Showing posts with label Hiding from God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hiding from God. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Friday, January 23, 2009
Hiding from God: Conclusion
Over the past several post, we have been looking at mankind's first attempts at hiding from God. Most of us, at one time or another, have been like Adam and Eve. Because of the lies we have believed and the choices we have made, fear for God has overtaken the love of God in our hearts. God, however, out of love for us, draws near in an attempt to woo us back into fellowship with Him. When God came near to Adam and Eve, He asked them three questions and, in these questions, we learn volumes regarding the nature of God. So, in conclusion, here are the questions and what we have learned about God.
Were are you?
While we are cowering in fear, God is desiring to have fellowship with us. The moral of this question is: No matter where we are, even in our deepest and darkest hours, God still wants to be with us. Even when we sin and disobey God, God loves us and wants to be with us.
Who told you?
We all have things we have believed about ourselves, many of which we did not hear from God. Those things in our mind that hold us back, that keep us from God, that cause us shame and fear; it was not God who told us those things. We need to learn to live by what God says about us not what others say.
What have you done?
Even in light of God's love for us, we still cannot skate on the issue of our sins. Sin is serious business and we must face the responsibility for our own sins. The good news is that God did not come to excuse us of our sins but rather to forgive us of our sins. If we answer this question honestly, God is faithful to forgive
David Robison
Were are you?
While we are cowering in fear, God is desiring to have fellowship with us. The moral of this question is: No matter where we are, even in our deepest and darkest hours, God still wants to be with us. Even when we sin and disobey God, God loves us and wants to be with us.
Who told you?
We all have things we have believed about ourselves, many of which we did not hear from God. Those things in our mind that hold us back, that keep us from God, that cause us shame and fear; it was not God who told us those things. We need to learn to live by what God says about us not what others say.
What have you done?
Even in light of God's love for us, we still cannot skate on the issue of our sins. Sin is serious business and we must face the responsibility for our own sins. The good news is that God did not come to excuse us of our sins but rather to forgive us of our sins. If we answer this question honestly, God is faithful to forgive
David Robison
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
What have you done? (Gen 3:13)
"Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?'" (Genesis 3:13)We have been talking about hiding from God, specifically, when Adam and Eve hid themselves from God. We have also been looking at the three questions God posted to Adam and Eve in an attempt to draw them out of their hiding. The third question God asked them was, "What is this you have done?"
In leaving our hiding place and returning to God, we cannot side step the issue of our sin. Adam and Eve had sinned, they had broken a direct command from God, and before they could be restored to God, they had to face their sin. God's conversation with Adam and Eve is similar to Jesus discussion with the Samaritan woman He met at the well. After discussing theology with her, he speaks to the heart of the matter. "Go, call your husband and come here." (John 4:16) He said this knowing full well that she was an adulterer, she had already had five husbands and was now living with a sixth who was not her husband. Jesus loved her and wanted to restore her, but He could not ignore the issue of her sin.
Paul echos the same sentiments when he refers to those who, while desiring to be part of the church, were not willing to first confront their sin. "I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced." (2 Corinthians 12:21) How many today want the benefits of a "Christian" life but are not willing to pay the price to have a "Christian" life. They want to live like a Christian but only if they can ignore the reality of their sins.
Some today don't like to talk about sin; its not positive and uplifting. Others find it hard to reconcile a conviction of sin with the message of a loving God. Yet sin is serious business! Sin interferes with our communion with God. Isaiah said, "our iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear." (Isaiah 59:2) Sin also sows death into our lives, "Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." (James 1:15) In fact, so serious is the issue of sin that its remedy could be purchased with no less the price then the life and blood of the Son of God. The only remedy for our sin was the death of Jesus on the Cross. Sin is serious business!
But there is good news; the good news is that Jesus did not come to excuse us of our sin but rather to forgive us of our sin. When we confess our sins to the Father, He does not say, "well its not that bad, I'll let you go this time, it's OK" rather He says, "It really is that bad, but I have forgiven you". It is far better to be forgiven then simply excused. King David put it this way, "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!" (Psalm 32:1-2)
When God convicts us of our sin, it's not to condemn us for our sins, but rather to give us an opportunity to be forgiven for our sins. If we are honest in answering the question, "What have you done?" then God will be faithful to forgive us for what we have done.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)More to come... David Robison
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Who told you? (Part 2) Gen 3:11
In my previous post, I talked about the lies we hear and believe about ourselves. Specifically, we talked about the lie the serpent told Adam and Eve that made them believe that there was something shameful and fearful about themselves being naked.
