Meta-narrative

• Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool … Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart … No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Meta-narrative

Creation

FALLRedemption

• God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul! Then God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. He put the Man he had just made in it. God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground, trees beautiful to look at and good to eat. The Tree-of-Life was in the middle of the garden, also the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil… God took the Man and set him down in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order.

Genesis 2:7b-15

• God commanded the Man, "You can eat from any tree in the garden, except from the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don't eat from it. The moment you eat from that tree, you're dead." Man names all creatures God makes but does not find a suitable companion.

Genesis 2:16-17

• The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal GOD had made. He spoke to the Woman: "Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?" The Woman said to the serpent, "Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It's only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'Don't eat from it; don't even touch it or you'll die.'"

• The serpent told the Woman, "You won't die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll see what's really going on. You'll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil."

Genesis 3:1-5

• When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she'd know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate. Immediately the two of them did "see what's really going on"—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves. When they heard the sound of GOD strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from GOD. GOD called to the Man: "Where are you?"

Genesis 3:6-10

• He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid." GOD said, "Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?" The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it." God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?"

• "The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate.“

Genesis 3:11-13

God’s Creation was GoodAnd

All became Polluted

Romans 5:12…sin entered the world through one

man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people,

because all sinned.

World-view

Freedom to chooseand

Rebellious posture towards God

Deuteronomy 30:19This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and

your children may live

World-view

Self-relianceand

Inability to do what we want to

Romans 7 23-24I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

ShameFear

BlameAnger

Spiritual dimension influencing usand

Weakness for being Deceived

2 Corinthians 11:3But I am afraid that just as Eve was

deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

World-view

Consequences to sin are REALand

God still chooses relationship with us

Hebrews 4:13Nothing in all creation is hidden from

God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom

we must give account.World-view

Back to you and me… in 2011 !

- Rebellion?- Shame, fear?

- Self-reliance?- Restoring Intimacy?

- Need for a Savior! True North