“That’s what you want. Are you sure?” I asked before ordering Amelia’s ice cream. “Because I’m having this one with chocolate, peanut butter, banana, and almonds,” I added, pointing to the picture on the menu. “Ezra is sharing with me. You could share with us,” I offered one last time. “I don’t like chocolate,” she repeated flatly. I don’t need to tell you who kept asking for bites of my ice cream while hers sat melting in her cup. If you have children or grandchildren or have ever taken a kid out for ice cream, you already know my dilemma. They can’t seem to resist the wacky colored options that all taste like vanilla in the eye-level freezer cases.
Amelia says she doesn’t like chocolate but that depends on the day of the week and her current mood. She snacks on semisweet chocolate chips any time we bake together. She nibbles her grandfather’s darkest chocolate bars. She chooses white chocolate ganache filled candies on special occasions. Maybe when it comes to ice cream she will turn out like her daddy who would choose vanilla soft serve over any other frozen treat. When she was smaller, sharing was required but as she grows, I want Amelia to learn to make choices for herself. I want her to learn to choose wisely.
Ice cream is a simple place to start. If she chooses a flavor and doesn’t eat it, I’ll remind her next time to try something else. Lesson learned. Her mom allows her to choose her outfit for the day as long as it’s appropriate for weather conditions. On Sundays, she chooses from her church dresses. Her requests for specific meals actually come in handy lots of times when I’d rather not have to decide what to make. Obviously some things are nonnegotiable. She is only four years old and entitled to her own opinions but her parents get the final say.
In my experience, not all children are taught wise decision making skills nor are they modeled for them. Our affluent society tosses around phrases like trade in or trade up, buyer’s remorse, and having second thoughts about any and everything from cars to careers and meals to marriages. We want the latest tech and we pay fees to trade new cell phones for newer models every year. We are inundated with choices every second of every day and we
wonder why contentment feels elusive. Think back to the first couple, perfectly provided for in a perfect garden with only one rule. Three chapters into Genesis, the serpent spins the lie that keeps deceiving.
““God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.””
Genesis 3:5 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/gen.3.5.NLT
In a split second, deepest trust and intimate fellowship between man and our Creator evaporated. Inhale. Secure, satisfied, submitted. Exhale. Self-consciousness, secrecy, shame. Instant regret. You’ve been there. You know exactly how they felt. The words are barely out of your mouth and already you’re choking on them. It may look like you’ve won but you walk away feeling hollow.
“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you?
Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?
You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it.
You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them.
Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.
And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”
James 4:1-3 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.4.2-3.NLT
“:the very first sin involved trying to know some hidden things and thus be like God.”
We don’t even make the devil work very hard. “Did God really say?” the tempter asked nonchalantly. God did not even get the benefit of assumption of innocence until proven guilty. They betrayed the One with whom they walked in a perfect garden designed to provide for their every need, the One who entrusted stewardship of His brand new creation in its entirety to them, without hesitation for one taste of forbidden fruit and knowledge of good and evil. We scratch our heads and wonder why but really, are we so very different? When was the last time you clicked a link to see what you already knew you’d regret seeing? How often do you allow your thoughts to linger over past hurts while silently building a case for your own exoneration. It will always be a dead end road, a trap that leads to destruction.
“For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.
These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave.
But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”
1 John 2:16-17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1jn.2.16-17.NLT
I had a difficult conversation with one of my sons during college after he shared some ideas being taught as fact that ran contrary to scripture. He was attending a historically Christian university so I was somewhat more surprised but having attended a secular university myself and having sat under professors who were outspokenly atheistic, I challenged his thinking with scripture and my own personal beliefs in the same way I addressed one religion professor at university. My son listened to my argument then cited his honors professors educational background and advanced degrees as a sort of mic drop, hoping to end the conversation. I ask you to consider the same question I asked him. Who will you trust? Someone who has loved you, taught you, sacrificed for you, prayed for you and discipled you in obedience to my God-given calling for nearly two decades or someone you met only a few months ago?
