Leading Ladies: Eve

Eve was the prototype of women. When God designed the female species, He made Eve exactly how He wanted woman to be. She was perfect. She was handcrafted by God to meet the needs of man; to be his helpmeet and companion. We know that Eve, prior to sin being entered into the world, had a perfect relationship with God and a perfect relationship with her husband. Truly, she was 'living the life'. 

And then Genesis 3 happens. Eve is tempted (and lied to) by the serpent, and she partakes of the forbidden fruit, then shares in that sin with her husband. We know the rest of the story: their eyes are opened, they hide from God, and they are banished from the garden as well as cursed and plagued with a death they weren't designed for. 

From Eve, the mother of all creation, there are some valuable lessons we can learn.

1: Sin ruins relationships. 

Eve's relationship with God and with Adam was perfect. And yet, the first thing that happens after partaking of the fruit: Adam and Eve are hiding from God, and are then deceptive by not offering up why they are hiding and how they know they're naked. Deceit is an ugly characteristic for a relationship, and yet after this initial sin has taken place, that is exactly the characteristic Eve implements into her relationship with God. As for Adam, he immediately blames Eve for his sin. We know that blame and resentment are divisive components of a relationship, and yet this is how this first married couple are now treating each other. All because of this newly introduced sin.

When we let sin into our hearts and relationships, it ruins them. Truly the Deceiver recognizes that strong, godly relationships are a great asset to salvation. That is why he does his best to ruin them! He tempts us with bad attitudes, harsh words, and blame. He tempts us to be deceitful and hurtful. These things ruin relationships: relationships between parents and children, relationships between friends, relationships between husband and wife, and even relationships within the body of Christ. 

Why is it that we often hurt those the closest to us? Why is it we have the worst attitudes with them? Perhaps it is because we let our guard down. We stop trying to 'impress' and 'be on our best behavior', and instead we start letting Satan creep in a little at a time. We must guard our relationships from Satan, because he is divisive and aims to tear people apart. 

2: Sin has progression.

Why is it that Eve is tempted to partake of the forbidden fruit? Had she been staying as far away from the tree as possible, would she have likely been tempted to partake? Or does it seem to you as it does me that Eve was inching closer and closer to the tree, getting as close as she could without actually involving herself in the sin. Perhaps she only wanted to look upon the fruit, or maybe even smell the fruit. Perhaps she just wanted to see what all this fruit fuss was about! Regardless, Satan gets to her because she has availed herself to such a temptation. 

Psalm 1:1 tells us, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful" The progression of sin is a very real and present threat to us! As soon as we start walking past it, we're tempted to stand right in the middle of it (though still not 'partaking'), and yet, before we realize, we're sitting down in the midst of all of the wickedness and are sharers in it. 

Satan gets to us inch by inch. He makes us believe that certain things are ok, when really they are evil and wicked, and we are just lessening them in our heads to justify our actions! For example: will Satan ever be able to make us fall into the temptation of drunkenness if we never take the first sip? Will Satan ever be able deceive us into being involved in sexual immorality if we have fled from even the appearance of such? Will Satan be able to lure us into lusting after the flesh if we will stop ourselves from going into those movies (Magic Mike?) or buying those books (50 shades of whatever?) or pinning those pictures of actors (onto an "mmmm!!" board, really?). If we will distance ourselves from the appearance of sin, we will be less likely to fall into such a temptation.

Had Eve stayed as far away from that tree as possible, would it have been as easy for Satan to bait her like he did? The same goes for us. Don't be easy bait for Satan. Stay as far away from 'the line' as possible. 

3: Women have a huge influence over the men in their lives. 

Was it very difficult for Eve to convince Adam to sin with her? It doesn't appear so. We know from history and even our own experiences that men tend to behave the ways they do in order to impress women. In high school and college, for example, the boys tended to dress a certain way and talk a certain way and participate in certain things to garner the attention of the females. They bathed regularly and wore cologne and dressed to the nines so that the females around them would notice. 

With great power, ladies, comes great responsibility. 

