Beware of the SNAKE!

I was reading again in Genesis and the account of our great, great, ....... grandparents, Adam and Eve. You know it is interesting to me that God had created them in His image and He came each day to walk in the garden and commune with them. What a privilege! What an honor! That the King of Kings would take the time to come and listen to them and encourage them and share together. But as it happens today, they began to listen to the SNAKE! They begin to get their eyes off of what they did have and what they didn't have. They thought they understood things better than God. They thought surely there was something better for them even though they lived in Paradise. The more they listened to the SNAKE the more deprived they seemed. And then, before you knew it, SIN had entered the garden. That place of peace and perfection, that place of unity and godliness, that place where heaven met earth. It didn't matter how many times God had come in the past to commune with them, it only took one wrong choice to change it all!

Does this sound familiar? Does it sound like the world we live in today. We as Christians have the privilege of God walking and talking with us each day. He listens to us, encourages us, and shares with us when we take the time to stop and let Him. But just as our ancestors many days we choose to listen to the SNAKE! We let him convince us that we don't have enough, or our life is not good enough, or other people are better off than us. Maybe he tells us that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Maybe it's that you don't have to live so close to God and be so faithful and so dedicated to the Kingdom, there is plenty of time for that and plenty of people to fill the gaps.
When we listen to the SNAKE, sin usually enters in. Sins not only of commission, but of ommission as well. Things that we know we should do we don't have time for. Things that were once important to us now are not a priority. I shiver to see what the future holds as Christians are losing their love for God and the things of God.

The Bible speaks of the fact that in the last days even the very elect will be deceived. I have often wondered how that could be. But the more I see "Christians" and their lack of dedication and faithfulness to God, their lack of compassion for the lost, their concern with their own wants and desires the easier it is to see. I believe soon Jesus will come and some church people will not even realize it because they will be still worried about who got their parking space or sit on their pew. God forbid that we have let the SNAKE into the church house.

My prayer is God please draw us back to that place of communion with you and a closeness with you that we don't have time or desire to listen to the SNAKE! If we don't listen to him we won't do as he bids! God, make us strong and more dedicated in these last days. Help all of us to know as Tommy says-Church must become more about those who aren't there then those who are!