The serpent speaks shame and fear into our lives, but God speaks something quite different. Here are some of the things God speaks about us. "You are the salt of the earth." (Matthew 5:13) "You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14) "You are more valuable than many sparrows." (Luke 12:7) "You are already clean." (John 15:3) "You are My friends." (John 15:14) While the serpent speaks words that create shame and fear, God speaks words of life; words that "perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish" (1 Peter 5:10) us.
What was so insidious about the lie told Adam and Eve is that it caused them to be ashamed of how God had made them. God had created them, and he created them naked. Until they ate of the fruit, they had no problem with their nakedness, but now, in light of what the serpent had told them, they were ashamed; ashamed of how God had made them, they were ashamed to be naked.
We are all unique creations of God. God has made us each individually, with varying talents, personalities, and abilities. As Christians, God has also given us unique callings and giftings, "distributing to each one individually just as He wills." (1 Corinthians 12:11) However, sometimes we discount ourselves, not because of any lack in ourselves, but because we are not like someone else. We fail to see the incredible creation we are and focus solely on what we aren't. This comparison with others can lead us to feel ashamed of who we are; of who God made us to be. This is why Paul said, "when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding." (2 Corinthians 10:12)
What is amazing is that, too often the things that make us feel ashamed about ourselves, are the very things for which God has chosen us. For example, we may feel we are too weak to walk with God, yet Paul speaking of his own weakness says, "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:10 We may also feel that we are somehow less situated than others, and this inferiority disqualifies us from service to the Lord, yet Paul encourages us to remember, "For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God." (1 Corinthians 1:26-29) How often it is that our weakness and lowliness actually qualifies us before God.
So here is the moral of the question, "Who told you?" There is no shame in being you! There is no shame in being the person whom God made you to be. You may not be like others, you may not be accepted and revered by the world, but you are the child of your Father in heaven and, in that, there is no shame. Let us stop trying to be who we are not; trying to be like others, to appear different so we may be accepted by others, and let us rejoice and celebrate in our diversity, in the unique and specially different creation of God that we are. When we understand how unique and special we are to God, it will help us to come out from our hiding and return to the presence of God.
More to come... David Robison
The serpent speaks shame and fear into our lives, but God speaks something quite different. Here are some of the things God speaks about us. "You are the salt of the earth." (Matthew 5:13) "You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14) "You are more valuable than many sparrows." (Luke 12:7) "You are already clean." (John 15:3) "You are My friends." (John 15:14) While the serpent speaks words that create shame and fear, God speaks words of life; words that "perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish" (1 Peter 5:10) us.
What was so insidious about the lie told Adam and Eve is that it caused them to be ashamed of how God had made them. God had created them, and he created them naked. Until they ate of the fruit, they had no problem with their nakedness, but now, in light of what the serpent had told them, they were ashamed; ashamed of how God had made them, they were ashamed to be naked.
We are all unique creations of God. God has made us each individually, with varying talents, personalities, and abilities. As Christians, God has also given us unique callings and giftings, "distributing to each one individually just as He wills." (1 Corinthians 12:11) However, sometimes we discount ourselves, not because of any lack in ourselves, but because we are not like someone else. We fail to see the incredible creation we are and focus solely on what we aren't. This comparison with others can lead us to feel ashamed of who we are; of who God made us to be. This is why Paul said, "when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding." (2 Corinthians 10:12)
What is amazing is that, too often the things that make us feel ashamed about ourselves, are the very things for which God has chosen us. For example, we may feel we are too weak to walk with God, yet Paul speaking of his own weakness says, "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:10 We may also feel that we are somehow less situated than others, and this inferiority disqualifies us from service to the Lord, yet Paul encourages us to remember, "For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God." (1 Corinthians 1:26-29) How often it is that our weakness and lowliness actually qualifies us before God.
So here is the moral of the question, "Who told you?" There is no shame in being you! There is no shame in being the person whom God made you to be. You may not be like others, you may not be accepted and revered by the world, but you are the child of your Father in heaven and, in that, there is no shame. Let us stop trying to be who we are not; trying to be like others, to appear different so we may be accepted by others, and let us rejoice and celebrate in our diversity, in the unique and specially different creation of God that we are. When we understand how unique and special we are to God, it will help us to come out from our hiding and return to the presence of God.
