PART ONE: WHERE THE DIVISION BEGAN

All hell broke loose at the Garden party Adam and Eve attended as they represented you before a slimy slick salesman serpent who convinced them that God was keeping a powerful secret from them, and that if they simply bit into the fruit God was selfishly keeping them from enjoying, “Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5.)

Make no mistake. As soon as they bit into the serpent's promise, they were instantly smarter. They realized the naked truth. Their faces turned beet red as they pointed at definite body parts the other one didn't have. “Oh, my gosh!” Adam exclaimed, “we're not alike at all.” Their intimacy totally vanished.

Eve said, “This is all God's fault. He didn't even tell us to hide ours bodies from each other. He must be a pervert!” And with that, she ran to a nearby fig tree, pulled down some leaves and covered over the differences between her husband and her. Adam did the same. Soon they were scratching their private places because fig leaves not only itch but quickly produce allergies that cause nothing but misery. AsGenesis 3:7 puts it, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” Like little puppies, there eyes opened and they didn't like at all what they saw. The beauty in each others bodies that had stimulated their desire to be “one” (Genesis 2:23-25) became ugly and terribly embarrassing to them. How's that for instantly becoming “smarter?”

I Corinthians 15:21-22: “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive" Sin came through Adam, not Eve, because God had directly told Adam that He was putting him in charge of the whole Garden and NEVER to eat from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die” (Genesis 3:4.) He let his wife eat from it and watched her afterward. Finally, when nothing seemed to happen to her, he ate from it too.What a guy!

Here's the question: What was it that happened to the thinking of Adam and Eve that totally effects how humans have thought ever since? Answer: In one hideous moment, Adam and Eve switched totally from obeying God with their individual spirit and soul to deciding everything with their fleshly brains through their individual feelings and logic. Because sin permeated the entire globe due to Adam's fall, perfect loving obedience in absolute fellowship with God could never be equaled again by any human on Earth, not even by you or me. That kind of relationship will only be fully restored after Christ brings us to Him. Adam and Eve's perception of God changed total love to a harsh taskmaster who had intruded in their lives and needed to be kept away from. Multitudes of Christians do the same with Christ today. They love Christ only at a distance.

So, how does anyone who knows they are feeling distant from Christ, get up close and personal? They respond with their whole heart to Christ's love from His invitation to them in Hebrews 4:14-16 to them: "Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

And if that person can't seem to fully respond to Christ's loving invitation, James 4:7-10: "Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you."

Yep, it may be extremely painful to let go of whatever sin you fully know you're mired in. Leaving other humans who have reveled in the very same sin with you or making heaps of money that will stop, or copping out on life with drugs, booze, or any other synthetic substitute for reality, etc. can make you cry for longer than a day. But once you do tell Satan and his host to go to hell, and surrender your life to Christ, HE will fight all the hard stuff with you and He's bigger than anything else you've ever faced. Remember, once you really come to Christ or back to Christ if you've put on your own fig leaves, you won't be holding His hand, HE'LL be holding yours from here to eternity. Yes, you CAN walk close to Christ NO MATTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE. AND WALKING CLOSE TO HIM IS WORTH ANY OTHER THING IN LIFE.

(to be continued)

WHY IS GOD SILENT? by Ray Mossholder

Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me. And I give eternal life to them and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:27-28.) Nevertheless, questions about God's silence are anything but new. They've been asked by the greatest of God's followers since the beginning of time. For example:

Why was God silent when He knew Eve (and her silent husband who was right there with her) was being tempted by the serpent?

Why was God silent with righteous Job when he was going through a kind of agony that you and I have never known? Job's attitude during all his suffering and all the silence of God was, “Though He slay me, yet will I serve Him” (Job 13:15.)

Why was God silent with David in Psalm 22:1-2, the beginning of a Messianic Psalm that was written in A.D. 963 and for great reason is called “The Song of the Cross.”

Why was God silent for FOUR HUNDRED YEARS between the Old and New Testament?

