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Brave Day 15
When Brave Isn’t Enough

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Read His Words Before Ours!

I Corinthians 13:1-3
Genesis 3:1-13
Isaiah 29:15-16
Luke 18:18-30attachment-1-17

“We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.” – André Berthiaume

“We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.” – Patrick Rothfuss

Perhaps there’s no greater example of the above quotes fleshed out in the Bible than a couple who intentionally chose their masks and ended in death.

Enter Ananias and Saphira. Their intentions looked good, it was the perfect mask: give money to the church from a piece of property they sold.
Their masquerade: pretending to boldly give themselves away for Christ.
But their deviousness found them out.
Faking “Brave” will never work.
They sold the property and decided to keep back some of the profit, but chose together to tell the Apostle Peter (and God) that they were giving the entire sale amount to the church.

The stage was set and the script was written, the two were all in. The property sold, the money came in, and Ananias came to Peter and told his bold-faced lie…and Peter, with the help of the Holy Spirit, saw his deception as clear as day.
He confronted Ananias and the man fell to the ground dead.
Three hours later, Saphira came looking for her husband and told Peter the same story, only to end up breathing her last just as her husband had.

The thing about this deceiving duo is that they didn’t suddenly decide to boldly lie while pretending to live bravely.
They hadn’t been living authentically all along and then the idea of lying about their property suddenly showed up as an option.
Masquerades had become their life.

Maybe it started innocently enough. A stretching of truth here, a white lie there, or a covering for oneself when they felt cornered until eventually, the lies became easier to tell than the truth.
What once may have felt ill-fitting, was now like second skin, like a mask one had worn for too long. Eventually, they probably even fooled themselves. They looked like they really cared about the church. Probably looked like devoted Christ-followers. They were clearly involved in church life and were on a first name basis with the apostles. But somewhere along the way, they wrapped themselves in lies as they pretended to follow truth.

Starting to squirm?
I am.
I know there are times when lies are easier in my life. When chasing after the truths of Christ are a lot more work than just floating along, fading away into my own perceptions and setting up my own definition of truth, little by lethal little.
Masks are easier to wear than we’d like to think, but are always more deadly than they appear.

Remember another liar? The first one?
Yes, the Enemy Satan. His deception kick-started humanity’s descent into eternal separation from a Holy God.
Death.
Which is why our loving God set in motion His plan to send Jesus as our only possible redeemer because He Is Truth.

Masks aren’t brave.
And the God who died to restore our hearts to His,
longs for us to take them all off
so He can bring genuine, true redemption.

Lies are blossoms rooted in Death.
Truth is solidarity grounded in Life.

Brave appearances will only get us so far in life and will get us nowhere with God.
We can show up to church each week,
serve at the homeless shelter once a month,
give to charity at year’s end,
and it will all look great on paper.
But Jesus teaches that brave living without true love, is meaningless in the end.

No amount of kind deeds, encouraging words, or ornate masks we put on can cover up our fatal flaw….
we are dead because of sin.
Dead without Christ’s life.
Bravery can’t fake life.
Only Jesus’s transformational true love can bring about a bravery that brings abundant life.

I’d like to challenge you to re-read Ananias and Saphira’s story again and as you do, think about the masks you wear, the lies you parade in your heart, and beg God to make you new!
Christ-follower or not,
You can’t fake bravery before the Righteous God.
We all need to be made new!

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Day Four
Desperate To Return: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper posts are intended to help us go farther into God’s word than a simple surface reading
and are designed to help us discover new tools in the process.
Curious as to why we Dig Deeper? Here’s Why! 

The Passage

Looking for yesterday’s Journey Post? Check out Desperate To Return!

Genesis 3

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’?”

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 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.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool[c] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for[f] your husband,
and he shall rule over you.”

17 And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”

20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.[g] 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

My Questions

1) What tactic does the serpent use to convince Eve to eat the fruit of the tree?

2) Why did God ask “Where are you?” when He already knew the answer?

3) What does Scripture say about how Adam and Eve felt after their choice to disobey God and how did their actions towards each other and God change because of that?

4) Who is the “Us” in v.22, I thought there was only one God?

5) In the last part of the chapter, what kind of relationship do Adam and Eve have with God?

