Wherein Lies the Sin?

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." - Genesis 3:4-5

As I was going through the concept of opposites, I came to the conclusion that good and evil are not in fact true opposites. Evil is instead the breakdown of something initially designed as good. With that in mind, I understood Eve's desire to obtain wisdom and knowledge pure in intent but faulty in her logic that she could obtain it without God and instead attempted to obtain it through the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The second half of the lie told to Eve was that she would become like God. What does that mean? Was Satan telling her in a deceptive way that through the tree of knowledge of good and evil she would be able to partake in the divine nature? And is that intent evil? We are told in 2 Peter 1:4 that we are to partake in the divine nature through God. So to want to be part of God or like Him is not evil in intent... or so I assume from this verse. But where the evil lies is in attempting to become like God, without God in the equation. You cannot have a pure good without the source of all good. If you attempt to obtain good without the source of all that is good then you accomplish evil instead - because it is a twisting and break down of pure good.

With that train of thought we must then wonder how we are to truly partake of the divine nature and what exactly that means. In 2 Peter 1: 3-10 we are given a blueprint for cultivating and nourishing the divine nature within us. It begins with the seed of faith. We receive this faith through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:1). Faith is the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things. When we reach that point in life it does not simply end. We must continue on... it's much like raising a child. The life of a child does not end at the decision to conceive, nor does it end at birth; it is at these points that life begins... there is more after. And it is up to the parents to nourish and minister to the needs of that child. Following faith we must then nourish the divine nature with virtue. By virtue it means a virtuous course of thought, pure motives and good intentions. When you have arrived at this point you then nourish the soul with knowledge. Knowledge is to learn to know, to come to know, gain a knowledge of, to become acquainted with and intimate. Notice that there is reason also for the order. Knowledge without pure intentions or motives can be highly destructive. The next step is temperance. Temperance means to have power over, by strength, mastering, controlling, restraining; the power over sin (Gen. 4:7). When you have reached the point of mastering control over sin you are then at a point in the life of the divine nature to add patience. Patience means to endure, remain, abide, not receding or fleeing; to bear bravely and calmly with perseverance. The next step is godliness. Godliness is the point in life where we truly recognize the need to worship, and revere God; to be devout. After godliness we arrive at Philadelphia. At this point we recognize the divine nature within the other souls around us and we love them because we are a family; we have the same Father and are born of the same Spirit. All of these nourishing elements of the divine nature lead us to the ultimate goal which is agape. Agape is the love, affection, and good will towards all life; a contentment in all aspects of life.

All of that may seem pretty overbearing and hard to digest. It may even seem too overwhelming a task to accomplish, and you would be right - it is. But we are not to attempt it alone. This is a task we accomplish with God. It is His nature, and we are partaking in it. We have been given the Holy Spirit to nurture and comfort us through this growth as a parent to a child.

The word "add" in this passage which refers to the different elements of nourishment to the divine nature is "epichoregeo". "Epichoregeo" here is translated as add, nourish, or minister to. But in direct translation and break down of the word it means to lead a band of dancers in chorus. It is almost as if our divine nature is a symphonic production of nourishing elements that when brought into harmony present us with the song of true life. The conductor begins with Faith, it is the foundation of all music, the rhythm, percussion. Then come the winds, followed by the strings, and then add the brass. Altogether the elements create the music of the divine nature within us. Our pursuit of the divine nature, becoming like God, does not end at the moment of salvation - that is only the beginning of life. We continue on, nourishing that seed of life within us, element by element adding into the score, until it develops into an orchestral performance of God's presence within us. In this context we become like God. When we attempt to become like God without God, therein lies the sin. If God did not intend for us to become like Him, then He never would have created us in His image. Can you hear the music of the divine nature in your life?

Act Your Age! - Not Your European Pant Size

"Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace." Proverbs 3:13-17

It never ceases to amaze me how shallow and superficial women can be at times. I've been going through a women's study lately on how to better recognize your worth as a woman and the chapter this week was focused on the different stages of a woman's life. The more I read on the different stages the more apparent it became to me how important the roles are that we take on in each of those stages and how they help to mold and define other women around us as well.

I notice a lot lately, women's reluctance to take an active and functional role in the life stage that they are in and are always trying to progress or digress out of the place that they are supposed to be in. When we're young, we always wish to be mature, older, and independent. As we age we desire to throw off the responsibilities we so desperately desired to have earlier in life and return instead to that duty free era. It's almost as if we live in a perpetual state of discontentment with where we are in life, which makes us extremely ineffective in speaking to and influencing the women around us for the better.

