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.
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:
- What guilt and
shame are you carrying that cause you to want to hide from God, your
spouse, and others?
- What fear of
exposure is crippling your life?
- 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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