get that weak sauce out of here.

So Adam and Eve are in the garden, having themselves a good ol' time. They can do and eat whatever they like in this perfect paradise, with one exception. They can't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ...So what do they do? They eat from the tree of course.

When we're reading this story, we so often assume that very little time had passed between when Adam and Eve were created and when they eat the forbidden fruit. But how accurate is this assumption? Consider Genesis 4.

It starts with Eve conceiving and then giving birth to Cain. In the very next verse she's having his brother. By the third verse, Cain and Abel are already grown up and off doing manly things. If time can pass that quickly in a matter of 3 verses, we really have no idea how much time Adam and Eve had been living it up in the garden.

God never said they couldn't eat from the tree of life (so maybe they had been snacking on it's fruit all along?!) and it also doesn't say that Genesis 3 was the first time the serpent tempted Eve. All we know was that he was more crafty than any of the other animals. Whose to say he hadn't been bothering Eve for years (and years and years and years!)?

In light of this perhaps we should reconsider our basic assumptions about the nature of humanity and our ability to resist temptation. We so often sell ourselves short because we have it in our minds that we are weak. Adam and Eve only resisted for like 5 minutes, so what chance do we have, right? Wrong. Hold out a little longer. Sure, it's not easy and temptation has a habit of constantly nagging us until we finally cave but we can do things to set ourselves up for success.

Change your situation... Walk away, stop hanging out with that particular person or group. Keep yourself busy. Spend time in prayer and studying the Bible (note: that is different than just reading it). Talk it out with someone... I could go on all day, but you get the point.

Stay strong, friends.

Xx

the elephant in the room.

In Genesis 2, man and woman are created. This chapter ends with the verse: “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”

In a very literal sense, being naked meant they weren’t hiding anything. They were open and bare before God and before each other. Because this was the way in the garden, we know that something about this is how God wants it to be for us as well. So… God wants us all to become nudists!?

No… at least not literally. Unlike the first man and woman (before the fall), we try to cover ourselves, to hide our imperfections and our weaknesses, not only from God but from each other. By doing this, we cover who we really are and thereby cheapen God’s grace. We are not perfect, but God does not expect us to be. He wants to work in us despite our weaknesses, so that in us, His strength is all the more on display.

Until we admit to ourselves and to God that we’re not fooling any one behind our figurative designer threads, then there’s always going to be this great, big elephant in the room keeping us from any kind of real intimacy with God or with each other.

Keep it real, friends.

Xx.

Be Satisfied...

"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in every and any situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want." Philipians 4:11
How many of us have ever felt truly satisfied with what we have? What does Paul know that we don't?

It's so much easier to be grateful for what we have when we've experienced moments of not having anything. Despite all the complication we've added to our lives since the days of Jesus, our lives are in many ways much easier, much more comfortable. Rather than wanting what we need to survive, we think we need all the things we want. It doesn't help that our culture teaches us that we're not good enough, until we have enough (and we never have enough).

So how will we ever be satisfied? So how do we learn to be content with what we have when we always want more?

Share your thoughts below. Join us again next week as we continue to explore being content.