Our Strengths...

In serving God we need to have an entirely different attitude. Our strengths are weaknesses since we rely on our own bodies than What He Can do. The gospel of Luke gives an interesting example. Peter who had known the lake of Gennesaret like the back of his palm would fail to catch any fish. He might have persevered whole night but still he drew a blank. His own industry shall fail. Why? It was not because there weren’t any catch but his own knowledge was at fault. (Lk 5:4-5) Our knowledge however excellent is still the second best and also erratic at the best of times. Knowledge of good and evil is what we have to work with. Where we attempt on our strengths alone we may no be able to set apart the two as God can. Hence we let Him guide us and also take control of the events.
Coming back to the sacrifice of Cain, he was working with a ground that was accursed. He should have left out himself from the equation and presented the fruit of the ground to God as it was his duty to do. His abundant grace could have transformed it unto a sweet savour.
Our best effort in wrestling with our bodies only highlights things of the body. Vow of silence, dietary restrictions etc., aren’t worth a fig if grace was not present in the equation. Not our weakness or strengths but God ought to be glorified above all.
benny

Grace And Works

‘If thou doest well, shall thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire…' Gen 4:7
Here we see the outcome of two sacrifices offered by two brothers. From a casual reading one might feel sympathy for Cain. Was God partial to Abel or harsh with the firstborn? In the preceding chapter we read that God had put Adam after his fall to till the ground (3:23). The ground had become a constant reminder of his fall. For all that would God hold it against Cain because he chose to follow the footsteps of his father? I think not. Does God hold anything against farming? Of course not!
Cain joined his father to till the ground and naturally brought the fruit of the ground as an offering. It was his own work that Cain highlighted. So far, so good. Then where did he go wrong?
Didn’t Cain present in self-righteousness the fruit of his labour? In my opinion he presented it in bad spirit. It was made clear when he resented Abel. The Reason? God preferred those of Abel over his gifts. Cain felt injured.
Jesus shows how we are to serve in the gospel of Luke, ‘ …we are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do.’(Lk 17:10) If we maintain that outlook would there be any need for envy as Cain demonstrated? We are unworthy like the prodigal son to be called as sons (Lk 15:21). We are unprofitable in His service but His abundant grace covers our shortcomings in everything that we do. It ought to be always our credo as stated in Lk 17:10.
Cain was given by God (Gen 4:1) but did he give himself in his sacrifice? He held back his best part to himself. ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.’(Ps.51:10)
Benny

Two Worlds

‘…you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’Gen3:5


Is it not a wise thing to know good and evil? Before I proceed further let me point out to the march of events that were taking place outside the Garden of Eden. From the first verse of Chapter 6 we are given a hint that the earth was populated by men. There were men of renown who we know were the descendents of sons of God (6:5,2) Who are they? We can only guess from oblique references elsewhere in the Bible. In the second epistle of Peter we read of the angels that sinned.(2:4).Jude also mention of those angels who didn’t keep their first estate. Their sin must then owe to their straying out of their bounds. It is not difficult to guess the reason for their estrangement. Anyway a different order of mankind other than of Adam and Eve came about.
There were other people then but were they created by God? God created Adam in His image. The Bible tells so. It cannot be otherwise. Because we do not read verses of other races or beliefs in the Creation Account it doesn’t mean God has nothing to do with nations. There were people with their distinct religious practices and customs. God is the Lord of all godly nations as well as pagans. How the latter chose to live is outside the purview of the history of God’s chosen people. Only where their history collides with that of His people we get to read of it in the Book. So we shall do well to remember that there was evil outside the Garden. Of this evil perhaps Satan had much to speak about.
But Adam and Eve being a contextual substance as God, had nothing to do with evil. In listening to Satan they let evil in. As we read in the epistle of James God does not tempt man but Satan. (Jas 1:13-15) Our senses could entice us as Eve was. In Gen3:6 we see how they sinned step by step.
2.
Adam and Eve could learn from the very light of His Being. Knowledge of Good was their portion. Hence knowledge of evil was useless knowledge so to speak. By sin they were onto knowledge of evil. Death is a natural consequence of it.
Having not kept their first estate as those angels who sinned, Adam and Eve had to live with the consequences. Their knowledge was set in terms of the world. Like the man who went to London to found a salon ended up setting up a saloon Adam made it very difficult for him to find the right direction as we shall see. Knowledge of Adam among the children of darkness was at a disadvantageous position. ‘ Be ye wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.’(St. Mat 10:16) and in Luke 16:8 ‘ the children of this world are …wiser than the children of light.’
What was the use of such knowledge that gave children of light every disadvantage as we find so pertinent even in the present times?
benny

Law and Grace

‘I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid…’(Gen3:10)
Third chapter of Genesis is seen from the standpoint of son of Man: in three states we see him express his relationship to God.
1.He hides from the presence of God.
In the first gospel of John we read that ‘He that feareth is not made perfect in love’(4:18,16-17). Adam had cause to fear. He had gained Knowledge of good and evil at the expense of disobedience. Conversely obedience of Adam would have meant he was in the garden even as God was. Of this we read in the verse quoted from John. ‘ As he is so are we in this world’ In ourselves we have no merit but the knowledge that our Redeemer lives and his grace has covered all our insufficiency. This is the hallmark of obedience that every Christian should develop. Adam by sinning sees much more into his body than was necessary. He was like God or in the image of God and yet he discovers he was naked.
2. He learns to shift the blame.
God created man, male and female created he them. Now having disobeyed he distances himself from her in a manner not intended by God. It will eventually be made concrete in host of traditions, customs and also by law. Woman as a result comes to be someone to be subjugated and her dependence to man shown in injunctions as we read in Paul’s epistle, ‘every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth head…’(1 Co 11: 3-12) Law is the natural consequence of man’s disobedience. Thus when we read in the gospel of John that law came from Moses and grace and truth came by Jesus’(1:17) we have to understand the origin of law as a matter of necessity that man’s disobedience warranted.
3.He admits his insufficiency. The aprons of fig leaves that man made were inadequate. These were replaced by coat of skins. Lambskins or any other would require shedding of blood. We read of the first sacrifice mentioned in the Bible. This may be seen as a forerunner of the redemptive work of the Son of Man.
benny

