Lenten Devotional – Day 14

Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate where into man fell?

A. All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

“They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden …., and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (Gen. 3:8)

“He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24)

"G. K. Chesterton once likened this world to the desert island site of a shipwreck. A sailor awakes from a deep sleep and discovers treasure strewn about, relics from a civilization he can barely remember. One by one he picks up the relics - gold coins, a compass, fine clothing - and tries to discern their meaning. According to Chesterton, fallen humanity is in such a state. Good things on earth still bear traces of their original purpose, but each is also subject to misinterpretation or abuse because of fallen, 'amnesiac' human nature." - Sins of the Body: Ministry in a Sexual Society, ed. Terry Muck (Carol Stream, Ill.: Christianity Today; Dallas: Word, 1989), p. 63.

  “We don’t actually break God’s laws. They are still standing whether we obey them or not. To try to break God’s law would be like trying to break the law of gravity. If you try it, you’ll discover the law always wins. But when we violate God’s law, it breaks us. That is what guilt and shame is all about. Until we know we are forgiven, we will never walk again. We will certainly never make it home.” - Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls, M. Craig Barnes, p. 90

  “The real home for which we yearn isn’t the place where we grew up or the new place we’re hoping to build, but the place where we were created to live. Paradise. When Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, we are told that God placed an angel with a flaming sword at the eastern gate. It is the Bible’s way of saying that all of life is now spent east of Eden. In other words, as the saying goes, we can’t go home again. Paradise has been lost. The yearning for it is the only trace that remains.” - Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls, M. Craig Barnes, p. 90

  “We weren’t created to roam about the earth lost and confused. We were created to live at home with God, which is what defines paradise. Like Adam and Eve, we didn’t realize that at the time because there was something forbidden in the middle of the garden that we couldn’t have.

Lenten Devotional – Day 13

Q. 15. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?

A. The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created was their eating the forbidden fruit.

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, ... she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.” (Gen. 3:6)

Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. The happiness which God designs for his higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free. - C. S. Lewis

  A student once asked Dr. Carlyle Marney, "Dr. Marney, where was the Garden of Eden?" Marney answered, "215 South Elm Street in Knoxville, Tennessee."

  "Ah, c'mon, you're kidding me," said the student. "It's supposed to be somewhere in the Middle East, isn't it?"

  "Well, you couldn't prove it by me," Marney replied. "For it was there on Elm Street, when I was a boy, that I stole a quarter out of my Mama's purse and went down to the store and bought some candy and ate it, and then I was so ashamed that I came back home and hid in the closet. It was there that Mama found me and asked, 'Why are you hiding? What have you done?'"

  Each of us has our own Eden where we first betrayed our highest principles and purposes, discovered that there was a shadow-side within us and tried to hide from the reality of our deception. What happened to Adam and Eve is the story of all of us ...."

  Today the serpent still whispers in our ears that “we have a right.” This phrase has become one of our favorite words in contemporary society, “I have a right to live without loneliness”, and “I have a right to happiness,” without realizing we need to make the life giving choices. The lie tells us we don’t need to make the right choices, we simply have the right. The lie always appeals to our deepest anxiety and it’s too appealing to resist.

  Actually, we could have resisted, but we didn’t so now we can’t. Which is what John Calvin was trying to say in his doctrine of human depravity. We’ve become junkies to the serpent’s lie, and we keep believing that the next thing we reach for will make everything just right. It never does.

Lenten Devotional – Day Eleven

Q. 13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?

A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.

“They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden …., and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (Gen. 3:8)

Original sin is in us, like the beard. We are shaved today and look clean, and have a smooth chin; tomorrow our beard has grown again, nor does it cease growing while we remain on earth. – Martin Luther

  Michael R. Nichols writes: "I myself am a Presbyterian, and we do believe in original sin. I've always thought that if you are going to sin, you ought to be original about it."

  He tells the story of driving home to see his mother, and passing on the highway a great big church with a lighted board out front, on which they put slogans and sayings for the edification of the saints and sojourners. "That week the motto was, 'If you're done with sin, come on in.' I got a little closer, and someone had written in lipstick, 'But if you're not quite through, call 272-0200." - Nichols, "Finding Your Own Lake Wobegon: The Healing Power of Humor," Hometown Humor, USA, ed. Loyal Jones and Billy Edd Wheeler (Little Rock, Ark.: August House Publishers, 1991), 209-10.

  Dallas Willard writes about a 2½ year old girl in her backyard who one day discovered the secret to making mud (which she called "warm chocolate"). Her grandmother had been reading and was facing away from the action, but after cleaning up what was to her a mess, she told little Larissa not to make any more chocolate and turned her chair around so as to be facing her granddaughter.

Lenten Devotional – Second Sunday in Lent

Q. 12. What special act of providence did God exercise towards man, in the estate wherein he was created?

A. When God created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.  And the LORD God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Genesis 2:15-17, NRSV)

There is nothing wrong with letting God know what we want, as long as we do not mistake our list for the covenant. The covenant has no conditions. The covenant is no deal. It is God's promise to be our God, which contains within it the promise that we shall be God's people -- not by our consent, but by our creation. - Barbara Brown Taylor, Gospel Medicine, as quoted in Christianity Today, April 27, 1998.

  The really important thing in life is not the avoidance of mistakes, but the obedience of faith. By obedience, the man is led step by step to correct his errors, whereas nothing will ever happen to him if he doesn’t get going. - Paul Tournier

  The term obey would be better expressed by the word use. For instance, a scientist uses the laws of nature; that is, he more than obeys them, he causes them to fulfill their destiny in his work. That is exactly what happens in the saint’s life. He uses the commands of the Lord, and they fulfill God’s destiny in his life.

  It is not what we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us. God doesn’t want our success; he wants us. He doesn’t demand our achievements; he demands our obedience. It is only by obedience that we understand the teaching of God. - Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)

  Jesus tells a story about two sons. Jesus describes the father whose expectations are clear. "Go work in the field," he says with authority. The first son refuses outright, yet after reflection, thinks better of his rebellion and goes out to the vineyard. Despite his initial resistance, he obeys his father.

  The second son is more devious. He puts on a good face and immediately agrees with his father's request; however, his actions do not measure up to his words. He ignores his father's wishes and never appears in the vineyard. Jesus asks the critical question, "Which of the two did the will of his father?"

  It's not the first son's words that are important to Jesus, but his actions. Jesus allows room for complaining and verbal resistance. The first son, despite his original reluctance and outward show of rebellion, soon chooses obedience. He follows the will of his father and does the work to which he is called. The second son, however, only talks a good game. He promises much and produces nothing of value.