spinning

James MacDonald this morning is talking about where sin started (yes, I'm stuck on the sin thing because it seems to be a recurring problem in my life and in the lives of those around me.

He went to Genesis 3:1,2 and 3 and pointed out what Satan first said to Eve:

 ¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 

So I thought, "Wow, that is so typical. When I'm being tempted by something that might be off-track, what can I get by with and how firm are the rules?" 

And either Eve had a short memory or she CHOSE to spin what God has said to slough off the blame away from herself. Here she is twisting God's words to make him look like the heel instead of herself.Actually God told them simply not to eat from the tree. The One who created her. The One who loved to talk and walk with her in the perfect place he created for her. All in an attempt to impress the one who most wanted her to mess up and be miserable.

 ² The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

And the wretched being that the Devil is, he gets her to think about how she can get by with just a little sin and how it will enrich her life so fabulously. 

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

And isn't that so typical. "What can I get by with, how close can I get and what are these rules and standards anyway imposing on me, closing me in a box, keeping me stuck here?"

I'm insulting God. Yeah, God. The Master Designer of EVERYTHING. He is the One who originally formulated the guidelines to help me live with the least backtracking and clean-up from mistakes.  

I hate cleaning up messes. They always take much longer to mop up than the act of making a mess. But I still spin and scheme at ways to get around what I know I should do. I still feel injured and persecuted when its my motives that are stinking.

The word "rebel" is so enticing, Except I'm really a conformist, according to Mark Driscoll. If I'm sinning like everyone else, I'm conforming. 

A Jesus kind of rebel does what is hard and makes the decision to do the uncomfortable, inconvenient and unpopular. A Jesus rebel looks hard for truth - not truth that I've formulated, but truth from the Way, the Truth and the Life.

And I just can't help but listen to this song again and again because it defines the terms again.