Ron And His Stories

This finishes the story of how Eden became paradise lost. This passage is found in page 2 of my NKJV Bible, page 3 of my NASB Bible, and page 5 of both my VOICE Bible copy and Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) text. I noticed that the VOICE didn’t line up with the Hebrew of how this passage was originally written. I thought it was interesting, but I don’t like how humans forfeited Eden and we’re now stuck in multiple cultures in which work is more valued than relationships are. To hopefully bring people together, though, I talked to a friend of mine about going up to northern Arizona to chill on a boat for a day or two. I also want to invite about eight other people to do this. But neither of us have a boat. Someone in our church might, but if no one has one, my words just show how badly I suck at planning. And I plan to have the ten of us go on an entourage of some parts of northern Arizona next May; indeed, I think it’s a good time to submit my vacation request for that. (It’s early/mid-January at the time I write this 😅) I still work at Fry’s, and I’ve been there for a year, now, so I am able to submit my request for one, now. Thank God for unions that still exist!

On another note, I once heard that Adam and Eve weren’t sent away from Eden as punishment, but to avert a tragedy of living forever and knowing good and evil without God present lest none go to Heaven until the Last Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15), however, I don’t think God was interested in withholding good from anyone. It’s not as though He hands out a prize only to make you crash into a wall or something. But now that I mention it, someone may be saying among the teachers that God did this both to protect and withhold… I don’t think that’s true. If God were to protect someone from life, He’d be anything but good. Why it seems like a good getaway is elusive to everyone, I don’t know, but one thing I know is sure: it shouldn’t be elusive to anybody. Also, I should mention that God intentionally left the sentence in verse 22 unfinished — I think He was unwilling to picture a world in which humans could live forever but sin without stopping. But it does remind me of what Voldemort did in the Harry Potter series to try to avert death for himself — weird how he killed enough people to make an army of Inferi (Dark creatures in the fantasy world). Harry Potter himself did deliver Voldemort over to his own defeat by simply blocking his spells… for the Elder Wand didn’t work for him, seeing that Harry Potter owned it… none of us knew.

It’s pretty cool if we can see the end from the beginning, but since most of the world doesn’t know the end of the Bible story (and anyone of us who does know it can be brutalized into thinking of something else and be fixated on it), anything that tries to help seems like random chance, and it’s also as though we can’t get an answer on time. If God’s timing is planned in a certain way, and if I can see it, it would be fine, but I simply cannot think about sovereignty. There’s a teaching in the Church that speaks multiple theories about it, and it is the reason why the global church community is, for the most part, apostate (with few exceptions, but apostate means “one who turns from a faith or religion”). I don’t want to say too much, but I can mention that sooner or later, Satan strikes back with his own teaching whenever a saying of freedom is (re)discovered. Jesus said that the truth makes free (John 8:32), but Satan is so successful that we feel as though nothing can work… will Jesus ever be glorified again? Well, the good news is, though, I heard about a billion-soul harvest in which a billion people across the world get saved almost simultaneously, but I don’t know when that’s going to happen. I do believe it’s part of Bible prophecy, though. When will the Rapture happen? We don’t know…

See you in chapter four!

I loved Christmas this year, for I got to experience it with my niece, who encountered Christmas for the first time ever! She considered my gift of some Mega-Blocks her favourite, out of many! How blessed of a man am I?! 🤩😍❤ We went to her great-grandmother’s house again this evening for dinner, and while she was pretty overwhelmed with the whole thing, she was at least comfortable on her mom’s lap. (Her dad is my brother.) My mom was in Tucson, but I didn’t mind because I was able to enjoy some good gifts from her, both for today and tomorrow, when I turn 28. (Fun fact: I was born at 11:11 a.m. that day.) We also saw some Christmas lights in some of the neighborhoods near Bee’s house (that’s my niece’s name), and it was very fun, but she was asleep the whole time, so while she’ll be able to see some more for another two or three weeks, she’s not very impressionable, so she isn’t able to remember a lot right now. But not many infants are. I know I don’t remember anything about my infancy.

