Know the Truth. Pass it on.
From Teen Girl's Bible Study 2-16-09
Genesis 2:15-3:19
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
17 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.”
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
23 Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bonesand flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman,because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,cursed are you above all livestockand above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go,and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband,and he shall rule over you.”
17 And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you,‘You shall not eat of it,’cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Since the beginning of time, women have been easily decieved. Somehow we have a knack for it! I don't know why, but we do.
2 Timothy 3:1-2,5-7
1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
2 For people will be...
5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,
7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
Paul describes "weak women" as women who look like they are Christians, they learn about God's Word and seem to have it all together, but in reality there is no truth in their life and they are burdened with sins and led astray by their passions! It sounds like they don't even know they have a problem!
This is one of Satan's goals. If he can get us to where we are thinking we are in a good place, but really, we wouldn't know truth if it hit us in the face, he is being glorified. Because we are not living a joyous, peaceful, life where Christ reigns!
Every sin you will ever commit comes from believing a lie.
And lies are everywhere! No wonder we all live selfish, unpeaceful, unsatisfying lives!
But there is a process that leads to believing a lie. (The process and a couple of the sub-points, by the way, I pulled out of Lies Young Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Dannah Gresh-I highly recommend it!)
We are going to use Eve as our example!
1. Eve listened to Satan's lie
Gen. 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
And how often do we do the same thing? We listen to music that glorifies a lifestyle we don't agree with, or read books, or watch movies, or have friends that don't believe the way we do. We listen....we get curious. And after all, just watching a graphic scene or whatever won't really affect us...right?
2. Eve dwelled on the lie
3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
After Satan asked the question, she got to thinking about it...she mulled it over a little bit and she decided that God was being unfair! She said, "Well, He gave us a bunch of trees to eat from, but God said we couldn't eat from or even touch that tree or else we would die!!!"
Notice that God never said they couldn't touch it...that was all Eve. She was getting dramatic and thinking, "Can you believe that guy? Who does He think He is?!? It is our garden! How unfair that there is a tree we can't eat from!" Eve had decided to focus on the one forbidden thing instead of enjoying the acres of freedom around her. She decided to look at God as a big meanie Who was trying to keep her from fun and pleasure instead of the God that maybe knew more than her feeble human brain.
How often do we look at the things the world offers us and get mad at God for "holding out on us," instead of looking at Him as our protector and seeing the inumerable blessings He has given us. Many, many, blessings that are beyond what we can imagine, come from doing things God's way, but Satan doesn't tell you that.
Also notice this-it appears in this passage, that Eve wasn't even around when God told Adam that tree was off-limits. She wasn't created until after that! It seems as though she is having to take Adam's word for it. That reminded me of several times where someone (my parents, pastor, or godly friends) told me that I shouldn't do something or go some certain direction. And how many times, I didn't take their advice. I figured they didn't really understand the circumstances, or they didn't get why it was necessary that I do this. And hey, God probably didn't say anything about it, right? What do they really know? Or...as it turned out. They saw a much bigger picture than I did! They knew what God said and were trying to help me out and I completely discounted it. So maybe Eve even wondered if God said it at all. Or maybe Adam didn't hear everything correctly, or... do you see how as women we go through this dwelling, reasoning process in our heads?
Deuteronomy 6:24
And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day.
It is always for our good!
Ephesians 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
He wants to bless us with all spiritual blessings! He isn't holding out on us! We don't and can't understand the mind of God because we are simply human!
Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Wow, that God. What a meanie. :)
We don't deserve the dirt we are made of! We have nothing coming to us. We are not worth anything...Yet, God paid for our sins, drawed us to Himself, and wants to show us the best way to live.
3. Eve believed the lie rather than the truth of God's Word.
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
After all, they had never seen anyone die! God said it would happen, but they had never seen it, so it must not be true...right?