Women were created at the dawn of time with an incredible gift for influencing people around them. It is not a responsibility you can just slough off, it is a matter of life! You are a woman, therefore you are influential in the lives around you. It is how we choose to use that influence that defines who we are. Will we use it for good, to improve the lives of all those around us or will we use it for evil to tear down those around us. You do not have an option to just plain not influence... you can only choose how you will influence.

So much more today I see women in a later stage of life attempting to throw off the responsibilities of the stage they are in and "fit in" with a younger crowd. We spend thousands of dollars trying to look younger so we can squeeze ourselves into this culture's idea of what makes a woman special. We plump up our lips, butts, and boobs and suck all the fat out of our legs and waists. We stretch and contort our faces till they don't even move with expression any more all for the sake of ironing out a few wrinkles and taking what we think looks like a few years off of our faces. It never even occurs to us that if we'd just stress less in the stage that we're in, live life to the fullest, and influence those around us for the good that those telltale signs of age and hard partying wouldn't add on as fast as they do.

Relax. Stress less. Influence those around you for the better. Act your age.

Yoga

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7

As I age, I become increasingly concerned with my health and fitness. I desire to live a long and full life in addition to aging gracefully. I have been studying Yoga exercise lately to see what benefits there are from it and what precautions, I as a Christian, should take in assuring the integrity of my own spiritual journey. One cannot really argue the physical benefits of Yoga. Yoga reduces anxiety and stress and improves mental clarity. There are four major motivations to exercise in this manner: to stimulate the immune system; to reshape your body in areas of strength, flexibility and balance; to reduce stress and tension, and to improve circulation. In a physical aspect alone the benefits of Yoga are indisputable. But what about the spiritual aspect of Yoga?

The word "Yoga" means to "yoke" together and the spiritual take on that meaning to bring together the mind, body and spirit. With that in mind I am uncertain as to the purpose behind the meditation in Yoga which always tends to focus on separating mind and body. If the goal is to bring them together then what possible benefit is there in attempting to reach an "out of body" experience. Don't we want them all to come together instead? If the point of Yoga is to unite body, mind, and soul as it claims, then it goes completely against the grain of this philosophy to encourage mind and soul to leave the body. In order to accomplish this, most meditation practices encourage the "emptying" of the mind. It is my own personal view that our minds were not meant to be "emptied". We are encouraged however to bring our minds to a state of peace; to be "transformed by the renewing of our minds." As Christians we are instructed to do this by casting all our worries and cares on God, which does not involve "emptying" our minds but instead allowing God to take our anxieties on Himself instead. The spirituality involved in Yoga claims to lift our burdens. If you have ever read John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress you know that the true lifting of our burdens can never occur by our own efforts but only through God's redemption.

One of the phrases commonly expressed during Yoga sessions is "The divine light within me bows and honors the divine light within you." Do we have a divine light within us? Of course we do. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit within us which is the source of the divine light. So what is wrong with this phrase? Well... there is only one Spirit and it indwells us all. Does the same Spirit in one person worship the same Spirit in another? That doesn't make much sense, now does it?

I like the ideas behind Yoga of bringing your body into harmony with mind and soul. I think all too often we forsake our bodies and overtax our minds and souls throwing us out of proportion. The idea of finding a quiet, peaceful location to bring the three into harmony is extremely appealing in our fast-paced, hassle-filled lives. So how does a Christian not wanting to meddle in the spiritual entrapment of Yoga benefit from the physical aspect? A woman by the name of Laurette Willis who spent 22 years exploring and taking part in the New Age movement provides many insights on the pitfalls associated with "freeing" the mind. She has recently developed a Christian alternative to Yoga which she calls Praise Moves. Laurette incorporates the physical exercise of Yoga and combines it with nourishing and beneficial, God-focused meditation. Her website is www.praisemoves.com.

After much research and praying I think this is a safe way for Christians to partake in the physical benefits of Yoga while not allowing the spirituality normally associated with it to create a foothold in your life for other influences to enter. As Christians we should be concerned for our physical well-being as well as our spiritual. Our bodies are one of the areas of responsibility we have in this life and it is the part of ourselves that the world first sees. Taking care of your body can be as an effective witness to the world as your spiritual health. Our bodies, minds, and souls are our witnesses to the world and the reflection of God within us. Let us make those aspects a desirable window to the world of God's presence within us.

