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Spiritual Warfare: Knowing the Enemy
In our last exercise, we learned how important it is to understand the nature of the spiritual conflict in which we, as the Sons and Daughters of God, are engaged. As we shall learn in this exercise, it is equally important for us to discover as much as we can about our adversary—that is, if we want to stay alert and guard against his assaults. For… …unless we grasp how the devil fits into God’s scheme of things, we will find it more difficult to stand against his conspiracy against us personally and his influence within our culture. How we perceive our enemy will largely determine how we fight…
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Searching for Truth in the First Book of Begats
Although I now use the English Standard Version as my study Bible, when I first started out so many years ago, I used the King James Version—a translation that I loved because of the more poetic language it used in the presentation of the Bible Story. The one aspect of that translation that I did not care for, though, was its use of the word “begat” in the many genealogies recorded for us in scripture. “Begat” always sounded so harsh and impersonal that its use made those already tedious and uninteresting passages all the more difficult to get into and to appreciate. And yet, when I was finally able…
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Vignette #5: Our Lineup to the Flood
Now that we have completed our critique of the story of Cain and Abel, it is time for us to move on to the next Vignette or mini story in the presentation of God’s One Big Story–one taking us up to Noah and the Flood. In order to put things into perspective, and as a benefit to those who may be new to our group, I think it is a good idea to do a brief recap of our story so far. Here at His Truth, My Voice, we are currently undertaking a guided tour of the Bible, one which we have been referring to as The Journey into…
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Closing the Case on Cain and Abel
Before we can leave the story of Cain and Abel behind, there are still a few matters that we need to attend to; for, we have yet to identify… The Life Lessons to be learned from their story; The Contributions their story makes to the One Big Story being played out on the Heavenly Stage above us; and, Any Revelations of God that their story holds for us. The Life Lessons are ones involving… 1. Choice One of the first lessons to be learned from the story of Cain and Abel is that each person, at some point in his or her life, will have to choose whether to continue…
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The Fruit of the Fall
When we last saw Adam and Eve—at the end of Vignette #3 of God’s One Big Story—they were being evicted from their Garden home for violating God’s one and only condition in their lease agreement, which was to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This tree was one of two special ones located in the middle of the Garden and by partaking of its fruit, they became guilty of disobeying God, sinners with a firsthand knowledge of Evil. This meant that they could no longer stay in the Garden where they would have continued access to the other tree at the Garden’s center, the…
