Clear instructions
A Lenten Journey
For Lent, I’m going to follow the Lectionary readings for both Principle and Second services – and see where we get to:
Genesis 2:15The LORD God put the man in the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to look after it. 16But the LORD told him, “You may eat fruit from any tree in the garden, 17except the one that has the power to let you know the difference between right and wrong. If you eat any fruit from that tree, you will die before the day is over!”
Genesis 3:1The snake was sneakier than any of the other wild animals that the LORD God had made. One day it came to the woman and asked, “Did God tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”2The woman answered, “God said we could eat fruit from any tree in the garden, 3except the one in the middle. He told us not to eat fruit from that tree or even to touch it. If we do, we will die.”
4“No, you won’t!” the snake replied. 5“God understands what will happen on the day you eat fruit from that tree. You will see what you have done, and you will know the difference between right and wrong, just as God does.”
6The woman stared at the fruit. It looked beautiful and tasty. She wanted the wisdom that it would give her, and she ate some of the fruit. Her husband was there with her, so she gave some to him, and he ate it too. 7Right away they saw what they had done, and they realized they were naked. Then they sewed fig leaves together to make something to cover themselves.
God is quite clear. There is just one thing man and woman cannot do. Can they manage it?
Well, it all looked so good. God wouldn’t know. Who says it’s no good for us? How much harm can it do?
And so begins the story of Easter. The beginning of how God needs to make right what human being have got wrong.
At the start of Lent, lets take some time to pause, to think, to recall.
What have we got wrong?
What do we need God to put right in our lives?
We’re on a forty day journey of exploration. Of allowing God to reach us, to touch us, clean us, make us grow. Are you coming with him?
Lord
you gave clear instructions.
But we thought we knew better.
Sometimes we long for the things we should not have.
We come to you in honesty
and acknowledgement
of when we’ve got it wrong.
This Lent
may we face where we are
and turn to you.
Lead us,
teach us,
strengthen us,
forgive us,
and may the promise of Easter be ours.
Pam's Perambulation 
[…] God is anything, he is the one who knows the rules – he made them. Returning back to Genesis – there was just one rule – and look where disobeying that has got us. If we are […]