Saturday 1/3/15 The Blame Game

Dear Father in Heaven:  I love You. I love You very much.  Please forgive me of my sins.  Thanks for watching over families and watching over friends.  Thanks for the rain we are receiving.  Please, Lord, be with Patsy and touch her as she witnesses for You in a nursing home.  Lord, please help us in this new year, not just me but all of us, to keep working for You and spreading Your Word, the Good News of Jesus.  Please help me with the message and to get it dispatched.  In Jesus' Name, I pray.  Amen.

Hi, sisters and brothers.  I do not usually write on a weekend day, but I wanted to get the year started.  I must tell you that last evening most of our family gathered in a room in the West Main Diner in Mechanicsburg, where Dolores celebrated her 80th birthday.  I treated her to one of her favorite meals, LIVER AND ONIONS.  With Dolores being sick and in the hospital, this also served as our Christmas get-together.  Four of our six kids were there, eleven grandchildren, and six of our great-grandchildren.  It truly was a great evening, with all the glory going to God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Praise God for the improvement we see in David Fortney, Glory to God.  Today we will travel back and look at man's first sin, what it was and who started that sin.  I want to look at a few things a little differently.  Let's get that started.

Saturday:  January 3, 2015:  The Blame Game

After God had created the Heavens and the Earth, He made man (Adam), and since Adam was lonely God created a woman (Eve).  Now let's take a look at what happened.

Genesis 3:1 - Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"  4 "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman.  5"For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,knowing good and evil."  (NIV)

As we look at the scripture we see that there was something different here.  Now we watch TV today and know that we had a talking mule (Francis).  We have had a talking horse (Ed).  And in those cartoons we have talking cats, dogs, mice, just about all the animals talk in our movies and clips.  But if you go all the way back in the Bible, we see that the serpent talked, and it was for real.  If you truly believe in all things recorded in the Bible as I DO, then you must believe that the snake talked.  Now the serpent was trying to get Eve to sin, for you see man, Adam, was COMMANDED not to eat from that certain tree in the middle of the Garden.  Here it is in scripture.

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 good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."  (NIV)

This I believe would be the very, very first commandment given to man.  How long would it be before man broke that commandment?  Let's take a look.

Genesis 3:6 - When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.  She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.  7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.  (NIV)

Even with all the other food in the Garden, and that would be the "Garden of Eden," Eve took some of the fruit and ate it and she gave some to Adam, who was right there with her and could have stopped her, but he did not, and then it went on and Eve gave some of that fruit to Adam and he ate it also.  So who really committed the first sin?  I think it would have been Adam, for man is to head up the household, under Jesus, of course, but Adam left Eve pick from that tree so Adam could have said to Eve something like this.  "Hey, sweetie, we are not to eat from that tree, please do not do it."  But no, Adam did not do that, and they both ate from the tree. What did they tell God?  Let's see who gets in trouble for this original sin.  And up to now they were also naked, so I guess it was the very first nudist camp.  Did I say that?  Here comes God, let's see what happens!

Genesis 3:8 - Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  9 But the Lord God called to the man,, "Where are you?"  10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."  11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"  12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me -- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."  13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"  The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."  14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!  You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.  15  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."  16 To the woman he said, "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children.  Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."  17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.  18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.  19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken;  for dust you are and to dust you will return."  (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, when God came and found Adam and Eve hiding in the Garden, He already knew that they had sinned, for God knows everything.  Yes, He can see all of our sins.  We cannot hide from God.  Have you ever done something you knew was wrong, and you knew it was a sin, and you did it anyway?  I confess I have done that!  But did you ever try and blame that sin or that wrongdoing on someone else?  Do you see what happened in the scriptures above?  God asked Adam about eating the fruit from the tree, and Adam said, well, Eve gave it to me.  And when Eve was talked to by God, she blamed the serpent, the snake, so right then and there God handed out some punishment, and that punishment is still going on this day.  What is that punishment?

The serpent crawls on the ground.  Women have hard pains at childbirth.  And man, well, he has weeds in his garden.  Think about this while I ask you this, have you ever blamed your spouse for something you did?  If so, go and hug them and tell them you are sorry.  And have you ever blamed the dog for something because you did not want to take the blame?  I think the best way to wrap up this one day writing is not to blame others, but to confess to God our sins.  Are you with me?  Let's get clean!

Dear Father in Heaven:  I confess I am a sinner and yes, in the past I blamed others for what I did wrong.  Please forgive me, Lord, please forgive me.  Please, Lord, hear the prayers of others on the line who are praying this prayer.  In the name of Jesus, I pray.  Amen.

Now let's all go forth sharing our blessings.  Love ya.  Please pass on my love to others.

Pastor Dan