Author Archives: Troy

Progression To Sin

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There is definatly a progression to sin. If fact God laid it all out to Cain in Genisis 4:7.

This progression is again laid out very clearly in the first chapter of Romans with even more detail. It is because the progression to sin has been so clearly described to us in scripture that it is a key point for us to pay special attention to. There are many trying to make excuses for sin as God calls it, but beware, what God calls sin is sin, what God calls evil is evil. Sin is not an illness.

In this instance both Cain and Abel had made an offering to God. Both from their trades. One was accepted as good by God and the other was rejected. Just after this event God spoke with Cain in an attempt to teach him.

Genesis 4:7 If thou doest well,  shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Quite simple really. To do well will is to be accepted by God. To not do well leads to a sequence of events. It’s kind of interesting, it looks like a logical argument in a program.

If you don’t do well sin lies at the door. Sin is close at hand, God giving us a picture of a kind of ambush being set up by sin. It’s the age old battle between good and evil. Some tend to think that this battle is for heaven and earth, but not so, the battle is for individual souls. Those who follow after God, will be victorious, those who fall to the ambush of sin will not be victorious. The interesting part is that God places the decision with each individual person. Do you believe God and do good, or do you not do good and fall for sin that awaits you.

The decision then is taken and the battle ensues. To not do good sin moves into the position of taking us. Is that the end then, once and done? No way. God is great, good, and full of grace. This  decision doesn’t have to be a once and done decision. We sometimes tend to think that the decision to turn from God is final. The verse goes on to say that sin desires to rule us but thou shalt rule over him. We have the ability to rule sin, to move away from sin and back to God. He is always there to accept us. To redeem us.

Cain on the other hand seems to have taken the whole conversation to mean that He was out of grace with God. He allowed sin to take him in ambush, and the results of his actions was the murder of his brother. Sin always leads to destruction and hurt. To follow God leads to fulfilment and joy. We have to make a decision numerous times per day between accepting God’s way and doing good, or to not do good. It is a choice each time, and we must choose with care.

According to the first chapter of Romans, the more we choose to ignore God, to intentionally forget Him, the further into hurt and disaster we go. The more we deny His existence the more deprived we become, the more hurtful and destructive we become. Just take a look around at the world we now live in. The evidence is everywhere. It’s undeniable!

Jealousy Rage and Murder

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It didn’t take very long for things in the new earth to hit rock bottom. Strife surfaced pretty quickly between Adam and Eve’s first children.

We see the two making an offering to God. It is a voluntary offering just as we do in our church services today. The problem arose with God’s acceptance of one and not the other. The first impression I get is that God was very personal with these boys. He was speaking with them one on one. God was please with the offering brought by Abel, but not the offering brought by Cain. He must have expressed as much to the two boys. This lead to Cain feeling rejected, although that was not the case. God did not reject Cain. God was speaking very closely with the boy, but none the less he felt very put out.

What was the difference in the two offerings? Why did God receive one and not the other? The text is short but pretty telling of the two gifts. The giving of gifts is a touchy point with most of us. It is also a touchy point with God. The importance of God in our lives is very easily seen by the way we give gifts to Him. Our giving to God reviels our true thoughts about Him, His worth to us. So what was the difference in the two offerings? We are told in the passage that Cain brought an offering of the fruits of the ground. It just happened to be some of what Cain had on hand, nothing special really. Abel on the other hand brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. Abel had brought to God the first and best of what he had. He did not bring to God some of the left over of his belongings. This shows God what we think of Him. Do we fear Him? Do we love Him? Do we trust Him to provide for us? God expects our best, not the left overs. Cain had already consumed the best of the first fruits and so God was not pleased with the offering that Cain brought. Many times in my own life I have done exactly as Cain did. I looked at my bills, the things that I may have liked to have, covered those things, then given to God if there was anything left. This does not show any reverence for God. Then I complain when nothing seems to go right, I feel rejected just as Cain did. God expects us to trust Him with all of our life, yes even with the material possessions.

Cain became jealous of Abel to the point where he called Abel out into a lonely field and Killed him. We have a tendency to blame shift. We like to find a reason for why things are not the way we want them. Cain had decided that Abel was the reason that God had rejected his offering, and the only way to fix it was to murder him.

