Aug 22

Genesis 3:1-6
1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied.
3 “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.’”
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.
5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.

The serpent slowly approached the woman. "Yo, mama," he said. The woman sighed and rolled her eyes. She knew this snake; he'd once offered to take her for a ride in his convertible. But she was too smart for him; she knew snakes couldn't drive. "Take a look at this," he whispered. He showed her a shiny, emerald-green fruit. The morning dew still glistened on its soft skin. "It's tastier than all the fruits in the Garden," he told her, locking gazes with her. "It's sweet and juicy and feels warm and cool all at the same time." He pushed the fruit under the woman's nose. "Here, mama, give it a sniff." "I know where you got that," she said accusingly. "You got it from the tree in the middle of the Garden." "So what if I did? Who says you can't eat from any ol' tree you want?" "You know," she answered slowly. She was sure she'd had this same conversation with the serpent many times before. Yet now she could scarcely remember what she'd said, what he'd said, even what God had said. "Oh, come on now." He moved closer to her until his head was almost resting on her shoulder. "God doesn't want you eating this fruit because he just wants to control you." He flashed a charming smile. "But I think you're old enough to make those decisions yourself, don't you?" He watched as she blinked. "Of course," he continued, his voice as smooth as dew rolling off a leaf, "I can always eat it myself." She stared at the fruit in silence. Finally, he jerked the fruit away. "Never mind," he said sharply. "Later, mama." "No, wait!" she shouted. She covered her mouth with a hand, shocked at the volume of her own voice. "Wait," she repeated softly. "I want to taste it." "Now you're talking, mama." He watched with grinning satisfaction as her slender fingers grasped the fruit and lifted it to her mouth. Juice dripped down her chin as she bit into the fruit. Her eyes widened as she chewed, and her face blushed red for the first time. She felt an odd pleasure and something else, something new, something she could not name. She didn't know what to call it, but it scared her. And it hurt. The serpent smiled wickedly. "Now, mama," he said, "let me show you some designer fig leaves that I can sell you real cheap."

REFLECT: The woman not only took a piece of fruit from the serpent; she also tried to take something that belonged only to GodÑthe power to decide good and evil. Her husband, Adam, later did the same thing. What disastrous results occurred?

PRAY: "Give me your strength, God, to resist temptation. I especially need your help to flee from..."

I think I just laughed the whole devo... Hahaha
And if you guys watch prison break, the serpent seems like T-bag. LOL
Okayokay, without further a do,
Resisting temptation.. Hm..
All these devos are quite relevant to our lives, thank god. And I'm glad we all can just reflect more than reiterate what we learned!

Resisting temptation was never easy.
But neither is anything else, really.
I don't know.. The message is clear and there isn't much to say!
Just don't fall into peer pressure and do something you may regret later in life like drugs and sex and whatever else.
Was I not supposed to say that word... My bad. Just trying to list the big ones.
It's definitely better in the long run

Kevin did make me LOL ahaha...

Temptation is something we all go through almost every single day, if not multiples of times. Tbh, my brother is a perfect example of what happens when we do not resist temptation and let Satan do his work. Yes what the fruit did to Adam and Eve was to wake them up and realize that sin exists but the thing that I had to learn the hard way is that we can use that knowledge against sin. For example, one of the reason why I did not fall in the same pit as my brother is because I was able to see and learn what it can do to a person. Knowing sin and being fully aware of it's capabilities is one of our best weapons against Satan. Knowledge is something very powerful and also something that we take it for granted. Just like how we know sin, Satan knows God and the bible, just know that he can also use knowledge against us. I think that's why not only do we have sermons but we also do bible studies. Sometimes, the teachers do a session where the students get to ask questions that's been bothering us for a long time. When we do get these chances, we should take full advantage of them. I know that's actually helped me a lot throughout my journey.

You know, something thaat I got from this chapter, was that whhen historyy loves to repeat itself, try and learn how to avoid repeating mistakes others have made. That's part of why we should listen to our parents, we learn what to NOT do, and narrow the right things to do from a trillion to a billion.

" wanted the wisdom it would give..." As shown, bad things would often mask themselves, for appeal. It did give what Eve and Adam wanted; sense of justice. What came with the sense of justice was the knowledge that by eating the fruit, they learned that they've committed a sin. Sounds extremely ironic if you analyze it.

Aside from that, 쿨쿨 Lion, no touch. (If a lion's sleeping, don't disturb it.) You know, don't make obviously wrong choices, and end up regretting it later. Especially when there's all these people telling you what to do and what not to do.

