Monday, Sept. 12, 2011 Commandments

And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

Good Monday Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is Monday and the day we pray for our Nation and those who lead it, and those who defend it. So pray for our president, our veterans, our military, police, firefighters, river rescue, and all those who work so hard to keep us free and healthy. Remember your family doctors, folks. Please pray for Kathy Kessler, who has stage five cancer, this request in from her parents. Pray for Blanch, Dale, Pastor Tony, Ruby, and my wife, Dolores. Dolores is still in the hospital but is to be coming home on Tuesday around noon. She is still in a cast type thing and will be for weeks to come. Pray also for Grant Crockett who is having trouble with his legs. Please pray for all those who have been misplaced by the floods of the northeast including those in our area and pray for those in the fire zones of the United States. And folks, please pray for the board of directors, and President Tom Collins of the Museum of Bus Transportation as they start the clean-up of antique buses. Many of the buses went under water at the storage location of the Museum as the fast rising Swatara Creek went about 10 feet over all records of flooding.

Commandments: Day One: Genesis 2:16 - And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (NIV)

While I have written about the commandments before, it is time to have a fresh look at them. The scripture of today, Genesis 2:16/17, is the first commandment made of man, and of course, it was the first one broken by man. God in His making of the Heavens and The Earth, spoke everything except man into being, so you could count on those spoken word commandments of God also. Let's today take a look at just how long the first commandment lasted before the first sin was committed by breaking the commandment. Here it is in short, you can read it in Genesis from 2:16 on through Genesis 3 and into Genesis 4. You cannot read too much, it is your Bible, God's Word.

In short, what happened was God made man from dirt, and gave him that commandment, then God made woman from the rib of man. These first two beings were Adam and Eve. In short, here is how the commandment was broken... A serpent tempted Eve at the tree and sold her on the fact that God is all-loving and the fruit would have been good, so she, Eve, picked the fruit and took it to Adam, who ate from it... God knew this and came to the garden and Adam and Eve hid from God. Adam and Eve were naked, and after breaking the commandment knew it and tried to hide their naked bodies. When God confronted them about the sin, the blame game began. Adam, well, like many men, blamed his wife, Eve. Well, Eve was not going to take the blame, so she blamed the snake.

I want to just say this before I close for today. This, folks, was the start of not just sin, but, and God just gave me this, this was the very first time that man did not accept personal responsibility and blamed it on others... Let us learn from this, when we do mess up, let us take personal responsibility and not blame our mistakes on others. If we mess up, and we do and will again, stand up and admit it. The sooner you say, my fault, and take the blame, the sooner you get right with God. And remember, God already knows what we did... and please note, I said we...

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for the message of today, please help us to always take on personal responsibility for our sins and not blame others. Lord, please look over our prayer requests for today, You have already read them. Thanks again for this line. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Now go forth, sharing your blessings, and yes, taking personal responsibility for all you do, not just the good things but the bad, in fact, the good things we should be sure to say WE and in the bad things, say I, and for now, I am leaving, so know this... I love ya. Pastor Dan.