I find it very interesting that God approached Cain in the same way He had approached Adam and Eve when they had disobeyed Him in the Garden of Eden by eating the forbidden fruit. God asked Cain “where is your brother Abel?” God knew full well where he was, but He put the question to Cain. This has not changed in how God deals with us. He want’s us to confess our failures to Him, to ask His forgiveness. We too have not changed, we try to deflect God, to deceive Him. God knows everything, He can not be deceived. The result of our pushing God away is always more pain, more suffering. If we do not do right sin waits at the door, sin will take us.

God want’s us to trust Him.

God knows everything, there is nothing that can be kept from Him. He is the judge of the world, He made it all and He has the right to judge it.

Results of Sin

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Sin: the opposite of God’s desires. We look for many technical definitions of sin, usually to see if there is any way to justify our actions or thoughts. The true and simple definition of sin is anything that is different to God’s desires. God created all that we see and don’t see. He has the right to define how those things He created behave. He has the right to set limits.

God’s limits are not difficult to understand. Adam and Eve were asked to not eat of one fruit. They had all the rest of the fruit to eat from, to enjoy. How hard is it to obey God in this simple request? God even took the time to explain what would happen if the fruit was eaten, but that explanation was not enough. Things have not changed with mankind or with God. His desires for us are still very simple, but we embellish them, then we ignore His desires for our own desires.

To sin, to do the opposite of God’s desires always leads to the same result. Hurt, pain, trouble, heartache, DEATH! I’d like to mention that God at this point put no further rules on the new couple. No law, no guide lines. I wonder why. Could it be that they now knew the difference between good and evil. Now there was evil, and they could tell which was which, evil is evil (to do the opposite of God’s desires), and good is good (to do God’s desires). We still carry this knowledge within us. It is inherent, we call it a conscience.

The immediate results that Adam and Eve experienced when they disobeyed God were quite striking. Shame of their bodies. The very first thing they did is try to cover their bodies. Mankind has struggled with sexuality ever since. The next thing they experienced was a fear of God. Until now they had conversed with God as if He were no different from them. They now hid from Him, which by the way is not possible. They now experienced confrontation for the first time from God as He questioned what they were  doing and why. They experienced panic as they scrambled to hide both themselves and what they had done. They now felt the need to justify themselves by shifting blame to someone else. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. Things have not changed at all! This is a full description of how we perceive God. We feel that we can hide the things we know to be wrong from Him and if we feel He knows, we blame someone else for those problems. God always knows!

The earth too was affected by this disobedience to God. We see God telling Adam that now he will have to work really hard to grow things, weeds and other problem will present challenges to Adam as he struggles to grow food. We also see God expelling Adam and Eve from the perfect garden that He had put them in. We see death for the first time as God killed animals and clothed Adam and Eve with their skins. We see that Adam and Eve’s lives would end, they would die and return to dust. None of these things were what God wanted. He wanted them to live forever in a perfect place under perfect circumstances. Disobedience of God will always lead to these problems. All of mankind is now stuck in this world of death, and struggles. This is still not what God wants for us. That is why He puts a limit on this life. Sin has a limit.

God has the right to put limits on everything. He made it all.

God has the right to tell us how to live our lives. He made us all.

God has set a limit on sin. He will not allow it to go on forever. That is not His plan.

God is the judge of all things. Death is the result of disobeying Him.

The First Sin

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The first sin and the fall of mankind into a need for salvation from death came very soon after the new couple were placed in the perfect garden that He had made for them. What happened? What was the cause? Who did the sin?

I wonder how long it took for the disobedience to set in? I really think it was within the very first moments of their touring the Garden of Eden that this folly occurred. The reason I think this is, a perfect man and a perfect woman naked together in a perfect place would quickly lead to conception. But they would not conceive until after they have been removed from the garden. I don’t think they wasted any time in going to see this tree from which they were not supposed to eat from. This perfection was doomed before it even got started! But why?

