God Speaks
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| Mary Katherine May |
How can GOD impart his holy wisdom, meant for each one of us personally, if we don't take the time to hear him speaking to us through Scripture? If all we do is read and listen to what others tell us, we are hearing what GOD told them--and this is not a bad thing, but it also not a complete education in the School of GOD.
It takes time. Often a passage, a chapter or a book of the Bible will need to be read over and over until GOD speaks. He will speak, but only if we give him our complete attention and listen.
It is a fabulously joyous moment when we know that GOD has revealed his wisdom to us. Most likely it is not a new bit of wisdom or anything strikingly momentous--but what is revealed is special and unique, because GOD gave it to us!
The following are some thoughts of mine that I present to you, the reader. My plan is to revisit what I have written after a period of time has gone by to see if there is validity over time, and I welcome comments and feedback.
Mary Katherine May
Return to Eden
By Mary Katherine May
28 October 2013
1. When Adam
and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden they did not leave a place on
earth, but were separated from the Kingdom of God to roam the in the place
where the ruler of the world reigned.
2. Based upon
Matthew 4:23, 9:5, 28:19-20, etc., baptism is first and foremost an act of
healing of the broken relationship that leads each person from the world of sin
into God’s Kingdom.
God created man in his image and gave him dominion over all
that he created. Man was not created
upon a whim of God but man was created as the steward of God’s creation. (Gen.
1:28)
God is One.
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our
God is one LORD; (Deut. 6:4). In human terms, however, God defines himself
in three essences. Father (originator), Son (creator), and Spirit
(activator). Unfortunately we often go
too far in separating and defining their individual essences without making the
clear point that what we are explaining is God alone.
Creating by God is a natural extension of himself. God with the ability to create is going to
create. God with ability for action is
going to act. God with ability to create
and act is going to create that which can and will act.
Though complete in himself, a God who IS, out of relationship is not a God but nothing other than a
stagnant entity because a God without relationship is a God only to his own
entity. Human definition of God implies
an entity with interaction, power and authority, and interaction is by any
definition relationship. God is
relational to his creation, and God is relational among his creation. God
creates because he is God.
God is complete in himself, and Scripture explains this by
saying, God is, and I am.
God speaks (acts) through his essence as the Word, the acting power
performed through the Spirit. The Word,
even if God had not stated so specifically in Scripture, as speaker is the
instigator and communicator of action through the power of the Spirit. Action happens through speaking—thought (silent
speaking), audible word (audible motivator of action), and physical activity
(language of body motion).
But," he (God) said, "you cannot see my face, for
no one may see me and live." (Ex. 33:20).
Thus, Christ, whom we call the second essence, by the will of God is the
creator (Jesus spoke, i.e. put
creation into motion) of all and as the Word is the communicator throughout
Scripture, both before and after Christ.
This tells us that God has always been present in his creation relationally and interacting through Christ. There are two probable exceptions, but otherwise
I am speculating that when Scripture states that God spoke, it was through
Christ. The exceptions are at Jesus’
baptism in the Jordan and when he was transfigured,
Adam, created in God’s likeness was created in the likeness
of Christ, into whom the Spirit entered and breathed life. Adam, flesh and spirit, and his female counterpart
Eve before the fall were one with God (righteous) and knew only God, only good
and nothing of evil. The free will, which they used inappropriately is
necessary for relationship otherwise there is none—without free will our relationship
with God is as a one-sided ordering of toys and puppets. Here is why Lucifer had the will to disobey,
for without free will he would have done only as his commanded roll as an angel
allowed. Relationship to be true must
have at least two interacting. It is in
God being himself love that we
discover why He allows for his creation to have the ability to will and have
relationship with him, even to the point of going the wrong way. Love, and God is love (1John 4:8), without
will of choice is no more than an action in the manner of a programmed
computer.
When the serpent enticed Eve he said, “For God knows that
when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil.” (Gen. 3:5) And of
course, the serpent was right. By Adam
and Eve’s own disobedience and lie, even though done because of their naïve
minds, they opened themselves up to willing evil actions. They covered themselves out of shame. We read about loin cloths and fig leaves and
often by their placement in images we add a sexual connotation, but this wasn’t
about sexuality. Adam and Eve’s covering
was a lame attempt to hide from God.
