LESSON 2: Heated Seats In the Car On a Cold and Snowy Day Are A Gift From God!
I really don't even need to get into this one. Anyone who has experienced these delightful upgrades knows what I'm talking about. Sunday afternoon, a snowstorm hit Dexter, MO. We had gone out to lunch after church and by the time we exited the restaurant there was a good three inches of white powder on the ground. When I hopped in Steve's truck and mentally prepared myself for the heater to warm up and deliver me from the cold, he looked over at me and said "Oh by the way, these seats are heated." At that moment, I wanted to hug that man! For the duration of the ride back to his place, I sat in blissful warmth and a new found appreciation for whoever it was that first had the idea to put something in car seats to warm up your backside!
LESSON 3: Mountain Dew + Middle School Boys = Insanity!
After spending Friday evening with a group of the 8th grade boys from the Disciple Now conference at their host home I have come to the belief that Pepsi Co has discovered the ultimate source for limitless energy: caffeinated middle school boys! All we need to do to cure the world's energy problems is find a way to hook up a group of about a hundred middle school boys to some sort of generator, give them each a 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew and BOOM... an almost inexhaustible supply of energy. There are two drawbacks to this though that would make it hard to replace our current sources:
1) It's not cheap.
The cost of feeding those boys would certainly erase any costs saved by switching to "Dew-Energy" and in fact might actually require the bulk of the revenue for an entire city to provide enough fuel for these .
2) It's not clean.
If you've ever seen the bedroom of a middle school boy, chances are you wished that you had a hazmat suit upon entry. Between the clothing on the floor that may be clean or may be dirty, the odd smell drifting from the closet and under the bed that might actually be the result of a new species of mold growing, and the pair of tennis shoes in the corner that has some sort of earthen material caked on the soles that is hopefully from a soccer game played months ago... there is no way this new energy source would pass environmental regulations.
So much for solving the world's energy woes with mountain dew and teenagers. Instead, I think we should just pull out video cameras and make some memories of the hilarity that will certainly ensue.
Okay all joking aside, I want to take a moment to share my heartfelt joy at the opportunity to watch these boys throughout the course of the weekend. Coming from various backgrounds with significant differences in personality, interests, and...well...attention spans, these guys still rallied together to support one another and formed a comradery through the weekend that was reflective of the kind of community that God calls us all to have. The strength, courage, and leadership that they demonstrated at the rally, the solidarity that they displayed in front of their peers, and the goofy fun that they all managed to have together tells me that they are going to be a dynamic group. Yet, what set them apart in my mind as something different and unique was the absolute submission that they all displayed when the entire group of them ran forward during the worship set and fell on their knees at the alter of God, praying with and for one another. They didn't care about what others thought of them, they didn't care who saw... They fell at the feet of Almighty God and laid it all out before Him. When I witnessed that after everything else I had seen from these guys, I realized that this is going to be a group of boys that will grow up to become a group of men that will make a difference in their school and then wherever they find themselves in the world.
LESSON 4: If God Teaches You Something and Asks You to Share It, You Have A Responsibility to do so... Accurately
This lesson is one that is based on something I noticed in some of the time I spent in the Bible on day one.
Genesis 1 talks about God's creation of all things in a general sense. Genesis 2 focuses specifically on God's creation of man and woman and describes the kind of life they're to live and their purpose. Genesis 3 then talks about the fall of mankind and the first sin. Now, I have been through more bible studies, read more books, and heard more sermons on lessons from these three chapters than I can even begin to count, but as I began my trip, I caught something in one of these chapters that I hadn't noticed before.
Leaving St. Louis and having more than three hours in the car by myself left me with a lot of time on my hands and I wanted to make the most of it. I decided to use the feature of the YouVersion Bible app (which is both awesome as well as free, which makes it even more awesome...) that actually reads the bible to you to get into the Word from the start. Since this weekend was about starting from scratch with God, I decided that a good place to start in the Bible was at the beginning!
Genesis 1 went by and nothing new really stood out to me. Then the man reading, began into Genesis 2 and I started to notice something that actually kinda caught me off guard.
Here's the basic story found in Genesis 2 and 3 and I decided to just emphasize the points that got me thinking:
"... In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (2:9)
...The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.' (2:15-17)
...Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. (2:22)..."
Then Chapter 3 began.
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?' The woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” (3:1-2)
Now I have been taught time and time again that Eve misquoting God (He never actually said they couldn't touch the tree) gave the devil a chance to twist things around and contributed to Eve's sin. A lot of teachers/pastors/bible study leaders then used Eve's failure in that regard to emphasize the importance on correctly learning the word of God. I would have to agree with them wholeheartedly and this passage definitely teaches exactly that, but I truly believe that if you read between the lines, there is ANOTHER lesson to be learned here. If you read the passage carefully you'll notice the order of events:
First, God planted the garden.
Next, He created Adam and put him in the garden.
Then, God gave him the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Then God created Eve.
The Bible never says that God repeated His command to not eat of the fruit of the tree. God gives Adam the instructions and then expects Adam to share it with Eve.
***(Before I continue I will include a disclaimer, if I hear of anyone using this commentary of mine to try and emphasize the superiority of men over women in the eyes of God, which is TOTALLY unbiblical, I will find you, smack you upside your head, and then rub your nose on your computer screen like a bad bad doggy who just messed on the floor... in all Christian love of course!)***
What I am seeing here instead of something that is clearly an instance of Eve misquoting God, it's possible that Eve is either just misquoting Adam, OR... quite possibly (and in my opinion much more likely) Adam misquoted God to his wife, adding the "don't touch it" part as an extra safeguard to make sure she stayed away from the tree. His heart was in the right place because he loved his wife very much (Genesis 2:23) and probably just didn't want to live without her in the event she ate of the fruit and suffered the death that God told him they would.
At this point we could start going into things like: ways people can be overprotective. Or, maybe we could talk about being controlling. Maybe about how sometimes we can't trust God and feel like we have to do some things ourselves. Regardless of what else this implies, ultimately what we see here is that God gave Adam a message to share and at some point that message was not accurately communicated.
At this point we could start going into things like: ways people can be overprotective. Or, maybe we could talk about being controlling. Maybe about how sometimes we can't trust God and feel like we have to do some things ourselves. Regardless of what else this implies, ultimately what we see here is that God gave Adam a message to share and at some point that message was not accurately communicated.
Normally this is the part where I would suggest some sort of action or offer suggestions as to how to apply what I shared, or go deeper into the topic, but I'm going to let you figure out for yourself what this means to you and in your specific situation. You're a smart person. I will finish this though with two thoughts:
First, God might put it on your heart to share something with someone, and if He does, you should probably do what He tells you. It's called obedience. Not doing so is called sin.
Secondly, James 3:1 says that anyone who teaches the Word of God (or shares a message from Him) will be judged more strictly because they are representing God. I have seen too many people use the classic "Well God told me (fill in the blank)" to achieve their own purposes, win an argument, or manipulate people to what they want.
I'm not going to say anything else on this matter but I will caution you in light of what I shared: if/when you DO get a message from God and you ARE representing Him, be sure to do so accurately.
Re-Read Lesson 1 in Time Out! Get Still, Get Quiet... Listen. (Part 1)
To be continued with Lessons 5 in Time Out! Get Still, Get Quiet...Listen. (Part 3)
