bettered her husband's blame-shift: Adam said the woman God gave him caused him to sin, in essence blaming both God and the woman—the first and most used response of sinners—"I'm not responsible".
Sarah, for demanding Ismael's banishment from Abraham's camp Genesis 21:10. Of course, had she not assumed personal control of God's will by thrusting a slave girl into her husband's arms, Hagar's fertility wouldn't have become a world-wide threat 4000 years later, as it has now with Islam. Nevertheless, her demand excelled Abraham's attachment to his son Ishmael. And only God's direct command moved him to banish the pair. Sarah's demand removed foreign contamination from Abraham's camp. Had she not acted, undoubtedly out of feminine rage, and stood her ground against her husband's wishes, Islam could claim equality with Christ by reason of Ishmael remaining in Abraham's family. Obviously, no equality exists between Christ and anyone else, especially Christ and myth-loving Mohammed. (That's all I'll say here, but will preach it more comprehensively Mother's Day.) Leah, Jacob's first, but unloved, wife Genesis 29:16-30. The names given her first three sons reflected her melancholy hope of securing Jacob's attention. See 29:31-34 and Proverbs 30:21-23a. The name given her fourth son reflected her faith in God Genesis 29:35. She began to realize that God alone offered her peace of mind. Teaching us that we will find that God is all we need when we discover that God is all we have. Happy Mom's Day, Ladies. God Bless. |
Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|