We also made a gingerbread house (though Bee didn’t take part in it; she’s still learning how to use her arms and legs), and it took a while, but we got it done. I was going to watch The Last Jedi for the first time at their house (Bee and her parents), but we knew that traffic would be high after Christmas, but really, I didn’t want to smell bad around Bee because I didn’t bring a change of clothes, I have work tomorrow, and I sweat badly while I sleep. I want to keep the gravy train of good memories going. Indeed, it was already after 10 p.m. when I found the movie on Netflix. But while we were driving home where I’m writing this now, we took the 202 eastbound in northern Mesa, and a live version of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town” was playing on the radio. Needless to say, I think I saw God in that moment, for my brother and I understood that life is really about a journey, and never really a destination. Once we took our exit from there, we traveled south for several miles, and it had no median the whole time… until we got close. I truly believe that we should enjoy the journey to where we’re going in life. My brother is 22, and so someone can criticize both of us for being Millenials, but I think God is on the move with our generation, and I think my niece can understand and love these truths we’ve learned one day, too. I also told him about a theory I discovered about Smash Bros., the Nintendo-exclusive fighters genre franchise. You can find the video that came our recently on YouTube… or better yet, just click the link here!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this one. Merry Christmas, friends!

It’s Christmas Eve as I write this, and I won’t make it long, but let me just say that many of us never think too much about this account of a covering being akin to Jesus on the cross for all people. I don’t have much of a clue why, but I know that a lot of people who claim to know the Bible don’t know any of the books’ names. Even so, it is refreshing to go to church this Christmas Eve night. It was about Jesus’ birth as usual, but I heard nothing concerning anything non-traditional, yet it was good for me to take communion (with bread and grape juice… yeah, our church doesn’t serve alcohol 😅) for a change. I’ve had a lot of hard feelings about church in general for several months; in fact, if it weren’t for the Two Rivers Awaken ministry, I wouldn’t even be going to one! I think it’s because I’ve heard things I can find in churches where Calvinism and other loveless doctrines are preached and encouraged. I don’t know how to react. I hold nothing against them; I just wish I could focus on Jesus and enjoy Him while hearing ANYTHING from a speaker. It’s also made it hard for me to read many Bible passages — note of irony: I’m writing on a difficult chapter that for some reason is easy for many to accept 😂😂😂— I actually feel sick sometimes just thinking about it.

What we don’t tend to think about is what many other people around the world are going through this Christmas time, from intense persecution in nations where Jesus is declared “illegal,” to poverty-stricken communities, to prosperous but expectation-driven regions of the world — the list is endless. I heard Band-Aid 1984’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas” song many times before, but it wasn’t until nine days ago that I heard the lyrics for myself, so it became a favourite for me. (Yes, I spelled “favourite” like how it’s spelled in other English-speaking nations around the world, don’t judge me 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣) I’ll leave you this video for the song to get there from this post 😊

Anyway, it’s pretty cool how God not only spoke a promise of humanity’s redemption, but almost in the same breath, gave Adam and Eve clothing to wear so they wouldn’t be embarrassed. I think everyone who accepts Jesus as Lord and Saviour will have clothing in Heaven and New Jerusalem so no one sees them naked. I don’t think pornography is a good idea; too much abuse happens as a result. Thank God for Fight The New Drug!

Of course, the holidays can be hard for many people, but it doesn’t have to be a difficult season. I do wonder why expectations haven’t really decreased in my culture, though… but all insanity explanations aside, merry Christmas from me and my roommates to you!

P.S. I forgot to mention that this passage is found in page 2 of my NKJV Bible, page 3 of my NASB Bible, and page 5 of both my VOICE and Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) translations I have.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you this: the explanation of an unfortunate curse of what man and woman did to everything once they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (see verse 6). As a result, none of us can live a life that honors God if we don’t have the Holy Spirit living in us. And I do mean “living” as like having a permanent address, you know, living in a house or an apartment or college dorm. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t charge you anything to abide in Jesus. I don’t think we should charge God anything, for He does what He wants, right? But all gifts are good that come from Him (James 1:17). And He won’t break your heart, either. We shouldn’t do anything to break His heart ourselves.

