Paradise

 We saw that God made the man, placed man in a garden called Eden, and took from the side of the man some flesh and bone and fashioned it into a female or woman. God had named the man "Adam ."

How did the first couple meet? 

God brought the woman to the man. Adam didn't wake up, realize part of him was missing and say Hey God what's up? 

Neither did the woman call out to Adam ; no animal introduced them.

God presented the Bride to Adam. The couple were told that the man must leave  his father and mother and hold fast or cleave to his wife. They would become one flesh. 

We must wait to understand the full meaning of this marriage. 

However realize that Adam had no father and mother. God created Adam as the first human. From dirt.

I want to explain something about the way God revealed Who He is in the 66 books we call the Bible which just means Book. The Message might be a better way to think of this record written over a period of 1500 years by 40 authors all by inspiration from God the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember as a child when you first saw your shadow? 

A nice sunny day, a sidewalk, and you are walking on your head or your arm or you are ten feet tall! 

Of course I mean your shadow stretched out from you on the sidewalk, sometimes short and fat; other times elongated and skinny.

You saw the shadow of yourself was not you, but if your mom was looking for you and she saw only your shadow on the sidewalk, she would find you! 

In a similar way the Bible is full of events that foreshadow the actual event coming to pass.

Marriage will foreshadow something about man's relationship with God.

Back to the garden story.

Life in Eden was free from disease, natural disasters, or any problems in relationships.

The authority structure God had established was perfectly in place. Neither beast not man questions God about the way to live under authority. To review:

Everyone and everything is under the authority of God, the creator. The beasts and plant life are also under the authority of the man and woman. We're talking about obedience or who is boss.

Who established the laws of nature? Of relationships? Who has the right to have their own way? 

God doesn't think that way. God gave responsibilities and delegated jurisdiction to the man and his wife. All rights belong to God. 

Neither the man or his wife were to act independently of what God instructed.

In fact the man was warned that if he disobeyed God's command about eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the man would die. 

Man was in the garden where he could freely eat of the tree of life.

In the Bible the tree of life means eternal life. Man would never die if he would eat from this  tree.

One tree brings life. The other tree would bring death.

Animals knew from the instinct  God gave them how to live. Animals did not have the choice to disobey God.

Man was created to freely choose to obey or to disobey the commands of God.

This perfect place where the man and his wife lived in the presence of God and enjoyed everything being good, we call paradise.

Next post we will see what happens in the garden that changes everything for every human being born after Adam and Eve were created. All the descendants of this first couple will be in a different situation because of a choice that both the man and his wife made.

The view from my window

Today I took this photo looking north toward the red mountains where one year ago I spent almost the month of October in a rehabilitation care center. Some folks would never leave this unit alive. 

Others, like myself, were there to recover from a surgery or injuries.

I was not expected to recover and was put on hospice. This means that I had around six months to live.

The severe osteoporosis of my bones had resulted in a broken leg.

But God had other plans for me.

I am like the Apostle Paul and wanted to fly to Jesus and spend an eternity thanking Jesus for opening my blind eyes so I might understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I know, now I'm sounding "religious " and you imagine me lighting candles or using some beads to count how many repetitions I have finished of a memorized prayer.

No. 

You see I can't begin to help you see beyond what God allows a person to know about Who is God, who is mankind and whatever has happened that we seem to have lost our way and just long for home- a home where there is peace and joy and we belong to a real Father.

But I can tell you about the mystery of the cross on which Jesus was crucified and died.

But I warn you, here is what God's Word, the Bible says about this event that for most of the world restarted  the way we record time. 

2014 AD means that number of years after the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth Israel.

Ok the cross:

1 Corinthians 1:18 (NASB) 18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

How can an instrument of death be the power of God? 

God will bring salvation to humans by means of a death to someone else? 

Yes! 

Do you ever read a biography of someone and the biography is written so that first you read the most important and shocking part of their lives in the first chapter, then the author flashes back to the beginning of the story? 

That's what I have done here. 

Was Jesus crucified? Did Jesus die so sinners might be forgiven and made right with God? Who killed Jesus? The religious leaders who screamed "His blood be on us and our children forever! We have no King but Caesar "? Or the Roman government that ordered Jesus crucified and wrote in three languages the crime for which Jesus was executed: writing on a sign above His cross "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews".?

No.

God the Father put Jesus , the Son, to death. 

Before you click "delete " read here:

Isaiah 53:2-12 For he grew up before him like a young plant,and like a root out of dry ground;he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men;a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken,smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions;he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray;we have turned—every one—to his own way;and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,yet he opened not his mouth;like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away;and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living,stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,although he had done no violence,and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;he has put him to grief;when his soul makes an offering for guilt,he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,make many to be accounted righteous,and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors;yet he bore the sin of many,and makes intercession for the transgressors. "

This was written by a prophet of God hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus.

But did Jesus ever talk about His own death and how He would die and the reason for His death? 

The answer is YES.

But this is where we need to go back to the beginning. 

Next post we will go back to the beginning. God has kept me alive to share this message of what I call "Redemptive" Love.