REVELATION 3:20: “ Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and I will sup (dine) with him .”

The invitation from Jesus to eternal life.

I love that so much of scripture is references the table.

We often have so many wonderful memories associated with holiday happenings, family dinners, and even just coffee with a friend at the table.

Jesus is standing as that friend and so much more, he is standing outside the door of so many hearts, gently knocking, calling by name the inhabitant of that house, calling through the door asking if he may come in.

Jesus is a perfect gentleman and that is the often ironic aspect to witnessing and ministering to people, the enemy has filled so many minds with the question of if God loves us why does bad things happen, well, think about it, bad things happen to everyone, bad things happen at one point or another to all living beings.

Bad things happened to Jesus, bad things happened to all of his followers and the entire host of all who have ever been.

Because bad things are part of the life experience of this earth.

This is not paradise, although that was the original intention when God created the heavens and the earth and Adam and Eve but with the fall of man, all things changed.

Lord’s will at some point I would like for us to go back through Creation in a couple of posts, but for sake of your kindness in reading this, for times sake we will do a background and the go to the passage.

God created the heavens and the earth from absolute nothingness, he spoke everything that is into existence, he created the sun, the moon, the stars.

He created the sea life and the birds and commanded it to abundantly multiple, each after its own kind, meaning species from species.

He called forth all the cattle and beasts of the earth, all creeping things, reptiles, insects, etc.

He then created man, he created him in his own image, from the dust of the earth.

You know something I love about this, is thinking about the dirt, the human body contains many of the same minerals and metals as common ground soil, phosphorous, magnesium, zinc, calcium, iron and many more.

And for the duration of our human life we must have specific amounts of these minerals or we will become very sick and in some cases possibly die, such as an iron defiency.

While that has nothing to do with this post, I think it is well worth a good pondering, it completely backs up the creation of Adam, at the time of the writing of Genesis, the scientific data for human bodies or soil composition did not exist.

God created Adam from the soil and then God himself breathed life into him and he became a living soul.

Adam was at that time immortal, he was never intended to die, he was never intended to be sick, sad, or sorrowful or any other condition of humanity that we find ourselves in today.

He then created the Garden of Eden and all therein and gave it to Adam to care for and eat from.

He could eat from every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good an devil, God warning that if he ate from it he would die.

God intended it to be a complete paradise and it was.

God allowed Adam to name every animal that he had created.

Water was provided by four rivers that flowed from Eden and God created mist to rise up to water the earth.

It was beautiful, it was paradise and it was perfect.

Every creature and every animal had fellowship and family with it own kind, except Adam and God in his compassion said that it was not good for Adam to be alone and decided to create a companion to him.

GENESIS 2:21-25: “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he woman, and brought her unto him.

And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: and she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave (cling) unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”

They were perfectly innocent, pure, happy, and in complete peace because sin had not entered into the picture yet.

GENESIS 3 :1-5: “Now the serpent was more subtil (cunning) than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.

And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

Now I always have to point out that in my opinion, this is not stated in the Bible as I have ever read, so know this is my thinking here but I believe they could communicate with all living beings until the fall.

Eve is having a conversation with this serpent just as one would with anyone and we are never told that she was shocked when the serpent spoke or given any reason to doubt the communication level in the garden.

But it does give us quite the warning about talking to the devil, especially in that he is presented just as the serpent, as the voices today encouraging all who will listen to do exactly what God said not to do.

God told them not to eat from that tree, one tree in the entire garden and he told them why because if they did they would die.

And nothing has changed.

We have the entire world full of beautiful things and goodness but as humans we tend to listen to that voice of the serpent telling us to go for what God has clearly told us would kill us spiritually.

It is that same voice twisting the words of God and convincing humans that even though he has given them everything he still has something he is holding back that they are entitled to and that somehow they are smarter than the one who created them.

She believed his lie and decide to take a closer look.

GENESIS 3: 6-24: “And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou (where are you)? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast (you that you were) naked? Hast thou (Have you) eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest (should) not eat?

And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest (gave) to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done (What did you do)? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art (you are) cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly thou shalt go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed (offspring) and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Upon the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all these days of thy life;

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.

And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Unto Adam and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now lest he put forth his hand, and take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

So he drove out the man; and placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim’s and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

That is the reason bad things happen on earth.

The serpent seduced Eve into disobeying God through the appeal of the appearance of the fruit, the pride of life in that it was desired to make one wise and to be more than a human, to be as God and that is much of the deception today.