The six-verse passage is found in page 2 of the NKJV Bible I have, pages 2-3 of my NASB Bible I bought last year, page 5 of the VOICE copy I bought 23 months ago (January 2017), and in pages 4-5 of my Amplified Bible that I’ve had for a few years, now. In verse 15, we find the first promise of Jesus Christ, the Anointed One to save the earth, when God said, “He will bruise and tread your head underfoot” (AMPC) to Satan. I also just noticed the content of the verse before He said that; I think God put enmity between all demons and all humans. And it’s crucial we see it as such. But in verses 16-19, there are some brutally painful predictions of what every human being goes through without Jesus, at least in marriage and work. Thank God I never have been married yet, nor had I been employed nine years ago last July when I became Christian (my first job I received June 2017, though my start date wasn’t for another two months). I don’t want to be a dominant dirtbag to my wife, single or otherwise. Unfortunately (and you’ll find this often both in and out of the churches), women are told to submit to men, and a man can actually forget what he’s in a marriage for. Shouldn’t we give ourselves to our wives? But it would be much appreciated if they did the same for us. I won’t make mine do it — I’m still a single bachelor anyway 😅 — I just hope there’s mutual love between us both in the future. As it stands now, though, I don’t have a lot of good finances in my life. I want to bless my wife one day, and I want to be free of debts by the time I even ask her out. I also want to oppose abuse in every way, shape, or form, even the ones I don’t know about yet.

I notice that what God said to Adam in verses 17-19 is the same for everyone else, for even though He didn’t curse the ground or anything to make any human’s life miserable here (nor did He curse Eve; I think Satan has wanted to indoctrinate as many guys as he could), reality bites harder than a hundred thousand piranhas on your skin while you’re swimming in the Amazon River. I actually don’t think anger is something I can accept when it’s about anything but injustice. And even then, I don’t think it’s worth it to hurl insults at someone.

On anger itself, though… I don’t think that’s part of being a human being, even if you’re male. I know someone can declare this heresy, but I disagree with them completely. (A heresy is a teaching that knowingly contradicts something truthful.) I’m a man myself, and I’ve never liked the whole “to be a man is to be angry” thing. But I don’t want to talk about this — instead, I’m rather shocked that gender division is still happening. It’s 2018, this should’ve been put far behind everyone when Christianity was becoming more and more popular in the world. Yet for some reason, people crept in unnoticed and started twisting the truth in greater and greater capacities. I feel like we’re at a point where the Church could lose its meaning forever. It was written in the Scriptures that we are the light of the world as Christians, not bearers of darkness pretending to be light!

(Awhile later…) Wow, sorry, I just realized I was still writing this post! I was on Facebook 😂😂😂 — I have many things to say against godlessness being encouraged in the Church at large and outside of it, but I can’t fit it all into this post, so I’ll speak later. But tomorrow night, get ready for the first story of God’s provision for humans after the Fall of Man, as this chapter is traditionally called.

This note on the VOICE is pretty straightforward (it’s found on pages 4-5 in my copy), and since many of you probably already know about this (even though I don’t think a lot of people will read this over the next several months), I don’t need to explain a whole lot about them. But I will say this: a lot of things written in the Old Testament actually bear fruit for death, just as Paul said in Romans 7 — yet he did soon write that these writings aren’t even sin (verse 7), which is pretty funny, because I didn’t know that something giving awareness could be both good for you and make lots of craziness happen at the same time. I hope not to spend a lot of time in the Old Testament anyway, since I find that there are lots of good things to write about once I reach the New Testament. But I am doing the notes in canonical order (from Genesis to Revelation without going backwards even one verse), and, spoiler alert: this will take a long, long time, probably ten to fifteen years… I don’t know. It could take more than 20 or even 30-50 years. I could reach my 80s without having finished this. But I won’t get into any particular timeline or anything beyond this chapter now…

However, what I think is problematic is when someone uses a Scripture like Ezekiel 23 to preach death and condemnation in every form one can imagine. I get that there’s a lot wrong with the world and there are probably some nations that won’t survive the next ten to fifteen years, even with God’s help in trillions of butt-loads of provisions (for He never fuels anyone’s greed), but no one needs to say that God’s going to condemn someone. It’s despicable. It’s heinous. It’s unbiblical, dare I say. I do enjoy going more in-depth into something, though.

