3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: The slippery slope of temptation continues for Adam and Eve. In the last blog, we saw how Satan has the easy job of simply helping us justify the sin we already want to commit. Now we see the major weapon he uses to accomplish that objective. He does it here, he did it with Jesus in the wilderness, and he uses it in our lives each and every day. He gets us to play games with the Word of God. "Did God really say?" Sometimes people have read my blogs and have drawn the conclusion that I flirt with idolatry because I stick so close to the BIble that they think make the Bible an object of worship. That is not true. I am a sinner saved by the grace of God. Yet my heart is still deceitfully wicked. I do not trust myself. I have heard teenagers say that, after much prayer, they feel God is saying that it is OK for them to take their relationship to the "next level" even though they are not married. "Did God really say?" God's Word is eternal. It is meant to direct us in our faith and practice as we live it daily by the power of God's Spirit. I do not worship the Bible - I love the Bible because it tells me how to live a life of worship for the God I adore. I get nervous when we read something stated plainly in the Word of God and find al kinds of reasons to dismiss it as not applying to us anymore. "Did God really say?" We live in a day that demands wisdom. The serpent of Genesis has cloaked himself in the postmodern mentality of our generation. We are told that truth changes somehow. That everyone is right, as long as they are sincere. Saying things like what I am now saying are seen as arrogant or that I am, in some way, putting myself above others. The longer I walk with Jesus, the more I see myself as the Apostle Paul saw himself - the least of the brethren and the chief of all sinners. That is why I cling to the Bible to guide my steps. The paslmist wrote that the Word was a "lamp for his feet and a light for his path." Living according to the Bible is not a path of bondage. Jesus said that the Word of God is truth. He said that the "truth will set you free." When I walk closely to the Word of God, it gives me the freedom to live a life worthy of the Gospel. When I stray from the Bible and hear the voice of the serpent, "Did God really say?" I find myself, not free, but trapped in the bondage of sin and disobedience. |