Promoting The World

Promoting The World

5/20/18

What could ever go wrong if we do not promote God, is a common thought that runs through our minds at some point in time.  Many people who consider themselves to be Christians do not live or even want to live for God 100% of the time, thus not recognizing exactly what is at stake and who is running the promotional status commercials of this world.  Our Western societal standards promote such a lavish and independent lifestyle that we now believe that the stars we see are actually coming from our illuminating brightness, just as Eve was fooled on that dreadful day so long ago.  God is still in the restoration business and we still have a few moments left before our world is changed dramatically by the hand of God.  We can avoid such pain if we just turn our hearts back to God and skip the realization that the voice of the world is lying to us not telling us the real story.

I have shared with you a few times about how I have been raised in church all my life and have fit the role of being a pastor’s kid up until this day.  I have had no real major disappointments with my life and when I look back at all of those times of moving around and going to new places I cannot say that I have ever harbored any ill feelings against my parents for they have only obeyed what God has shown them to complete.  It is through their obedience, the key to God and the relationship with Him, I have had the opportunity to witness some great experiences with God, and I must include some of the harder times in this accolade as well.  However, it was my own worldly desires that drove me away from God for a while and it was those same worldly thoughts that kept me from studying the Word of God thus keeping me from the answers that my questions posed each day.  How many of us still cannot find what God has in store for their lives or what the meaning of their life is supposed to be?  Look around you and it will not take long to see such hurtful and sorrowful people wandering around hopelessly searching yet seeking answers in all the incorrect places.

Even in my adult life with all of the knowledge and godly wisdom my father and mother taught me, I was still foolish enough to believe in worldly standards instead of relying upon and trusting my eternal Creator and His Word for my life.  As I look back and realize what God has spared me from I cannot help but believe that His Word has all the answers I need in order to fulfill my existence on earth.  There are countless amounts of stories that I can share with you about how God protected me in times of need, times in which I was so voluntarily blinded by my own selfishness that I could not see the words of God directly in my face, yet I used them on a daily basis.  It is this part of my life that I wish I could take back or have never experienced, but if I could or if I did not experience them I could not have the remembrance of how my life was and really could not be a true beacon to those who are struggling and looking for help.  How many times have I read the Bible and missed what its contents say and how many times have I missed what I needed to say to others who are seeking Him?

First off, I want people to understand that God is not picking on Eve here but that He wants us to understand how fooled Eve and Adam had become by the time Genesis 3:6 had rolled around.  There are a couple of verse here that now stands out to me very boldly and once again they are verses that I have read many times before including in the brilliant articles that God has already shared with us previously.  It is this example that proves to us that God is alive and that He will reveal His Word to us if our hearts are turned towards Him at all times.  Also, these verses prove what will occur to our lives and in our lives if we become fooled from the words of our enemy.  The question that needs to be answered is which Kingdom are we promoting?  It is impossible for us to promote both sides of our existence, one must be chosen and then lived under so which one do you promote?

Secondly, God is not meaning for this message to hurt anyone or to drive them away from His presence.  On the contrary, God knows our hearts and our lives and His only wish is for us to understand His Word for our lives and how each letter in the Bible was written specifically for you and me.  God also knows that sometimes we take His Word for granted and through this haphazard attitude misses the very item that we are searching for, but that does not mean we are dumb or ignorant but need to spend more time alone with Him in order to know what He is saying to our lives.  The only thing that God wants us to know is that we do not have to follow in the paths of every person given as examples in the Bible, that we can skip so many troubles and heartaches if we just obey His Word.  It is a simple process of learning and it is through this gift of learning and obedience that separates us from the world.

Genesis 2:8-9 will start us off as it says to us: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden: and there he put the man whom he had formed.  And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”  Ever since I have placed my entire heart into the studying of God’s Word I have been amazed at what it says to me and how much informational wisdom it has given me, yet at the same time as God gives me these words to write I understand that there is so much more wisdom that I have not been told about which blows my mind because as I have stated many times before and proven so wrong at the same time, that I thought I knew the meaning of such verses.