Finally, I should mention that I’m writing on this note before I make another note about a Bible passage because I want to remind whomever’s reading this that Jesus isn’t the Author of death (Satan is the author of death, yet he’s been disarmed by a longshot; see Hebrews 2:14), but He is the Author of life, and His eternal life is to everyone who accepts Him (for He died and rose again for each person); plus, it is stronger than anything Satan is able to do. Even offence doesn’t stop Him indefinitely. But it can be a huge stumbling block to anyone who crosses its path.

See you later in Genesis 3! (Don’t worry, I’ll speak of a good provisional message on Christmas Eve tomorrow night.)

Hi, friends! It’s been over a week since I’ve written on here. I’ve been coming up with something I can consider good (but particularly what the Holy Spirit wants me to write), but it’s just hard, since this is one of the most controversial chapters in the Bible. And, spoiler alert, you won’t see this for the last time. I sent a link of my previous post to a friend and she liked it 😊 — also, this passage is found in page 2 of my NKJV and NASB Bibles, pages 4-5 of the VOICE Bible copy I have, and page 4 of the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy I bought long ago.

I won’t get into who blamed who a lot in any of this, because, let’s face it, it’s a total waste of time. I’ve been blamed of a lot of random things growing up, and it continued into my adulthood by a large extent — I think it was a spirit of blame or even Satan himself going after me since boyhood. I pray against it and rebuke him in the Name of Jesus!! Of course, we know that Adam and Eve disobeyed God, but we don’t know why. Yet I don’t think it was unforgivable what they were doing, though the legacy they made resulted in many horrifying things, including bad immigration laws trying to keep out foreigners that are trying to find safety here in the U.S. (There are people that are offended by this, but I don’t care because I’m ruthless 😂😂😂) Anyway, this is the first episode of shame that had happened as we see in the Bible, seeing that Eve probably was insecure about something. I don’t know if it was a womanly thing or not, but I guess the answer is for another time. I also pray that my niece, Bee, doesn’t get any evil spirits following her anywhere. It’s not worth it.

In verse nine, the Lord God said to Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” — though He know where they were very well. I think He was interested in having a conversation with them there, but He felt the first-ever disconnect from humans that day, too. Also, I think I should mention this now… the Lord God goes beyond gender. We call Him “He” because “She” would only refer to females, and men and women need each other. It’s not “God the Mother” or anything, you know? It’s weird how some congregations picture God as if He were female — yet His love is better than life (Psalm 63:3). Also, the content of verse 11 is worth mentioning; God says, “Who told you that you were naked?” Any ideas as to any reasons why God said this other than the disobedience and loss of connection thing? Let me know in the comments or in person (or by Facebook Messenger or Instagram direct), because I’m not putting this on any social media site. But Eve is right about the serpent deceiving her — I don’t know how it happened, but I can’t spend any time investigating the root causes of the fall of man.

The next several verses are difficult, and I don’t want to get a view in which it would be corrupt; plus, it’s easy to manipulate those next six verses — it’s easy to manipulate many parts of the Bible, unfortunately — and I want to be in the right mind when I write on the next several verses, so bear with me, now. Will I write on them next week? Well, here’s some good news: I don’t have work until next Wednesday, and Christmas is a paid holiday that everyone at my Fry’s store is taking! Now that’s some good news! But tomorrow, I’m actually going to church and I might hear a message or two over the next few days there. I’ve begun to have hard feelings about churches in general over the last two months, but I’ve been more than willing to come to my Two Rivers Awaken group since I first found out about it five years ago and when Jesus called me into it six months later. Have a question why these hard feelings have existed before? Ask me in the comments!

