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There is a way to be good again.

I am so thankful that this way has nothing to do with my own positive thinking or good behavior. That sure wouldn’t get me very far. It has everything to do with Jesus and what He has done for me to make the way possible. It has everything to do with His grace. He is the way (John 14:6). And we see the beginnings of the way and His plan for our redemption in Genesis three.

I have always read this chapter on the fall of man as…well…the fall of man. I thought Adam and Eve really screwed up and therefore made a mess of things for the rest of us. I always kind of looked down on Eve, but as one of the gals in my Bible study reminded, you know we would have done the exact same thing!

But I’ve been missing something big. What I have failed to see woven throughout Genesis three and the curse is grace. I only saw the curse. But there was hope in spite of the curse. And Adam recognized that right away. He even expressed faith in what God had promised by naming his wife Eve (Genesis 3:20). Sheesh. I always thought Eve was named Eve from the moment God formed her from the rib He took out of Adam. How did I miss that all these years?! And the hope that Adam clung to was not just for him. The hope is for us too.

“And this is where we, too, find hope. We grieve over the hurts that the curse causes in our lives–difficulty conceiving, disappointment in marriage, dead-end jobs, disease-ridden bodies. But we do not grieve as those who have no hope.

Here Adam shows all of us who have inherited his nature of sin how to stare the curse of death in the face and celebrate the promise that this curse is not God’s final word. God’s final word is his Son, Jesus, who said, “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life (John 5:24 NLT). This was Adam’s hope, though he could not have articulated it this way. And this is our sure and certain hope while living in a world that is still so deeply impacted by this curse. (Guthrie, p77)”

A sure and certain hope in Jesus. That is something I can cling to in this broken world. I could go on and on about the things I learned in this lesson. I’m pretty sure I could have spent the rest of the ten weeks just camped out in chapter three. But you probably don’t want me to write a novel…and I want to hear some of the things you are learning anyway! So here are just a few more things that I have had on my heart this week:

*Eve had everything she could ever need or want from God and yet she allowed Satan to bring doubt of God’s love and discontentment with her circumstances. Rather than fix her thoughts on what she knew to be true about God and resting under His authority, she listened to Satan twist and add to God’s Word and eventually gave into temptation. I often let Satan weave the same kinds of doubts and discontentment into my own life. It even happened this past week as I struggled with a decision I had made! This lesson was a good reminder of the importance of knowing God’s Word and having it so engrained in me that I can use Truth to refute the enemy when temptation comes. To know God’s Word I have to daily be in God’s Word.

*I never really thought about how Adam and Eve were not cursed personally but had to experience the effects of the curse. And we are still experiencing the effects of the curse today. I had always thought that the curse of pain in childbearing was simply that there is a lot of pain involved in childbirth (and if you get an epidural even that pain is minimized, right!). But to think about how that pain is also infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, childhood diseases, disabilities, and even the pain of birthing our children into a fallen world. There is a reality of sin and death involved when our precious little ones enter the world. A reality that is really hard to make sense of. Studying Genesis 3 helped me make a little more sense of some things in my heart. I am so thankful that the curse is not God’s final word.

*”If Adam and Eve obeyed God about the tree, they would live. If Jesus obeyed God about the tree, he would die. Jesus obeyed. And through his obedience he gained for us far more than Adam lost for us through his disobedience (Guthrie, p81).”

*What about being angry with God? The curse and pain of this world wasn’t God’s intention but a result of sin. While God understands and welcomes our raw emotions, I think we need to be careful that we don’t place the blame on God himself. He is our Creator, Savior, Redeemer, the One who is making all things new, and the One who gives us a reason to live in hope. The curse and pain we experience in this world is a result of sin. And while we live in the curse and definitely feel the pain that is a result of the curse we can rest on Jesus’ promise that everything that is broken will be healed and restored. I need to place the blame where it belongs and place my hope in Christ.