Two Kinds Of Spirit

‘And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked;…’(Gen3:7)
In the Book of Psalms we read that ‘God is clothed with honour and majesty’(Ps 93,97,104) ‘It is how the Psalmist envisions his God and rightly so. In the gospel of John we read that ‘No man hath seen God at any time’(Jo 1:16) How does then the Psalmist describe God and the Creation chronicle in an ecstatic hymn if not for the Spirit? We have a sure word of this from the disciple of Jesus.’ But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.(2 Pe 1:21)
Man has two avenues by which he may know of the world about him. As I mentioned in the previous post ‘On Mysteries’ he has his physical world and also his inner world. There is spirit of the world and also ‘Spirit which is of God.’ (1 Co 2:12)
Man’s knowledge cannot be built on the right foundations if it only provides for his needs in part.
2.
Adam being in the right context of God was filled with knowledge of Good. In the first chapter of Genesis God saw that everything that he had made was good. This being the case by eating the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil he overreached himself.
Adam and Eve were in the direct context of God. They were naked but they were not ashamed. Why? They were covered by the same glory and honour that clothed God. Knowledge of everything Good was in their very core of their being. Spirit of God was about them and basking in that light the nakedness was a sign of their perfection. They being so happily placed in their association with God was there any need to listen to some gratuitous advice of Satan? After they disobeyed we read that their eyes were opened,(Gen3:7) just as Satan had told them. Satan as always is the master of half-truths. Satan was right partially.
Adam and Eve had discovered the spirit of the world right where they were placed in the East of Eden. Spirit of the world gave them skills to make themselves aprons. Where man misses the spirit of God he needs to fall on the spirit of the world. It is like having a tiger by the tail. He calls it progress and it is always at the expense of something else.
benny

Adams' Case

A Rare Medical Condition
The infant had a rare medical condition. His doctor assured his parents that the medical science had not yet found a name for his case but it was curable. ‘Only that you should not let him touch a drop of alcohol.’ The boy stayed out of everything that made one tipsy or drunk. His doctor assured him that his body made its own levels of alcohol that his liver could handle and a drop more would be fatal.
The boy murmured and said, “ Can I not drink like every other and get a kick out of an evening?” The boy was an extrovert and had a knack of livening up things even while cold sober. “ A lively boy like you do not need the bottle for a crutch. You can be soul and wit of a party if you choose to.” The old doctor was one of the family and he could be frank. The boy understood his case well.
But later in life he thought he was an adult and he had the right do anything he thought fit. He thought it was unfair not to try drinking for fun. ‘After all it is my body.’So he took a couple of drinks among company. Next morning he didn’t get up from his bed. He died from complications arising out of his rare medical condition.

Adams case was something similar. There was no need for him to eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil. Instead he disobeyed God or to put in other words to his soul's hurt.
benny

On Mysteries

‘ This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman.’….Gen 2: 23
This verse I know is controversial and apt to bring strong disapproval from many since it goes against all known facts, that are tagged under Science. The Bible is not Science as far as man’s enquiry is limited to his physical world where every aspect of what could be measured and classified hangs upon pegs of man’s understanding. His rational mind is then the arbiter of such facts. When plastics was invented the world went ga-ga as to what it could do to add to the comforts of modern living. The world's annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes today. No one had foreseen clearly then as to the threat it would pose one day in fouling our environment. Technology merely speaks of man’s certain capacity to create but not his mastery of his creations. Science similarly bears the hallmark of his enquiring mind but do not insure against the errors that his mind is privy to.
As a Christian I have no fight with Science: my contention with it is only that it addresses my needs in part. It is woefully wanting in several other parts. I am concerned about my physical world as well as a world, which I can feel within my bones as real. I straddled all these 65 years two worlds as it were, never feeling a stranger in either. So Science must not intrude in matters it has no useful role to play.
When I read a verse that proclaims God created man in his image it is unnecessary for me to ask myself if man were evolved from the family of apes or not. ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God … for instruction in righteousness’(2 Ti 3:16) In the earlier post I quoted the verse where Adam became a living soul because God breathed into him. Since my conception of my soul is derived from that act, it is a living thing, as real as the credit card I use for buying weekly groceries. Money may lose in value but my soul isn’t affected by such vagaries of market economy. It may be science that explains why we have fallen into recession but what does it matter to my soul?
Soul I hold as the pinion on which my both worlds revolve. As the verse in the epistle to Timothy tells when I need to be instructed in righteouness I rely on the Scriptures and not Science. Thus the key verse that I quoted is to be spiritually discerned. (1 Co 2: 14)
Our righteousness is derived as Adam’s contextual substance came from his context to God. Therefore Adam bearing the breath of God shall consider himself as a source: it is indeed the truth since Eve was a spiritual creation meant to be his comfort and companion as God had intended from the beginning.
benny