Hope you’re having a good Christmas so far! (Yeah, this is a weird place to be in during late December…)

Here, we see that Satan contradicts the Lord more than once. God recompenses him for this in verses 14-15. We’ll get to it in a short or long while (whichever my work week permits in the seven days following Saturday — there’s still no schedule yet due to busyness), but to see this scene in one of the first chapters in the Bible is one heck of a plot twist. The premise of the entire chapter and what God says to us is fairly straightforward from our standpoint, but Eve had no idea what on earth the devil was plotting against her and Adam that day. Neither of them should have given in to him. But I don’t want to talk about anyone’s sin right now. Yet I will say this: what a lot of churches say you deserve, what many unchurched people (Christian or otherwise) say you deserve, and what God says you deserve are all three different things, and to an extent, their theology can actually contradict each other. Personally, I don’t believe that God says any one person has never deserved a chance to know Him. That’s impossible. For Jesus’ sacrifice on His cross makes it possible for anyone to accept Him. I know I won’t add to it, nor will I take away from it. I think this is biblical to believe.

To give you some background information on how Satan became so crafty, the story is simple: he was created as Lucifer, but literally deified himself and got his followers to abandon the Holy One and rebel against Him (Isaiah 14:12-14). There are other Scriptures that explain this in other ways, but so far, the only three others I know of are Ezekiel 28:12-19, Luke 10:18, and 1 John 3:8. And since he has succeeded in tempting Eve to eat the fruit so that Adam would do the same, all of us have been enslaved to him, until Jesus died and rose again. Yet not everyone knows about this, nor is everyone saved, seeing that hate and idol worship is huge in this world still, even in the tail end of 2018. And sadly, not everyone has a human preach Jesus to them in this life. Thank God that He makes up for it by trying to get others to recognize Jesus by good teachings, though (Romans 2:14-15). And I know what you’re thinking, “It’s a pretty weird teaching to believe,” but you know how some people are with overtly blasphemous things like the idea that God didn’t create someone for salvation or that condemnation was set for them before time began. They’re those types of people who do many hateful and godless things and say nothing but problematic statements (for the words out of the mouth is the abundance of the heart; see Matthew 12:34), and if they don’t get their way even in the slightest forms or ways, they throw a fit and manipulate many to accept them. Sometimes they can lie about being friendly to you. They do this to everyone. Don’t entrust yourself to them.

At least, though, the food in the garden was good, and I’m sure God was willing to grow more. Even with this terrible incident (verses 6-8), He made more vegetation happen. But death was included by means of Satan’s power. Funny how the tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden to everyone. I think God wanted them to love Him without them getting worried about what can happen. But do you think Adam and Eve would have succeeded in staying in Eden (see verses 22-24) if Satan hadn’t gotten to them at all? I don’t really think they would’ve sinned, to be honest. People have told me that even without Satan, Adam and Eve were still capable of disobedience due to the free will that God had gifted them with, and that people don’t need Satan to be enslaved on every occasion, in essence, but they didn’t want to disobey Him… or at least, Eve never wanted that. Satan tricked her, didn’t he? (See 1 Timothy 2:14.) I don’t know what Adam was thinking. But we’ll get into the ideas of men and women in the next post!

P.S. I forgot to mention that this five-verse passage is found in page 2 of both the NKJV and NASB Bibles I have, and is also found in page 4 of both the VOICE and Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) translations I had bought about three years apart.

This took a dark turn real fast. The serpent meanders to Eve for some reason (turns out it’s Satan, see Revelation 12:9), deceives her, then she and Adam eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Indeed, perhaps only a day or two had passed between their creation and this sad event. (This chapter is found in page 2 of my NKJV Bible, pages 2-3 (Old Testament) of my NASB Bible, and pages 4-5 of both the VOICE and Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copies I have.) The theories that surround the reasons why are many, and each are as far-fetched as the next. While I don’t want to explain any of them, I will say that I once heard a message from a staff member of ASU CRU several years ago (ASU CRU is the student ministry I was a part of during college) — she said Eve was afraid, and Satan could smell fear. I don’t know about the fear thing, but she probably did have questions about her marriage. I know I don’t want to make any woman I tie the knot with (if I have the chance to do that) question her sanity with any questions.