It is these two verses that we find out where Adam lives and what the foundational message to him was, these verses also provide us with a basic understanding of the groundwork that God uses in order to provide the protection Adam needs for his presence in the garden.  Eve has not been created yet nor has she been shown to Adam but even though Adam is still on his own he has received the knowledge about how God wants him to live.  God gave Adam a mind, a heart, two feet, two hands, and all of the other human body parts that you and I have today.  This means Adam had the ability to reason and think about what he needed to do, in other words, he had a choice, just as you and I do as well.  So, what is so special about these two verses that it has a changed status in Eve?  If you take a look at verse 9 and more specifically the portion of the verse that says “to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food;”  It is this portion of Scripture that is the important detail that God wants us to understand and to really contemplate about which kingdom are we promoting for it is this phrase that defines the difference in what God said here and what Eve stated in Genesis 3:6.

As mentioned in the above, Adam and Eve were humans and they had every aspect of human life that we have today with one exception, they knew what it meant to live in perfectly created conditions and we will not have that opportunity to experience until we have chosen God as our savior and live with Him for eternity in Heaven.  Having said that, Adam and Eve knew what it meant to eat for if they did not have the need for food God would not have mentioned this detail to Adam in Genesis 2:9.  We cannot forget that when God mentions something it must be important to our lives, thus is the sole and holy reason why we need to understand as much of the Bible as we can for it provides us with the necessary food for our eternal existence.  God says that the trees are good for our eyes and that they will be good for food and that Adam could eat of each tree except for one, Genesis 2:17.  It is this phrase in Genesis 2:17 that defines the principle of obedience to God’s Word and no other source has such authority.  Adam knew that God had no beginning but that every other living being either spiritual and/or physical did which meant that no one else could represent such truth.

Now, comes the part where one logically asks the question: why would God need to set boundaries and place into effect the need for obedience in this matter?  The answer lies in the fact that God has an enemy who tried to beat Him by challenging God for His eternal status and since Lucifer was a created being it meant that he was automatically at a disadvantage yet tried his hand at challenging the One who has no beginning to a showdown.  In essence, it meant that whatever details occurred at an unspecified amount of time earlier resulted in an ugly separation from God that has now boiled over to God’s prized creations, us.  So, with this eternal placement battle, it is the job for God’s enemy to lure humans into his setting and to get them disobey God and His Word.  It is impossible for our finite minds to understand exactly what it means to be completely separated from God with no hope of redemption but it is this pattern and eternal separated status that Satan has and it is the very concept that he is promoting to us each day.  He does this through various ways but each way that he uses promotes the world and a lifestyle that goes against the Word of God and if he grabs our attention enough so that we do not understand the Bible as we should, it becomes very easy to become critical of such eternal wisdom so that we actually blaspheme against its eternal and restorative meaning.

One of the more enjoyable experiences that I have had over the years is to see my daughter’s open gifts from friends and family members.  There is nothing more exciting to see the look in their eyes when they see what each gift is and who it came from.  The occasion does not matter nor does the time of the year, but when their eyes light up with pleasure in this setting there cannot be a more spectacular scene in a parent’s eyes.  When we were young, it was the excitement of the new toys at Christmas that readily come to mind and at that moment we thought that there could not be anything more valuable or precious to us.  Our outlook for the new toys was limitless and the plans we drew up in our minds seemed endless.  We all knew that for the most part, we would receive something new for our parents had asked us what we wanted for Christmas, anyone spends hours upon hours looking through the department store Christmas catalogs as I did?  Most of us had that pleasure so when it came time for the presents to be unwrapped, we were not disappointed for we already knew the pat discussions of such gifts.  But now, it was new and fresh once again and visible to our eyes in an entirely new way.

Now we come to Genesis 3:4-6 and it states as follows: “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat.”  I have read this passage many times and it amazed me when God gave me another bit of information here concerning the promotional aspect of Kingdom and just how effective this principle has in our lives.  We can talk about how the relationship between Adam and Eve with the serpent grew and we can talk about how long it took for this relationship to develop, all of which are very important details but God wants us to know that it is the element of excitement and seduction that our enemy uses in order to promote his world and as each day passed in the Garden of Eden and as each day passes in our lives today Satan’s method is running unabated and is winning the eternal battle and status where it concerns God.

