Christian Life ...

Christian Life ...
Christian life is meant to be a life of bearing much fruit. What does that look like? How do we get there? This blog will record thoughts and meditations about living a life striving to be a fruitful branch.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Acknowledging Brokenness & Clinging to the God Who has Made a Way for Us

One thing that every religion and nearly every world view share is that something is wrong with us. If we look deeply into ourselves we can always find our own brokenness, our own greed, our doubts and our insecurities. The "Christianese" answer to this is to say that all people have an indwelling flaw called "sin".

In the book of Genesis the fall of man is predicated on the human desire to obtain the ability to judge right from wrong. The "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" is the object the serpent uses to deceive Eve. (Curious how the word "deceive" holds the very sound "Eve" inside of it... coincidence? ... I dunno). But what is more interesting to me is what the actual sin IS in this "Fall of man story".  The sin that Eve committed was the failure to trust that the Lord God truly had given them everything they needed in the bountiful Garden of Eden. Eve failed to trust that God had their best interest in mind when he told them not to eat from that ONE tree. It was a lack of faith and trust in God that led to Eve's deception.

So was it the fruit from the tree that actually gave Adam and Eve the knowledge of good and evil? How could fruit do that? Plus, Eve clearly had a concept of good and evil before. She had a consciousness that allowed for her to be deceived. She had the conscious free will to doubt that God truly WAS good. What if the fall of man actually suggests that human kind was created with consciousness to discern good and evil for themselves. What if the "Fall of man" wasn't an event in itself? What if it's a reality that is represented in this metaphoric story of "The fall of man" in "The Garden of Eden? ... Does that sound like I'm questioning the validity of scripture? Please.
Run with me, for I declare that scriptures validity and natures reality are one and the same.

With our God given consciousness we developed goals. Being created this way, we have the ability to fend for ourselves, the opportunity to rebel from the God who made all things. While the physics of the universe hold the world in which we live in a perfect orbit of our sun, each person on this earth looks out for their own good. We perceive our reality through our remarkable consciousness and perceive ourselves as the biggest thing. Our consciousness is bent upon not just surviving, but thriving and consuming. We are never satisfied. We were made to populate the earth and "subdue it" (Genesis 1:28), "subdue" being the operative word there. We were made to (the definition of subdue) "Overcome or be under control" of this earth. This shows why we are broken. Never being satisfied, never being able to make ourselves whole and content. We are relentless in our desire to take control! We may find peace in our own way for a moment, we may be satiated by pleasures for a time, but like with alcohol we seem to want that ONE extra drink, until, of course, we find our faces in very close proximity to a toilet. Just like Eve, we want more.

So what can we do? We can't live unconscious. Of course, not! Without consciousness we could never have relationship, we could never know anything! Certainly not God himself. But bottom line, love isn't love without choice. Without the opportunity to choose "not God" we could never choose God.
To be a fruitful branch we must acknowledge that we are just branches. Without sufficient nourishment we will wither. After a handful of decades and change, we're dust, it's just the natural order, at least with regards to this physical world.

We must recognize we are broken people. The CURCH must acknowledge this and confess to this as truth. No matter how much of this world we consume, no matter how good we act, life on this earth will end. That sounds entirely morbid. But by the grace of God, through Christ Jesus, we are able to live eternally. I testify to this remarkable idea: that the infinite God of creation did choose the nation off Israel to be His chosen people, and through that nation, through the promises God made to Abraham, the world has been blessed. Blessed by the body and sacrifice of God Himself, Jesus Christ. Through Christ, we are able to receive the spirit of life, eternal life, from the creator himself. But we cannot enter into this life of we fail to acknowledge our brokenness.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23

In order to tap into the life (Real life! Eternal life!) that is at the core of creations intent we must acknowledge our brokenness. If we feel that we are not broken, not on this earth for a finite time; if we ignore the fact that this world cannot go on forever, and find ourselves content building our kingdoms, and our monuments to our kingdoms that will all crumble away, we have chosen "not God".
We are All sinners. We are all conscious of the finite reality of life on this earth.
The kingdom of God is near! All will be made right! Broken will be mended! Lost will be found!
So we must cling to the God who saves us; we must fasten ourselves to the vine that gives life, so that we may be a fruitful branch for the everlasting Kingdom of God.


4 comments:

  1. Hi! I somehow found your blog. Yes, because I searched a song lyrics to this song "I trust you" by Justin Frederick.
    I read this post and I think it's really good. I've thought about this topic - sin and the tree of knowledge of good and evil - very much.

    Is it okey if I make a link to your blog? I will put it up on the menu on the right side of my blog.

    /lifefromwithin.blogg.se

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey I didn't see this. Cool that I got a reader outside of my family and friends!
      I've kind of lost the drive for blogging and have placed my priorities in other places but link away. I hope to reboot my blogging efforts sometime in the near future :D

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  2. Love this:

    "What if the "Fall of man" wasn't an event in itself? What if it's a reality that is represented in this metaphoric story of "The fall of man" in "The Garden of Eden? ... Does that sound like I'm questioning the validity of scripture? Please.
    Run with me, for I declare that scriptures validity and natures reality are one and the same."

    I think we miss out on some of scripture's validity and power when we insist that so much of the Bible was meant to be a literal recounting of exact events. Not to mention, I think we can sometimes paint a poor picture of the Bible, the Church and God when we fail to notice how scripture's validity does not depend on a literal interpretation of every word.

    My favorite example is that in the New Testament, 5 times we are commanded to greet one another with a holy kiss or a kiss of love. Unless you belong to a church body of people from a significantly different culture than my own, I doubt there would be much productivity in walking in on Sunday and kissing everyone there.

    The fact that the command is not to be taken literally in 2016 Minnesota, does not make those verses any less valid. That is what is remarkable about scripture! Its validity and application to every person and place across time. Scripture is not less powerful because not every story is literally true. It is more powerful because the truths of Heaven and Earth are explained through stories, historical recounts, metaphors, parables, commands and more. The more we search, the more alive the Bible becomes.

    ReplyDelete