Do NOT try this at home...

We had been watching a steady diet of the Science channel yesterday and most specifically "Outrageous Acts of Science". While I am amazed at some of the experiments and risk people exhibit in their attempts, I chuckle when I hear the narrator say, "This in incredibly dangerous, do NOT try this at home." Same disclaimer is always mentioned on the show "Mythbusters".

The narrator might as well have said, "Oh, go ahead and try it; see what happens."

The same principle applies here on this 21st century TV show that was present that first day in the Garden of Eden. Tell me to NOT do something and already my mind is devising a way to do the aforementioned deprived action. It is human nature to push the envelope of right and wrong, good and bad, safe and unsafe.

"The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the

LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat

from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

(Genesis 2:15-17, NIV)

It is good to note God's initial instruction for living in the garden was given to Adam....and not Eve. We assume that Adam shared God's commands with his wife. (Scripture doesn't actually say this happened however.)

God told Adam the following: Here is everything you need. All you have to do is NOT eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I will give you a helpmate and partner, one who completes you, and one who is compatible for you.

Fast forward to Genesis 3 and all 'hell' breaks loose. The Fall follows us everywhere we go. Yet, for all of its curse, our lives in Christ are insulated from death and eternal suffering.

I wonder how many people have lost their lives attempting a feat of daring simply because someone said, "Do NOT try this at home?" Why is it so difficult to walk within the lines of God's commands and enjoy the benefits (gift) of communion with the Holy One? You realize that God always provides an escape hatch when we are faced with sin. Right? It is possible to walk in unity with the Lord?

"Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:4-10, NIV)

The challenge from 1 John has always seemed too high to achieve and yet, God's word is true. Is it possible to walk in holiness and avoid the temptations of sin? YES! Whatever you do, do NOT try to walk as a holy child of God....