Their disobedience rendered them exposed, naked, before God. They were no longer in God’s likeness because
God is all good, all love, righteous and pure.
Adam and Eve were cut off from God, i.e. the Kingdom of
God. They were no longer one with
God. Their likeness to God was hidden,
removed from the possibility of acting only in likeness to God, and they now
belonged to the world, i.e. Satan.
I believe that the cutting off from the Garden of Eden, its
entry protected by Cherubim and flaming sword, was a spiritual act and that
there is no specific place on earth where the Garden of Eden was or is located
for the following reasons.
First, Eden is said to be in the East, as in sun and
light, with Adam and Eve leaving to the west (implied), as in sunset and
darkness. John 1:4 In him was life, and the life was the light of all men.
Second, all of creation belongs to God, including the
earth and all that is in it and on it.
After the fall, and specifically in the New Testament, Jesus refers to
God’s Kingdom by stating, my kingdom is
not of this world (John 8:23). The
world, of course, belongs to God as his creation, but Jesus’ Kingdom is his spiritual world, to which there was no access.
Third, man was created as both flesh (from the earth
of God’s creation) and spirit (his life breathed
into him by the Holy Spirit). After the
fall, man is flesh with spirit sorely lacking.
This is why the Jews kept getting it wrong. This is why Jesus wasn’t received by his own (John 1:11) and most everyone
else.
Fourth, Jesus Christ came at the right time (Rom. 5:6) as flesh and spirit, Son of God and
Son of Man. Through death and
resurrection, in Jesus Christ flesh and Spirit were re-united, i.e. healed, the
breech between God and Man. Death
(spiritual death by sin) was conquered by the death that didn’t remain
dead. Christ’s rising in flesh and
spirit, as first-born from the dead with his promise to do the same for us,
tells us that man in the likeness of God has been, is, and will be
restored. Christ’s leading the way is
why there is the expectation and hope for us to do the same. When we enter
through the gates of Eden into eternity, we will live in the glory of God’s
light, in the likeness of God,
knowing only was it pure, holy and good.
I refer to the death and resurrection as healing for this
reason. Jesus equated forgiven sin with
healing, and our sins were forgiven by his willing gift of his life for
us. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that
Jesus’ ministry consisted of preaching, teaching and healing. It is further stated that preaching was the
proclamation of the Gospel, teaching was instruction on the Christian life and
to make disciples, and healing. The
Great Commission instructions were to
Preaching: Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations,
Healing: baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Teaching: teaching them to observe
all that I have commanded you;
This certainly does not exclude physical healing, but Jesus’
healing most definitely was about spiritual healing. Baptism brings us into the Kingdom of God
through the active indwelling of the Holy Spirit, thus we joined to Christ in
flesh and spirit. John said that he
baptized with water, but one who is coming will baptize with the Spirit. If we make symbolic water baptism a
requirement for salvation, we are making salvation into a human work, and that
can never be.
Fifth, it is reasonable that Christ in his dual
nature, flesh and spirit, should be the means by which God reconciled the
world. It was a justification, a
reconciliation, an equal exchange, a re-joining of man with God, to grow and
mature in the righteous man as God created him to be. Can this be complete in a human lifetime? I doubt it.
We live in a world of sin and this is not what Eden was or is. Eden is the spiritual Kingdom of God. Paul writes in 1Corinthians 3:2 I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you
were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready,…Just as on earth we
are born, grow, learn and mature, so we do the same spiritually.
Sixth, the reconciliation is the beginning, and that
implies baptism as infants or at the beginning
of the Christian life, not after reaching a point of fulfillment. Growing in Christ includes growing pains. I believe that too often we make the idea of
Christian suffering into having to do some serious martyr-type suffering, when
by nature of living in a sinful world that itself is suffering. Being
strong in faith and hope is growth, but also a way leading us to the time when
we will be whole. Suffering to
endurance, endurance to character, and character to hope. (Rom. 5)
Character has to do with the nuts and bolts of who we are, and right
character is to live and be in the likeness of God.
The world has always belonged to God physically, but not
spiritually even though… The light (Christ)
shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. (John
1:5). Christ’s death and resurrection
returns us to the beginning, to Eden. It
is each person’s…
“In the beginning..”
Thanks be to God who gives us the
victory
through our Lord, Jesus Christ.
(Rom. 6:17)
