I'm trying this again; reading through the entire Bible in a year with the help of the YouVersion app. This time, I'm trying the Canonical order, so there's less to read and so it's easier to understand. This week, if you're following along with me, we read through Genesis 1-24. I started the plan on Wednesday, July 18th.
There's lots of things I could talk about in the past week's reading, but the thing that stood out to me the most was in the third chapter, when the serpent tempted Eve. I've been reading a book called "The Screwtape Letters" by C. S. Lewis, about how the devil tempts and schemes to get you on his side. It's been a real eye opener. This battle is a battle of the mind and of the heart, and one of the enemy's most effective weapons is words.
Notice how in chapter three, verse one where he closely quoted the words of God, but altered it just slightly to be harder to notice. Eve picks up on this, however, and corrects him. But the serpent didn't stop there. He acknowledges the correct words of God, but then he adds to them, saying what God didn't say and what wan't true. "You will be like God," he says.
We deal with this exact form of temptation every day, when we hear someone quote the Words of God inaccurately, or changing it to fit what they want it to say. Or when a group of people or even an entire church change the Words of God to fit their own agendas or religious traditions. We have to know the Bible front and back, through and through to avoid being lead astray by those who would have us follow them instead of Jesus.
How much of this could be blamed on our desire to be more like God? That's the one thing the serpent said that finally got Eve to respond, when he told her she could gain some knowledge that would make her more like Him. I've been into lots of churches that hold on more closely to their traditions than they do to Jesus. I've met people who think they can earn their way into heaven by being a "good person". This thinking is so dangerous. We are taking the power away from God to save us, to take us to heaven, and acting like it's something we do. We can't possibly do something only God can do with our feeble human actions. We can't let ourselves be trapped by the devil's lie of works and not faith.
I'm happy that I've decided to read through the entire Word of God this year. There's still so much I need to learn, and so many things I need to defend myself against as I get older. If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to let me know. Thanks. :)
