Something Reliable

Eve almost had it. No. Actually, she did have it. She had the answer, and gave the right answer to the talking snake. Satan was trying to make God sound more restrictive than He was. God never said that Adam and Eve couldn’t eat any of the fruit from the garden, but that’s part of Satan’s job isn’t it? He twists things.

Eve knew the answer, “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the Garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.” Genesis 3:2-3

There is a huge difference between having the word of God written on our hearts verses having it committed to memory. Eve rightly answers the serpent using God’s word. She knew what God had said. Like a good Christian girl, Eve had memorized her verse in Sunday school. She knew what God had said and really did recognize that Satan was trying to twist it.

Give her credit for that step. Knowing what God says and what He does not say is integral as we walk through this life. We all have impressions as to what course of action to take in every aspect of our earthly walk. I know these things seem very basic, and they really are. I’ll give you that. So why am I spending time going through this?

There are different levels of authentic spiritual understanding. Most of us who know Jesus acknowledge that we should read The Bible. And it is so edifying when the pastor reminds us that we don’t read the Bible enough and beats on us for an hour. We know intellectually that we should know His Word better than we do, but many do nothing about it. Something is wrong in that isn’t there?

I would wager that if we don’t read His word almost daily, that we DON’T really believe in its value. If we don’t know His word, we are less prepared to navigate through our conscience than Eve was. That should be a scary thought. But it isn’t scary. Is it? Why is that?

I used to want to be your personal Jesus teaching source. When I was first baptized and gifted by the Holy Spirit, it was what compelled me to teach so much. What I found was this – that no matter how much I taught, no matter how many topics I addressed, no matter how thorough I tried to be, I was completely unable to teach all of the things that a believer should know. Even though I had went through the Bible chapter by chapter on two occasions, I still couldn’t accomplish the task of teaching everything necessary to those who were listening to me. I was trying to do the impossible.

I’m still happy when people ask me questions about theology, but I’ve given up trying to be a one stop shop for Christian information. There is tremendous value in those who focus their energies on teaching the scriptures and I’m thankful for the many who make it their business to do so. Many authentic believers just can't seem to get what The Bible is saying unless they listen to someone else speak in it.

I won’t guilt you into reading the Bible more or memorizing a ton of scripture. I will however bring to mind the necessary role of having the Word written on our hearts. Having it written on our hearts has to do with it being something that we meditate on, something that we treasure, something that we listen to and something that we actually obey. If it isn’t on our hearts as something to be treasured, we likely won’t obey it even if we know what it says. If we don’t think about it often, we likely won’t understand how it applies to our lives.

Eve knew the answer. It just wasn’t enough.