God1meover

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Friday 31 January 2014

Zephaniah 3:17 For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Zephaniah 3:17 

For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.  

Can you hear Him singing? That song is for you. It is a love song, written solely for you by God. It's title? I LOVE YOU.



 

God is Love

God is Love. 

When we have a relationship with someone we love we want to share everything with them. Especially our love, and often our lives. Being completely in union with them, body and soul. 

This is what God wanted with Him people in the Old Testament. He longed to have a relationship with them. A personal love affair, but they missed the signs, went their own way, did their own thing, often wandered off on their own. Over and over again God showed them Love. At times He gave them what they asked for, always what they needed, bestowed gifts on them and loved them to distraction only to be scorned. That is something I am sure most of you can identify with. But God being Love did not give up. 

God sent His Son Jesus Christ, His greatest gift. What a present, His most precious jewel, the Love of His Heart. And Jesus replicated the Father's Love and gave His people direct access to the greatest Lover of the Universe. He opened a personal door to the most amazing Love we could every imagine. A relationship with God. A friendship like no other. Total Unconditional Love. A Love that would and does change lives. A Love that has spanned all time and encompassed  all of His people. A Love that was at the beginning and will be at the end. 

God is Love. That is the message of the Bible and the message He wants everyone to embrace totally. 

When you love a partner you want to be with them, you want to share everything with them, you want to make them happy. You give them your life, warts and all. You trust them with your very soul and you hope they will do the same and honour your trust and love. If you are willing to do this for your partner and the result may or may not be a life filled with love, then why not with God the Father, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit who will not break your heart or leave you. He will only ever give you His Love and what is right for you. 

God is Love. He adores you, desires you, longs for your presence here and now as well as in Heaven with Him. Step into His Love, be healed, be free. He is waiting. 

Song of Songs 2:10-13

My lover said to me, 
Rise up, my darling!
Come away with me, my fair one!
Look, the winter is past,
and the rains are over and gone.
The flowers are springing up,
the season of singing birds has come,
and the cooing of the turtledoves fills the air.
The fig trees are forming young fruit,
and the fragrant grapevines are
blossoming.
Rise up, my darling!
Come away with me,my fair one! 

God is calling, how could anyone not answer this call? 







Thursday 30 January 2014

If God says we are His beloved sons and daughters who are we to say otherwise?

God adores us, He has told us so. 

1 John 4:16 We know how much God loves us, and we put our trust in his love, and all who live in love live in God and God lives in them. 

We live in God's love. How awesome is that. That is how much God loves us. 

Because we live in God's love we are His beloved sons and daughters. He can do nothing but love us. His love is all encompassing, universal, and unconditional.  

If we have difficulty believing this Truth then look no further than the Bible as His book is the ultimate statement of His love for us. It is His love letter to us revealing who He is and who we are as His beloved children. 

God loves us and we are heirs to His Love because we are His sons and daughters. His gift to us is Love, our gift to Him is to return that love. 

God's love never fails. He will never stop loving us. He will always be True to His Love as the psalmist sings:

Psalm 136

Praise the Lord! He is good.
God's love never fails.
Praise the God of all god's.
God's love never fails.
Praise the Lord of lords.
God's love never fails.  

This is our inheritance. God's love never fails. We will always be his beloved children no matter what. Praise God.








Wednesday 29 January 2014

Look who is looking at you.

1 Timothy 4:12

"Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity." 

Look who is looking at you. 

As Christians, who are known to be Christians, not those that hide away their Christianity, we must be aware of who is looking at us. They are often looking for inclusion. Timothy talks of the young, how they are vibrant in faith and must not let others, particularly older Christians or people, look down on them because of their youth. It matters not that they are young, in fact the young Christian youth is a pleasure to be with. Their desire to know God often puts us older Christians to shame. Their inclusion offers enthusiasm, openness, vitality, generosity and exuberance for their Christian life. This reminds me of those people who have been converted and saved from the worldly path. 

When someone rejects their old life and takes on a new one there are bound to be lots of people looking at them, watching. These wonderful converts to God's Love are young in faith, and full of the first joy of their first Love. This passage of Timothy is also for them, the young in faith. 

Being a nurtured Christian from birth I almost envy the powerful conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus. He really knew the meaning of forgiveness. He understood the sacrifice of the Cross. 

Look who is looking at you. 

So often old Christians are stale Christians and need that moment of conversion too. Why? To fully understand the Love of God and to be confident to be a Christian and not just any old Christian, but an imitator of Christ's Love. When we are looked at by our fellow companions do they know we are Christians? Do they see the difference? 

