Author: Christine Wyrtzen

HE DID IT TWICE!

And the women said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”  But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die, 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 3:3-4

Satan’s original sin was to want to be like God.  He didn’t want to sin alone so he persuaded 1/3^rd of all the angels to rebel with him.  Because of it, he, and they, lost everything and were expelled from heaven.

Sin loves company.

Satan tempted Eve with the same sin.  “Eat this – and you will be like God!”  She acted on the same temptation and invited Adam to join her.  They ate of the tree and were expelled from the Garden.

Why did they listen to Your enemy?  Why do I?  If I love You, then Your enemy should be my enemy.  If You call him a liar, then I should not trust one thing that comes out of his mouth.  I align my allegiance to You in iron.  Amen

ACTUALLY?!

He (Satan) said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”  Genesis 3:1

         You’re kids, you don’t like a certain rule, you both want to break it, so you’re looking for an excuse.  The only way is to review what your parent originally said, to see if there is a tiny loophole.  “Well, did she actually say we had to be home by 5:00?”   The word ‘actually’ introduces shades of disrespect but the truth is, one kid might as well say to the other, “I want to disobey but if I’m caught, I want to be able to say to my mother, ‘But you didn’t say the word _______________.’” I think the rule is stupid anyway. 

         All Eve had ever known was love and respect for God.  There had been no tone, no rolling of the eyes.  Satan knew that if he came to Eve with something overt, “You should hate that God of yours.  How about disobeying?”   She’d never buy that.  Instead, he knew he must come and whisper in her ear and appeal to her pride and ego.

         His agenda of discrediting God is still his highest priority.  He is a liar.  He speaks lies by default.  His native language is lies.  The devil does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  Jn 8:44  If he can get me to believe that God is ‘actually’ not that loving, or fair, or forgiving, or good, or caring…then my ability to trust God is eroded.  Intimacy is destroyed.

         Expect the whispers.  Be prepared with an answer.

• “Yeah, God forgives.  That’s what the Bible says.  But do you feel forgiven?  You should know He can’t forgive you for that!”
• “If God really loved you, he’d have delivered you by now.”
• “You’ve been praying and praying for this.  But has God answered?  No!”
• “You just aren’t very good at this!  Sally is, though.  God must love her more to give her such a gift.”
• “He’s not going to change.  How long have you prayed for him?  He’s been like this too long to change now!”

         Whispers of distrust.  How dangerous. No one should question God’s character and God’s intentions.  Anyone who does, whether human or a spiritual enemy, should be treated the same.  I rise up, quote scripture about who God says He is and what He’s promised to do, and I defend the One who has not done one thing that is not for my good.

I put on my belt of truth and declare that I will be listening for lies.  I won’t be passive when I hear them.  I will deflect each one with the shield of faith.  Amen

LITERAL OR ALLEGORICAL?

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. Genesis 3:1a

         The Bible is full of stories that challenge my faith.  If I approach the scriptures scientifically, needing proof to believe, then I will reduce God to someone who only does and says what I think is possible.

         I’m about to encounter a snake that can talk.  Is that feasible?  It’s out of the realm of my experience in the animal kingdom.  Surely this must be an allegory.  Also, Genesis doesn’t say that the snake was Satan.  Another reason to believe that this account is an allegory, the stuff of myths and fairytales.  I can be led into all kinds of errors if I don’t know my Bible and take into account the whole context of scripture.

         John confirmed that the snake was Satan. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan.  Rev. 12:9

         Paul confirmed it, too.  But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  2 Cor. 11:3        

         And what about a talking snake?  I don’t hear my animals talk to me.

However, I do have a wild and imaginative side.  So, I’m going to give you a snapshot of the Wyrtzen dinner table when our kids were small.  Picture a family of four around a table.  Two golden retrievers and a cat are positioned at various chairs, pawing the legs of whomever they hope might give them a piece of chicken.  When I wanted to have fun, I bent down, cocked my ear toward the mouth of a pet and asked, “What’s that you say?  You think the kids should eat more green beans?  Oh, what’s that?  Huh?  You don’t like them either?”  We became hysterical and over the years, it became a game. We had all kinds of things come out of the mouth of our cat or dog.

         I love it, that in scripture, Genesis 3 is not the only instance where an animal speaks.  God gave a voice to a donkey, too. (Numbers 22)  Peter confirmed it.  A speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s insanity.  2 Peter 2:16   If I reject the account of the fall, I am questioning the inspiration of scriptures.

         Randy Alcorn, in his book called HEAVEN, poses the question whether animals will talk in heaven.  Since there was ‘animal talk’ in the Garden, perhaps there will be ‘further talk’ when God creates a new heaven and a new earth.  Interesting to think about.

