Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Stopping the Chaos in the Family and Prague Update!


Thank you so much for your patience with me as I processed through what I want to share with you regarding how the consequences of sin set chaos in to motion in our families and lives.

Let me start by saying that I will not be taking each word and covering it one at a time as I had suggested several weeks ago.  The reason being is they each touch the other too much for our purposes.  So, just stick with me and I think you will understand what I am trying to show us.

Adam and Eve knew they had broken God’s law the minute they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  They were not only guilty but also immediately felt shame.  Guilt implies being responsible for an offense and or a wrongdoing.  Shame is a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, which results in perceiving oneself as defective, unacceptable, damaged goods, etc.  The evidence of these two things at work is demonstrated in Adam and Eve sewing fig leaves together and making themselves loincloths.

Genesis 3:6
7Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

Please take note, Adam and Eve tried to handle their guilt and shame themselves by covering up with fig leaves. 

The next scene is God in the garden walking in the cool of the day.  Adam and Eve hide themselves from God.  Why?  Fear of being found out.  So, God calls to Adam and asks “Where are you and who told you that you were naked?”  What does Adam do, he blames Eve.  Eve in turn blames the serpent.   In today’s language we could safely say that Adam threw Eve under the bus and then she the serpent.  No one was interested in taking any responsibility for their sin.   

Something happened in the garden that day which has been a pattern of the enemy’s ever since.  He wants to break our intimacy with God and each other.  If you really are a student of God’s Word you will know that it screams of His desire to have intimacy with us as His children.  Truly, the one thing that Satan forfeited when he was kicked from the heavens to this earth was  his intimacy with God.  He can’t have it and he doesn’t want any of us to have it either!  We saw what pure intimacy was in the garden before the fall as Adam and Eve enjoyed God and His provision, and intimacy with each other.  Remember Genesis 2:25, “‘the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” 

It is amazing to me as a Biblical Counselor that what the world calls the top three issues in a marriage:  communication problems (intimacy), financial problems (provision), and sexual issues (physical intimacy) can all be traced back to the fall in the garden.

Let me leave you with this thought today.  In most marriages I deal with, either the husband or the wife is throwing the other under the bus.  Neither wants to take responsibility for the problems in the marriage.  The husband blames the wife, the wife blames the husband and our children are the victims of our chaos.  We, like Adam and Eve, try to cover up our sins by making ourselves fig leaves of loincloths.  

Fig leaves or loincloths were not good enough in the garden and they won’t be in our lives either.  But we will get to that next week.  My questions for you today are:

  1. What guilt and shame are you carrying that cause you to want to hide from God, your spouse, and others? 
  2. What fear of exposure is crippling your life?
  3. How many times have you thrown your husband under the bus this week?

Girls, there are so many thoughts that can be evoked from Genesis 3 that I go crazy just trying to get it on these pages for you.  But I am asking a Holy God through the power of His Holy Spirit to convict you, affirm you, and or challenge you regarding this discussion today.  First step of freedom is always….get honest!!   

Prague Update!

As of this writing on Tuesday the 5th , the Prague retreat is full and has gone to waiting list status!  Now let me encourage all of you to put on your running shoes once again as we head to our dates in October of leaving the country to head to Prague.  We still have 25 missionary women to be sponsored, so please be prayerful that God will move on the hearts of people all over this world to get on board with sponsoring these ladies to attend at no cost to them! 

Here is another opportunity to see some interesting facts about Prague…


Love you all,
His,
Vickie

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