One In Jesus

So God made Adam, placed him in the Garden, gave him the Tree of Life, gave him Eve, and walked with him in the cool of the morning. It was, quite literally, Paradise. But Adam and Eve messed it up.

(Gen 3:6 ESV) 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

It was a small sin, but it created a distance between man and God. Their unity was broken and, as a result, man changed from innocent to sinner.

(Gen 3:8-12 ESV) 8 And 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. 9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

Adam quickly learned to blame his wife for his own sins, and Adam and Eve both learned to feel fear and shame. The world would never be the same. Continue reading →

A love story

There’s just so much that needs saying, but I don’t want to a 100-part series on the Trinity. So this will be altogether too short, but it should be enough to introduce the hero of the story, the protagonist: God in three persons.

Now, it’s critically important that we understand that God is the hero, and not us. We want to read the Bible as all about us and our fight to overcome obstacles and solve riddles to eventually win the battle against Satan and so gain the prize: heaven. But that’s not really the story. The real story is about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God is the hero.

We humans are like the damsel in distress whom the hero is valiantly trying to rescue. It’s not that she does nothing, but that she is helpless without the hero’s intervention — otherwise, there’d be no story! Continue reading →

And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation.

We are stardust, we are golden,
We are caught in the devil’s bargain,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

— “Woodstock” by Joni Mitchell Continue reading →

This idea of “story” is a big deal. The Bible tells a story, and if we don’t hear the story and understand its plot, the conflict, protagonist, antagonist, denouement, climax — the elements of story — we miss much of what God is saying to us in scripture.

Now, I hasten to point out that “story” doesn’t mean fiction. By referring to the Bible as “story,” I’m not remotely suggesting that the story is untrue. Rather, it’s the very best kind of story, a true story. Continue reading →