Message to Hearland Vineard This Past Sunday

This teaching was shared via video with Heartland Vineyard in Cedar Falls, Iowa. I love Pastor Dan Paxton and all the people in that great church!

A Parable About Fathers

A Dad took his children and put them in the house and told them to clean it. And he told them, “You are free to eat anything in the refrigerator; but you must not eat from the soured chocolate pudding in the refrigerator, because it will definitely make you sick.

Now the neighbor child was more sneaky than any other kid in the neighborhood. He said to the younger sister, “Did you Dad tell you that you couldn’t eat any of the food in the refrigerator?”

And she answered, “No, he said that we could eat from any of the food in the refrigerator but not to eat the soured chocolate pudding or we would get sick.” “You will not get sick,” the neighbor answered. “Your Dad knows that when you eat the chocolate pudding you will then be like him, being able to enjoy everything that is there.”

When the young girl saw that the pudding in the refrigerator looked and smelled delicious and would be enjoyable to eat, she took some and ate it. She also gave a bowl to her brother, who was with her and he ate it too. Soon the stomachs of them both became nauseous, and they realized they were getting sick; so they began to look for any kind of medicine that would keep them from vomiting.

Then the brother and his sister heard their Dad driving up the driveway that evening, and they hid from him in the bedroom. But the Dad called out to the children, “Where are you?”

The son answered, “I heard you in the driveway and I was afraid  because I got sick, so I hid.”

“How did you get sick?” the Dad asked. “Have you eaten the pudding in the refrigerator that I told you not to eat?”

The son said,”The girl you left here with me, she gave me some pudding from the refrigerator and I ate it.”

So the Dad said, “Because that grocery store sold me soured pudding, it is the worst store in town. It will end up failing in business and I will tell all my friends to never shop there again.”

To the sister he said, “I will take you to the hospital where they will pump out your stomach and it will hurt severely. Recovering from this won’t be easy for you.”

To the brother he said, “Because you listened to your sister and ate the pudding from the refrigerator that I told you not to eat, “The next week will be very hard for you. You will hate chocolate pudding from now on. The very thought of it will make you sick.

Did the Dad punish the children for eating the pudding?

Why did the children become sick? Did the Dad make them sick?

What was the curse on the grocery store?

Did the Dad reject the children when they disobeyed?

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Genesis 1 -->

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 1:15-16

Genesis 3

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
    and you will eat dust
    all the days of your life.
¹⁵ And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring^[a] and hers;
he will crush^[b] your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”

¹⁶ To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.”

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.

Did God punish His children for eating the fruit?

Why did they die spiritually? Did God kill them? What did?

What was the curse on the serpent?

Did God reject children when they disobeyed?

Our God loves humanity. Always has, always will. It is sin that brings despair and death. Our God brings only restoration, healing and life. 

Edgar Hernandez in Guadalajara

Edgar Hernandez is a great man who is proclaiming the message of grace in Mexico. After being forced of out of a large church, having been told, "Teaching grace gives people a license to sin," he began to share the message with a few individuals this past May. Today he meets with a crowd of hungry grace walkers in rented space every week. "I'll preach this message the rest of my life. This is the gospel," he told me today. This is the kind of person God is using Grace Walk Mexico to reach...

God Knows

As we move into the new year, this poem speaks to the core of our journey. When we don't know what's going on or where we're headed or how things are going to work out, one thing is for sure: God knows.

God Knows

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.
                                 --  Minnie Louise Haskins, 1908

(Thanks to Aron Cooper for sharing this on his FB page)