What I’m about to say won’t be found in many churches across the world and will probably get people angry, but the idea that sin comes from people and only people to omit the reality of demonic influence that Satan had started is a lie from Satan himself. This false teaching has been imprinted on a Bible translation at least once, and that adds to the Word of God, and He won’t forgive anyone who does this (Revelation 22:18-19), for it is a way to reject Him. I speak like this because it is one way to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and spoiler alert: this won’t be the last time I speak against a sin that rejects Jesus according to His Word in Matthew 12:31-32. There are many ways to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, but thank God blasphemy against Jesus can be forgiven. It’s not as though one can reject Him by accident, either. But if you fear you’ve done this and want prayer that you get close to Him, rest assured in the fact you haven’t done it. I’ve feared this before myself.

As I read this chapter in the four translations I mentioned earlier (by the way, I’ve finished Hosea in the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) and am up to Matthew 16 in the NASB), I’ll make more and more notes on it. But I won’t get divisive with anything… yet as I read the footnotes of page 5 of the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy I have, I’ve already found something divisive in footnote e in Genesis. But I won’t get into it now. Besides, it’s not as though God would blame you for something and heap up and actually enjoy condemnation on you or someone else. The one who made the divisive comment on footnote e is dead, though, and he’s in Hell for his godless comments he’s made over the years. Psalm 53 tells us that atheism is a way to reject Jesus, too, but I don’t think we should judge who’s reprobate and who isn’t. No one’s mind is supposed to work like this. Oh, and by the way, I don’t speak of a kind of atheism that is someone saying they don’t believe in God (though that’s still not good), but I’ll get to what the man said in the next chapter. For now, though, I’d like to take my time through this one and get some rest should things get hairy. I have almost 30 hours of work this week, so I don’t think I’ll write much for awhile (I don’t know next week’s work schedule, but they’ll post it on Thursday). I had found the divisive comment two years ago when I began reading that Amplified Bible translation anyway. Such things can only come from Satan himself, but in this case, he spoke through someone else. I don’t know why it was imprinted in the translation I have now or even on the website you can access that translation in.

Also, we were cursed with dreadful stuff as a result of eating of the forbidden fruit, but I really don’t think this should be translated into something unkind. Those who are trying to find the Lord Jesus and want to know Him don’t deserve such hate. Verses 16-19 are indeed some of the most difficult to translate into anything one in his/her right mind can accept. I won’t get into it here, but I love how God made some fur clothing to provide a better covering for Adam and Eve in verse 21. But He kicks them out of Eden so that they can’t live forever. For unfortunately, God was broken-hearted, and it is likely He forgave no one that day, but I don’t have a concise answer as to what exactly happened in their hearts except that shame had won. So Eden became paradise lost, and even to this day it is still closed. No one has ever taken a picture of it, though I think there were paintings of it in the past, but it is probably invisible, too. I just looked up “tree of life” on Google, and none of the images describe it to a satisfying extent. I don’t think those are real “trees of life.”

I’ll make notes on some individual verses or passages in context later. Like I said, this might take a while.

I’m making two posts on this because there are two central things happening here: creation and companionship. God said it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone (verse 18), so He wanted to make Eve out of him. Thank God their relationship was perfect that day, and their marriage started off with nothing going wrong.

(This passage I’m writing on is from page 2 of both of my NKJV and NASB Bibles, page 4 of the VOICE copy I have, and pages 3-4 of the Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy I bought years ago.)

I think we as early 21st century humans and Internet content viewers often forget the necessity of social connection. I know I don’t often remember to call someone (though I know most of us are often busy with life). But over time, I’ve found that the culture puts work over relationships. I don’t want us to do that. Yet I know work is a good thing; I just wish we could make much more in half the time we put into our jobs. I know I enjoy my job at Fry’s, but I’m not interested in becoming a workaholic. Indeed, not only do I want to be a good man to a woman I want to marry one day, but we also need friends.

Also, I find it hilarious that God just took a rib out of Adam to make Eve (verse 21), so that she could be his partner for everything. I want to be a team player for other people. The thing is, though, I’ve been single for ten years this month, and I’m not sure where I can meet anyone to create adventure with. But I have debts to pay off, so I don’t think I should concentrate on women right now. Fortunately, I had already paid one of them off before I started this blog, and two more are soon to be eliminated forever. The rest I think will take years, but I pray I don’t care about myself more than Jesus. It’s not right if we’re not trusting Him with our lives, for without Him and His care and provision, we go badly astray. Thank God I’ve been willing to get those debts paid off since day one of finding out about them. Let’s just pray they never come back once I’m done.