More to come... David Robison
Friday, January 16, 2009
Who told you? (Part 1) Gen 3:11
"And He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?'" (Genesis 3:11)The scriptures record that, when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, there eyes "were opened, and they knew that they were naked." (Genesis 3:7) Yet, when God shows up on the scene, He didn't ask them how they knew they were naked but rather who told them they were naked. It is apparent that they knew they were naked even before eating the fruit, in fact the scriptures says that they were "both naked and were not ashamed." (Gen 2:25) They already knew they were naked, but now, for the first time, they perceived that their nakedness was something to be ashamed of. They were no longer "not ashamed" but rather full of shame and fear. In the opening of their eyes they came to see themselves in a different light; in a condemning light.
So who told them they were naked? The answer is not very difficult to discover. It wasn't God, He had just arrived on the scene. Nor was it Adam or Eve, they were the tellees not the tellers. That leaves only one other talking being in the garden, the serpent. After eating the fruit, something sinister transpired, something was said and intimated by the serpent that sowed shame and fear into the hearts of Adam and Eve, and this shame and fear caused them, for the first time in their lives, to retreat and hide from God. Something was said to them that would forever change the way they looked at themselves and would forever altered their relationship with God.
Many of us have areas of our lives where we withdraw, from life and even from God. For most of us, the leading cause of our failure to achieve our full potential or to advance further in our walk and relationship with God, is not a lack of ability or opportunity, but rather is the paralyzing effect of lies and slanders, spoken over us by others, and believed by us in our hearts. We allow the words of others to form invisible walls; invisible walls that end up defining us and form the barriers of our lives. Wall that set our limits which, in our fear and shame, we are not inclined to press.
We can all relate to these lies, many of which we repeat often to ourselves. "I'm not strong enough." "I'm not pretty enough." "I will never be like so-and-so." "I will never be accepted by others." "I will always be poor." "I will always fail." "I am a dummy and will never amount to anything." "God will never love me." "I will never change". Lies like these, and others, can cripple our lives and hinder our walk with the Lord.
When faced with these lies, it is good for us to remember what God asked Adam, "Who told you?" Who told you that you would never succeed? Who told you that God would never forgive you for what you have done? Who told you that no one would ever love you? Who told you that you can't, shouldn't, or would always do this-or-that. While these are questions you must answer yourselves, the truth is that, it wasn't God! God did not speak those things into your heart, it may have been other people or even the serpent, but it wasn't God.
More to come... David Robison
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Where are you? (part 2) Gen 3:9
In the first part of this article we began looking at how, in one day, Adam could go from enjoying fellowship with God to fearing Him and hiding from His presence. I believe the second thing that changed in their relationship, contributing to Adam's fear, was the way Adam perceived God. Before, Adam saw God as a loving father, now he believes God to be a wrathful judge. God, who was once loving, has now become harsh, demanding, exacting, and vengeful; at least from Adam's point of view. Adam knew God to be a God of justice, but now that he had sinned, he presumed upon God's character that God was now angry and wrathful towards him. Adam took what he knew about God and drew the wrong conclusion about God's character. Adam's failure to properly deduce the character of God is similar to the worthless servant in the parable of the talents.
One of the primary reasons we misjudge God is because our expectations of who He really is is based upon, and formed by, our experience. We know God is our Father and so we expect Him to be like our earthly fathers. For some, that leads to a positive image of God, and for others, a negative image. We know God is Lord over all, so we expect Him to be like other authority figures in our lives. We know God is love so we see Him through the different relationships we have had in the past. In all of these, we project onto God's nature our experiences, both good and bad, and often end up with a wrong conclusion of what God is really like.
So what is the real nature of God? Here in lies the first truth we can gather from the story of the garden. God asks Adam this questions, "Where are you?", and where was Adam? He was hiding. But where was God? He was drawing near to be with Adam. As I read this passage, I am amazed that, knowing full well the extent of Adam's sin, God still chose to come and draw near to him, that He might have fellowship with him. After all, God could have chosen several other courses of action following Adam's sin. He could have simply killed Adam and started all over again. After all, He had warned him that if he ate of the tree he would die, or God could have just written him of, forsaken him, and found something else do watch over in His universe. Adam had sinned and he deserved to spend eternity living in his sin. Yet, when faced with the news of Adam's sin, God chose neither of these approaches. Knowing full well that Adam had disobeyed Him, God still desired to be with him, to fellowship with him, and to set on course a plan that would one day free Adam and his race from the bondage to sin.