Young faith whether it is by age of the person, or age of Christian experience, needs to be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity." If we are mature Christians we need to celebrate and enjoy the thrilling new Love that has been bestowed upon those of young faith, to include and embrace them as our equals. We can only do this if we are confident in the Love of God, ready to share our faith, happy to be Christians, and show exuberance for our Saviour. 

We must never become complacent in God and matters of the soul. We are on a journey and that means a continual movement forwards, embracing those who we meet both young and old and loving everyone who is searching for a closer and deeper union with God the Father. So often the young Christian or young of faith can reignite our lamps and we need to be grateful to them for this gift. We must hunger for God so that those who look at us will wonder what it is that we are hungering for. 

If we strive to be good examples of Christ's Love seeking the Heavenly banquet to feast on, others will look at us and want to come to the celebration. 



I praise you Lord that you are in the person standing next to me. 

Blessings be upon them. Help me to always see You in all your people.



Tuesday 28 January 2014

God's plan for us isn't always what we expect or want.

I sit, I watch, I wait, I do nothing, I just am. 

My children are getting older, 13, 16 and 20. They need different things than when they were small. I still wake them up to go to school, college and university, but on the whole they then get on with it. The rush before their departures in the morning remain chaotic as we are a chaotic household. The getting things done the night before has long since become redundant as no one seems to have learnt that lesson, regardless of my promptings and I hate to say yellings. 

My role in life no longer includes a paid job, this was cancelled some years ago when I became poorly and unable to work. So my day is pretty much my own when the last cherub leaves the house. 

So this is exactly me at the moment, waiting on God to show me what next. This morning when I asked "What do you want me to do?" I clearly heard, "I want you to do nothing, just sit and be with me."

Oh this is so hard, I was never a sitter, I have always been a doer. So once I became better I wanted to do. Not necessarily the housework, I have never been a slave to that chore! But my mind is active although burdened and limited with the illness of the past years. When I push it, it rebels and headaches take over. Some of the wiring fused and it still smolders. It has taken time for another part of the brain to take over the areas that were affected. This is frustrating but God has used this for His purposes. 

This sitting reminds me of the passage from Ephesians 2:6.

For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 

Being with God in the Heavenly realms. What a wonderful occupation. But being faithful to that calling when all I want to do, is do something is hard. However, God is training me in obedience. Obedience that will have greater rewards than a salary, will be more fruitful for my soul than my ego, and will open the door to  my final goal, meeting God in Spirit and Truth. 

God understands the sacrifices that this will take. The financial loss of my own independence. The loss of not being able to treat my growing children as I used to. I love giving, I love seeing their faces when I present them with a treat. But this loss has been going on for a few years now, in the first place it was because of the illness, now God is asking me to do it because I am in wholeness, or at least as near as I can get to it. That is the difference. 

The wealth (income) I have given up must now come from God. 

God is asking me to ditch the 'I' and to turn fully to Him as it says in Proverbs 3:5-10

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don't be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.

Do not depend on your own understanding - meaning in my case ditch the 'when better in health go back to work'.

Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take - meaning in my case sit and be with Him and He will give me instruction. 

Don't be impressed with your own wisdom - meaning I don't know what is best for me only God does.

Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil - meaning stop looking at what the world thinks I should do and trust God.

Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones - meaning God will and has healed me for his purposes. 

Honor the Lord with your wealth - meaning in this case the amount of time I have. 

and with the best part of everything you produce - meaning the fruits of my time with God. 

Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine - meaning my time with Him will be prosperous and His Love will overflow into my family and friends lives, thus giving them Holy treats that satisfy their spiritual needs rather than their material needs. 

It is one thing to want our way and satisfy our needs, it is another to bow down to God and allow Him to satisfy us with his Love and understanding that allows us to sit with Him in the Heavenly Realms.

Doing God's will and sitting is not going to be easy, it will put all the pressure on my husband to provide for us all. However, obedience to God requires His wisdom and understanding of the situation and not mine. He will provide, he always has done for our family. That has been witnessed by the rises and falls in our married life. This is just one more journey that asks for Trust.  

I sit, I watch, I wait, I do nothing, I just am. And I allow God to enter and captivate my spirit for His Honour and Glory so that I may be free to be who you want me to be. 

Fulfill your destiny in me oh God. Amen.





Monday 27 January 2014

Leviticus 26:4 I will send you the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit.