Retreat is tomorrow!!!
The story kind of reminded me of last years retreat, when we had to do this thing called Pilgrim's progress.
Our group had just come out of "Hell", and we entered "Heaven". Britney was there and she had a lot of food and drinks. She let us eat and drink for awhile, and then she told us to give her our key. Our group leader was hesitant and wouldn't hand it over. She took away our food and drinks and said we're only allowed to eat if we gave our key to her. Eventually, the next group came and we left with our key. After the whole Pilgrim's progress Britney admitted it was a temptation and we were never supposed to give our key. Only like 3 groups out of 6 kept their keys. Luckily I was in one of those 3 groups.
I was kind of surprised at what Britney tried to do. I never thought a temptation could be disguised as something normal. Satan really is powerful and will go to any level to try to bring you away from God. I really learned from it, and now I am a lot more cautious.
See you guys tomorrow!
-Sarah

Hey guys...
this story was with us all throughout our childhood and is still with us.
These verses show us that God is almighty and powerful. We cannot do anything to stand in his way, other than betraying him.
What i reflecte on is that... if you betray God, there will be severe consequences... Once even took a bite out of the fruit, her eyes were open to sin and evil deeds.
We must stay pure and although there is sin in our lives, we should ask for forgivenesss because there is no way we can stop sinning.
OBEY GOD

As Eve ate the fruit first, would we still be distant from God if Adam hadn't eaten it as well?
Hmm.
In my bible, the passage is under the "Fall of Man."
interesting...
And then they were basically kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and as Adam and Eve had kids, they were born with sin, instead of born holy.
Ever since they were born, we're still desiring that candy only for ourselves.
Anyways, as we're tempted, it's only Satan's work. Not the work of God.
Although He "created" evil, it's only for us to truly love him and appreciate him.
Whenever I read this passage, I'm thinking to myself, how the world would be like if it hadn't happened.
But we have to remember, this spiritual warfare, it's already won.
When Jesus died on the cross and defeated death, it was over.
Satan's just trying to grab as many people as he can, until judgement day.

interesting reflection story...

correcting some people, God didn't create evil. When God created us, he created us with the purpose of loving him, yet he gave us free will to decide whether or not to love him. Since we are far from perfection, man chose to sin, thus introducing sin and evil into the world. Before adam and eve disobeyed his command, Earth was a holy place, but it was through our sinful nature that we corrupted.

as far as temptation goes, it's tough to resist at times. For example, there might be a trip to wonderland your friends are arranging but it happens to be during service times. Though that's just a little example to larger analogies, it's those very things that satan uses to hinder us from strengthening our relations with God. SO, though it may be hard, avoiding these temptations are very important and doing so will only help us along our walk with God.

night

I think this devo is so relatable to all of us because we all go through temptations and it's one of the first stories in the bible. So from the very start, god knew there would be temptations grabbing at us from this way and that and that we would stray away from him in that way. Without temptations there are no sins so I think being strong willed and having faith in god is the best way to fight off temptation and thus a lot of sin. I think we can apply this in our everyday lives because there will always be temptation, but if we remember the story of Adam and eve, they were punished for their hiding and their shame, so we can remember that we can come to god with anything honestly and he will help us out of it.
Night

When God made everything, all was good. He then made Adam and Eve.
They were so close to God and they were able to enjoy everything God has provided. Then eve fell into the hands of sin and temptation. Ever since the begining, we've always done something for ourselves. She ate that fruit knowing clearly that God didn't want her to eat it. When I think of it right now, I get frustrated because of Eve's stuborness. But I think about it some more, I put myself in her shoes. If we were Eve, wouldn't we one day do the same. That serpent had made us think about what we wanted and took us away from what was more important..........God.
If God gave us a specific order, why can't we just obey it????
We can't put all the blame to the serpent....If it was, God would've just kicked only the serpent out, wouldn't he? I believe he was the most disapointed in Adam and Eve. He knew that the serpent holded sin but thinking that his children would disobey his one important instruction and then think that God wouldn't find out and then lie about it to hide and cover it?
The good thing is that although he was hurt, his love still stayed the same.
Sometimes, I wonder, "What could've happened if Eve didn't take that fruit?"
I think that one of them would've ended up eating the fruit anyways. The serpent would've kept on trying to tempt them and Adam and Eve would've kept on wondering about that mysterious tree.

Sorry i'm posting this now, my computer had errors when I tried to send it....
~Audrey~

hello! sorry for posting late! my account had an error...i logged on but it said that i didn't and it wouldn't let me reply to any of the posts but its working now!
okay so i thought that this passage was very important because there are times in your life when you have to resist the temptation to do something that is against God's will. that is just how powerful Satan is. but whenever we give into the temptation, we end up getting punished like how Adam and Eve did after they ate the forbidden fruit. i think it is important as a Christian that we have to learn how to fight off these temptations because they prove to God just how much we are willing to have a strong bond with him and this will allow us to become more and more like Christ.