Why was God silent with Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus, whom Jesus loved, was about to die? John 11:1-6

Question: When is the one time you can't ask your teacher for the answer to a question? Answer – and the answer to all of the above questions – You can't ask your teacher for the answer to a question while you are going through a test.

James 1:2-4: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have it's perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Whenever you are laser-focused on just one question with God, He whose timing is ALWAYS perfect, though not necessarily in agreement with our own human timing, knows that you will have the answer either through things that will later happen in your life or because He has already given you the answer and for whatever reason you might not like what the answer really is. He's not responsible for you liking His answers or not liking them. That is totally up to you. However, your life IS being orchestrated by the One conductor every single moment of your life who LOVES YOU ENOUGH TO HAVE DIED FOR YOU and lives to ultimately bless you now (Romans 8:28.)

Examining the rest of the story in the above scenarios:

Adam knew that he and his wife were not to eat from the forbidden tree. God has given every human free will, including Adam. And since Adam already knew the answer, there was no reason for God to speak to him about the temptation. So, God was silent and through Adam came sin (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22.)

God DID answer Job in His timing and poured out double blessings on him for his patience (Job 42:10-17.) However, he didgive Satan time during Job's test to prove how righteous Job really was. God (the Alpha and Omega) KNEW Job would hold true.

God was allowing David to experience His silence nearly a thousand years before His only begotten Son would cry out the exact words from Psalm 22:2 during the greatest testing ever given man (remembering that Jesus was fully man as well as fully God. It was in both forms that He went to the cross for you and me.) Thus Hebrews 2:1-3 tells us, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us (In this case, not trusting Him fully while He IS silent), and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Christ came four hundred years after the Old Testament (the Jewish Bible) ended “In the fullness of time...” (Galatians 4:4-5.) For four hundred years, God was preparing Rome and Israel for the coming of Christ. Had He come any sooner, it would have been like taking a cake out of the oven before it was fully baked. FOR JOY IN THE MIDST OF ANY TEST IN LIFE, WE MUST TRUST CHRIST WITH EVERY MOMENT OF HIS TIMING FOR YOU AND ME AS WELL AS FOR ALL THE REST OF THIS WORLD IN EVERY MATTER.

Mary and Martha rejoiced to see their brother Lazarus raised from the dead IN CHRIST'S PERFECT TIMING, though their obvious emotionally painful questions were met with Christ's silence until that timing was perfect. The Jews believed the soul didn't leave the body of a dead person until the third day after they died. Thus, Jesus didn't arrive to raise him until the third day and He didn't rise from the grave Himself until the third day either. That stopped all speculation that Lazarus or He were still alive and hadn't really died before they rose.

To summarize: God's silence DOES have REAL PURPOSE. It isn't because He doesn't love you, or doesn't exist, that He doesn't answer you. When is the one time you can't ask your Earthly teacher or HeavenlyTeacher the answer to a question? - When you're in the midst of a test. The major purpose of God's test of silence is to teach you patience and endurance. His question to you is, are you willing to trust Him any time you have to wait for Him to reveal His answer, no matter how long it is that you must wait?

Study it again - James 1:2-4: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing thatthe testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have it's perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Verse 4 is absolutely worth the wait.

The Harbinger read by Ray Mossholder

The Harbinger read aloud by Ray Mossholder
























The Last Battle



  1. By Caldron Pool (Ready To View)
  2. The Rashness of the King (Ready To View)
  3. The Ape in its Glory (Ready To View)
  4. What Happened That Night (Ready To View)
  5. How Help Came to the King (Ready To View)
  6. A Good Night's Work (Ready To View)
  7. Mainly About Dwarfs (Ready To View)
  8. What News the Eagle Brought (Ready To View)
  9. The Great Meeting on Stable Hill (Ready To View)
  10. Who Will Go into the Stable? (Ready To View)
  11. The Pace Quickens (Ready To View)
  12. Through the Stable Door (Ready To View)
  13. How the Dwarfs Refused to be Taken In (Ready To View)
  14. Night Falls on Narnia (Ready To View)
  15. Further Up and Further In (Ready To View)
  16. Farewell to Shadowlands (Ready To View)

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)