The blessings of seasonal rain are promised by God to his people when they are obedient, follow His decrees and obey His commands. We are promised that if we do these things the land will then yield its crops and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. Your threshing season will overlap with the grape harvest and your grape harvest will overlap with the season of planting grain. You will eat your fill and live securely in your own land.

Not only were His people promised the above they were also promised peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep with no cause for fear.  

And still God went further, I will rid the land of wild animals and keep your enemies out of your land. 

Still further In fact you will chase down your enemies and slaughter them with your swords. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred will chase ten thousand. All your enemies will fall beneath your sword. 

Still further I will look favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. AND I WILL FULFILL  MY COVENANT WITH YOU. 

And still further You will have such a surplus of crops that you will need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new harvest!  

And the great climax I will live among you, and I will not despise you. I will walk among you; I will be your God and you will be my people. I am the Lord you God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high.

Did the people actually realize all the promises God was giving them? I mean wow, He was being spectacularly generous. Obviously not because guess what they walked away from Him again. And yes there was punishment just like the Garden of Eden.

Do we never learn? 

Lets face it, we are the same whatever decade we live in. We are given a spectacular amount of Love and still we go our own way. Why?

Maybe it is because we are like little children trying to see how much we can get away with before our parents snap. But God is no longer the God of the Old Testament but the God of the New Testament. He no longer wants sacrifices for our wayward lives. He is different and Christ has made that difference. We can behave like spoilt three year olds and God will still Love us. He will still love us. Love has not killed anyone yet. Love died on the cross and rose again. That can happen in our lives too. God's Love will bring seasonal rains if we change and follow him, not just in our everyday lives but more importantly in our hearts and souls. There are no depths to God's Love, it is eternal and forever. He will keep on giving His Love no matter what because He knows no other way. His generosity is universal, it is so colossal that it reaches beyond time. He will never give up on us.  

If we truly knew of His Love we would immediately bow down and reverence him. Nothing would be too much to do for God. Our days would be Love orientated. We would see world changing generosity. The land will then yield its crops and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. Your threshing season will overlap with the grape harvest and your grape harvest will overlap with the season of planting grain. You will eat your fill and live securely in your own land. 

Can we be obedient, follow His decrees and obey His commands? Can we accept His Love? Can we change to reflect His Love. 

Our challenge is to stop being the three year old that has a tantrum every time we don't get what we want, and to look outwards at what Love is asking of us. Going from the selfish to the generous. Going from the 'I want' to the 'What do you want Lord?'. Going from the 'I don't want to follow you because I want to do my own thing' to 'Your will be done'. 

"Father forgive them for they know not what they have done." 

We all need to remember that we have been saved from slavery and that God's Love made that possible. May we have such a surplus of crops that (we) you will need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new harvest!  May our love be fruitful and multiply to embrace all of God's family.

God bless

(Photo by M.Kaz)







Sunday 26 January 2014

Bless everything no matter what and God will bless you

If we bless everything rather than get worried over our lives and its situations we can look forward to the benefits that Jeremiah spoke of:



Jeremiah 17:7-8

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
    and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
    with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
    or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
    and they never stop producing fruit."



Praise the Lord. 


(Photo by M.Kaz)







Saturday 25 January 2014

Having children is a risk and a challenge.

I always longed for children, to share my love with the bundles of joy and have endless days of fun.

Then I had children and things changed! I was not a spring chicken when I had my first and then by the time I had my last I was an overweight hen loosing her feathers and looking long past my sell by date. 

So what happened from the ideal, rosy, chocolate box cover of pre motherhood? 

Reality happened. Three children (four if I count my angel in Heaven, but she is no bother at all) all very different and a combination of my husband and myself. But then I should have known mixing the genes up that what came out of the pot would be interesting to say the least. 

My husband is shy, likes to plan things to the nth degree, is very intelligent, has very little idea of people's feelings and can be distant. He is kind and caring in his way, has obsessions and works hard for us all. Loves structure. He is a perfectionist and definitely very complicated. 

On the other hand I am more outgoing, will talk to most people, am self opinionated, generous to a silly proportion, in other words too generous as I forget to think about myself and then moan no one cares. Have moments of genius, but mostly bumble on. Have bags of common sense and find it hard when others don't. Like fluidity. Love lots of hugs, but tend to be very critical. And have a rubbish short and long term memory. Complex I think might be the term for me.   

So let us put all of this into the mix and see what we have produced. 

