30 Day Jesus Challenge - Day 5 No Excuse

We all have excuses.  If we are honest, we make excuses every day.  We get away with not doing something we were supposed to do if we have a good excuse.  God knows that about us and He warns us against thinking that we can make excuses to Him.

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."  Romans 1:20

Pray - Lord, I make excuses all the time.  Help me.  Show me your invisible qualities and don't let me make an excuse to explain away what you show me.  Amen

A Cross Section of a Pine Needle

Glory

I always find it amazing that those who profess not to believe in God will be the first ones to blame Him when bad things happen.  They will curse Him and shake their fists toward Heaven and say that this disaster proves there is no God and if there is, He is a fiend.  They justify their rebellion by blaming God for all that is evil in the world.

Such are the fools and the scoffers in the liberal media concerning Haiti.  One said that God was a murderer.  Others sneer at the ridiculous premise that there is a Devil and he plays a part in world events.  Does any of this make sense to you?

It does to me; give me a minute.  If you are a Believer, I am going to feed you some spiritual meat.  If you are a skeptic, open your heart to the truth.

When God created the Earth, He created it for man and it was intended to be a place where God could visit and have fellowship with his creation.  The Garden of Eden was a perfect paradise, the likes we can not even imagine.  Adam and Eve would have been glorious and beautiful creatures.  God would have made them very smart, perhaps even witty with a great sense of humor.  After all, if I was creating a companion those are the attributes I would give to my creation.  Wouldn't you?

God came to visit Adam in the Garden of Eden and walked with him during the cool of the day.  Yet, the Bible describes God as an all consuming fire that no man could stand to be near..  When He spoke to the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai, His voice was so thunderous they begged Moses to ask Him to never speak to them again.  When Moses asked to see God's face, God only allowed him to see His back because no man could see God's face and live.  So, what made Adam different?

Psalm 8 tells us, I believe this is written from an angel's perspective just after the creation: 
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour

Crowned him with glory.... the glory of the Lord crowned Adam, yet because he was sinless he was not consumed.  If you do a Concordance Search on the Glory of the Lord you will find that it is a fearsome sight.  It is always accompanied by fear and trembling.  When the glory of the Lord filled the temple no one could enter.  The fire pillar that led the children of Isreal through the desert was the glory of God. During the Transfiguration, the Disciples saw the true glory of Jesus and they fell to the ground in fear and trembling.  Yet, this is the stuff that covered Adam.  This is what allowed Adam to walk with the Lord and not be consumed.

(The Heavens Declare the Glory of the Lord)

Enter the Deceiver; the Hater of all that is good and pure and wholesome.

Part Two:  The Earth Lease
and Part Three:  Covering

The Earth Lease

Part One - This is heavy lifting for my Christian readers and is intended to edify you and put current events in perspective.  If you are a skeptic and still hanging with me, then read on friend:

Among the perfection of Eden; enter the Deceiver; the Hater of all that is good and pure and wholesome. This envious monster loathed Adam and Eve with an unmatched fury.  He looked upon the earth and coveted it.  He could not take it by force, his war in the Heavens had taught him that, but he could steal it.

He would have to make the man rebel.  Satan knew that if the man sinned against God that the glory would depart from Adam.  Subsequently, God would not be able to be near Adam without destroying him.  God would have to leave the Earth and the Devil could take over.

His plan worked.  God is a just God and I believe that Satan knew enough about God's ways and justice to understand what was at stake and how God would HAVE to react.  Satan understood the rules; I don't pretend to but this is what I think.

I believe that by causing man to sin, Satan did not receive the Earth, but some type of lease on it.  Some say this is a 6000 year period, but it is clear Satan is allowed to rules for a time.  He is described as the prince of this world and Jesus does not refute his claim when He was being tempted in the desert.  Thus, in a manner of speaking, Satan has a lease on the Earth.

As such, he has full privileges of a tenant, but is still restrained by God.  Never doubt, the Devil is able to accomplish much evil in this world.  He has some control over the weather as described in the book of Job.  He is said to be roaming the earth like a roaring lion seeking who he can destroy.

God's Earth

Thus, in this fallen world, bad things will happen.  Is God ultimately in control, yes He is, but He does allow the Devil to operate.  So the next time something bad happens, think about who is really behind the evil in this world.

Continued tomorrow - Part III - The Covering of Sin

Covering

I hope you Abigail and Dolley readers have enjoyed this series.  If you missed Part 1 (Glory) and Part 2 (The Earth Lease), I encourage you to read them, they will give the background.  Today we are going to talk about blood, sacrifice, and the covering of sin.  Have you ever wondered why Jesus had to die on the cross?  Have you ever wondered how that worked?  I know I have.  It just didn't make sense to me.  How could the concept even begin to remotely make sense to a 21st Century American.

Blood sacrifice is the kind of things horror movies are made of, right?  The only visions we see of blood sacrifice are in association with cults and Satanic rituals.  Since we have been talking about the Garden of Eden, let me pick up where we have left off, after the fall.

We know that when Adam and Eve sinned, they realized they were naked.  I believe it is because the glory of the Lord no longer covered them, they were ashamed and tried to hide and cover themselves with leaves.  They were trying to cover their sin; yet mere leaves and their own efforts could not protect them from what they would face.

The Bible says that God himself killed an animal and fashioned clothing for them, thus the blood covered their sins.  A sacrifice of blood covered their sins, but did not restore the glory to them.  They were still alive, but no longer had fellowship with the Lord.  Their sin had caused death.

Between Eden and the cross, the Lord instructed His people to sacrifice animals as an atonement for their sins.  The Old Testament rituals were very important because it was a legal and spiritual act that the priests were performing, but it was imperfect and had to be repeated over and over and over again.  We see that in the garden, the sin was covered but the glory was not restored; we were still cut off from God.

In God's perfect way, He provided the sacrifice.  A perfect man, fully God and fully man - for He longed to have fellowship with His creation.  He longed to walk with you in the cool of the day.  So He came to the Earth, he lived this painful life of a man in a fallen and hurting world.  He allowed himself to be beaten, scourged, and crucified that each precious drop of blood was to restore you to the Father.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that who so ever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Through Christ we have communion and fellowship with God, we are covered by His blood, and He had given us back our lost glory.