The Language of The Fall

        Proper biblical and spiritual understanding has more to do with  knowing how to think , rather than knowing how to  behave.

        And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them. ( Nehemiah 8:12 NKJV ) As a faithfilled victorious remnant returns to the land of their forefathers not only were many in this generation unfamiliar with the country of their ancestors, so to were many unfamiliar with the doctrines and teachings of their God and deliverer. As humans we must never underestimate the power of knowledge and information to influence our belief system. ( both good and bad ) In the case of these Jews whos families were caught up in the Babylonian captivity 70 years previous 34,000 returned to the land of their forefathers out of  God  only knows how many who actually chose to remain a part of the pagan Babylonian culture.

        As with the existence of Adam ( it of course being the body of death in Romans 7:24 ) so to then must exist  the mind of Adam , and the resulting language of Adam which includes the perceptions and motives of this fallen frame of reference. For all aound us is in reality the faithless deceptive outlook of life in this world. For however much the Adam nature genuinely claims to know, ( through even the good side of the tree of knowledge )  it also includes a multitude of blind spots especially regarding the ever important eternal issues.  The apostle John writing of Jesus Christ in the first chapter and tenth verse of his gospel says, ” He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him “. In each case the greek word for world in this verse is ‘Kosmos ‘ which primarily means order, arrangement, ornaments, adornment. How astonishing a fact that the creator of this world would not be recognized by those He created to occupy it.  As if in the truest sense from the time of the fall a disinformation as well as misinformation process was started whereby the present and future occupants of the earth became foreigners to the one who had their best interest at heart. Indeed, Satan, using every means available, has gone to great lengths to arrange and order this world in a fashion that it almost seems like there has not been a fall, nor even a need for redemption on the part of the fallen. Nonetheless, the human soul and its ultimate destiny remains the focus of Satans strategy, and that strategy is dependent on blurring the details of what awaits those individuals who do not embrace Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior!

        Whereas the spirit of this world ( Kosmos ) goes to great lengths to both obscure the need for salvation, as well as attempt to convince us that we can ” fix ourselves and our world “, the holy spirit seeks for us to instead ” look away to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith ” ( Hebrews 12:2 ) In the following verse the writer says, ” lest you become weary and faint in your minds “. Not unlike  the Jews taken captive to Babylon who after so long chose to remain despite the opportunity to leave having become available, we , even as believers in Christ, can exercise our souls ( minds ) in a similar way whereby we accept this alien world , rather than creatively declaring and teaching the victorious finished work of  God in Christ ( not to the exclusion of the full counsel of Gods word ) that the unsaved as well as the saved would learn a spiritual language other than the one found in this hope deprived world.

        In the beginning of Numbers chapter 14 we begin to see the results of the faithless reports brought back to Moses and the children of Israel by ten of the twelve spies sent into the land that God wants for His people. Though as the doubt filled reports spread throughout the congregation not even the encouragement of Caleb and Joshua ( the two spies who trusted in the Lords word concerning  the land ) could keep the people from hearing the all to familiar language of the defeated, as opposed to learning a new heavenly language comprised of faith and victory.

O.N.RIDER is seminary educated and living in Baltimore MD

Personal encouragement: Read more books rather than watching to much television !

All devotionals of The Hour Glass by O.N.Rider can be found at http://bc3f86.wordpress.com/