Back in Genesis 2:9 God gives us the phrase about what the trees would look to us through our eyes and He also gave to us that the fruit of the trees would be good for food.  It is this verse alone that defines why we should never add to the Word of God because when we do it will get us into trouble every time.  Genesis 3:6 states that Eve saw that the fruit was pleasant and that it was good for food.  Why does the Bible mention this fact again?  Eve ALREADY knew that the fruit was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, for God had shared this fact with Adam back in Genesis 2:9 and since Adam and Eve had a duty to keep and to dress the Garden of Eden both of them knew about that tree and the fruit on it AND MOST IMPORTANTLY what God said about it.  But Genesis 3:6 continues by stating Eve believed that it would make one wise when the fruit was eaten.  It is this addition that was the disobedient lie that God did not want to occur, but because Adam and Eve believed in the starry lie of opened eyes that Satan spoke to them, their lives turned forever and allowed the world to have a presence.  Eve fell for the direct lie of “stardom” and “greatness” that only Satan can promote in such a manner as to subvert the eternal plan of God.

How elegant are the commercials that entertain our eyes today?  How about the televisions programs or the movies, what do they promote?  It is every girl’s dream to be recognized and noticed by film directors or model agents and it’s every guy’s dream to be recruited to a major college and then drafted into the professional sports leagues down the road.  To become the CEO at a multi-billion dollar corporation, or even the President of a nation or region most boys have thought about at one time in their lives.  Any type of promotional status to occupy our minds and to step on others with our elite attitudes is what rules our day and if one stops and thinks about what occurred in Genesis 3:6, not much has changed from that day until today.  The world shall never come into alignment with God, it cannot for the world was created and God was not which means the world shall ALWAYS lose to God no matter how “good” it wants to make you believe it is.  The reason the Bible gives us Genesis 2:9 and Genesis 3:6 is for us to recognize what is the truth about our existence versus the lies that our enemy will use in order to trick us into leaving God and His plan for our lives.

Eve had a choice that day and I would have loved for her to just have said no to the temptation and to have believed in God and His Word instead of the hyped up lies of Satan.  As Jonah has shown us, the entire Book of Genesis and in that point the entire Bible could have been written differently, but instead, God’s Word gives us with every individual book in its content, stories of people who struggled and then had to acquire the applicable consequences of their follies.  It does not mean that God has written you off and has given up on you, the truth is that He is now more than ever calling for His children to return to Him.  Each letter of the Bible contains a message of eternal life and through these letters, God is calling for us to repent.  God does not want to see any child of His suffering at the hands of the world, but unless we turn from the world and choose God completely, our lives shall continue to experience the consequences of having our “eyes opened”.

The world will open your eyes, it will open your eyes to a so-called freedom that at first may seem exciting and adventurous but soon enough that excitement shall ware away and when it does it shall take a part of your life with it.  Satan does not care about you, your status on the earth or even your presence as a representative of life all he wants is your eternal death and separation from God.  The world has its lights and glamorous studios but those institutions are only temporary and will drain you dry and then leave you for the person that believes their lies.  There is nothing wrong with having excitement in our lives, for this too is a gift from God but in order for us to truly understand what excitement is and means we must see what God offers and what the world offers and recognize the difference.

Sadly, the Church has fallen into this glamorous lifestyle of the world and now is incorporating the views of the world into its Constitution.  God’s Word plainly states that this “cooperation” is a lie and it cannot stand against the eternal truth of God.  I see many denominational buildings celebrating the world and its laws, gaining strength from those who spit in the face of those who take a solid stand for God and Christ.  From homosexual church leaders to performing staged abortions in front of cathedrals and everything else in-between, it all points to the world’s point of excitement and separation from God, and our buildings promote it.  God demonstrated His love when He spoke to Adam the words of Genesis 2:9 but it was the words of the world in which dictated the actions of Eve in Genesis 3:6.  The lust for new beginnings without God led to our demise back in the Garden of Eden and from what we can see today that lustful gleam is still present and running rampant in our hearts today.

Repent Church, for our time here is short, for while we are demonstrating and promoting the works and wiles of the world’s leader, God is preparing His hand against us.  Some believe that Adam and Eve were dealt with harshly after they made the choice to sin, but those who say such ideas fail to recognize that it was their choice to leave the protection of God from such separated status.  Even as God sent Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, He once again showed them the way to restoration and it is our responsibility to show those who are lost God’s restoration pattern and not the world’s plan.  As the great song goes that comes from Psalms 84:10, it is better to spend one day in God’s court than a thousand elsewhere, and when we grasp the truth in the two passages God has shared with us in this message, it is clear as to why David spoke these words to us and also demonstrates the importance to obey God at all times.

DLB