sin – Fourth Day Adventures

Continuing the discussion of the Paradise plays performed on Christmas Eve, the evergreen tree (green) was decorated with apples and white wafers tied to the limbs.

The apples represented the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Was the fruit in the garden an apple? No, but it was the fruit they had available. The bible does not give us any description of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The fruit represents mans rebellion from God. Eve wanted to be a god. She believed Satan’s words and she ate the fruit. Then she persuaded Adam to do the same.

I find it interesting that the result of their sin was their separating from God. He walked with them each day, but this time when He came they hid.

God takes the pair and removes them from the garden and allows them to know both Good and Evil in their life. Before they had only known what was good. Now they knew suffering, pain and death.

Back to our tree. The actors placed white wafers on the tree. These were unblessed eucharist to represent Christ whose birthday they would celebrate the next day. God stepped down from heaven to be born a baby in a stable. He lived and taught and loved the people around HIm. Then as a Passover Lamb He was sacraficed to cover the sins of all who trust Him as Lord of their lives.

We now have red, white and green–Christmas. They would leave the tree up for Christmas day adding sweets and treats for the children to find in the morning.

Meditation

Spend time looking at my life and the times when I am in Rebellion from God. Look at where I may say the words, but I am not living like I believe him. Or I want something so I make excuses to justify what I want.

Prayer

Pray for forgiveness of specific sins and ask Christ to help me have true faith–to believe all He has said.

Action

When I see the Christmas colors of red, green and white, I will stop and thank Jesus for stepping down from heaven and for giving HIs life to cover my sins and build a bridge back to Him.

And there the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my insignificance and pitied my youth and ignorance. And he watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.

One minute Patrick is walking in a field and the next invaders flood down on him. They snatch him up with thousands of his friends and family. Patrick ended up in a part of Ireland as a slave.

The change in his life caused a change in his awareness of God. So often this happens with nonbelievers and believers alike. Trouble has a way of waking us up to our need for God.

The teen now a slave and alone. The people captured with him having been dispersed across the lands. Memories of Sunday services and maybe a grandfather’s sermon reminded him of the Lord who loved him. Patrick says that in this experience he became aware of his unbelief.

Even as a Christian, I have been drawn back to God and drawn closer to the Lord through rough events. Some times it is only through trials that we can learn to lean on God. We learn what it means to actually trust Jesus. It’s easy to say you believe when you don’t or to act like you trust when you never have. Times of trouble provide an opportunity for each person to see if their faith is all talk or if it is real. Looking back on my life almost all my growth in relationship with God has developed in the mist of trouble.

Patrick realized through this experience that he never had a personal faith in Jesus. You can not become a Christian until you are capable of looking at your past and being honest. This is where we find Patrick. He acknowledges he has not been trusting Christ. He admits his sinful ways. He turns to God and trusts him for the salvation of his soul. Jesus becomes Lord of his life.

Patrick as a slave became a slave to Christ. He no longer was tied to sin but a servant of righteousness.

^Roman6:18Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Nothing will ever be the same for Patrick.

Tag: sin

Christmas Colors Are Christian

Opening a Mind