Friends in Christ Weekly Message
March 8, 2014

     The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal GOD had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
     The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It's only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'Don't eat from it; don't even touch it or you'll die.' ”
     The serpent told the Woman, You won't die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll see what's really going on. You'll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.
     When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
Genesis 3:1-6 (Message*)

The message of this story is where we tend to go wrong. We are tempted to act is if we know at least as much as God does.

Of course, in fact we don't know that much and our understanding is limited. That's why we need to be skeptical of our own inclinations, and focus on growing in our ability to listen to God. We need to let the Holy Spirit take up residence within us, and increasingly direct what we do and say.

This is the basic purpose of the spiritual disciplines.

Bill Samuel

* The Message version ©2002 by Eugene H. Peterson.

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