Are You Ready?
Let’s start from the beginning. And in the words of that famous film star from “The Sound of Music”, Julie Andrews: “It’s a very good place to start”.
If you want to really get to know something it’s best to go back to where that something had it’s beginning to see why it is what it is. Does that make sense? You need to find an eyewitness to verify what was said at that time. So here we go.
According to the writings in the Bible all that we see, smell, hear, touch, and to taste was made by a Loving God. Now pleased don’t be turned off. There is a lot of evidence, which shows the Bible is accurate in all its claims. If you to take a little time, do the research you will know what I am stating is true.
Given what the Bible says about itself; that it is God wanting to revel Himself to Mankind and how Mankind needs to respond back, given that being true, then it is a unique book. This can only be vindicated by evaluating what it states in one place and by what it states in another place. Confused? Look at it this way.
There are 66 books (or chapters of chapters) complied by many editors and I affirm they were guided by the Eternal Father, written over many hundreds of years. Some of them were not aware of some of what their contemporaries were writing yet there is a consistency that, to say the least, is remarkable. Even if you are convinced that the Bible can’t be relied on you should look into what this Remarkable Gift is, and how you might get what is being offered here.
Given that we are going to move forward now not guided by preconceived ideas and philosophies and we will set out on this voyage of discovery with a clear mind, there are a few guidelines that need to be established.
The most important thing that is the overarching thread of the Bible is this. God is so full of Love and is happiest (to put it simply) when He is giving. He gives out His vast Kingdom to those who will simply believe Him and receive all that He has said He would do for them. No need to have any rules here to prevent selfish desires from taking over, because when one is so taken up by the Pure Love of the Father then selfish desires just don’t have a chance.
If this was all it took then we would be sitting happily with the best of what we might ever imagine. There was a problem in the Kingdom. One of The Father’s top angels got a bit headstrong, used his free will to pervert the power that he had been given for his own benefit. The unwritten rule of the Kingdom was that you should give out of the abundance you have to others and others would give to you, but he wanted more.
Now God had been planning His most extravagant gift yet. He was about to create a new expanse of heaven (better known as a universe) and place in it a planet called "Earth" and give its entire control into the hands of His latest creation Man. A being that could relate to Him in a peer-to-peer relationship, someone like Himself. Now Lucifer, this was the name of that twisted angel, banished from his high position looked for every chance to undo this Great Plan.
When God placed Man – Adam, into this wonderful universe He set him up in the most wonderful Garden. God needed a way to continue pouring His Goodness to Man without Lucifer, now named Satan, getting his hands on it. So He planted two Special Trees in the Garden. One was the Tree of Life and the other The Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil. He commanded (strong words for instructed) Adam that he should not eat of The Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil because in the day you do eat of you will die.
All the other trees Adam could eat of but not of that one. Can you see what I see? Adam was going to be given the chance to decide what was going to direct his future. The ability to choose for himself what was ‘Right’ (Good) and what was ‘Evil’ i.e. not good. On the other hand, he could choose ‘Life’, or God, to be his guiding Light.
You might be beginning to see something that is emerging out of this story. Can you? If you have ‘Life’ you ‘Live’. Turn ‘Live’ around and what do you have – ‘Evil’. God the Father was giving Adam his own free choice accept was in the best interest for himself; a God-directed life or Adam could choose to direct what he wanted to do. Which if you remember having the ability to choose for himself gave him the knowledge of Good and Evil, which leads to death. Here is where Satan moved in. By using some very smooth and deceptive words he placed doubt in the mind of Adam. This happened after he witnessed the conversation between Eve, his companion, and Satan. That God – The Father – was holding something back from them, that he, Satan said that he would give to them.
Now that you have had an exclusive look behind the scene of “The Garden of Eden” story you are ready to take another look at this amazing story. So look for this next episode following: - Who's Will, will Win.
Yours Respectfully,
PaulT.