Spiritual Ponderings

Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us , knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" (Genesis 3:22) This is one of those verses in the Bible that has puzzled me all of my life. It just seems so uncharacteristic of God to appear suddenly worried, alarmed even, that Adam and Eve might suddenly be threatening God's position or status. It can easily begin to resonate with the very thing the Serpent had insinuated to Eve in the first place, that if she would take and eat of his fruit that she could become like God knowing both good and evil. Here God is saying that indeed this is what had happened Each time I read this verse it seemed that either I had to ignore it or to bend it in some way to avoid allowing it to fulfill what the Serpent had promised. I simply could not allow that the Serpent might have been right, for he is a liar so I cannot...

Similarity in temptations. I am Tempted to take offense, to hold on to offenses, to resist forgiving. The resolution to this is to let go of offense, let go of all rights to collect on emotional debts and trust everything to the God who is fair. I am tempted to worry about finances, about bills and debts I owe to others. I am tempted to take things into my own hands, maybe to become frantic about finding a job to get more money in order to stay in control of my life and provide for my family. But this temptation involves trying to keep my life to some extent out of God's hands by making my own decisions without making deference to God's plans for me. The resolution is to let go of all fear, let go of my desperate desire to know how things are going to unfold and trust Father to unfold His plans for me and to faithfully provide for all of my needs from His riches. But this requires that I trust His heart more and more explicitly. To the degree that ...

Similarity in temptations. I am Tempted to take offense, to hold on to offenses, to resist forgiving. The resolution to this is to let go of offense, let go of all rights to collect on emotional debts and trust everything to the God who is fair. I am tempted to worry about finances, about bills and debts I owe to others. I am tempted to take things into my own hands, maybe to become frantic about finding a job to get more money in order to stay in control of my life and provide for my family. But this temptation involves trying to keep my life to some extent out of God's hands by making my own decisions without making deference to God's plans for me. The resolution is to let go of all fear, let go of my desperate desire to know how things are going to unfold and trust Father to unfold His plans for me and to faithfully provide for all of my needs from His riches. But this requires that I trust His heart more and more explicitly. To the degree that ...