The Fall of Man

Genesis tells the tales of beginnings.  One of these beginnings that has had long-lasting effects to every human since occurs in Genesis 3, known generally as The Fall.  Although the crux of this episode is chronicled is told in chapter 3, chapter gives us the necessary background information.  Because it is so needed to understand chapter 3, a brief synopsis of the relevant material from chapter 2 is in order.

This is the story of Adam, the prototypical man, and Eve, the prototypical woman.  Adam was created first, formed from the clay and dust by God's own hands, with life breathed into his nostrils straight from the breath of God Himself.  Adam was placed in a beautiful and complete garden, Eden, and given the freedom to take joy at eating any and every one of the fruits in the garden, save one, the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It is at this point, the first time ever, that God esteemed something not good (Gen. 2:18), for man is a relational creature and is not to be alone.  God then tasks Adam with naming all the beasts and animals  before creating Eve.  Eve was then taken out of man while man was put into a deep, sedative sleep.  And thus the stage is set for chapter three.

In chapter 3, the apex moment of creation, sin, occurs.  Briefly, the serpent comes and entices Eve to take of the forbidden tree.  In a sequence that leads right to death, the serpent lies to Eve, she misinterprets the command of God and eats the fruit to gain the serpent's proposed effect of "god-like" knowledge.  Eve then passes the fruit to her husband who eats, their eyes are then opened to their loss of innocence, and they hide from God who, after confronting their disobedience, curses them for their actions.  There is so much more to this, far more than can be discussed here.  For this, read these two chapters after prayer and God will reveal Himself to us through His Word.

While there is long list of relavent and important points of comment about The Fall, because of the length and scope of this dialogue, the act of disobedience itself will be examined.  There are many misconstructions associated with this event, the chief of which deal with the deceptions of the serpent.

For one, the so-called knowledge to be acquired from eating of the forbidden tree did not make man god-like, nor was it nearly as fulfilling as promised.  This the truth is attributed to all sin.  There is another major point to be associated both with the Fall and with all sin: Eve and Adam, in eating the fruit of the tree, attempted to accrue knowledge apart from God.

This is the very essence of sin: any attempt of man to gain something that is God, such as get knowledge or wisdom or even find salvation, is a deliberate act of unbelief and disobedience.  Put plainly, it is sin.  Although this has been an all-too-brief exegesis of Genesis 2-3, the point is to show that sin has been the same act since the very beginning, though perhaps the particulars have changed.

God Knows What We're Worth

A certain motivational speaker was wanted to make a point.  He pulled a crisp $20 bill out of his wallet and held it up.  The speaker asked, "Raise your hand if you would like this $20 bill."  Hands quickly went up across the auditorium.  The speaker then crumpled the bill into a little ball and asked again, "would anyone still like this bill."  And again, nearly every hand went up.

"Okay," the speaker said.  He spit on the bill, threw it on the ground, and squished it into the podium.  He then picked the soiled and disheveled bill up and asked the crowd again, "does everybody still want this?"  The crowd was not detoured from their previous exuberance for the bill.  The speaker then explained that his damage to the $20 bill did nothing to change the value of the bill, and did nothing to subtract form its desirability.

Humanity's relationship with God is kind of like that.  We are the crumpled and soiled $20 bills.  Yet no matter how damaged we may be, our value to God never diminishes.  God loves us despite our dings and dents.  He loves us for our true worth, no matter our tattered state.

As Paul writes in Romans, "but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8)."  Unfortunately, many people believe that God won't accept them until they are undefiled.  The reality is that God accepts us when we are defiled so that He can clean us with the washing of His Word and His Spirit.  This should be comforting.  For no matter the circumstances that have beaten and damaged us, God is there to dust us off.  It all comes down to faith.  God knows our worth and loves us for it.  All He asks from us is devotion and love.

Rosa Parks and Preparing for Opposition

On December 1st, 1955, a young black woman refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to make room for white bus riders.  The woman's name was Rosa Parks and her famous act of civil disobedience became an emblem for the Civil Rights Movement.  Although history will remember Parks for her braveness in the face of vociferous racism and systemic segregation, history would be wrong to think that Parks' actions were flippant or whimsical.