Science, Philosophy, & Religion

"By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew." (Proverbs 3:19-20)

The constant theme of wisdom, knowledge and understanding greatly populates the books of Wisdom in the Bible. Almost as if not one of the elements can survive without the others. Is it possible for us to pursue all three in unison? Or does our society today not allow the unity of the these three?

Science is the pursuit of knowledge through experimentation. Philosophy is the pursuit of wisdom. Religion is the pursuit of truth and understanding. So in theory what Solomon is telling us in Proverbs is that Science, Philosophy and Religion should work hand in hand to explain the mysteries of the Cosmos to us. But for some reason those three do not work together today. Science refuses to consider the wisdom in philosophy or the truths in religion and attempts to work completely alone in order to explain life. Religion is reluctant to look at the developments of science and use that information to help better understand and pursue God. Philosophy is somewhat ignored by both Science and Religion as the pursuit of foolery. If we have come this far with such a warped view of the inner workings of these three, how much greater could our future be if we actually worked together?

A week ago I finished reading Dan Brown's 'Angels & Demons' and contrary to popular fears, the book had nothing to do with any kind of spiritual warfare but was instead a brilliant attempt by Mr. Brown's fictional genius to appeal to the world on issues of Science and Religion working in complement to each other. Now because I say this it does not mean that I approve or support what Dan Brown writes but merely that his overall agenda in this book had merit. Also a week ago, I went to see Ben Stein's documentary, Expelled. It was fascinating. The basis of the documentary was to point out the lack in the science community of exploratory theses in the area of intelligent design. It has been a pattern over the last several decades to completely ostracize anyone claiming they support a view of validity in intelligent design as if it could not possibly be genuine science. Ben Stein's point was that in an attempt to disprove intelligent design, modern day Darwinism has an overabundance of holes in the theory which cannot be reconciled to other areas of science. But instead of pursuing other alternatives to explain the phenomena in the area of intelligent design they continue to pursue "dead ends" in an attempt to cling to the theory. In my opinion the documentary did not take sides on the truth of the matter but only pointed out that perhaps the two should work together to come up with better solutions instead of both running into dead ends constantly, progressing nowhere.

We have been given truth in religion (obviously in my view that truth is contained within the pages of our bibles) and we have the tools to appropriately philosophize. Our scientific truths should then fit into the equation of Knowledge, Wisdom, and Truth. If you believe in God then you must believe his Word is truth and we know that science is also based on proven truths. If that is the case then they must agree. I think it is a great injustice to the world to constantly insist that science and religion do not belong together. They are both pursuits of truth and as such they should inevitably fuel each other in defining our understanding.

Science and Philosophy in the past have aided tremendously in helping us to better understand the Word of God. Anyone who regularly reads the bible can tell you that it is alive in context. Meanings and lessons in Scripture are constantly molding to the circumstances surrounding our lives. It is no secret that during the renaissance period the Church was extremely opposed to progressions in science. Why? Because it meant modifying views of a set belief system. But once these scientific truths were embraced we were allowed to see the truth of the Word take on a new dimension as well. If the Word is constantly being clarified by the presence and progression of science and philosophy then can you see the enormous handicap we create for ourselves in not combining these truths? The world of religion, science and philosophy are in a perpetual war of trying to disprove each other when instead they should be working in unison to find absolute truths.

Opposites

Day 1:
Recently I have been studying the concept of opposites. In cases of opposites they usually include two extremes that have a purpose in working together to form a complimentary result. An example would be ‘hot’ and ‘cold’. In their extremes they are harsh and brutal producing damage and destruction. But when they are utilized in compliment to one another they yield a result of ‘warmth’. ‘Wet’ and ‘dry’ is another example. In their extremes they produce flood and famine, but when used in compliment to one another they yield agriculture.

But…there is one set of characteristics that we normally consider opposites that I must question the validity of. It is the concept of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. In their extremes only one is bad and they serve no complimentary purpose on one another. One must then question if they are truly opposites. The concept of opposites is that the two extremes are equal and opposing forces that yield purpose when they come together. To say that evil is an equal and opposing compliment to good is an inaccurate assessment of the concept. If we believe that all that is good is of God and all that is evil is of Satan then to say that evil is an equal and opposing force is to implicate that Satan is some sort of opposing equal to God… and he is not that. Evil does not even come close to manifesting the power of good. They are not equal in any sense of the word. In light of that I must ask… what is the concept of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ all about then since they do not follow any of the rules of opposites. Thoughts… ideas?