One child is super artistic with little common sense, but can make fantastic models and you can have amazing conversations with. Is outgoing but also shy, longs to please and loves lots of hugs. He is a perfectionist and also very laid back. He has little idea of time management. He is very determined once he sets his mind on something. He is messy, hairy, compassionate and full of love for others. He loves God passionately.

Number two is very complicated, loves, doesn't love, can't bear hugs and is often distant, outgoing if she knows the person, shy if she doesn't, very determined to do her thing. Likes to sit back and watch everyone else as they work. Puts huge efforts into her projects and takes months to rest afterwards. Is compassionate and kind, to the silly degree, and moans no one cares. Sees only her point of view and is always right. Intelligent but frustrated by short and long term memory problems. Likes to be alone but also wants to be with friends. Finds the world very confusing, and does not do talking about God.

Number three is full of fun, very sporty and laughs, smiles, hugs, loves, has lots of friends and is outgoing. She is an observer, watches a lot to see if things are okay and if in her mind they are then she goes all out for it. She is a whirlwind. She knows her own  mind, has bags of common sense, and thinks a lot. She likes to figure things out especially when God is involved in the conversation. She is a problem solver, a peace maker and a strong person. She is independent and clever. 

So five very different and also in some areas similar characters all in one house. All vying for attention from the mother figure, yes even the husband. 

The house can seem like a whirlwind at times, with me in the middle. With such different personalities I have at times burst at the seams. A messy spew of words and arms being hurled everywhere. At these times I have gushed like a volcano and sent fiery molten in all directions. When the outburst has finished I feel rotten, defeated and miserable. Everyone disappears to their rooms, yes even my husband!

It is at points like this that I put pen to paper and write a love letter to my children. I tell them how much I wanted them, how much I love them, how special they are, how amazing it is to be their mother and to ask for forgiveness. Adults make mistakes, we were not given a 'How to be a successful parent' manual when they were born. I make mistakes, my need to be a good mother can sometimes be a burden as my 'wanting to get it right as my mother didn't' tape is stuck. I need their forgiveness, as well as my own, as I know I have got it wrong. The realization that I am only human and getting old, tired and frustrated with myself pushes me to extreme behaviour. It was my fault and they bore the brunt of my anger. 

The love letters I noticed are stacked up in my number two daughter's chest of drawers, 'for her to read when she feels down', (in her words) and to remind her that I do love her even when I get cross. 

Now when I look at children, I no longer wish to be a parent, I just pray that I have been a good one to my three. 

Being a mum has been the most amazing journey of my life. My children have taught me so much about love, forgiveness and compassion, with their simple trusting natures, innocent views and fun filled laughter. My son is now a man of twenty learning how to fly the nest. My two daughters 16 and 13 walking the path of teenage, that is at times both traumatic and scary stepping from childhood to young adulthood, not knowing which side of the bridge they are from day to day. 

I bless the day God gave me children and I in turn had to find myself along the way. For God is so close to them and has taught me many lessons that I would not have learned if I had not become a mother. 

So often they are mirrors of ourselves, and if we don't like what we see then we need to pray that we will be humble enough to ask God to help us change ourselves to the person He wants us to be. Children copy and have our genes, they are lessons for our growth. This can be a painful truth. If we are to grow in God's love then we are to know ourselves. 

When I row with my number two teenager, the reflection can be very painful. And I realize that it is me who has to change. My chocolate box family has definitely been smashed, but God's Grace is there to replace it if I am honest enough to accept the real box of treats instead. As much as I hate to admit that my daughter is right at times about some of my actions, it is a chance for me to stop and reassess my reactions. How apt that teaching 'Unless you become like little children', indeed my daughter is showing me how far I have gone from that trust and love that I had spoken of to my children. 

They say as you get older you get wiser, but maybe we need to listen to the wisdom of our children as they see us for who we really are, as they get older. Our masks are no longer a protection. If we are to be good role models then a closer inspection of our motives and what drives us might be the MOT that we need to ensure a future loving relationship with our older children. 

Having children is a risk and a challenge. If you want to know yourself then children are a great way of showing you who you are, warts and all. Having said that God knows you too, warts and all as well, and his decision to continue to love and stay with you as a friend never alters. You are his divine daughter/son and nothing can ever change that. We may be challenged by our own children, but then God will use those challenges to steer us closer to Him if we 'see' and 'hear' his calling at those optimum moments. 

God bless all mothers, you are doing a wonderful thing having children. 