For over ten years, Parks had been a leading member of the local NAACP chapter.  She had also been involved with many demonstrations and community events that pursued the end of segregation in schools and in public.  In fact, Parks had been studying other bus boycotts, even being arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana a year earlier.  Truly, Rosa Parks had dedicated and prepared for her momentous and historic act of bravery.

Rosa Parks had prepared for years to be brave in the face of her opposition, and when the time came for her to seize the moment and act, she did.  Parks is a great example of courage in the face of adversity, but her preparation is also a key to her protest's efficacy.  Similarly, Christians face an adverse and oppositional world.  How we prepare for the those times that require bravery can ensure that our acts of courage for Christ will not be in vain but will have their maximum effect.

The point is intentionality for purpose.  Training and preparation for Christianity means prayer, counsel, Bible Study, fellowship, and service.  This is the training regiment that will prepare us for maximum Kingdom effect.  Let us then look to the examples from history, like Rosa Parks, who stood for the right things in the face of certain opposition, but did so after study and preparation.

Does What We Advertise Match What We Sell?

For over a year, the business trip had been on Denise's calendar.  Yet, two days before she was set to take off, she realized that her dress clothes were in serious need of dry cleaning.  Denise knew of a same-day dry cleaning place on the other side town, os she packed up her clothes and headed over.  Outside of the cleaners was a huge, neon sign, "One-Hour Dry Cleaning."

After filling out the tag and handing the clerk her dress frocks and asked for confirmation, "So, I'll be back in an hour for these."  The tiny lady behind the counter looked up through her thick, wire-rimmed glasses, "No, I can't get to these until next Thursday."

Denise replied, "But I thought you guys did one-hour dry cleaning?"  The clerk looked at Denise with a sly grin that spoke of her frustration at yet another customer missing the point, "No.  That's just the name of the store.  We don't actually do that!"

To many, Christianity is the just a title that many people claim but few actually live.  However, when someone looks into our hearts to see the goods, will they see real Christianity, or will they realize that our Christianity is just a nice mask to get us in with the right crowds.

But Christianity is much more than listening to Christian music, reading the latest Christian authors, voting the right way, or even speaking the right lingo.  Instead, being a Christian is about obeying the Commandments of Christ, keeping them with discipline and loving God and our neighbors.  Thus, if we commit to this, then when people look into our hearts, the identities and testimonies we put out for the public will be confirmed as true.

Running the Race like the Scot threw the Discus

There is an old story about a nineteenth-century Discus thrower that goes something like this:

A young man who lived in a Scottish village in the nineteenth-century wanted to be a star athlete.  He knew that he was athletic and strong, but because he wasn't a great runner, he needed a different event.  This was well before internet or even television, but after reading a local newspaper's report of an English track and field event, the man decided that he would become a discus thrower.

Because the man lived in a remote rural village, finding a discus was not an easy thing; in fact, it was impossible.  To remedy the situation, the young man, using a a description from a book, built himself a discus.  However, the young man misinterpreted the disc description: he thought that the disc was made completely of iron, whereas the competition discs were made of wood with an iron rim.

The Scot marked the record distance on the far end of the field and for over a year practiced throwing his all-iron disc until he could regularly throw beyond the record.  The man traveled to England for his first competition against some of the world's best throwers.  Yet, we the officials handed him the wooden disc for his first throw, he threw it with ease, setting long-standing records in the process.  It was the added burden during training that helped him succeed.

Both Paul and James speak of the necessity of persevering under weight and pressure (Rom. 5:1-5; James 1:2-4).  The idea is that endurance requires an attitude.  The discus champion above was focused, intent on becoming the best.  And, although he did not know that he was training with a discus that was far-heavier than it needed to be, it was in fact the added weight that made him so good.  

Similarly, if we are intentional in our pursuit of God and spiritual growth, we should take the same mind as the discus thrower: studying and loving beyond what is necessary so that we grow.  Needless to say, the reality of this boils down to a single, but essential word, work.

Consider the words of Paul in his letter to the Corinthians:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.  Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.  They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.  So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.  But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (1 Cor. 9:24-27)."