Day 2:

New thoughts for a new day…

Good = pleasant, agreeable, appropriate, to be delightful, joyful, to be pleasing.

Evil = bad, disagreeable, malignant, giving pain, injury, calamity, to break, shatter, to be broken.

So I guess they are opposites but not in the sense of a complete reverse characteristic. In order for evil to exist there must first be good. When good is shattered or broken then we come to the result of evil. It does not work in the reverse however because you do not need to have evil first in order to then have good. Evil is only a result of shattering what is good. Good can come when evil is fixed or restored but the ultimate source was always good.

This thought process came about when I was trying to define the source of evil. We know that for Adam and Eve the source was in the serpent’s presentation of a broken logic to them. But where did it come from before that? In Satan’s fall from grace it was as a result of his pride in something of genuine goodness. He was created beautiful and had extreme talents for glorifying God but he took that good and broke it, wanting instead to be glorified himself. He could not however be the source of evil, since Satan has no creative power and therefore could not create evil. Evil’s ultimate source is good. It is the brokenness and shattering of a pure intent. Therefore, the only way for evil and sin to come about is to distort, break, or shatter something that is originally intended as good. Evil begins with good, but good does not begin with evil (unless you are originated in a sin nature)…aha… the story takes on new shape. We are born broken and shattered because of the “fall”. But we have a means to return to good - Jesus Christ. So our entire existence is based in our pursuit to return to good which was the original source of everything.

(My brain hurts… I think I’m going to go find something less thought provoking to do… like plant flowers.)

These are just my thoughts today… they may be different tomorrow if this logic proves to be “broken”.

Day 3:
I finally made it outside to plant sunflowers. I planted a total of 30 yesterday afternoon and they're still alive today so things are looking up. I am somewhat weary of the birds though... the sprouts look amazingly similar to shiny worms and I think curiosity may get the better of them. I think I'll look into scarecrow options... pesky little critters.

My thoughts for today are sourced from Galatians. "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealous, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the life. I warn you, as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." (Gal. 5:16-26)

Why this passage? Well firstly because my mother called me this morning with it and said it might help my search in defining the concept of 'good' and 'evil', and secondly because it outlines some characteristics associated with 'good' and 'evil'.

As I look over the characteristics of the sinful nature, I see a common pattern with the qualities of good and that is that they both attempt to achieve the same goal. The difference in the two sides is that one is attempting to reach it without God - evil - and one is attempting to achieve it with God - good. They both try to reach a place in life that "feels good". What makes one evil is that it is an attempt to reach that which is good without God who just happens to be all that IS good. It would be like trying to breathe without air - it is futile.

Like my sunflowers, when we receive the Seed that the Father has for us, which is Jesus Christ, the Spirit comes into our lives and new life begins to grow. We are the soil, Christ is the Seed, and the Spirit - giving birth to new life within us - nurtures and waters our souls as we grow in God. As we grow in God we begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit and we learn to attain that which is good, through God. We begin to see all that is good as intended by God. Without God, we can never reach this level of spiritual or emotional maturity. We may try to reach a similar place through our sinful natures but we will never be able to reach the ultimate source of good, who is God.

Adam and Eve desired wisdom and knowledge. Satan tricked them into thinking such qualities were contained within the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We know now, from looking over the Scriptures that wisdom and knowledge are qualities endowed by God. They had access to the source all along and could have attained it through good. But instead they chose to try and reach it through the tree and without the help of God - and evil entered the world. Evil is our attempt to reach something good without God. Are good and evil truly opposites?... my quest continues.

Joining the World of Personal Blogs

I realized recently that I have a significant amount of friends blogging so I finally decided to add my own. I don't have much going on this week; its a semi-relaxing week. Usually I'm writing, researching or running errands but this week the focus will be on exercise and cultivating my spring fever. I started growing a bunch of sunflowers about 2 weeks ago and they're ready to move outside, I just can't figure out where to put them for optimal visibility. Sunflowers are meant to be seen, otherwise God wouldn't have made them so huge. I think I have a good idea as to where they should go, but it involves moving rocks and re-landscaping a tad... so now I'm just waiting on motivation to do it. That's it so far this week. Fun fun...