I am convinced that the first disobedience toward God hinges from DISCONTENTMENT! They had it all, well almost, but they were not content with almost all. We find ourselves in the very same condition today. Nothing has changed, discontentment drives our lives. It causes us great misery each day, it causes us to sin each day. Just take a look around. We are not satisfied with the home we live in. The brother-in-law has a much bigger, newer place. His furniture is really nice, they never drive a car more than two years old. I’d like to do the same. The debt we carry says it all.

God had given Adam and Eve everything they could ever need. All the food they could eat, a perfect climate that never changed, companionship, face to face communication with God Himself. Wow! But, they weren’t content. We can see this when Eve was questioned by the serpent. He asked the question that was on her mind. Her answer to him was very interesting. “God has said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” Did God say that? No, He said don’t eat of the tree in the middle of the garden. She had already embellished what God had said. Isn’t that what we do as well. As we work things over in our minds that we see and encounter with our friends and family we make situations much bigger than they are. You see things have not changed with mankind. We are still not content with the life and possession that God has so graciously given us.

Because of our discontentment we still risk it all. We get our minds working in overtime to get the things we desire, even it they are out of our reach. Our discontentment is what still tears our lives away from God. We are so caught up in discontentment that we forget that He is there. You see, God was there when they ate that forbidden fruit. He is everywhere! He is not surprised by anything. He knows it all. Just as discontentment drove Adam, Eve, and all the rest of us into the problems of sin and death, discontentment drives us into problems of sin, and death.

Discontentment has forever changed the earth and all it’s inhabitants. What are we to do with it?

Day Seven

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On day seven God rested from all the work He had made.

Did God rest because He needed to? Was He worn out from all the strain of making everything that exists? Why did He rest? Was it for religious purpose? Is it a demand for us to rest?

God does not need the things that we do. He does not tire. The work of creation for Him was no big deal at all, He simply spoke all into existence. The rest was not a religious thing for Him, He is God.

Many things have been made out of God resting on the seventh day! There are those who have concluded that to do anything on the Sabbath is a sin worthy of death. There are those who have concluded that the seventh day is no different from any other day. I would point out at this moment that God did not tell Adam and Eve that the seventh day was any different from any other. The only instructions that God had given to them were:

  1. Have lots of children. (Gen 1:28)
  2. Rule the earth and all it’s moving inhabitants. (Gen 1:28)
  3. Eat and enjoy all the wonderful things that God had made for them. (Gen 1:28-30)
  4. Do not eat this one fruit at the centre of the garden.(Gen 2:17)

I see no mention to them to rest on the seventh day. Is it important then? If it weren’t important then God would not have mentioned it. I think though it is more for our benefit than for Adam and Eve at the time. Their whole life was to be involved with God, they would meet and talk with him all the time, face to face. They had no heavy work load. They were to enjoy God and all He had made for them. That is what God created mankind for.

Later on when God would deliver the Law to Moses, he required that His people rest on the seventh day. This was implemented to give them time to put down their work that consumed them and focus on, and Praise God for the things He had done, for the things He had given them, for the delivery from bondage that He did. Of course in true human fashion we have taken this privilege, to rest, and made it a burden. We set hard fast rules of what we can and can’t do on the seventh day, and then struggle to keep those rules, and struggle to justify why we break them. We get so focused on the rules that we forget to praise God on that day of rest. In fact the head of the Jewish religion in the time of Christ were most offended by the miracles that Jesus did on the seventh day. He broke their rules of the Sabbath, doing things that only God can do.

God rested from the work that He had done. Yes we should too. But rest, don’t make it a burden. God is a liberal God. He gives us all things liberally and He’d like us to rest one day of the week to reflect on His liberality toward us. No more than that. Happy resting!

Day Six

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Day six is the crescendo of creation! God has been putting this world and our universe together over the previous 5 days. He has put into place the laws of physics and time. He has set down laws that all of creation would follow, giving stability to those things He created. Nothing He created would change, there would be no evolution! If things were allowed to change, life would be unstable, uncertain. If allowed to change things we eat today may destroy us tomorrow, He didn’t allow that.

We find all the other animals being created on the sixth day. The full compliment of animals, this includes all those that are now extinct. Yes the dinosaurs too. How do we know? There is evidence of their existence. That’s how we know they existed. The evidence of their existence doesn’t prove evolution. The evidence of their existence doesn’t prove millions of years of life on earth. The evidence simply proves they existed.

