Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - “Disobedience Results In Suffering” – Monday, 15 September 2014 - Scripture: Genesis 3:1-19

Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - “Disobedience Results In Suffering” – Monday, 15 September 2014 - Scripture: Genesis 3:1 The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
2-3 The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”
4-5 The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
6 When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
7 Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.
8 When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.
9 God called to the Man: “Where are you?”
10 He said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.”
11 God said, “Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?”
12 The Man said, “The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it.”
God said to the Woman, “What is this that you’ve done?”
13 “The serpent seduced me,” she said, “and I ate.”
14-15 God told the serpent:
“Because you’ve done this, you’re cursed,
    cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals,
Cursed to slink on your belly
    and eat dirt all your life.
I’m declaring war between you and the Woman,
    between your offspring and hers.
He’ll wound your head,
    you’ll wound his heel.”
16 He told the Woman:
“I’ll multiply your pains in childbirth;
    you’ll give birth to your babies in pain.
You’ll want to please your husband,
    but he’ll lord it over you.”
17-19 He told the Man:
“Because you listened to your wife
    and ate from the tree
That I commanded you not to eat from,
    ‘Don’t eat from this tree,’
The very ground is cursed because of you;
    getting food from the ground
Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife;
    you’ll be working in pain all your life long.
The ground will sprout thorns and weeds,
    you’ll get your food the hard way,
Planting and tilling and harvesting,
    sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,
Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried;
    you started out as dirt, you’ll end up dirt.”
"Disobedience Results In Suffering” by James H. Diehl

God created Adam, then Eve, in His own image. He placed them in a perfect world and gave them divine direction on what was right and wrong. Before long, Satan approached Eve with the question, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (v. 1).
Eve yielded to Satan’s temptation, and Adam joined her. Guilt settled in, and they tried to hide from God. When God confronted them, they each blamed the other. In the end, they lost their perfect garden home and gained the consequences of suffering. Disobedience to God always results in suffering. Always!
Things haven’t changed much since Adam and Eve’s day. God still makes clear in His Word what is right and wrong. Disobedience to God still results in suffering and loss. Always!
Things haven't changed much since Adam and Eve's day. God still makes clear in His Word what is right and wrong. Satan still asks, "Did God really say ...?" And disobedience to God still results in suffering and loss.

Christians can’t avoid all suffering, but there is one type of suffering we don’t have to endure—if we walk in obedience to God’s will. Thank God that the power of the Holy Spirit within our hearts enables us to say yes to God and no to disobedience. Even in temptation, God is greater than the evil one! Hallelujah!

Hymn for Today:

"Trust and Obey" by John H. Sammis
1. When we walk with the Lord 
in the light of his word, 
what a glory he sheds on our way! 
While we do his good will, 
he abides with us still, 
and with all who will trust and obey. 
Refrain:
Trust and obey, for there's no other way 
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. 
2. Not a burden we bear, 
not a sorrow we share, 
but our toil he doth richly repay; 
not a grief or a loss, 
not a frown or a cross, 
but is blest if we trust and obey.
Refrain:
Trust and obey, for there's no other way 
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
3. But we never can prove 
the delights of his love 
until all on the altar we lay; 
for the favor he shows, 
for the joy he bestows, 
are for them who will trust and obey.
Refrain:
Trust and obey, for there's no other way 
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
4. Then in fellowship sweet 
we will sit at his feet, 
or we'll walk by his side in the way; 
what he says we will do, 
where he sends we will go; 
never fear, only trust and obey.
Refrain:
Trust and obey, for there's no other way 
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Thought for Today:

“No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it."(1 Corinthians 10:13).
Prayer Needs:
That many people in the Domican Republic will come to know Jesus the Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, and receive the fullnes of the Holy Spirit.
____________________________
WordAction Publishing Company
Beacon Hill Press
Nazarene Publishing Company
2500 Troost Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64108 United States[
Embrace holy living…visit reflectinggod.com.
____________________________