Loving like the Samaritan

Helping others is not just an easy tagline that fits on a bumper sticker.  Helping others is an extension of our devotion and our love for God.  In fact, it is when we are serving others that God if most fully flowing through us.  The challenge to this ideal is that most of us are far-more apt to care and help those who are more like us and far-more likely to ignore or neglect helping those who are markedly different.  This becomes even more acute when those who need our help are the dregs, the disenfranchised, and the lowliest members of society.

Think for a moment of how easy it is to turn away from those who appear ragged and haggard.  But, in truth, these are the very people who we should help.  This is one of the most clear Christian ideals and yet, because of our natural bents towards entitlement and selfishness, many are too quick to dismiss charity altogether.  Unfortunately, charity has become a term for an organization, but in its truest historical sense, charity is love actuated.

Consider Jesus' Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37).  A man leaving Jerusalem is mugged, stripped, and beaten, left for dead alongside the road.  A priest, a man who has given his life to the service of the Lord, sees the man and crosses the road so as to ignore his misfortunes altogether. Then a Levite, a man groomed from birth as a servant of the Lord, does the same thing, going out of his way to ignore his compassion for this crestfallen man.

Finally, a Samaritan man comes along the road.  Samaritans were considered lower-class Jews, half-breeds whose ancestors had mated with the pagan nations.  In fact, although the mugged man was in a worse physical state, he was still the cultural superior to the Samaritan.  Yet despite all this, the Samaritan man had compassion on the other man, binding his wounds, letting him ride his animal to the nearest village where the Samaritan even covered the other man's costs: true mercy, true compassion, and true godly love. 

Jesus confirms this ideal when He says, "Truly, I say to you, as you did to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me (Matt. 25:40)."  The idea is that we will not withhold our love and compassion from those who seem unworthy.  Instead, we will always love and have mercy, especially to those people who no one else will love.  This means that we will not turn away from the dregs or marginalized, but we will get into the trenches with them, by the love of Christ Jesus.

Love like Forrest

Arguably one of the greatest films of all time is also one of the most profound, Forrest Gump.  The film chronicles the multi-faceted, history-laden life of a southern man, Forrest Gump, from his childhood through his adulthood.  The essence of the movie, told through Forrest's episodic adventures, is a tale about a character who didn't know anything but being a good guy, despite his mental handicap.

One such episode that expresses Forrest's character is one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the whole movie, and it deals with friendship.  Forrest, a star college athlete, became a soldier after graduation and was thrust forth into the depths of the Vietnam war.  En route to training camp, Forrest met Bubba.  Bubba would become Forrest's best friend and trusted confidant.

Forrest's platoon was trudging through the thick of the Vietnamese  jungle, when the unit came under heavy enemy fire.  The squad was outnumbered and ambushed with nothing to do but retreat.  Forrest, being an all-star athlete, outran his entire platoon until he had escaped to the edge of the jungle.  Realizing himself to be alone without Bubba, Forrest turned back towards the action and ran into the abyss in search of his friend.

Although Forrest was unable to locate Bubba, he was able to save several other members of his platoon, even his commanding officer.  Eventually, after multiple trips into the jungle to find his friend, Forrest found Bubba and was able to harrowing pull his heavily wounded body from the jungle, all the while being wounded himself in the process.  Forrest was awarded the Purple Heart for his harrowing bravery, though despite his best effort, Bubba did not make it.

Forrest was under the heaviest of enemy attacks, yet he was unrelenting in his efforts to save his friend.  He sprinted through the jungle, dodged the enemy bullets, and did all he could to find and to pull his friend to safety.  This is such a great story of what friendship should look like.  As Jesus says, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13)."

Fortunately, most of us are not in war zones; however, we still need to lay down our lives for our friends as Jesus commands.  How this plays itself out practically is that we will not relent in our fervent love for one another, whether that means buying someone a tank of gas or helping someone move.  Additionally, we should never stop running back into the spiritual warzone of this world to preach the Gospel and save those whom we care about.  Let us then run like Forrest to save our loved ones, no matter how many times we have to go or how dangerous the circumstances are.

Remember:
"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity (Pro. 17:17)."