So God spoke forth all the creatures that would occupy earth. He also put the limit that they would come after their own kind. They would not over time change into different animals.

Again I’d like to call our attention to the part of this scripture that God thought to be the most important. The creation of mankind. We know this is the most important because He took more time to tell us about the creation of man. When we speak to friends, we do the same thing, we spend the most time talking about the things most important to us. Man is the pinnacle of creation. Man is the focus of creation.

The first thing we notice is God saying to Himself, “let’s make man in our image, and after our likeness.” God had not said this about any other part of creation. That alone sets man apart from the rest of creation. We are made in the image and likeness of God, we are special to Him. This is what sets us apart from the rest of creation, not our thumbs! This is why we are able to invent, build such great things.

The second thing we notice is that God gave to man dominion over all the living things of earth. Yes He made us rulers of the earth. The earth is here to meet the needs of mankind. We are not here to meet the needs of earth.

The third thing we notice is that He created man, male and female. He wanted mankind to continue on. With out male and female there can be no procreation. This is another limit that God has set on this world. We have many groups now calling for same sex this and that. The real problem is that God set us up to be together as man and woman. He established this law from the very beginning. He created us to fit together. On the day that God created man, he created male and female. It’s interesting that God makes a point of mentioning male and female. Why would He do that? It’s important!

The fourth thing to take note of is the food that God provided in the beginning was for all. He provided the fruit and herb for food. This was to be the food for the whole of creation. He created everything to flourish, to be perfect.

God provided everything for life at creation.

He is all powerful, creating everything by His very words.

He is loving providing for the needs of all living things.

He is awesome, making such diversity for our enjoyment.

Day five

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Day five is God’s Creation of sea creatures and bird type creatures.

According to God all the sea life and all the creatures that have feathers were created at the same time. One creature did not come from another. All at once the seas teamed with life, both Mammal and fish in all the diversity that we see. At the same time the air exploded with life. Birds took flight, and I’m sure those land bound birds scurried to and fro.

It is important to note that God put limits on these creatures too. They were brought forth abundantly after their kind. God would bless them and they were to multiply and fill the seas and earth, but after their own kind. Again, they would not become other types of creatures, they would not mix in their breeding. They would multiply after the form that God had given them. The world we live in is highly ordered, there is nothing left to chance. God has planned it out, He has executed creation, and He has set the laws to govern His creation.

God created with such diversity, such beauty, that we are still making discoveries of “new” creatures. How is that possible after the passage of so much time, so many scientific studies? God is great! He is all powerful! As we look to the stars that God simply put in place, the oceans team with animals that we as mankind have not so much as laid our eyes on. It is said by scientists that we know more about space than we know about our own oceans. How interesting! There have been expeditions to depths in the oceans that previously were thought to not possess life. But in these impossible to live in places, life abounds. This shows how much we really do know. All of the wonder and splendour of the ocean God created for mankind! He did not create it so that we would worship it, put it before God or mankind. He created it for our pleasure, and as a testament to His awesome power and grace. He did not have to create so many varieties of creatures. He did so for mankind, so that we can look at it all and say “God is great!”

God is great! God is all powerful! God set the laws that earth and the universe exist by. He is worthy of praise! God made all of these things, He can do with them what He likes.

Day Four

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Day four of God’s creation of the earth deals with Space and time markers.

There are several purposes that God has for the heavenly lights all listed for us. Time markers between day and night, signs, seasons, and days and years.

Time and a rhythm are woven into the fabric of our world. God has set in place time to keep us on track. We in fact do mark days and years, years into seasons. Time doesn’t change. We know that the earth makes it’s full cycle around the sun in 365.25 days. This doesn’t change. That is because God has once again set a limit, a law, a regulation on time so that it is constant.

I’d like us to notice that God spent more effort on letting us know what the lights are for than on the lights themselves. He does speak about the lights but only really in passing. The greater light, the sun to rule the day, the lesser, the moon, to rule the night. I love the fact that God so flippantly says “He made the stars also.” No big deal!

