Friday, February 04, 2005

Seeking Truth

The other night I gace a lesson to the middle school group about truth and the ways we make choices, either good choices or bad choices. Now I am far from perfect and make bad choices even today. Wow, what a confession by a youth pastor. But if I didn't confess it, then I would be lying.

How do we justify what someone does even when we know it may be morally wrong? Where does the Bible play into all this? Why am I tolerant to this?

We read from Genesis 3 concerning Adam and Eve's fall.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."


What truth did Adam and Eve learn from God?

What truth did Adam and Eve learn from the serpent?

Did Adam and Eve just show tolerance to the serpent and his interptation of this truth.

It was concluded that Adam and Eve lost their innocence by eating from the tree. If you think about it, what is the opposite of innocence? Guilt. We are guilty of sin by not honoring the truth that God has given to us.

Thankfully we have an advocate, a lawyer perhaps, to help clear us of our sin. Jesus Christ came to free us from the guilt of our sin and to make us innocent again.

So again, where do you find truth?