I celebrate You.  You are so colorful and powerful.  Even the stones will praise You.  Amen

WHEN FOLLOWING GOD BRINGS FAMILY TENSION

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.  Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.  Gen. 2:24

            It’s easy for parents to feel that their children will always be under their authority.  The control they once held is not released easily.  No wonder leaving and cleaving is such an issue for newlyweds.  Jesus also modeled leaving and cleaving to show me how it’s done.  He didn’t leave his parents to cleave to a wife but He did leave his family to cleave to His Father, a higher authority.  This emotional clash was, at times, stressful to his parents.

            In John 2, Mary presumed upon Jesus’ divinity at the wedding feast but Jesus exalts his sonship to His heavenly Father above his sonship to his mother.  He had a radical allegiance to God’s will above his mother’s will.  He also felt a burden to make clear, not only to his mother and his brothers and sisters, but to all the rest of us, that no physical relationship on earth controlled him.  His mother and his physical family would have no special advantage to guide his ministry or even receive His salvation.  His miracle that day in Cana, the one of water turning to wine, would not be at his mother’s bidding.

            Jesus had to work against the assumption of his day that his physical family had an inside track.  I recall the time in Luke 11 that a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to Jesus.  ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!’  But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’

            Jesus said, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.’  Luke 14:26  Hate in this context doesn’t mean emotional hatred.  Hate means preference, deferring to the one who takes priority.  As adults, we are to leave the ways of our parents if what they expect of us conflicts with the voice of our Father.  Leave and cleave.  This is not an easy way to live but necessary for all disciples.  When we struggle with the tension it often brings in relationships, we are comforted that Jesus knows what it’s like and He’s walked this road before us.

You know I caved for many years to keep peace with my family.  This is not what You did.  It created friction in my marriage, but mostly, in my relationship with You.  Oh, continue to teach me how to live!  Amen

BRIDES AND GROOMS WHO NEVER LEFT HOME

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.  Gen. 2:24

            To pledge myself completely to another is to forsake former allegiances.  I vow to make my spouse’s welfare my first priority after my relationship to God.  Our relationship comes first above all others.  Parents of newlyweds will feel the shift.  Mothers will feel a sense of loss over sons who have pledged themselves to a bride.  If the relationship was close, the sense of leaving and replacement will be profound.

            Fathers will feel a lump in their throat as they walk their daughter down the aisle to give her to another.  He knows she is on the cusp of leaving – and then cleaving to someone new.  She will dwell under the umbrella and shade of another.  Her quest for wisdom, protection, encouragement will all fall on her groom.

            I remember the morning after our daughter’s marriage ten years ago.  Her bedroom was strangely empty.  I knew in my gut that she wasn’t away at college or on a weekend trip out of town.  She wouldn’t be back to sleep in her twin bed again.  Our house was no longer her primary home.  I felt the ache and it was magnified by an unfortunate case of pneumonia.  That just intensified my emotions.

            When a groom doesn’t leave his parents emotionally, he can’t cleave.  When he’s consumed with bowing to his parents wishes and feels the pressure of them breathing down his neck, he will be too intimidated to take a stand when his bride needs to know she comes first.  Feeling threatened, she will ask him to choose in a thousand different ways and if he is not strong enough to know God’s ways in his new marriage, he will cause his wife to feel he can’t be trusted with her heart.

            When a wife can’t leave home, she can’t cleave either.  Her security still rests with father, or mother, and pleasing them takes priority over her husband’s wishes.  Feeling threatened, he feels his leadership has eroded.  He feels disrespected, betrayed and rejected.  If she cannot cut the apron strings, he will feel he can never earn her respect.  He is not allowed to be a man.  He will feel like a child, her parent’s child.

            Leaving and cleaving is found throughout scripture and it expands beyond the boundaries of marriage.  I am to leave and forsake the kingdom of darkness and cleave to Christ.  I am to dwell under His umbrella and live under the protection of His household.  I bear His name and my identity is forever changed.  I am to let Him lead me no matter how different His ways seem than the ways of my former life.  He loves me enough to lay down His life for me and I love Him enough to respond wholeheartedly with my unwavering allegiance.

Strengthen marriages today, Lord.  Let husbands lead with strength born of You.  Let women cling, trust and follow.  Amen

BEHIND THE WORD ‘HELPER’

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.  Genesis 2:18

         Lest any woman should feel insignificant because of how the word ‘helper’ has been unwrapped in our past, let the Word speak for itself today.  The word for helper is ‘ezer’; one who provides aid or relief, one who imparts strength.  Adam was incomplete without a counterpart who completed him.  The word does not imply someone who is inferior.  A helper is not less valuable than the one who is helped.  How can we be sure of this?  Hold on.  Are you ready?

