Monday, August 20, 2012

"Stopping the Chaos in the Family" and 36 Missionaries Already Signed Up for Prague!

Well, well, I see how it is with some of you! Ha, ha, ha. I had a few contacts that really liked the blog last week until the correction came out relieving Adam of being the soul villain of the fall in the garden. Girls, girls!

Speaking of the blog, it obviously had a mind of its own Monday morning because it ran a repeat blog from our "10 Commandments" series. Hmmmmm. I like what one of my dear friends had to say about that blog. "There are no accidents" and she needed to hear that blog again. Maybe a few of the rest of us did, too.

When we ended our blog last week, we can safely say sin entered the world. And where there is sin there is chaos, lack of order, confusion, feelings of being overwhelmed, not knowing what to do, etc. Why? It’s called consequences. That, too, was demonstrated in the Garden:

Genesis 3:7-13:

7. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" 10. And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." 11. He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" 12. The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." 13. Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

I want to stop here and compare the last verse of Genesis chapter two (2:25) with our verse today from Genesis 3:7.

Genesis 2:25 "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed."

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

Are you catching this? When sin had not entered the world, Adam and Eve were running around the Garden naked and perfectly content and they were not ashamed.

But the minute sin entered the world, contentment was gone because of the consequences of sin. Genesis 3:7 ‘Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.’

Guilt leads to shame and... Well, let's just see what all it leads to

Genesis 3:8
8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
  • It leads to hiding

Genesis 3:9-10
9. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" 10. And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
  • It leads to fear

Genesis 3:11-12
11. He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" 12. The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." 13. Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
  • It leads to blame

So summarizing today’s point: When sin takes place, it sets into motion the emotional consequences of guilt, shame, hiding, fear, and blame. And, those five consequences can produce a chain effect of chaos in the world around us, specifically in our families. We will begin to look into each consequence next week and how it works to produce chaos.


36 Missionaries Already Signed Up for Prague!

The word is getting out about the retreat Pure Joy is taking to Prague in October. The missionary women are starting to register at a more rapid speed with only 14 places to be filled. Please continue to pray God’s direction on those last 14 women. Also, I am going to ask you to start praying for the healing of one of the missionary women who was in the early sign up bunch. Her name is Kim, and she and some of her family were in a car accident several weeks back. We have been praying for her diligently. She has several broken ribs and they had to remove her spleen just for starters. So please pray, because she had to go back into the hospital last night.

I am going to ask some of the women who have already registered to write a few snippets concerning living in Prague, Czech Republic, so you can look forward to that!

Keep praying! We only have 25 more missionary women to sponsor, so listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit and give as He directs!!

Love you all so much!

His,
Vickie

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