Q&A - Questions We Didn't Get To: What did God mean by "one of us"...?

In Gen 1:26, God says man is made "in our image" but after the fall God says the man has "become like ONE of us in knowing good and evil" What does He mean?

Wow, this is going to be hard to keep short. I'll try. Soooooo much to talk about here. 

The plurality in 1:26 refers to the Godhead. God is 1, but exists as 3 Persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We are 1, but 3 as well, you could say, as we are body, mind, and spirit. There is more to you than what you see when you look in the mirror. It's a hard analogy, as is anything trying to compare to the Almighty God.

The statement after the Fall, in my understanding, is just pointing to the Godhead, so to rephrase it, “man knows the difference between good and evil as does God.”

BUT, I heard one preacher put it this way: God knows evil like sunbeam on sewage – untouched, unfouled. Man knows evil like someone drowning in sewage.

That's all the further I take 3:22 – I don't read anything more into it, personally.

Those aren’t Cade’s rules.

Our kids recently got involved with an ice hockey league. My 10-year old (Cade) has been especially loving it. Now that he learned how to skate (kind of), he has started learning stick handling and shooting the puck.

At dinner time, talking about his accomplishments to date in his short career (one month, as of this writing), Cade said, “I got a lot of goals!”

Erin explained that the puck has to go into the goal for the goal to actually count. Cade answered, “No, if it goes in the goal, or off the side, or off the post, it counts as a goal.”

I interjected, “No, buddy, it has to cross the goal line to count.” To which he objected, “No it doesn’t.”

I said, “Well it does according to the rules used by all hockey players everywhere!”

He put his head down, softly and defiantly replied, “Those aren’t Cade’s rules.”

He’s 10. At this point he knows as much about hockey as I know about this "Pokemon Go" thing (next to nothing). But something about the way he said that last line sounded a familiar bell that man has been deceiving himself with since the devil lied to Eve in the Garden of Eden. In his damning sales pitch to get Adam and Eve to transgress, one of Satan’s promises (lies) was that eating from the forbidden tree will make mankind “like God” (Genesis 3:5). Your eyes will be opened. You will know good and evil. Horrible deception.

I have to wonder how much impact those 5 little words made on the minds of the First Couple. “You will be like God”.

The truth is nothing and nobody is like God – never was, never will be. Yet we find ourselves in the mess we are in because Adam and Eve took the bait. And how enticing are those words...? I will be like God, I will be like God, I will be like God.

The Sovereign Almighty of the Universe has created a world with “rules” and has already established the “rules” for us in His commands: Love God with our heart, soul, mind, strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Forgive others. Serve sacrificially. Help the needy.

And in our moments of defiance, when we persist in self-centered sin, in our bid to be like God, we hear God’s Word clearly but want to be a god unto ourselves. We put our heads down and say, “Those aren’t MY rules.”

If you are sitting on the throne of your own life right now, it’s time to get off and allow Jesus His rightful place. You will never be like God, and living by “your rules” isn’t going to take you very far.

Just ask Adam and Eve. Or Cade, when he finally has his first real hockey game.

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. -1John 2:4-6

Pastor Jeff

-Who is on your throne?

The Things You Learn at the Dollar Store

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."    ---Genesis 22:1-2

This story always astounded me.

My paraphrase (seriously, go back and read it in the Bible).

God: “Abraham, you are going to have a son.”

Abraham: “No way.”

God: “Yes, you are.”

<the son is born>

Abraham: “Woo-hoo!”

God: “Now go kill him.”

I beg your pardon…?

Yeah, I mentioned this story in the blog “I like the way you think, Abe.” but I was recently shown a little more insight into this passage.

My son Cade just lost his first tooth. He planned on springing a trap to catch the Tooth Fairy and “throw her in the bathtub”. Don’t ask, I don’t know.

Well, she took the tooth and left him 4 quarters and a note expressing her dismay at his nefarious plot. Too bad he’s a sound sleeper. She was in and out without him waking. Amazingly, since she is a 215 pound dude. (We bear a resemblance.)

Those quarters were burning a hole in his pocket, along with the other change he had. He was
longing for a trip to the Dollar Store, a place that makes Cade feel like Donald Trump. He can
walk in there and just buy anything!

While we were in there, I asked him, “Cade, would you buy something for Daddy?” He thought for a second…

“Sure! I’ll buy you something! What do you want?”

I replied, “I really don’t want anything, I just wanted to know that you were willing to do it.”

Then it hit me. Right there by the terrible coloring books and the horrible greeting cards. Abraham. God tested him.

But God knew what was already in Abe‘s heart, right?

Yeah, maybe that test was so Abraham would learn what was in Abe‘s heart, too. 

p.s. - Getting someone a card from the Dollar Store is one step away from telling them that they are dead to you.

Want to Hear a Joke That Will Both Make You Laugh and Make You Think?

We just finished going through Genesis 3 over the last two weeks, examining how sin came into the world.

One tree, one law, one temptation, one transgression.

Doubt, deny, disobey God’s Word.

Run from God, hide in shame.

Then, when we stand guilty, it’s time to blame blame blame everyone else we know. That’s what Adam did. At this point in history, he only knew 2 others: Eve and God. And he blamed them both for his sin. In Genesis 3:12, Adam said, “it was the woman… whom YOU gave to be with me…” (emphasis mine). Things were fine here, why did you put her here? It’s all her fault, and, well… you put her here. Just sayin’.

This got me thinking of one of my favorite jokes. And you need to think about it, too.

An elderly man is out driving, and his wife was at home watching the news. She called his cell phone and said, “Be careful out there. I know you said you were taking Route 79 home today, and they are showing on the news that this maniac is driving the wrong way on Route 79!”

The man screamed back, “What are you talking about?! There are dozens of people going the wrong way!”

The point is obvious: sometimes everyone else isn’t the problem. Sometimes you are the problem. 

p.s. - is often the problem