Friday 24 January 2014

1 Cor 13:4 Love is patient and kind

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

God is patient and kind.
God is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
God wants us to find His way.
God is not irritable.
God does not keep a record of our sins.
God does not rejoice about injustice but He rejoices when we do something about it and truth wins out.
God never gives up on us.
God never looses faith in you.
God is always hopeful that you will turn to Him and live your life in His Love.
God gives us the courage to endure through every circumstance.

God is.


God is Love, part 2



Changing perspective

Jesus took the complicated and made it simple.

Jesus challenged the I attitude.

Jesus chose love to provide victory.

Jesus embraces everyone.

Jesus transformed man's destiny.

SAVED



The power of the blood of Christ

When things get hairy and we decide in our own minds that there is no answer to our problems, it is then that we need to pray the power of the blood of Christ into that situation. 


Thursday 23 January 2014

Putting on the mind of Christ

When we are weak we are strong 2 Corinthians 2:10

Corinthians 2:1-15

1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I first came to you I didn't use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God's message. 2 For I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. 3 I came to you in weakness -- timid and trembling. 4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. I did not use wise and persuasive speeches, but the Holy Spirit was powerful among you. 5 I did this so that you might trust the power of God rather than human wisdom. 6 Yet when I am among mature Christians, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world, and not the kind that appeals to the rulers of this world, who are being brought to nothing. 7 No, the wisdom we speak of is the secret wisdom of God, which was hidden in former times, though he made it for our benefit before the world began. 8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord. 9That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." 10 But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God's deep secrets. 11 No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. 12 And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world's spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. 13 When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. 14 But people who aren't Christians can't understand these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means. 15 We who have the Spirit understand these things, but others can't understand us at all.

We are weak but the Spirit is strong. It is time to put on the mind of Christ.

Why often do we not understand things? Usually it is because we use our life experience to understand things, but this is limited. That is why we are weak. If we are to truly understand God and His plan then we  need to cast off our limited understanding and put on Christ's mind. 

God wants us to fully experience His secrets through His Spirit. If we are to immerse ourselves in God and God is Love then we need to allow His Spirit to reveal to us God's deep secrets. And God has given us his Spirit.  So why do we still view the world through our own limited perspective when God wants to reveal to us His deep secrets?

Paul is talking of a spiritual journey, not a rules and regulation denomination or church based life that tells you how to think and do. He is talking of the inward walk that we must venture on if God is to make sense in our everyday life. 

He is talking about the 'narrow' path. 

Matthew 18:3 And he said to them "I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  

Was Jesus really talking about sins in the way we understand them or was he talking about the way we think of things? Our way of thinking being distorted and at times shameful. Children understand in a simplistic way, their thoughts have not been corrupted by experience, therefore they are able to enter the kingdom of heaven with their innocence. In other words, they can through the Spirit, understand God's mystery, His Love. They can venture inward to the Soul and where God's deep secrets are revealed. Unless you turn from your sins  (distorted thoughts) and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Remember we are talking of a Spiritual encounter, where we are free to 'see' and 'hear' in the Spirit. The narrow path. 

John 3:5 Jesus replied, 'I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.' 

Again this is a call for us to shed our thoughts, and to put on the mind of Christ. The narrow path. 

Matthew 19:24 I'll say it again - it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God! 

This could be a man who is rich in worldly wealth, worldly knowledge, worldly talents, etc. This does not mean a rich man with wealth cannot get into Heaven but the mystery of God's deep secret is that we must be wealthy in God's understanding, in God's mind first and foremost. The narrow path.

We like Paul must decide to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal God's deepest secrets to us. This narrow path will take us to the very depths of Love where we will find communion with God. That is our prize, that needs to be our goal, our resurrection. This is God's Wisdom. 

God bless.

(photo by M. Kaz)










Wednesday 22 January 2014

Why does God let bad things happen

Choice. 

When a parent tells a child not to do something, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will do exactly what you asked them not to do! Why? Because they only hear the word 'do'. 

Gen 2:4 When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil.

So the earth was barren before man was made.

Gen 2:6 Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person. 

So man was made outside of the Garden of Eden from the dust of the barren land. 

Gen 2:8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 

God took man and placed him in a fertile land that was pure and rich in resources. 

Gen 2:9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground - trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. 

In fact this garden was actually an area of land. 

Gen 2:10 The river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. 

The river flowed from the land to four other areas, the land of Havilah, the land of Cush, the land of Asshur and the Euphrates.  The river flowed from Eden outwards. 

Gen 2:15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden - except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you will surely die." 