What does this mean for you and me? It means that no matter where you are right now, God wants to be with you. Even in the deepest darkest corners of you sin, God still wants to be with you. No matter how far away we are from God, He still chooses to draw near us and ask us, "Where are you"? The choice is ours. Will we stay in the shame and darkness of our sin or will we by faith turn to Him and let Him restore us and reconcile us back to Himself? Will we hear His voice and realize that, though He is a God of justice, He is also full of mercy, grace, and forgiveness? Will we let our fears of God keep us from daring to approach Him again, or will we once again, by faith, enter back into His presence? Consider the admonition of Paul,
More to come... David Robison
"And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid , and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.'" (Matthew 25:24-25)The servant, based on knowing that his master's purpose was to reap where he did not sow and gather where he did not scatter, perceived his master to be harsh, fierce, and severe, but was this an accurate representation of his master. Jesus applied this parable to us, as the servants, and to the Father, as the master. It is true that God intends to reap where He has not sown and to gather where He has not scattered, for that is the very reason He has left us behind to finish His work, but does that make Him hard and austere? The truth is that God is loving, merciful, and kind, even to the weak and lowly, but far too often, like Adam and like this servant, we take what we know about God and end up misjudging His motives, His nature, and His feelings towards us.
One of the primary reasons we misjudge God is because our expectations of who He really is is based upon, and formed by, our experience. We know God is our Father and so we expect Him to be like our earthly fathers. For some, that leads to a positive image of God, and for others, a negative image. We know God is Lord over all, so we expect Him to be like other authority figures in our lives. We know God is love so we see Him through the different relationships we have had in the past. In all of these, we project onto God's nature our experiences, both good and bad, and often end up with a wrong conclusion of what God is really like.
So what is the real nature of God? Here in lies the first truth we can gather from the story of the garden. God asks Adam this questions, "Where are you?", and where was Adam? He was hiding. But where was God? He was drawing near to be with Adam. As I read this passage, I am amazed that, knowing full well the extent of Adam's sin, God still chose to come and draw near to him, that He might have fellowship with him. After all, God could have chosen several other courses of action following Adam's sin. He could have simply killed Adam and started all over again. After all, He had warned him that if he ate of the tree he would die, or God could have just written him of, forsaken him, and found something else do watch over in His universe. Adam had sinned and he deserved to spend eternity living in his sin. Yet, when faced with the news of Adam's sin, God chose neither of these approaches. Knowing full well that Adam had disobeyed Him, God still desired to be with him, to fellowship with him, and to set on course a plan that would one day free Adam and his race from the bondage to sin.
What does this mean for you and me? It means that no matter where you are right now, God wants to be with you. Even in the deepest darkest corners of you sin, God still wants to be with you. No matter how far away we are from God, He still chooses to draw near us and ask us, "Where are you"? The choice is ours. Will we stay in the shame and darkness of our sin or will we by faith turn to Him and let Him restore us and reconcile us back to Himself? Will we hear His voice and realize that, though He is a God of justice, He is also full of mercy, grace, and forgiveness? Will we let our fears of God keep us from daring to approach Him again, or will we once again, by faith, enter back into His presence? Consider the admonition of Paul,
"Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb 10:19, 22-23 NKJV)So where are you in relationship to the Father right now? No matter where you are, God wants to be with you. Won't you turn towards Him, and with great boldness, return to His presence and His love and care for you? God is waiting, its your move...
More to come... David Robison
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Where are you? (part 1) Gen 3:9
"Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, 'Where are you?'" (Genesis 3:9)Adam was a man who was familiar with the presence of God. For some time he was accustom to walking with God "in the garden in the cool of the day" (Genesis 3:8). However now, for the first time, he found himself afraid of God's presence and attempted to hide himself from God. How could Adam, in one day, go from enjoying God's presence to hiding in fear? When he sinned, what changed to caused him to fear God? I believe that two things fundamentally changed on that day when Adam partook of the forbidden fruit.