Just like I make up stories about young men out there who are living godly, pure, set-apart, sold out lives and want to serve Christ in whatever capacity He directs them. But because Julia (sorry, I am picking on Julia!!! :) has never seen a guy like that, he must not be out there, and she has to settle for what the world considers to be a great guy. And I believed the same lie too, until I met a pure, sold out guy...
Trust the Truth of God's Word! Just because we don't see it or understand it does not make God a liar.
Also, realize that Satan was talking like God was hiding something about the tree. But God told them what the tree was! It was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He told them what it was, and He even told them what the consequences would be if they disobeyed-death. He laid it out for them "The tree over there will give you the knowledge of good and evil. Trust me, you don't want to eat that fruit because you will find out what evil is...and you die. So...don't do that. Trust Me. Let me protect you from evil."
But no. Eve listened to Satan's lies, she dwelled on them and that led her to believing them.
And being like God sounded pretty good! God gave the commands, had powers...she did too.
Whether we admit it or not, we all want to be god. We want to call the shots for our life, answer to no one, do our own thing. How many religions out there will tell you that you can actually be your own god? There are so many! And they are so wrong. Jesus is THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE! No one gets to heaven except through Jesus. And He is the only One to be the Lord and Master of your life. After all, He created it! And He loves you very much.
So Eve listened, dwelled, believed the lies and then,
4. Eve acted on them.
Genesis 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
She ate the forbidden fruit and suffered major consequences:
1. Her sin separated her from God. He is perfect, holy and awesome and she couldn't even look at Him without shame. She died spiritually in that instant.
2. Her sin separated her from everybody else. We are all prideful, selfish people and that leads to a lot of relationship problems! Eve no longer had the same relationship with her husband. They were separated by sin.
3. There were God's consequences for sin:
-they had to leave the garden
-there is pain in childbirth
-she is to be in submission to her husband
-there is now physical death. Before she sinned, she would have lived forever along with everything else on the planet.
And there were more consequences specific for Adam, who decided to follow his wife's lead and eat of the fruit. (Which by the way is a general man shortcoming-not being the leader and following along in his wife's whims.)
How then do we avoid being deceived? How do we know what the Truth is?
The common answer to the question, "What is truth?" "Anything that isn't a lie."
And then "What is a lie?" "Anything that isn't truth." How is circular reasoning a good standard and definition??? It isn't! But it is the answer I got among some of my teen girls. How can we know what truth is if we don't know where to find it or that absolute truth even exists???
So here we go. How can we know the truth?
Ps. 119:11
I have stored up your word in my heart,that I might not sin against you.
John 8:31,32 and 36
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Abide/store-live daily in, memorize God's Word!!!
You have to know the truth! And it is also imperative that you know it for yourself.
Like if I gave Charity a job. I said, "Hey Charity, I need you to go down to the Phoenix airport and pick up my cousin. She is a little taller than I am and she has brown hair." So Charity went to the airport with those instructions and tried to find my cousin. Well, how many people would match the description I gave? And what if one of those hundreds of people came up to her and asked if she was their ride? Well, for one thing that would not be safe at all, and how would she know which one was the right one?
But what if she went to the airport looking for my cousin whom she had met, talked to, seen up close, knew what she looked like and could give a good description of my cousin herself? What if she had a relationship with my cousin and was a good friend? There would be no doubt in Charity's mind who she was picking up.
In the same way, it is a great start that you listen to your Pastors, parents and church leaders about what truth is, but unless you live in it yourself, you are in almost just as much danger as if you had no knowledge of Truth at all, because you still can't recognize it for yourself.
Numbers 23:19
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
God doesn't lie. He is actually incapable of lying! His holiness prevents it. You have to be in His Word to know the truth. GOD'S WORD IS TRUTH!
What is truth? God's Word is truth
What is a lie? Anything that disagrees with God's Word.
Allow God to let your life soak up His truth! It is the only way to fully enjoy life in this evil world. And it is the only way to truly glorify the name of Christ. Go spread some truth-people are starving to know the truth and we have been entrusted with it.
Know God's Word.
Pass it on.
