Suppose to be much cooler this weekend, since we will be processing several containers of tomatoes; that will be very much welcomed.  Something is in the air, can’t figure out what since all pollen count appears to be down, but whatever it is and my sinus don’t agree with each other.

Got back from the therapist, lots of new methods of exercising in an attempt to get me back to ‘normal.’  We shall see, however, it won’t hurt, either.  This physical journey is taking turns I never saw coming.  :-)  The one good point was he was surprised by my strength and had to modify some of his procedures to challenge the muscles more.

Down for the count right now, though, so will take it easy the rest of the day. 

 

Genesis 3:1-Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

² And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
³ But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
⁴ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
⁵ For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
⁶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Interesting verses.  You have to wonder if Eve had been looking at the tree they were forbidden to eat from and wondered about it.  Satan seemed to have noticed she was vulnerable there so he started the discussion.
Now she knew what she was not supposed to do, however, she added to God’s Word, He told Adam the following:
Genesis 2:16-17  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
¹⁷ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

There was nothing about touching the fruit.  She did right in quoting God, but she added to His Word.  We want to be careful about that, God is pretty specific about His commandments, when we start editorializing we place ourselves from firm to unstable foundations. 

The manner in which Eve was tempted is a tactic that satan uses even today.  He knows where we are vulnerable, where he can get us to questioning what should be done in our living for God.  He gets a us to thinking – wrongly.  He then tells us that God is not correct, that what He has said is wrong and that we can make our own decision on what is right and wrong.  Satan appeals to our desire to enjoy ourselves or please ourselves and he tells us that activity is going to either make us better, or it will give us a great deal of satisfaction; he appeals to our pride.  Then we yield to the temptation and find there is pleasure in it, it does gratify some part of us – and all too frequently we involve others in our sinful behavior as Eve did with Adam. 

1 John 2:15-16  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

John also warns us that satan is very clever and uses our desires to entrap us.  There is consequences to our behavior when we sin against God.  In Adam’s case it was the condemnation of all mankind to hard labor – and even worse, separation from God.  While I have often wondered what God would have done had Adam told Eve ‘NO!’ it doesn’t matter, because he didn’t.

Satan is very good about using others to tempt us.  They will talk of their experiences and entice us to join them in their sinful behavior as Eve did with Adam.  Mankind has many similarities in the way we look and think about something.  That is why companies spend millions of dollars in advertising, getting the right label on their product, having it placed in the right location at the store.  There are people that have studied and know what makes the mind click and use that information to induce us to purchase their product or to participate in their activities; and it works.  We are vulnerable to that kind of manipulation of our minds in making purchasing or entertainment decisions.

They target their merchandising strategies to a particular market.  They know what works for teenagers isn’t going to work for older people.  They know what works for one part of the nation may not work for another and they change their advertising to appeal to that area of the nation.  People make a very good living finding ways to encourage us to buy their product.

Satan uses this same knowledge of human behavior to tempt us – but he also knows us as individuals and while something might have no effect on one person, it does on another; he modifies his temptations to suit the individual.  Most of the time, particularly to begin with, he is very subtle, coming at us hard will trigger the understanding that the activity is a sin, so he starts out small and works his way up to the point we don’t even give a second thought to the sin – until it is too late.

Fighting off satan’s wiles is just one more reason it is so important to focus on God and His Word.  If we make regular contact with Him, our senses are in tune with Him, we recognize satan’s temptations and we are more apt to be able to overcome them using the wisdom that comes from God.

James 3:17-18  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

Later, Art :-)