So Adam comes from the dust outside of Eden is placed in this amazing wealth filled land and told not to do something. 

Gen 2:18 Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him." So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of man's ribs, and closed up the opening. Then he brought her to the man.

Woman was made from man inside of Eden the land of beauty, plenty and love. She did not hear God's statement about not eating from the tree of knowledge. She heard it second hand. This is why the serpent went for the woman, he questioned the one person who knew nothing about the warning other than what man had told her. Doubt could be established in her mind because the message came from a second source and not the True Source. 

Gen 3:6 The woman was convinced. 

Woman took the serpents take on the warning instead of going to seek help and confirmation from the True source. She made a choice based on false information, on deceit, on someone else's interpretation of what God said. 

Of course God was disappointed, they had direct access to Him in the Garden. Woman could have gone to him and said, "There is an annoying serpent feeding false information to me about the tree of knowledge. Can you tell me what you actually said please." God could have stopped that destructive voice straight away by telling woman as well as man the True facts together. But God trusted man to look after the woman and to speak only of the Truth, to help her resist temptation. Man was expected to be responsible and together with his woman respect God's warning. Because woman did not call upon God in her state of uncertainty, she and man made a wrong decision. Therefore, God found her with her man later on with knowledge that they were not supposed to have. They were duped by the serpent and because of that they forfeited their right to be in a place of innocence. Hence the eviction. 

The river that flowed out of Eden took with it the curse to the other lands. 

God allowed man to choose. Man and woman chose to be like God. They could no longer live in a place where God walked, with the gates closed a distance flowed up between God and man. Man's choices would continue to send ripples of pain throughout all of the universe to this very day. 

Choices. 

Man's continued greed for more remains with us. More money, more power, more knowledge all battled for at the expense of the poor and needy. 

God gave us the choice at the beginning. Man turned away from Good and chose evil. This is constantly the case in our world. Instead of choosing God's Love we choose the world's take on things. We blame God for the horrors instead of looking at ourselves and our selfish ways. 

God cries, make no mistake. He is in the sufferings of the women who are raped and the babies who die from aids, the orphans who are sold to the sex trade, the childhoods taken by war. Every strike of the whip He accepted willing for our sins, for our turning away from Him. It is much easier to blame everything on God, much harder to accept that we are the cause of these evil deeds. That we allow them to happen on our watch, by sitting and doing nothing and handing over the responsibility of our actions by saying it is someone else's fault. Even better to say it is God's fault because He should be doing something about it. How interesting it is that the loudest voices who cry where is your god, are those that do not believe in him, so how could a god that doesn't exist do anything about the horrors anyway? 

God does do something, he stirs our outrage. We have the choice as to whether that outrage is put to helping people or to yelling our disgust at God to do something. Yes, He could stop it now but we chose our course. He is a just God. He wants us to take responsibility for our world that he gave to the first man, when He gave him authority over the land, and made him the steward of the earth. 

We need to understand that His Love is for everyone, and to stop hating and to start building a better world for our nations together in Love. To stand up to the horrors of war, to speak out together for the poor who have no voice. To join globally in Love to agree to share out our resources so that there are not the big differences between those that have and those that have not. 

This requires a selfless love, a rethinking of what is important. People's egos standing down and taking a back seat. Putting those that are in desperate need on the top of our agenda's instead of our self gains. Countries who think they are important to realize that they are not, to have humility and to believe that they can stop the imbalance. We need to stop listening to the lies of the serpent, and to do what is best for the whole world. 

It is a sad fact that there are enough resources to stop the poverty if we all pool our stockpiles. We can stop dictators and wars, if we refuse to fuel them. Again a sad fact is that there are people who want the wars and will do anything to keep them going, because they are  making huge amounts of money from them. They don't care about the ripples of devastation that they leave. This is a human condition, and we need to take control of this false thinking. 

Of course there are natural disasters too, these will always happen, we live on a planet! It is our response that matters here again, our response in Love not in blaming and hating. 

What was it I said at the beginning of this blog, "When a parent tells a child not to do something, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will do exactly what you asked them not to do! Why? Because they only hear the word 'do'."

So let us DO. 

Do love God, by putting Him first and ourselves last.

Do listen to God, not take things second hand that are false and draw us away from Him. 

Do love our neighbour. 

Do love our enemies. 

Do be servants to others needs. 

Do share our talents and resources.

Do good.

Let us learn from the mistake of the first man and woman. Only take the Truth from the One True Source. 

God bless.