It is also interesting to note that we as human beings fixate on the stars and space. This is again our focus being drawn away from God. We tend to major on the things that God wants us to minor on. Yes the stars that God so simply put there speak of His magnificent glory. They speak of his awesome power. We look deeper and deeper into space only to find it goes on further that we though previously. He is awesome!

It is important to take away from this short passage that God is awesome. He has created all that we see in space to mark time and seasons. To show signs of His greatness. It is in the stars after all, the Wise Men who came to worship Jesus at His birth, saw His sign.

God is great! God has created all things. He has put limits on all things. He has written the laws of time and physics. God can do these things because He is God. It is all his as is mankind. Just as God can do what ever He wants with the creation around us, He can do as He wishes with mankind.

Day Three

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Day three of the week of creation prepares the earth for all the life that God in His wisdom would bring into being.

Again God doesn’t make any kind of big deal out of what He does on day three. He is all powerful! To speak everything into being is no big task for God Almighty.

He made the land to come to the surface of the planet, and the seas he put in their place. He put everything needed to sustain life on earth in it’s place. He created the different types of plants, grasses, grains, fruits… These He put in place for the animal and human life that He would make in the next few days. God has made all of the variety we see for our enjoyment. He could have made one thing for all living things to eat, but He didn’t. He made tremendous variety for our enjoyment. Not only variety in edibles, but variety in colour, and varieties of texture. What a great, kind God.

I think it is important to note that He defined that the things He created would reproduce after their own kind. They would not over time change into different plants or grains. They would remain as He created them. They all have the stuff necessary bring more of their own kind into being. I am happy knowing that when I eat a certain food it will not all of a sudden be toxic, or all of a sudden change it’s flavour profile, or all of a sudden change the way it looks. It would be a bit of a problem if the limits God set on plants were not there. We would not know what to eat from moment to moment. Life would possibly be more dangerous and precarious! God knows whats best for us, much more in fact than we know for ourselves. That is why we should trust Him. Have faith in Him.

God is the one who sets limits on nature. He is the one who has put that laws of nature into place. He is the one who determines boundaries of life. I’m also very happy to know that the earths gravity will not change. It would be a bit of a bummer if in a moments notice our weight fluctuated because the earths gravity did so. Too little and we would loose our atmosphere, too much and we’d be crushed under the weight of the atmosphere or ourselves.

God is great! We can trust Him. He knows whats best for us. He desires the best for us. He made us, He alone can set the boundaries!

Day Two

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Day two of Creation to me is very interesting. On the surface nothing great seemed to happen. God spoke into being the atmosphere of earth. Big deal! God devoted a total of 3 verses to the description of this part of creation.

Just below the very casual description of God creating the atmosphere are some things that we need to pay a bit of attention to. First He said He divided the waters. Some of the water of earth was placed above the atmosphere and some below. It was kind of an air sandwich between two slices of water. What would this have meant for earth, for the environment, for the life that God would place on the planet?

The first thing that comes to mind is that the earth would have been in a giant greenhouse. The temperature would have been even and probably not fluctuated at all. I have always said that the perfect temperature is 80 degrees F. I know that lots of you have issue with that, but I think the earth may have been about 80. It would have also been quite humid being that the atmosphere was surrounded by water which was in turn heated by the sun.

The next thing I would think is that the suns rays would have been greatly filtered down, defused. Light from the sun would not have been so harsh. No way to get sun burned. No UV radiation to burn, break down living cells. I wonder what the appearance of everything was like, no harsh light, no hard shadows. All of earth bathed in a perfectly defused light. I sometimes dabble in picture taking. When I desire to take outdoor photos of a specific subject the early morning sunlight is the best. It is diffused by the atmosphere making a much more even light with shadows that are not stark. In all, the photos in this light are the best. I’m betting that the earth was lit with a light that was even better than that. Colours would not have been washed out, just vibrant and full of life.

We often say about someone who is protected that they live in a bubble. That is precisely what God did for us when He created the earth. He put it in a bubble. The atmosphere of earth would have been perfect for life at creation.

Under perfect conditions what would the plants, trees, animals have looked like? Don’t know.

There would have been no weather as we know it now. No disturbances, no rain, no storms, no winter. Wow! God is good. A perfect life is what He designed for us. A perfect world is what He created for us.