We have the ability to make or break the men in our lives. And so, if you are in the dating pool, make the boys/men around you behave a certain way. Require the guy you date to pray before the meal you share together. Require that he open doors for you. *As a side note, if the boy doesn't respect you enough to open a door for you, chances are he won't respect you enough to not touch you inappropriately or speak to you in certain ways.* We have the ability to make the men around us better, or worse, depending on what our expectations are.

Now, does that mean we should all have unrealistic expectations for the men in our lives? Absolutely not. But it does mean that we should require a degree of godliness in the men we are around. We should praise the boys in our youth group who lead singing or pray before the congregation. We should not give the time of day to the boys who cut up and text during Bible class or worship. We should praise the boys for seeking out wholesome, modest girlfriends, instead of tearing those girls down and making fun of them for dressing 'weird'. We should praise the boys for acting mature and including the smaller boys in the youth group, instead of acting put out by the immature children hanging around. 

We can make a difference in our lives and the lives of the boys/men around us if we will not settle for less than God expects. 

 

Tough Stuff Tuesday: Are We Not Ashamed?

It has been entirely too long since I've posted, and for that I am incredibly sorry. I haven't made this a priority as I should, but I am vowing to change that inasmuch as I can help it.

There has been a topic on my mind for a few weeks, and a couple of nights ago I had a dream about it...sort of. You see, I dreamed that I was asked why I hadn't blogged about such an important topic. When I woke up, I was like...uh, I guess I should post something about this?? So here I am, posting about a topic that has even invaded my subconscious.

I'm sure you've heard these two words recently: Magic Mike.

Normally, I would just leave a worldly movie alone. After all, we would have to leave this world to escape worldliness and perversion. Unfortunately, we live in a Satan-dominted world, and there are people who are sex-crazed and selfish and want their desires fulfilled on the big screen. So normally, I'd just say, "Well, I definitely won't go see it" and that's that. I don't think about it again.

But this movie...it has become a phenomenon. I have seen status after status after status about "Magic Mike" and pin after pin after pin about Channing Tatum (actor from Magic Mike--and yes, I am addicted to pinterest). The thing is, these pins and these statuses aren't from worldly people. These statuses (or Facebook tags that show me that you're actually sitting at the movie theater) are from "Christians", and I'm sorry, but I really have to use the word in quotes.

I have no desire to even google this movie, but I did find some stats on screenit.com. First and foremost, the movie is rated R, and shouldn't we all just purpose in our hearts not to see R-rated movies? But, if you get past that, please look at some of these sobering reports:

Alcohol/drugs--extreme
Imitative behavior--extreme
Inappropriate music--extreme
Profanity--extreme
Sex/Nudity--extreme

And those are just the "extreme" aka can't get any worse than this categories. Now, personally I've seen enough. Why on EARTH would I want to see this movie? I wouldn't even want to be talking favorably about the movie even if I had no intention of going. It looks disgusting. It sounds completely inappropriate for any sanctified individual, and yet, we have people who are struggling with the temptation of getting involved with this worldly, sensual movie.

Let's move to the Bible. Jeremiah 6 has some pretty sobering words; sentiments that sound an awful lot like he's talking to people today. Take a look at what Jeremiah says:

"Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying 'peace, peace!' when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush." (13-15)

If we even think about the movie Magic Mike, we should be blushing. We should be ashamed to post things about it or be tagged in photos or statuses about it. We should be ashamed to be associated in any way with such a vile, perverted movie. It's a movie about male strippers, after all! And don't even get me started on the hypocrisy of it all....

But think soberly about what Jeremiah said. These people were not ashamed when they committed abomination. They didn't blush when it came to sin. They were calloused. Their hearts were hardened. Sadly, that is what our country has come to.

Jesus' words still ring true: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matt. 5:8)

That is such a positive statement, but wouldn't the negative be true. Those who are not pure in heart are not blessed; they shall not see God. That is a scary, scary thought. The only goal we should have should be to get to heaven. If we miss heaven, we miss it all! How sad to put some worldly, fleshly movie above our desire to go to heaven.

