Genesis 2:15-25

Genesis 2:15-25 15 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." 18 The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Malachi 3:7-9 7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord Almighty. "But you ask, 'How are we to return?' 8 "Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How are we robbing you?' "In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse —your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Today's two passages are about the tithe. The words and their meanings are powerful. We must be careful to understand the meaning and use words properly. We see here two separate passages but are they related? The tree of knowledge and the tithe. When two people are in love is there equality or is there a difference in status between the two. Is there not a time for both equality and distinction? Today's society has lost it's way because we have failed to follow these distinctions. Why does this happen? It is because people follow their desires and the self has become god. When people serve a god do they do things for their ow pleasure or do they try to please their god? If we serve the living God then how should we worship Him? Is it according to our desires or is it to please Him? We worship the Most High God but we do so according to our desires. God gave Adam everything but with only one restriction. You have been given evrything to you by God, but he tells you to restrain from one thing. How does one know that they are servant to someone unless there is a restriction? Isn't that the tree of knowledge? God is showing you His power by setting a limit. It is this line that we crossed that separates us from God. In the conversation between Eve and the servant we seethed the servant added things that were not true. She fell for the lies. Is this only the fault of Eve? It is also Adam's fault for he is the be who taught Eve as her husband. God did not make a covenant with Eve, God did so with Adam. Who is responsible? Can we not see that Adam must have shown Eve the way of conversation and failed to do so properly. We fail to see everyday the limits that God puts to us so that we can be blessed, but we refuse to follow these limits and do all sorts of reckless things with our speech and actions that ultimately spit in our own faces. If we realize that everything belongs to God and that we are only moving in His presence then giving Him His tithe is easy. When we fail to realize this then we become robbers of God's tithe. If you really want to meet God then you must live according to His word and His laws. The law is the guideline to how to live properly. In the OT the law was for us to follow the guidelines set before us through our actions, but the NT became even more difficult because God was now letting us know in plain truth that He was looking at our hearts. Jesus says that He came to fulfill the Law. That means that the OT and NT are one and the same. Do you really love God? Then obey all the laws with love. Do you really love your spouse? Then love them and do all things out of love and be one. Love covers everything, but when you become the focus there is no love. Instead of following the path set before us, you complain and grumble to God about everything. You are never satisfied and always find something to argue about. Why did God make the tree, why did he make us tithe? You refuse to obey and it is not about what God did, it is about your selfish desires. God tells us to do so many things but we refuse, and the things he tells to not do, we do, is this not like eating of the tree? Are you not living according to how you want and not obeying God? Are you still eating of the tree everyday and dying? Are you living according to what pleasesGod or to please yourself? You can kill people through speech, written word, lies, curses, etc. the things that you say can either kill someone or save them.hg We fail to see how important the things we say are so powerful, but we would rather live easily and do things for our pleasure. Are you trying to please God or aree you trying to please man? If you please God you will successful in everything but we refuse to do what He commands and try to bring God down to our level and do what we want. When you live in love you are free from the law because everything you do will be out of love and not fear. The problem is that you do not do things out of love, you look at the law and are bound by the fear it causes and cannot live the life that God has given to you. We cannot live our lives by changing the word to fit our lives but we must change our lives to fit according what God desires. Let us look our lives and see what we must do so that we can be victorious in living the life that pleases and glorifies God.