Focus on the One

Have you ever wondered how man got to the place he is today?  Our world seems out of sorts.  Many things just seem off in this world.

Have you ever questioned the reasons why things seem to be that way?

Are you familiar with the story of Adam and Eve?  If not, let us take a little trip back to the very beginning of time.

God created man.

The man experienced his first failure, and God watched as he had to place man out of the beautiful garden, he had created for him.

 

 

In the Beginning

In Genesis chapters 1 and 2 we read how God created the heavens and earth.

He created animals and birds, bodies of water, day and night, trees, and other vegetation.

Everything!

God was most proud of his creation of mankind. The Bible says he created man in his own image. (Genesis 1:26-28)

God walked and communed with Adam, his creation. God placed Adam in a beautiful garden called Eden.

I can almost visualize how beautiful this garden would have been.

It would have been perfect. Everything would have been lush and green with beautiful flowers and trees.

In this garden, God planted trees with every kind of fruit, vegetables, nuts, etc.

But there was a caveat.

God forbade Adam and Eve, the woman that God created to be with Adam, to only eat of the fruit that he gave to them and forbade them to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In his book, Knowing God, J. I. Packer, described this on, again relationship beautifully, “…God made man a free spiritual being, a responsible mortal agent with powers of choice and action, able to commune with him and respond to him, and by nature good, truthful, holy, upright (Ecclesiastes 7:29), in a word, godly.  The moral qualities which belonged to the divine image were lost at the Fall.”  

God gave man a choice.

Adam failed the test for which we all suffer.

 

 

 

beginning

 

 

The Enemy

In Genesis chapter 3, we read about how the enemy of God had other plans for Adam and Eve.

The enemy (the devil) came in the form of a serpent.  He approached Eve and began to ask her why she would not eat the tree which God had forbidden them to eat.

The serpent deceived Eve.  He was cunning.

He told her that the tree bear fruit which was good for them to eat.  He told her that God did not want them to eat of the tree because they would become all-knowing like God.

Eve succumbed to the temptation and ate of the tree. She gave Adam some of the fruit from the tree too.

Their eyes were immediately opened to the wrong that they had done.

 

 

serpent

 

 

 

 

The Consequences

God came to walk with Adam in the garden as he had done continuously.

Adam and Eve were hiding.

God knew what they had done.

I can imagine how angry God could have been.

He could have destroyed the garden right then.

God could have destroyed mankind and just started over.  But because he loved his creation, he did not do so.

Instead, God cursed the serpent.

Then he cursed Adam and Eve and put them out of the garden.

This was man’s first sin. The punishment was separation from God and spiritual death.

No longer would Adam walk and commune with God as he has done many times before.

God cursed them to a life of hardship.

But the story does not end there, God had other plans.

 

 

salvation

 

 

 

God’s Restoration Plan 

God made a way for mankind to repair his relationship with him.

A sacrifice would be made to God and he would look down on man once again with approval.

In time, God would send his Son, Jesus to die for our sins.

When we accept Christ in our lives, we are restored to a relationship with our heavenly father.

Until we make that decision, we do not have communication with God as Adam and Eve once had.

We must take the step and choose to live a different life and be restored to our rightful place with God.

Because of the fall of man, Adam’s mistake, we are separated from God.

We are born into a life of sin. The only way to restore the distance is to recognize and accept God’s gift of salvation, his son, Jesus Christ.

It is after our salvation experience that we are restored and have a daily relationship with God.

And in him, we find peace, contentment, and safety.

Have you felt like there is more to life than everyday drudgery?

Do you feel an emptiness in your life that you cannot explain?

Do you feel there is something more in this life?

God is calling you to come home.

 

 

 

My Prayer: God I have put this story in the simplest terms for people to understand how easy it was for man to fall.  And because of that fall, we are born into sin.  But you did not leave us in that condition.  You made a way for us to restore our relationship with you.  You could have condemned us to everlasting hopelessness but because you are a loving God, a God of mercy, you chose to make a way for us to restore communion with you.  We are thankful and so glad you never gave up on mankind.