The Original Lie

Genesis 3:4-5

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 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."

Here we have the original lie that Satan told our first parents "You will be like God." Eve was presented with the idea that her intellect would be like that of God's. What would you say is the appeal of that? For Adam and Eve, who had everything, who had daily food, who had perfect peace, who had a consistent relationship with God, what could they possibly need? The truth is, they didn't need anything. They were completely taken care of from head to toe, from morning to evening. Their lives were totally in God's hands and totally blessed. Why did they need anything else?

Satan, posed a question, a misdirection, to get them thinking, to get them to doubt. Maybe God is holding out on us, they thought. Maybe he has something he's not giving us. Maybe he's not telling us everything. If we eat this fruit, well then, we'll know what he's not telling us!

And goodness gracious me, it worked! They could see they were naked! Well that's not the kind of thing they wanted to know. They wanted to know so much more, they wanted to know EVERYTHING and that's what Satan promised. But we're not meant to know everything, we're not meant to be God, we're his creation, not his creator. We're his dependents. If God filled out a tax form, he would have to put down 6 billion!

You see, we are still believing this lie. That God is holding out on us. That God has something he's not giving us. The truth is, he's not! We still believe that there's something he's preventing us from getting. There's something he doesn't want us to have. That may be true, but whatever he's preventing us from getting is for our GOOD. God prevented Adam and Eve from seeing that they were naked. That was for their GOOD.

We still believe that God, who gave us his own Son, won't freely give us all things. We think somewhere, for some strange reason, he's holding out on us. And that if we find a way to get what he's holding out, we'll be happy. If I could just get that job then I'll be happy. If I could just get that girlfriend, then I'll be happy. If I could just have a kid, then I'll be happy. If I could just get that raise, graduate from college, get my PhD, find love, be richer...etc, then I will be happy!

It never ends. We are never happy. When we achieve these things, they don't satisfy. When we get these things, often times they make us miserable. This is all because we are believing the lie. The Original Lie. That God is not God. That God won't provide. That somehow he'll fail us. So we make sure he won't fail, we find another way to provide, another way to fulfill our dreams, because, well, God isn't working fast enough! He's never going to come through! God helps those who help themselves! HA! Tell that to Eve!

The problem is, anything we set up, other than God, to be the ultimate thing, the thing that will make us happy when we achieve or receive it, is an idol. Anything that exists, whether good or bad or neither, can be turned into an idol. Anything that we place in the highest place, the thing that we put at the center of our lives, is an idol. God needs to be in the highest place. God needs to be set up as the "thing" that will make us happy. Until we put God in that place, we'll never be happy.

It all comes down to believing the lie or believing THE truth. What truth? That God is enough. God is all we need. God is going to come through. The beautiful thing is this. God is enough, God is all we need, and God has already come through. In Jesus, he came through. In Jesus we have the love, the acceptance, the thing we've been waiting for, already! We have Jesus already! If we just turn away from the thing that will "satisfy" and turn toward him, he is ready to accept anyone. He is pursuing us until we turn. He is loving us, until we love. He is chasing us, until we give in.

Leave what you think will make you happy and turn to Jesus. The lie will be seen for what it is. The truth will be abundantly clear. He is all you need.

Introspection

I enjoy a good drink on occasion. I enjoy a few too many good drinks on less occasions. Well tonight is one of the latter nights.

Now it may sound funny or out of place, but I've been watching the Showtime television series Californication. What I expected from the show was a lot of gratuitous sex and a little bit of entertainment. What I did not expect was to find that this man, David Duchovny, was a very insightful thinker. He's going through the pains and heartaches that I'm sure a good majority of Americans are going through. He's dealing with a break-up of his family unit, he's dealing with the hardship caused by relationships that don't work, he's coping with raising his child while not being available for her all the time.

I think I'm in man-crush with David Duchovny, simply because he tells it like it is. He has this way of making the pain he's going through, dealing with all the above, into something that's worth listening to. I know it's fiction, I know it's created by someone who had a lot of time to think about, but that does not diminish its value. It has taught me a few things about relationships that I needed to learn. One of them being that, if I have children, they will have a loving father, in the picture all the time. I will raise them much better than this because I will work out my differences with my future wife and not put them in a bad environment.

This show has basically taught me what NOT to do.

Anyway, I thought it was a great idea to post a little tipsy. Maybe I'll regret this tomorrow. Or maybe I'll enjoy reading my buzzed introspection.

The pleasures of this life

Sometimes I want to go into a time warp and wake up married with a house and kids. Not that this sudden time warp would make me happy, but it would take out all the waiting. Also, I don't want to miss all the things that come before having kids, but you probably get my idea. Sometimes I just think "If I were older, wiser, and more patient then these problems wouldn't follow me or try to find me." The problems, I see, are here to refine me. The waiting, I see, is here to make me wiser (and older). The situations I want to skip, are meant to fill me with understanding and memories for advising my kids and my friends. The pain I want to jump over, is meant to fill me with compassion for those who can't deal with life on their own. My life is a learning experience, but sometimes it really hurts. Sometimes, it takes all I have not to want to break off and leave things alone, let raging dogs rage without me.

I will someday look back and be glad for all that God has allowed in my life. He has certainly not kept it boring!

This isn't the end, this is only the beginning. Hopefully I'll find rest along the way. What I do know is that God is my refuge and my fortress in times of trouble. God is my rock. I will lean on him and no other until the storms pass.

You may wonder why I entitled this "pleasures" when all I'm talking about is pain. Well it's ironic.