         God describes Himself as a helper, an Ezer.  Here’s just one example.    “Hear O LORD, the voice of Judah and bring him in to his people.  With your hands contend for him, and be a help (Ezer) against his adversaries.”  Deut. 33:7  It is used another 21 times in the Old Testament.

         As a helper to the man, a woman becomes his partner spiritually, bringing him her strengths.  She completes him in what he lacks.  He completes her in what she lacks.  Man does not carve out his path void of her input.  He thrives on her feedback.  He knows that, left alone, he will not walk the path God has laid out for him successfully without plugging in her gifts.  Where he is weak, she is strong, and vice versa.

         A woman is neither inferior nor superior to a man.  She is equal to him in worth.  (Her function in the relationship and Adam’s leadership and responsibility for Eve is another topic.  This devotional does not deny the order of authority as God designed it for the home.)

         Being an ‘Ezer’ is who I am.  I’m an image bearer of God just as Adam was.  Just as God comes alongside, lends strength and nurtures, I model after my Creator and help the one for whom I was created.  As an Ezer, I reflect the image of the glory of God.

In whatever ways Christian cultures have diminished a woman’s worth, heal our souls.  Lift our heads. Amen

GREETING DEATH FOR THE FIRST TIME

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.  Genesis 2:17-18

         I remember my first encounter with death as a child.  My grandmother died when I was 13.  One minute she was there and, as far as I knew, had always been there.  The next minute, she was gone.  The house was empty.  The kitchen was quiet and the smells of her Swedish cooking were no more.  The change from her existing to not existing was a physical and emotional ‘thud’ to my gut.

         I felt this shift again when my mother died.  I was thirty.  Yes, I knew she was dying.  She had terminal cancer.  But even as she grew weaker, I could still bring her flowers, make her coffee, sit on the edge of her bed and talk with her.  But one day while visiting, she breathed her last and I looked death in the face.  The shift was swift and radical.  One moment alive.  The next moment dead.  One can never quite prepare for death’s finality.

         I don’t know if Adam knew what death meant when God warned him and set the only parameter he would have to follow.  He could enjoy everything God made and partake of it.  But, there was one tree that was forbidden.  Should he disobey, there would be instant spiritual death and progressive physical death.          As we will see in the unfolding plot line, he and his wife set a disastrous course in motion when they ate the forbidden fruit.  The shift they felt immediately was a spiritual one.  It was a ‘thud’ to their gut.  All they had known was pure love for God and a sense of His presence.  There were no barriers between them.  But in a moment, the shadows of shame, distrust, fear, embarrassment, and perhaps anger as they felt entitled to what God had forbidden, visited their souls.  The landscape of their soul left the state of innocence.

         Every person born encounters a moment when the spiritual death of Adam makes itself known.  It is the moment when innocence dies.  Some are sexually abused and innocence is shattered immediately.  For any who grow up in the best of homes, the awareness of spiritual death is more subtle and progressive.  Teasing at school, misunderstanding between siblings, angry words spoken by a parent for which there is hopefully an apology; these series of events reveal an imperfect world and bring the gnawing feeling that no one is completely safe and perfectly loved.

                  The over arching plotline of the Bible is that mankind fell, God sent a redeemer, mankind could be saved from his sin, and the full restoration of Eden would commence in his life.  While we may visit the gut-wrenching pangs of physical death, we know it is temporary.  Because of Jesus, we are already spiritually alive and will experience the Eden of a new Heaven and new Earth where death will not exist.  We will know what it is to be Adam and Eve in the land of perfection.  God will give it to us again.  He is, at this moment, preparing it as He once did when His Spirit hovered over the face of a dead earth and kissed it to life.

I was made for life, not death.  Every parameter and warning you give me is to save me from experiencing the pain of the fall.  I get it!  Amen

LABOR AND PROTECT

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.  Genesis 2:15

       My mother was a gentle soul with a great colorful and eccentric side.  She loved the outdoors, loved gardening, and loved good dirt.  When she visited us at our home in the Adirondack Mountains, she’d dig up soil to take home for her garden.  While this may not seem eccentric, let me paint a further extreme.  When she and my Dad traveled, she did not buy souvenirs per se, but brought home dirt from the area.  If you opened her top dresser drawer, you could see little baggies of dirt and sticks from Germany, England, and Bermuda.

         She also loved to collect kindling from the woods outside our home.  It was stacked meticulously like matchsticks in our basement.  On Saturday mornings, she would pop into the kitchen after breakfast, rub her hands together and exclaim, “What shall I get into today?”  That meant she was headed outside to tend, explore, and preserve her garden.  I can remember overhearing her say to a garden snake, “Well, hello there Mr. Snake.”  I saw early that when a man or woman finds divine purpose for their life, it is a beautiful thing.