I am in no way perfect. I have worldly things that I, unfortunately, place before God at times. It is my desire and my prayer that we will all put whatever it is that is getting in our way behind us, and focus solely on being pure and seeing God one day.

There are so many other topics, and I will have to continue them another day. Until then, pray for all of the Christians out there who may be tempted to give in to worldly pressure and fleshly desires.

*Also, after writing this, I found a few more interesting articles about this. I really enjoyed this one, though I don't agree with everything that is said. It's a very good, thought-provoking article for Christian women/wives: read it here. Cindy Colley also wrote a post with some very powerful Scriptures listed. You can read that one here.

A Bat, a Scream, and a Lesson

On a particularly warm Sunday afternoon toward the end of January, my husband commented that we really needed to take down the wreath on our front door. We'd been talking about it for weeks, but we never seemed to have the right place to store it. So, it continued hanging on the door, the red and green deco mesh reflecting a Christmas that had long-since passed.

That Sunday evening, Robert had an elders-deacons-preachers meeting, so I went home by myself. I walked up to my door as I always do, took my keys from my purse, then unlocked the door. As I turned the deadbolt, I heard a faint rustling. When I dangled my keys free from the door, that was enough. Enough for what, you ask? Enough noise to startle the BAT that was living inside the wreath to emerge from his abode and scare me half to death.

I screamed, but stood still. The shock had nailed my feet to the ground. I watched as the bat flew out of the wreath and into the night sky, no doubt irritated that I'd interrupted him.

Robert called me on his way home and I told him about the incident. He asked me to beat on the door right before he got home, so that the bat wouldn't try to attack him when he came in. I did just as he'd asked, but apparently the bat had turned a bit more territorial this time around and stood his ground as my husband approached. Robert, aware that the bat had set up shop, was looking for the bat as he approached, and seeing the bat still inside the wreath, he came in the back door.

The next morning, I left out of the back door. I did not have any desire to see that bat. I would not even go close to where he was, even though by that time he'd left. We promptly removed the wreath that afternoon, not wanting to house any more bats on our front door.

It's a silly story, but I feel like we can learn a lot from it.

When we let sin hang out on our doorstep, it isn't long before it attacks us. God said to Cain in Genesis 3 that sin was at the door, desiring him. At first, sin can seem harmless. What does it matter if I leave my Christmas wreath up a few weeks after Christmas? It doesn't really matter. It doesn't look too Christmasy. What does it matter if I listen to that kind of music? It doesn't really matter. It isn't that bad. And so, day in and day out, you pass the wreath but you don't see it. You let yourself become acclimated to it, and before you know it, you don't even realize that it's almost February and your Christmas wreath is still on the door. You can listen to those words, day in and day out, and you don't realize that those vulgar words are penetrating into your heart.

One day, though, the wreath makes noise. There is a rustle, a stir, and out comes the bat. You're in an argument, you're frustrated, and the word slips out. Immediately you're filled with regret and shame. Why didn't I take the wreath down earlier? Why did I think it was okay to leave it up until February? Why did I think I could hear those words and not end up using them eventually?

Once you know that sin is there, you avoid it. You take every precaution to avoid it. You go through the back door even though it's inconvenient. You change the radio station when you hear the song, you throw out your CDs, and you change the playlists on your iPod. You don't want that word to slip out again.

Why do we wait until sin makes noise to take the sin our of our lives? Why don't we do what the apostle Paul commands us and "flee from sin" in the first place? Stay away from things that will separate you from God. Don't wait for the separation to take place before you realize it's wrong. Don't wait until you get drunk that first time to realize that you shouldn't have been drinking in the first place. Don't wait until you've gone "too far" with your girlfriend or boyfriend before you realize you shouldn't have been in that situation in the first place. Don't wait until you've been caught on that website to realize you shouldn't have visited it. Let us see sin for what sin really is. Let's not try to disguise it and pass it off like it has redeeming qualities. Sin is sin, and it camps out at our door and waits for us to just grow accustomed to it. That's when it gets it. We become too comfortable, to close of friends. Seek out the temptations in your life and remove them. Take your wreath down before something sets up in there for good.

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter 5:8