The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. (Genesis 3:6 NIV)
Good Morning. Once again from all of us here at the Coffee Corner. We are so glad each and everyone of you could join us. Please come on in and grab a cup of Joe or whatever you would like and find a seat. We have plenty so do not be shy. Today’s coffee comes from all the way from Kenya, and it is a dark roast with sharp flavoring, with a bit of fruity after notes. Hope you enjoy.
Well We are headed into fall and the weather sure has changed. The leaves are beginning to change colors and the mountains are beginning to scream with color. As for me, I am once again trying to get into a better shape than oval. I have realized I so out of shape that I need to start it slow. I am beginning to walk and do some little strength and core exercises. If I see any results, I will let you know otherwise you will know it aint going so well.
My biggest issue is I love food, which would not be bad, but I typically love all the wrong food. You know the types of food that really is not part of a food group. It would be much easier to lose weight if that food did not taste so yummy. But really, even that is just a symptom of a deeper issue, sin.
Ironically, or maybe not so ironically, sin is the reason why so many of us struggle with doing the wrong things. We have been battling sin since almost the beginning of time and it has not gotten any easier. As A matter of fact, I believe Satan has gotten even more cunning in how he presents and lures us into sin.
In order to understand sin, we need to go back to the original sin and see what that was all about. Most of us know the story, God created two humans, Adam and Eve, and he put them in a perfect garden to tend to the garden and the animals that were in the garden. Well, then comes this pesky snake, Satan, and he lures Eve into eating the one fruit that God told them not to eat. Then she lures Adam to eat the same fruit. As a result, they were punished for their disobedience to God and the were tossed from the garden and were told that all of humanity would suffer death because of their sin.
So, the first thing we see is that sin is disobedience to God. Whenever we do not listen to God and whenever we do not do what he instructs, we have sinned. God takes great offense to when we do this and rightly and he should. See, when we disobey God what we are really are saying is that God does not know diddly and we know more than God. The gall, and we know better, yet why is so hard to stop sinning?
Well that is a great question, and I am so glad you asked. See there is this snake called Satan and he is a conniving little well snake in the grass. Satan is the master liar and he used 3 types of temptations to lure Eve away from God. He uses the same 3 types of temptations on us a well, fleshly desires, visual cravings (which often go along with fleshly desires), and social position. Each of these temptations hits us at our pride, either the pride of passion, pride of possession or pride of position.
The interesting and tricky thing about Satan’s lies is that there is always a hint of truth in them. Many of us understand that the best lies are those that have a hint of truth in them. See When Satan lied to Eve he said she would not die if she ate it. And that was true in a way. When Eve ate the fruit she did not die right away, but because she ate that fruit she would eventually die. Almost all of Satan’s lies are like this. When we are tempted to have a sexual relationship outside of the bonds of marriage, we all know that in the short run this will feel really good.
However, the long term consequences of having sex outside of marriage is devastating. Whether you believe it or not every time you have sex with someone there is a spiritual and emotional bond that gets created and if there is no commitment beyond the act that leaves is with brokenness that never truly gets repaired. There comes mistrust of others, possible shame on our side and so many other unforeseen symptoms we don’t realize until much much later.
This is how it is with many of our sins, not just our sexual ones. And left on our own each one of us would die in our sins. However, we do not have to lose hope. God knew this was going to happen so he sent his one and only Son to suffer and die on a cross. And when he did that he took our sins on himself so that when he rose again we could break free from our sin.
Through faith in God’s son we can break the chains of sin. If we are in Christ we do not have to fear death for Christ has risen. He has conquered death and so can we. Through our faith in him we can know that our body and soul will rise again and live eternally. But in order for that to happen, we have to know, believe, and follow God completely. We need to work, with the help of God’s spirit, to break the hold sin has upon us. OH! Those who have ears I pray you are listening. I pray God is allowing these words to ring true in your heart. You can come into full relationship with God almighty today and he can release you from the bondage of your sin.
Will you struggle with temptation? Well sure we all struggle with temptation. But temptation is not sin, even Jesus was tempted. However, God is with us and can help us overcome whatever temptation Satan, that riley snake, can throw at us. We can live victoriously today.
In closing I just want to let each of you know, that I am praying for you and I believe in you. May God reign in your hearts and keep you safe until we meet again.
Until next time God Bless!
Pastor Jonathan
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