Verse 24 is quoted in Ephesians 5:31, but I believe that a man with his wife are supposed to be a team. Also, here’s a controversial opinion: I do not believe that the verses on submission and headship across the Bible (e.g., 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, Ephesians 5:22-33) are speaking of the Lord’s perspective; the Bible authors were speaking of worldly perceptions. I don’t know why they wrote that, but without this interpretation, bigotry is freely embraced and the people have their conscience strengthened so that they could abuse and exploit others, not to mention that they would even preach racism basing their messed-up opinions on the Scriptures as if they encouraged those divisive beliefs. Like I said, I want to be a team player for others. It shouldn’t matter to anyone what skin color or gender they are. I mean, my niece’s mom is from the Philippines, and so is her family. Funny enough, though (here’s an interesting fact), that land was formerly under U.S. ownership, but in 1946, they gained independence. I’m glad they are around. I pray for that nation to have revival (repentance and faith) in huge numbers. A majority of them are Catholic, but not a lot of people actually believe the Lord God. It’s actually pretty scary when you consider the fact that corruption is very high there (it’s high everywhere, I guess), but at least every generation can learn from their ancestors’ mistakes, no matter how insane.

The final verse in this chapter speaks of Adam and Eve (she was named thus in Genesis 3:20) being naked and unashamed. They probably didn’t see each other’s naked body parts until they were married (they didn’t need a room, since no other humans were around 😂🤣😄😅😆😜🤐), but whatever. What does it mean to lay our souls bare before the Lord Jesus? Why do many of us have a hard time being real? It can be scary, but we don’t need to keep secrets. There’s such a thing on keeping a low profile about something good but hard for many to accept, though. I never want to offend anyone, yet I know offences are inevitable sometimes (Luke 17:1a). But no one should make an effort to offend someone (Luke 17:1b). Fortunately, though, God won’t grade you on how well you do things. You’re no worse off if you don’t get a particular job, nor are you any better off if you eat only organic products and exercise like mad. But God does care if someone tries to use freedom to offend others, and also if someone tries to limit your freedom in the name of being considerate. That’s actually happened to me when I noticed that people can be honest yet offensive, and also, someone has tried to make me believe I was doing the same thing before. Offence wasn’t even on my mind, though. Sadly, truth in the latter scenario is hard to find almost every time. I don’t want to post any details here, though. Indeed, I’ve found before that offence is a weapon that can be so powerful it literally does in or enslaves even the strongest of people, and can actually prevent God’s hand from moving in people’s lives. For instance, do you know the story of the paralytic in Mark 2? Jesus came to show God’s glory one day, and four men carried a crippled man over the crowd and through a roof! Now that’s pretty amazing, don’t you think? Jesus was thrilled about the faith of those five people in Him, and the paralytic was healed that day. But some scribes called Jesus a blasphemer. I think, as a result, Jesus didn’t heal anyone else in that crowd that day, for God was offended at the scribes’ words. It would’ve been awesome if more miracles happened in that crowd that day. (An elder at my church helped me see that truth in one of his messages a few years ago.) At least, for the most part, miracles are an easy thing for Jesus to do, that is, until you see a crowd who is prolific about causing offence and loving to brutally rob others of their innocence. I can say from experience that if you see an entire community behaving like this, the only thing you can do is to leave and not look back. It’s not worth it to fall away like they did. Sure, you can pray for others there, but it wouldn’t be good for you even to speak to most of them, for in spite of a small minority of Christians in any community, should offence get the upper hand, it’s not good for anything. But I still believe that God will have the final word, for even when an ugly ending happens to something, He can replace those bad memories with something better.

See you in Genesis 3… boy, this one will be a doozy.

