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The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 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.” (Genesis 2:8-9 & 15-16) When we start talking about trees in the Garden of Eden, I’ll admit that I get a little anxious. There is an aura of magic about them and magic is frowned upon in Scripture, isn’t it? First, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil very likely was not an apple tree. Neither w...
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In The Image

                 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”   So God created mankind in his own image,     in the image of God he created them;     male and female he created them.                                                            (Genesis 1:26-27)             One of the questions asked in the Bibl...
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Genesis

              In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  (Genesis 3:1-3)   The Bible study I’ve joined is using a book that explores the references, prophecies, mentions, and presentations of Jesus found in Genesis. The journey of discovery begins with the first few verses. There are so many things that need to be said about Genesis 1:1-3. I have also recently watched about half of a debate between two enthusiasts (one is a professional scholar) in which the non-scholar claims that the Eridu Genesis (Sumerian creation account) and the Enuma Elish (Babylonian creation account) predate the Genesis creation account and claims that the Genesis account is clearly derived from the previou...
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The Pharisee, The Tax Collector

                 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’   “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14) We began a Bible study on generosity in my Sunday School class, and today’s passage was the teaching text. It’s a story of two men who went to the temple to pray. Two men who both stood apart from others, the pharisee because he didn’t want to as...
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Identity

                           So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians3:26-28)           Did you ever play sports? Or followed a particular sport player as they grew from childhood to adult? At the earliest level, I suspect it’s all about fun. Fairly quickly, however, children figure out that there is this thing called winning (that probably starts out more important to their parents but becomes important to them) and winning involves being better than this thing called “the other team.”           Eventually, the children reach the age when they move from one team to another. They may...
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Truth...

                 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. (John 18:38)           I’ve been discussing the problem of evil with someone online, and today’s verse came to mind. So, I apologize to those who aren’t in the mood for a philosophical rant because that’s where things are going this morning. Let’s start with the definition of truth without the circular reasoning involved in using the word “true.” Truth is “that which is in accordance with fact or reality.” One comment made was that religion is a myth or fairytale for adults. I suspect there are cases where that is true, but it is a hasty generalization that “all religions are the same.” The first problem is that there is the modern and temporally snobbish view of fairytales: they’re just stupid little stories meant to entert...
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Ridiculous

                 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets.   He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”   Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”   When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.   When S...
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