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:3-5 (NLT)

*As I read through the last chapters in Revelation I was struck by how God recognizes the pain and emotions we are currently experiencing in this world. He didn’t just say *pouf* I will return and everything will be perfect. He is not an impersonal God but is close to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18). He empathizes with what we are going through today even mentioning that He himself will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death. No more sorrow. No more crying or pain. On the day when Christ returns, the curse will be gone for good. In the midst of a hurting world, I am so thankful that “we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19).

I was going to keep it short today…but obviously that didn’t happen. There was so much in this chapter!

What about you? What was especially interesting and challenging to you from Genesis 3? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section.

Also, one last thing. Nancy has offered to answer some of our lingering questions. I’m so excited about this! So, if you have an unanswered question or something that you are still struggling with in the study, leave it in the comments section. I will keep a running list of all the questions and do a separate post at the end of our study with her responses! Thanks, Nancy…you are the best!

So, maybe my question on Friday was too deep? Hopefully you are still just thinking about it because I definitely want to hear about God’s changing work in your life.

He has definitely changed me. And I am so, so grateful for that. As I began reading through Genesis, I loved thinking about the fact that the same Father, Son and Holy Spirit who were doing a creative, life-giving work creating the world is the same Father, Son and Holy Spirit who have done a creative, life-giving work in my life.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:11-13

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

I became a new creation in fifth grade. I had grown up going to church but not feeling like I really heard and understood the gospel. The Bible was just a book of stories to me and church was just a part of our weekly routine. My family moved the summer before I started fourth grade and that fall I began attending a Christian school. I was blessed with the most wonderful fourth and fifth grade teachers who showed me what it looked like to have a vibrant relationship with the Lord. One day as I was sitting in my fifth grade classroom my teacher held up the Bible and basically told us that it was a meaningless book unless we understood and believed the gospel. She told us that we couldn’t just inherit our salvation from our parents or earn our salvation on our own and proceeded to drop the Bible in a nearby trashcan to make her point. That really made an impression on my little “rule following” brain as the Holy Spirit began drawing me to Himself. That night as I laid in bed alone I replayed that scene in my head over and over. That same night I decided that I was a sinner who needed a Savior and I wanted to follow Jesus.

I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

And that was just the beginning. God not only gave me a new heart and a new spirit, but He has been making me new ever since.

I moved two more times throughout junior high and high school. Moving and going through the changes of a new home, new school, and new friends helped me to understand that though my circumstances might be constantly changing, God never does. He used that time to help me find my identity in Him.

In college I saw people around me who had a vibrant relationship with God. They were excited about what He was teaching them through His Word and were applying it to their lives as they made decisions for the future. It was in college that I learned how to study the Word and the importance of daily time with the Lord.

And then Cora died. If we were marking this journey of change with remembering stones this part of my journey would be represented by a huge boulder. I felt like my world had been turned completely upside down. And it was at this point in my life when I had to decide if I really believed what I had always said I believed. If I’m honest, trusting God through those initial weeks after Cora’s death was hard for me to grasp. The only thing I could make sense of was this: I had to decide if I was going to follow Him and stand firm on Truth even when I didn’t understand what He was doing in my life…or I had to turn my back on Him. The only light, the only hope I could see through my pain was in Jesus. So I chose to trudge through my grief and cling to Him. I bathed myself in God’s Word and it was through that bathing I learned that I couldn’t trust in my emotions but had to stand firm on God’s truth even when I wasn’t “feeling” it. Through studying God’s Word I began to understand God’s character and how He fit in with my circumstances. I realized that my view of God was very warped and that needed to change! All the names we read about God in the Bible, I experienced in my own life: my Rock, my Comforter, my Redeemer, the Giver of true peace, good, unchanging, and truly ALL I NEED. Cora’s death gave me a longing for eternity and a new passion to follow hard after God in this painful world. I found hope and peace in a God who encourages us to take heart in this world full of trouble because He has “overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Sometimes I feel like I could stop there. But my heart resonates with what Nancy shared in our study this past week.

“I don’t want to depend on yesterday’s fresh experiences with him. I want there to be an ongoing freshness in my walk with him (p52).”

I want that too. I don’t want this changing work in my life to culminate with Cora’s story. I don’t want to be satisfied to stop there.