The Tools

A trip to www.studylight.org is in order here.
We will get super cozy with this site as we study Scripture together!
Just type in the verse you’re looking at and Boom!
It’s right in front of you in English and Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament), which are the original languages the Bible was written in.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse?
Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want to get more background on a word or phrasing or passage?
Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

The Findings for Original Intent

1) In v.1, the serpent is described as “crafty”. Crafty in the original language means just that sly, shrewd, and subtle. The serpent in his crafty wordplay takes what God intended to be good and leads Eve to a place of questioning God’s motives in setting a boundary with the tree. When the conversation is over, Eve moves from understanding God’s boundaries to questioning God’s boundaries and motives. In v.6, Eve sees that the tree is good and the fruit is delightful to her. A subtle lie by the serpent plants the seed for sin and lust in the eyes of Eve.

2) God knows exactly where Adam and Eve are both physically and spiritually. There is no doubt what events have transpired in the Garden. God, despite what He knows is still pursuing Adam and Eve. He loves them enough not to leave them in their shame and sin. He is seeking them out even though they are hiding from Him. God desires relationship and communication and is giving them an opportunity to stand before Him.

3) In v.8, Adam and Eve are hiding. In v.10, Adam says he was afraid of God because of his nudity. The first part of the conversation is between Adam and God. Two emotions that have never been a part of creation before have now entered: shame and fear. Adam and Eve are shameful and hiding but are also afraid of God. Genesis 2:25 says Adam and Eve felt no shame. They had no knowledge of shame until their choice to disobey.

As that conversation continues in v. 12, Adam blames Eve for what has happened. When God confronts Eve she blames the serpent. The relationship between man and God now has enmity and shame and the relationship between husband and wife has blame and finger pointing. None of which existed before the Fall.

4) “Us” is a plural word referring to more than one person. Although it is a bit tricky with this verse, this is one of the first references to the Trinity. The same reference is made in Genesis 1:26 where God is speaking about the creation of man and says, “Let Us make man in Our own image according to Our likeness…”. God is one yet with three distinctions in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

5) Doing a little word research on the word “drove out” in v.24, the definition implies that God intended to expel, cast out, divorce, thrust away, and drive away Adam and Eve from the Garden. The relationship between man and God had changed for all eternity. Man is now separated from God and relationship is permanently severed. Well, at least for a little while until a Savior, in the form of a perfect infant, comes on the scene.

Some Applications for Our Everyday Lives

1) Check out how that crafty serpent leads Eve’s train of thought! We can so easily be tempted to question God, question His motives, and question His commands. We don’t sin by questioning, but by letting our doubt dictate our actions. For Eve, the delight for the fruit, the lust in her eyes and heart, lead her to make a fatal choice. 1 Peter 5:8 reminds us to “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Think about ways you may be trusting your own understanding instead of God’s and ask for His truth to be made evident so you can cling to it!

2) God’s pursuit is eternal. The moment the Fall happened, God begin pursuing His creation to make things right. He sacrificed His Son in pursuit of relationship with us, to rectify the gap between man and Himself. Romans 8:38-39 describes the type of pursuit that God has for us in that, “…neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” There is no sin too great for the pursuit of God. In other words, there is no past, no sin, no brokenness, no hurt that is beyond His redemption! 

3) With the Fall came death and eternal separation from God. With that separation comes fear (not the good kind), shame, and blame. This ugly trio shows up in our own lives! In our sin there is shame, blaming of circumstance or blaming others, but with Christ, we can free from that ugliness! Shame is not part of our eternal destiny once we accept Christ and live in relationship with Him. Turn over areas you identify as shame and let Christ’s freedom unlock you from Enemy territory!

4) The Trinity a word that you will never find in Scripture. Although the word itself is not there, evidence of the Trinity exudes. We know that God is one, 1 Timothy 2:5 states, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” This is just one example of the delineation of the roles of God. God the Father, Abba…God the Son, Jesus the Perfect Sacrifice and Risen Lord….God the Holy Spirit, our Helper and prayer warrior until the Son returns. Take comfort in the fact that the One True God is complete and all encompassing as He guards our hearts!

5) When we read this passage, there is a temptation to stop and think the story ends there. That is powerful truth of God and His Word….the story just begins there! The entire Bible is written as a love story. It tells of God, the one True God, desiring to restore what was broken. All throughout the Old Testament we see God sending “saviors” for His people in the form of prophets and judges because He wanted to restore our relationship with Him. God desired to fix the problem of broken humanity because He knew in and of ourselves we could not. The Fall represents our brokenness, our shame, our need for God to make it right….and He does at the cross! If you’ve invited Jesus to be your Savior, you don’t have to live in the past, instead dance freely in the redemption of your return!

Want To Try It For Yourself?!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read through it (always more than a verse or two).
3) Write down your questions as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers.
Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes
(click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and
embrace the fullness of God in your everyday!

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Desperate! Don’t miss out on the discussion – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? See all past studies in Desperate!