         Adam was created to find fulfillment in labor that was given to him by his Creator.  He was told to do two things; work and keep.  To keep is to guard and protect.  To protect the garden from what, or whom, is an interesting thought.  There must have been evil outside the garden?  Satan was certainly there.

         Today, I don’t have to look very far to encounter darkness.  My garden, my personal sphere of influence, was given to me by God.  I labor with Him as He gives moment by moment instructions but I also protect what He’s entrusted to me. To labor without protecting is to throw my pearls before swine and allow the enemy to plunder recklessly.

         Adam was given authority over the earth.  God told him to rule and subdue it.  Protecting is part of ruling.  At whatever point I abdicate and assume that God will do all the protecting without my asking, I walk dangerously. When Jesus was prompted by His Father, He rose up to speak to the kingdom of darkness and inform them of their limits and parameters.  I am reminded of Jesus’ own words, “I came to destroy the works of the evil one.” 

         God’s children can be lazy.  We were given kingdom work.  God’s children can also be passive.  We were told to protect what is holy.  Doing both to the glory of God, we discover our personal mission statement.

While I work today, let me also be the watchman on the wall.  Amen

GARDEN DWELLING

The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Genesis 2:9

                  There, in their midst, was the ultimate temptation and test of obedience.  They could walk with God, the source of all knowledge, and hear things first hand, or eat of the tree and set a course of personal autonomy.  Their disobedient choice, which is to come in Genesis, set up the fall of man.  By nature now, we trade in the glory of our Creator, the thrill of walking with him, to the cheap thrill of living autonomously.

         What’s frightening is when I do it as God’s child. I was made to walk with God.   Intimately.  I am invited, on the other side of the cross, to know the life Adam and Eve once had.  I have the Spirit of God inside and I can walk with Him, enjoy His company, and hear His voice lead me through my day.  Instead of nurturing that personal relationship, I choose to open His scriptures and interpret them for myself.  I eat of His tree and decide that I’m smart enough to extract a meaning without taking time to ask Him how the daily manna applies to my situation.

         For over forty years, this is how I read the scriptures.  I never stopped to ask the Author to open my heart and talk to me as I read.  I just read.  I reasoned that He gave me a keen mind and I was equipped to make good decisions about my life and my future.  If a scripture seemed to fit, I applied it.  But mostly, scripture became something mildly inspirational on a Sunday morning.  Daily, I consumed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and never showed up to walk with God in the garden.  I was a renegade child.

         Today, I choose to live in relationship.  Nothing I could ever figure out could come close to what God has in mind for me.  My knowledge of good and evil is pathetic and miniscule next to the One who is Knowledge.

Walk with me. I am not clever.  I need Your voice and Your hand.  Amen

THE BREATH OF GOD

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.  Genesis 2:11

         God breathes.  When He does, life erupts.  Adam was just a physical man, made of the dust of the ground.  He was not a spiritual being until God moved from on high.  Adam’s soul would not be made of earthly materials.  It would come to life only by a God-breath.

• Job knew it.  He said, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”  Job 33:4
• Ezekiel knew it as God said, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may life.”  Ezekiel 37:9 In a vision, nearly dead bodies came to life, stood on their feet, and became a great army.
• The world at the end of the tribulation will know it when the two witnesses, the prophets Satan kills, come back to life with a breath.  “But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.”  Revelation 11:11
• The disciples knew it.  When their souls were despondent after the crucifixion of Jesus, He appeared, told them to be at peace, and then breathed on them.  “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  John 20:21   They went from there to burn brightly for the kingdom.
• And we knew it at the time of salvation.  God breathed over us and our spiritual blindness was cured.  We looked up and saw a Savior; we looked inside and saw our sin.  “Unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  John 3:5

The breath of God is a source of spiritual renewal.  Our spiritual fathers knew it.  They made breathing prayer a way of life.  As they inhaled, they prayed ~ “O Lord Jesus,” and as they exhaled, “Have mercy on me.”  In 2008, I made this breathing prayer a part of my life.

Just this morning, I had the privilege of speaking to our congregation about our prayer ministry.  Knowing that I needed the favor of God’s presence and blessing, I prayed all morning, “I breathe deeply of you.” I was aware of my breathing, physically and spiritually, and felt in tune with the Spirit by the time I was to begin speaking.

I think of the phrase ‘the living dead.’  It refers to the meaningless existence of a person who is technically alive but soulfully checked out.  That never need describe any child of God.  The Spirit of God, the breath of God, is within us.  He longs to rise up and infuse us with eternal life.  The outgrowths are security, calmness, spiritual power, and the feeling of being wonderfully alive.  Many are waiting for heaven to experience the abundant life but it’s a breath away.

I look to no one else for life.  I feast on Your Word.  I drink of You deeply.  I breathe of Your Spirit.  So breathe over me.  Amen