Am I claiming to have all the answers? Absolutely not. Am I intimately acquainted with One who does? Indeed I am. God in Christ, your Heavenly Father has loved you with an everlasting love and He draws you ever closer with His eternal loving kindness. He will teach you and remind you of His spoken Word. He will unsettle your spirit within you in obvious ways when discernment is required. He is always at work in the world around you and He searches the earth seeking to strengthen you as you trust in Him. What does this world or any living person or temporal thing offer that He has not already supplied for His children? Would you so easily betray the One who gave you life and sustains it even now?
“You adulterers!
Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?
I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning?
They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him.
So humble yourselves before God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Come close to God, and God will come close to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.”
James 4:4-5, 7-8 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.4.4-8.NLT
“Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.
So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death.
But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
For the sinful nature is always hostile to God.
It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.
That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
But you are not controlled by your sinful nature.
You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you.
(And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)
And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.
And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.
For if you live by its dictates, you will die.
But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.”
Romans 8:5-13 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.8.5-13.NLT
“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives.
Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.
The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants.
And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires.
These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.
But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.
Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
There is no law against these things!
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.
Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”
Galatians 5:16-25 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.16-19.NLT
“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.
For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.
And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you.
Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires.
Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.
Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming.
You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world.
But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.
Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.
Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.
And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”
Colossians 3:1-10, 17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/col.3.1-17.NLT
Forever Reign ~HILLSONG https://youtu.be/3f3sNiYpuF4?is=XOfuTtKbEEo5X3xZ
Abide https://youtu.be/BLDEt9KP2O0?is=9DGfl7IFfSBNKxn_
***
[I read the following commentary on Deuteronomy 29 with its quote about original sin which touched off the train of thought that led me to this post. I read this on the heels of listening to a two hour debate on eschatology, or end times theology, with John Piper and several guests who find themselves in different camps theologically. I have included the commentary in its entirety and the link here. It is part of a free Read The Bible plan provided online by The Gospel Coalition which I highly recommend if you are searching for a way to study scripture systematically.]
“”The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29).
The two principal points bear reflection.
First, the responsibility of the covenant community in this matter is to focus on the things that God has revealed.
They not only belong “to us and to our children forever,” but were given to us in order “that we may follow all the words of this law.”
That is the fundamental purpose of placing this text at the end of a long chapter on covenant renewal.
True, we cannot know many hidden things.
But what has been revealed to us — in this context, the terms of the Mosaic Covenant, with all their vast potential for blessing and judgment — is what must capture our interest and devoted obedience.
Second, we must frankly admit that some things are hidden from our eyes.
We really do not understand, for instance, the relationships between time and eternity, nor do we have much of an idea how the God who inhabits eternity discloses himself to us in our finite, space/time history.
It is revealed that he does; we have various words to describe certain elements of this disclosure (e.g., Incarnation, accommodation).
But we do not know how.
We do not know how God can be both personal and sovereign/transcendent; we do not know how the one God can be triune.
Yet in none of these cases is this a subtle appeal to ignorance, or an irresponsible hiding behind the irrational or the mystical.
When we admit — indeed, insist — that there are mysteries about these matters, we do not admit they are nonsensical or self-contradictory.
Rather, we are saying that we do not know enough, and we admit our ignorance.
What God has not disclosed of himself we cannot know.
The secret things belong to God.
Indeed, because of the contrast in the text, the implication is that it would be presumptuous to claim we do know, or even to spend too much time trying to find out — lest we should be presuming on God’s exclusive terrain.
Some things may be temporarily hidden to induce us to search: Proverbs 25:2 tells us it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to search a matter out, to get to the bottom of things.
But that is not a universal rule: the very first sin involved trying to know some hidden things and thus be like God.
In such cases, the path of wisdom is reverent worship of him who knows all things, and careful adherence to what he has graciously disclosed.”
Read the Bible: Deut. 29, Psalm 119: 49-72, Isaiah 56, and Matthew 4
A Fitting Reply 