First, by partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God ceased to be Adams father and instead became his judge. Prior to that day, Adam obeyed God as a son would his father; he simply did whatever his father told him. However, now after having his eyes opened by the knowledge of good and evil, his obedience shifted to having to satisfy an external set of rules, ordinances, and laws. He was now responsible to live by what he knew to be good and evil; to live by this new knowledge of right and wrong apart from the simplicity of obeying God's voice. To further compound the problem, Adam awakened something with in his soul: sin!
"But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me." (Romans 7:8-11)While Paul is speaking here specifically regarding the Law of Moses, I believe the same principal applies to Adam. With the knowledge of good and evil there awakened in Adam a sinful nature that was bent on evil. Now, living apart from the grace of father God, Adam was overcome by his sinful nature and that realization caused him to fear God. Paul reminds us of this in recounting how even Moses was fearful in the presence of the law.
"For they could not bear the command, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned." And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, "I am full of fear and trembling."Moses was also a man familiar with the presence of God. He would often enter before the very presence of God in the Tent of Meeting. However, at the giving of the law, Moses found himself fearful of the presence of God.
(Hebrews 12:20-21)"
The chief reason the law introduces fear into our hears is because we know instinctively that we are incapable of keeping the law. We understand the weakness of our own flesh and our internal tendency to sin. Paul says of his own internal struggle against sin,
"For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:18-19, 24)When we consider our internal sin nature, we understand that we are sinners and we deserve punishment, and the one to judge and punish us is God. We have broken, not the commandments of man, but of God and God is the judge, jury, and executor of our sentence of guilt. John echos this truth when he said, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love." (1 John 4:18) What John is saying is, as long as our conscience is fill with the knowledge of our sin and guilt, the prospect of punishment moves is to fear; the fear of God. However, if our conscience is filled with the knowledge and experience of God's love, then there is no room left to fear God or His wrath. When we come to understand that we walk with God by grace, as children of our Father, then the law and its condemnation of us no longer rules our lives; fear is no longer our master but rather we are free to fellowship with God in the knowledge of His love. The knowledge of good and evil turns God into our judge, but the knowledge of the love of God restores God to us as our father.
More to come... David Robison
Monday, September 08, 2008
Hiding from God: Gen 3:8
"They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8)"For an unknown span of time, Adam and Eve lived and walked with God in intimate fellowship. Regularly God came to fellowship with His creation, especially that part of creation that He had made in His own image. God's fellowship with man and woman was based on a relationship of love. God did not come requesting an offering or a sacrifice, those things would come later, rather He simply wanted to be with His creation.
For a while, this fellowship was unbroken, that is until they sinned in disobedience to their loving Father. After having walked openly and unashamedly with God, they hid themselves for the first time. Their relationship with God had changed and they would begin a pattern of hiding from God that continues with us, their decedents, even to today.
Everyone of us, if we are honest with ourselves, have known times when we have tried to hide from God. Most often, the times we have sought to hide ourselves from God have been the precise times when we have needed His presence the most. Instead of drawing closer to God, we withdrew and hid ourselves from His presence. There are many reasons we hide from Go, but the chief reasons are fear and shame. Far too often we allow fear and shame to weaken our hearts and to cause us to withdraw from our heavenly Father. This is why Paul reminds us to "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16 NKJV)
There are two things we can learn from Adam and Eve. First is that their hiding from God was initiated by their own actions and not God's. It was not God who withdrew from man but man from God. When we hid from God it is because we listen to our emotions and the voices around us and make a decision to withdraw and to hid. While hiding becomes our objective, it is never God's. God has no desire for us to withdraw or hid, rather He continues to beckon us to draw near and to come into His presence. Even in our sin, God beckons us to come. "'Come now, and let us reason together,' Says the Lord, 'though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.'" (Isaiah 1:18)
Secondly Adam and Eve hid themselves amongst the trees of the Garden. Often, when we try to hide from God, we try by hiding in our own world. We immerse ourselves in our jobs, we become totally focused on our families, or we give ourselves to every form of leisure and entertainment, all in an attempt to hide ourselves from God. While none of these things are bad, we end up choosing them over a relationship with God. We find peace and solace in the things of the world and away from our emotions of fear and shame. However, these things can only serve to mask our pain and can never heal it. This can only happen in the presence of God. We need to learn to become like Mary, who sat at the feet of Jesus. "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary , for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42)
In the next few posts, I want to look further into this story. Specifically, God asks Adam and Eve three questions, and I think there is a lot we can learn about our own tendency to hide from God through the questions and their answers.
More to come... David Robison
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)