Exposing Our Real Enemy

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Genesis 3:1-5)

Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden and succeeded in his mission to get her and her husband to sin. And this happened despite the fact that Adam and Eve had intimate fellowship with God. As we look around our world today, we see the devil still tempting humans and on a worldwide scale, primarily through the Internet and social media but also through broadcast media and just daily life. He tells lies and half truths to billions of people and he does it non-stop. He aims to lead all people into sin and keep them in unbelief by convincing them that the path to real happiness is through fulfilling the lusts of the eyes and of the flesh. Real happiness, he preaches comes through fame, fortune, and feasting, not from faith or obedience to God.

Many Christians fall under the sway of his lies for they are spoken not by a snake, but people many admire, the cultural idols and icons of our day: professional athletes, politicians, scientists, scholars, talking heads, and Hollywood celebrities. Sometimes it seems even we Christians trust and worship them more than we trust and worship Jesus.

We believers are called into a Spiritual conflict. In this war, we do not use cultural, social, or political means that are espoused by so many credentialed academics, politicians, and experts who lack faith in Jesus. As we learn from Genesis 3, our adversary Satan the devil is crafty and cunning. He tempts us with lies and half truths just as he did with Eve. He tempted her to question the Word of God, convinced her that what the Lord had said about death resulting from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a lie. He appealed to Eve’s pride. She desired to be like God, to know all things. And so did Adam. And so do we all.

Sin is a failure to believe that God is trustworthy and true. We believers must be on our guard through prayer and fellowship with other believers. We must be in the Word of God every day because to fight the spiritual battle we are in, we cannot ignore what God has said. We must place our trust and faith in Him alone. And teach others to do the same. The Lord God, unlike Satan, is always true to His word. https://trinityhicksville.org

God-ordained Marriage

“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’” (Genesis 2:18, ESV)

Our culture now proclaims the legitimacy of marriage between people of the same sex. In addition, transgender ideology has become the norm. People feel it is okay to choose one’s gender. And Transgenderism and gender fluidity spawn all sorts of permutations regardIng sexual identity. Add this to a culture which has long condoned and praised extramarital and premarital sex and we find ourselves wallowing within a morass of sinful confusion and chaos.

This ought not to be: God has provided mankind with the truth about sexuality here in Genesis 2. Regardless of how one views this passage as literal or figurative, (I believe the former) the Lord uses it to teach a theological lesson about the fundamentals of life. For one thing, God has created male and female as the only two genders. That is all that is needed. All humans are born as one or the other. This is how God has ordained it. We cannot change it by our choice or by governmental regulation.

It is also obvious from this passage that the only sexual relationship the Lord sanctions is between one man and one woman in marriage. Woman is the only real helper God has created for the man. She is designed by God as the perfect helper or companion. The Lord placed her in the garden as the supporter of the man. She alone answers his need, for she alone is his true counterpart in creation. And this perfect and blissful union is fundamental to God’s creation. Two become one flesh. God is three in one, but in marriage, two human beings, one man, one woman, become one. And since human beings are made in the image of God, like God, this union is unbreakable, or should be. Only in such marriage can we experience true intimacy.

Genesis teaches us that God created sex and created it good, but it is good only if it is used in the way He intended it. Those who think the primary purpose of sex is pleasure maintain that they can do whatever they want with their body. They either do not know or choose to ignore what God’s purpose is. But when sex is used in a way contrary to what God has ordained, it is sin and will always produce harmful results. Yet people in the world are unwilling to think about these results and deny that there is any harm. They are unwilling to accept the consequences: AIDS, other STDs, unwanted pregnancy, abortion, depression, emotional turmoil, dysfunctional families, and suicide. Only by faith in Christ can we find forgiveness for all sexual sin as well as the strength we need to overcome our sinful desires. https://www.trinityhicksville.org

Greater Things!

“Jesus answered him, ‘Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.'”(John 1:50-51)

As Jesus began His ministry, He called two disciples, godly men who were close friends, Philip and Nathanael. Both men were seeking to hear the word of God and apparently were eagerly expecting the appearance of the Messiah, no doubt influenced by the teaching of John the Baptist. Nathanael revealed his skepticism and frank honesty with his proverbial response about prophets and Nazareth. His words were what Jesus referred to when they met, a man without deceit. Nathanael knew that Jesus’ knowledge of his words was miraculous and said so. 