We will never be as God, he created us, we did not create him.

ISAIAH 29:16: ” Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? Or the thing framed say of him who framed it, He hath no understanding?”

He was telling them in no uncertain terms in this verse that he did indeed see everything on earth and he knows all the secret plans, secret schemes and that all these human plans are nothing more than clay in the potters hands as he created us and we as created attempt to argue against that.

The serpent was cursed, it would crawl and be hated and symbolize satan.

Eve would suffer childbearing and sorrow and make no more decisions.

Adam would eventually die and turn again into the dust he was made from.

The fruit from the trees that he freely ate would no longer be available to him and he would now work the ground in toil, sweat, and tiredness for his food.

And the soil would work against him in bringing thorns and thistles and little else.

Eden was now shut to them, the beautiful life of peace, tranquility, and complete goodness was now gone and the wisdom that the serpent had beguiled Eve with was only the knowledge of physical and emotional pain, spiritual suffering and anguish in her body, sorrow in conception and reproduction.

Both their bodies now subject to disease, aging, and death and as the enmity between Eve and the serpent, the constant battle between good and evil on this earth.

I am sure not a day passed they they did not regret the terrible decision that they both made.

The wisdom she desired became only wisdom of heartache and the knowledge of suffering.

The animals and all of creation suffered because of the fall of man, animals would now fight, kill, and devour one another.

And as God had given man dominion over them they suffer also as Adam was kind and gentle to them but with the fall they became subject to cruelty at human hands.

Again every living being goes through bad things sometimes and that voice that tries to use those things to prevent people from seeking God or to outright blame God for those troubles is that same voice that spoke to Eve.

God did not bring on the fall, God told them not to eat of the fruit of that tree or they would die.

And that is exactly what happened when Eve listened to serpent and Adam listened to Eve when everyone should have only listened to God.

ROMANS 5:12: ” Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

Just as today, many still refuse to hear the truth because something looks good, or they are conned into believing that it will make them smarter, prettier, or more popular when in the end once the enemy has accomplished his purpose with that temptation they will be left with only sorrow and knowledge of that suffering in things they now wish that they did not know.

Because that is what sin does.

God in his mercy and love made clothes for them from the animals he had created, again more heartache caused by this as it required the death of the innocent.

Ultimately the death of the most innocent of all.

Jesus Christ the Son of God.

The fall of man and the separation from God could only be corrected by the reconciliation back to God.

And that required sending Jesus to this earth as a sacrifice for all the sins of mankind.

He is the perfect, spotless Lamb of God

Only through him can we be forgiven of sins and washed in his blood redeemed back to the Father and one day in the afterlife be restored back into that blessed state, even better than Eden.

ROMANS 5: 17-19: ” For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of gifts of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto the justification of life.

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous.“

Jesus paid the ultimate price, but he did it out of love, he loves us so much that he came to this earth and died for us.

One who had never sinned, never not one time, and he took upon himself the sins of the entire world so that we could be free.

I hope this has helped to understand the age old question of why things happen and where is God in all of it, I tell you where he is, he is standing at the door of hearts, he is gently knocking, asking to come in.

But it up to us whether or not we answer the door.

He gave us all free will which goes along with the argument and accusation of why he doesn’t do this or that, well people should try living for him and asking what he may want them to do.

This world is not going to be perfect.

It is a fallen world and the only way out of it is through Jesus Christ.

One day everything will be perfect, one day no one will ever day again, no one will ever hurt again, and all things will be made new and beautiful.

But until that day God has given us Jesus and once we open that door to him, he really does come in, into your heart, your soul and no longer do we live this life alone, Jesus lives this life with us.

As he walked in the garden talking with Adam, his presence will walk with us in this life and make this life so much better but no one can ever actually understand that until we let him in.

Maybe you are saved and committed to Christ, but circumstances in life have made you question, question your faith and question his love for you and that leads us to withdrawing from him, when we need him the most we often run the farthest.

Adam and Eve hid from his presence and that is last thing we should do when we are struggling.

It is those times that we need his presence the most so open that door to your heart.

Welcome him and talk to him as a friend, invite him to sit at the table of your heart and tell him all that is on your heart, all your fears, all your troubles and allow his presence to give you peace in the middle of it all.

PSALMS 16:11: ” Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in they presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.”

Love & Peace to you today!

Φλογιζω NBJ 2026/ Rev. N Brown Johnson