This NKJV title for the passage of Genesis 2:8-25 I will make two notes on. I think it’s only fitting that I don’t go overboard with information or amount of notes; it was the Holy Spirit Who told me this, I think. I also like the idea, for I never want to cause friction by going to the sins recorded in Scripture too soon. I just watched a YouTube video about the top 10 dark moments we missed on Nickelodeon when we were kids, and eventually teens. I won’t get into the details here; I won’t even post the link here. I want to be appropriate for some of the younger people reading this (though things get ridiculously sordid in some of the later chapters/books, but don’t worry, the Bible app is T-rated; 13+). I never want to get unsafe for the high school students or younger when I say or do anything. We shouldn’t frighten or offend them.

Anyway, this ten-verse passage is found in page 1 of my NKJV Bible, page 2 of my NASB Bible (Old Testament), pages 3-4 of my VOICE Bible, and page 3 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition). And here’s a side-note (I don’t think I mentioned it in the first chapter); I will not be commenting on all the notes in the VOICE Bible I have, but I do wish to be respectful when I see something out of place with God’s nature and character. This is lacking too often these days. But Jesus said to love your enemies (Matthew 5:43-48) — I think He said this so that even the most warped hearts can see the good in you and love Him and other people, knowing that first of all, none of us can save ourselves; only Jesus can do that, and He did, nearly 2,000 years ago when He died and rose again. For when we took the wrong route in which of the fruit of the tree to eat in Genesis 3, God said in His heart, “I’m not worried, for I have a plan to redeem humanity. I’ve known this since before the beginning, and people can never sin too much to be unable to accept My Son.” I’m sure you’ll have a hard time seeing this, but I don’t think God wants anyone to go to Hell (Ezekiel 18:32). It’s not His desire to see someone go down to the grave without eternal life from Him. I do know that in between verses 17 and 18 of the VOICE Bible that was first published and released in 2012, someone wrote that God “realized something was lacking.” Weird, huh? But I pray for this editor; hopefully he/she can believe that God knows everything and isn’t mad about this.

There are four rivers spoken of here, one being the Euphrates (see verses 10-14). It’s situated in modern-day southeastern Iraq. I don’t know why God put the beginning of life and man there, but I think you can ask Him and He’ll lead you to the answer; maybe not in this life but if you have Jesus as Lord and Saviour, you can get a reliable answer in Heaven. We’re supposed to pray that God’s Kingdom comes, and also that His will would be accomplished, here on earth as it is in Heaven. Of course, there’s often some resistance, but I don’t think you should be hostile to anyone who does resist the Holy Spirit. No one needs hostility; it almost prevented me from even becoming Christian. To make a long story short, I didn’t even know I wanted the eternal life I’m now grateful to have, nor did I know I was missing out. Church had been rather useless, seeing that I didn’t grow up in a church that believed the Bible and the Holy Spirit’s Word. After I ran into a lady from a college ministry, I met many wonderful people, and am happy to have most of them on Facebook now. I haven’t talked to many of them, but a lot of bad stuff happened years down the road, but I don’t write off anyone as if God couldn’t love them. That’s impossible. I’d rather not think about my past; I instead want to be happy with the job I now have. I didn’t graduate college, but I do hope to pay off my debts one day.

One more thing: the Lord God prophesied that man would eat off of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but when He said that death would be introduced, He meant that one would die spiritually — and so death would soon spread to all creation, seeing that none of us always avoid making mistakes of many kinds (Romans 5:12; James 3:2). I briefly wrote about this in the beginning of my fourth year at Arizona State (I didn’t take many credits/classes over the years), but I wrote on only one sticky note there. Not to worry, though, God didn’t change His character when man did eat off that forbidden tree. His love lasts forever. It can be easy to picture Him as if He was watching your every move, waiting for you to mess up so He can strike you. I don’t believe that’s what the Bible teaches, as if He did those things. Also, keep in mind that most of what happened that was later called the Old Testament took place across nearly 16 centuries. So it’s not as though God was quick to judge, either, nor would He be like this today. For He never changes (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8), so His patience for all wins every time (1 Timothy 1:16). Besides, He loves freedom of choice — He said Adam and Eve could eat of any tree except that tree of knowledge thing, though He gave them the option — freewill is a good thing; I think He gave all people this so love for Him wouldn’t be slavery or something. Of course, you know what happened after that, but who knows? Would things be different if the serpent hadn’t come to Eve in the first place?

Sound off in the comments!

To be continued…