Jesus promised the two disciples that they would see even greater things. The words Jesus spoke referred to the vision of Jacob of God’s angelic ladder in Genesis 24, an awesome reference which would have astounded the two men. In Genesis 24 Jacob proclaimed that God dwelt in the place where he had slept and he called it Bethel, the House of God. By applying such a reference to Himself, Jesus was asserting His divinity, that He is the dwelling place or House of God. He is God. 

Would that we would respond to God’s words with such wonder and awe as did Philip and Nathanael! Instead we pay heed to political rhetoric, pop songs, literature, actors, media pundits, and films and give them more credence and praise to them then we do Almighty God. We think human beings are capable of such artistry, talent and wisdom, most of which is wasted on self glorification, and therefore useless and vain in the Kingdom of God. Far greater and far more spectacular are the words of God which reveal the lovngkindness and splendor of God in Christ Jesus who reveals God to us. What He has said and says to us is far greater and more beautiful than anything human beings could come up with. Anything and everything He has to say is essential to life. All that He says must be heeded. Why look for guidance, joy, or comfort elsewhere? Trinity Lutheran Hicksville

Light in the Darkness

“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:3-4)
The word Genesis is derived from the Greek and means beginning or origin. Thus, as we are to expect, it speaks of the beginning of earth, of all life. This first chapter speaks of Almighty God and His work of creation. His first act was to create light to separate it from darkness. The darkness has always represented fear and evil to human beings. We fear for it conceals untold dangers and terrors that may be lurking around us. God comforts us with light.

Yet emotional and spiritual darkness are even greater terrors, so fearful that we all try to hide them from the light. We all try to hide our sins, hatred, and malice in the darkness of our hearts. We hide them from our fellow human beings because we want to be liked and respected. We hide them from God because we fear His wrath.

But God tells us in this opening act of creation that light is a blessing. Light holds no fear. His light reveals all that we hide. His light can lead us to faith and repentance for, although God created all things for His own glory, He created man to be the focus of His glory. Genesis speaks of the beginning of the human race as well as the origin of sin. And most importantly Genesis speaks of the beginning of God’s work of redemption in which He called one race of people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to bring salvation to all mankind. This He would do this through the God-man, Jesus Christ who is the Light of the World.
Trinity Lutheran Hicksville

God Is.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2)

As the Bible opens, it makes no attempt to prove the existence of God. The words of Genesis 1 presuppose that He exists and declares it to be a fact. It asserts that God is the ground of all being and reason. There is no apology or explanation given for His existence. He is. If we are to make any sense of the Bible and the world in which we live, we must accept this as a given. The Bible presents God as the Creator of the universe and everything in it including man. He preserves and sustains all life and is personally interested in the affairs of men. In the Bible, man is led to relate to God in a way that acknowledges his need for Him. Man must be accountable to God, to obey Him, and to depend on Him for His daily needs. 

Yet man does not always choose to obey God. The man who does not obey does believe in god, but not the God of the Bible. The Bible describes this person as a “fool”, a term that is not applied to an atheist since there are none in the Bible. The fool may rationalize or create a god of his own, one that he can manipulate. Ancient men made gods in their own image so that they could live in a way that allowed them to do whatever they pleased. They could live outside of God’s holy standard. Modern man does the same by denying the existence of God altogether. But there are no real atheists. One god many worship is “science”. Science explains all the events of the natural world. Science gives us a measure or control over life and promises happiness, wholeness, peace and prosperity.

Another god many worship is “self”. Modern man has set up each individual as authority and interpreter of all that is. This has led to the acceptance and tolerance of a myriad of competing and contrary beliefs about life which has produced spiritual anarchy. Every man does what is right in his own eyes rather than acknowledge that there is one Almighty God who declares absolute truth, who demands obedience, One to whom we are all accountable. And He has shown Himself to be loving, compassionate and merciful as He has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus.

Trinity Lutheran Church