So where am I at today? I feel like God has been changing me lately through His Word as I seek Him in my role as a mom. I am slowly learning what it means to be humble as I experience humility on a daily basis with my kids. I can’t do this parenting thing alone. I mess up all. the. time. He is reminding me again of my dependence on Him when so often I am tempted to let busyness crowd out what is important. How important it is for me as a mom to be disciplined with my time in the Word and in prayer even though I definitely have to be creative in how I make that time happen during this season of life. He is teaching me what a servant looks like as I choose to serve my husband and kids when so often I would rather be selfish.

I probably could go on and on but those are the highlights. As I wait for the rest of my story to unfold I long for the day when Jesus will return to make all things new and complete the work He has started in me.

Now it is your turn. You don’t have to take time to tell me your whole story (unless you want to!) but I would love to hear just a piece of God’s changing work in your life!

Head over to Breezy Acres Farm to read Julie’s post about how God is refining her as a mom.

This week we dove right into Genesis…starting at the very beginning with creation. What did God show you this week?

I loved reading the story of creation with gospel eyes. Something I don’t think I have really done before. As Nancy had us note what God was doing on each day of creation it brought to life our Creator God who illumined, shaped, filled, breathed, and rested. Didn’t you love thinking about and imagining God’s creativity and life-giving work. He brought order, beauty and light to a world that was once formless, empty and dark. He formed the earth and then filled it. And then “God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature (Genesis 2:7).” Wow! Our great Creator intimately breathed life into us. He made us in His own image and set us apart from all other living things. We are His and He is the one who sustains our very breathe. And since He created all things…since He created us…He alone is the source of meaning in life.

And then God rested. “He rested so that those made in his image would share in His rest through worship. He rested so that he could turn Adam and Eve’s attention from the creation to the Creator (p44).”  It was challenging for me to think about what this kind of rest looks like in my own life.

In the same way that God brought light into the world as recorded in Genesis, He brings His light spiritually into the lives of believers today. He makes us new.

Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16

“When we have been made new on the inside, it fortifies us to endure the inevitable oldness and deterioration that is a reality of living in these bodies of flesh in a world that still longs to be transformed by this same newness. We begin to think differently as we saturate ourselves in the written Word and our minds are renewed (Romans 12:2). The Word of God does the work of God creating ongoing newness. As we listen to, chew on, and live out what we read in the Word of God, the Spirit bears fruit in our character so that our lives become marked by a new resource to love the unlovable, a fresh spark of joy even in the midst of sorrow, a pervasive peace even when our circumstances are chaotic, an unexplainable patience in the face of frustration, words marked by kindness instead of criticism, a love for what is good instead of a fascination with what is evil, an unwavering faithfulness when it would be easier to quit, a compassionate gentleness when it would be easier to close our eyes to need, and an uncompromising self-control when it would be easier to give into temptation (p51).”

I am so thankful that this newness isn’t something we have to wait for. This newness is something that can begin today as you surrender your life to Jesus and become a new creation in Him. I agree with Nancy when she says,

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to stay my same old self trapped in my old sinful tendencies. I don’t want to surrender to ‘that’s just the way I am, the way I’ve always been; I can never change.’ I want to be made new (p52).”

We serve a God who makes us new. A God who changes us through the power of the living Word. That is such a relief to me because so often I make a mess of things on my own. And I don’t want to stay the same! He has changed me…and continues to change me as I seek Him through His Word. Genesis points us to a day that I long for. A day when Jesus will return to make all things new and complete the work He has started in me. What a day of rejoicing that will be!

Has God changed you?

Let’s discuss question eight today (p56)…

How has God’s Word and the Spirit of God changed you?

The work of the Spirit in our lives is an amazing and exciting thing…and I can’t wait to hear your stories. You can tell how you were first brought to life spiritually or about His ongoing changing work in your life. On Monday I’ll tell you how He has changed me. Feel free to leave comments about other things you learned this week or questions you might have too!

This is an online study of The Promised One by Nancy Guthrie.

You can find all the study information here and here.

Past lessons can be found here: lesson one