Day 2760 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Genesis 3:9 NIV

How long? How long will we continue to live under this foolish assumption that we can somehow hide from God? How long will we follow the well-trod paths of a fallen humanity deeper into the abyss that is sin? How long will we set blinders upon our hearts that lead us only into selfish depravity? How long will we live as if we're free to do anything and yet still feel the need to hide much of it? How long until we accept the truth that we've spent so many years running away from?

There's always this wonder in my mind. I wonder if I'm just gone, off on this wild tangent through life that makes me see things that others don't notice. I wonder if I've somehow gotten lost within this realm of faith that's pulled me so far from ordinary that I can't help but view society in a different light. Often times I wonder if I've managed to get things all tangled up and if all this thinking I tend to do has only managed to cause me to read too much into things, or if maybe I envision issues that aren't really there.

But I've been thinking about how violently our society has wandered from God's design. What started in a Garden has been forgotten, replaced with a wasteland void of hope or peace or even sanity. Our human nature is one that relies on a lack of humility, a fear of the truth, an adamancy to do things our own way, a pride that blinds us to our mistakes, a vanity that clouds our grasp on reality, and a blatant lack of respect for anything greater than ourselves. And we just ignore it all.

We keep trekking through the downfall with this mix of disillusionment and disconnection that somehow keeps us adrift in this middle ground where we know things should be better but we don't want to try and make them better. We watch people walk by with so much sadness or anger in their eyes and yet as soon as they've walked past we've forgotten them. Society just keeps on walking away from Eden thinking that we've found something better that yet requires us to ignore all the problems and pitfalls we've created.

"Where are you?" You see, God knew where Adam was in the Garden. It wasn't that Adam had managed to evade the all-seeing Father. It wasn't that Adam became the first and greatest hide-and-seek champion. It wasn't that God for a moment didn't know something. It wasn’t that God lost the ability to see Adam, but that Adam had lost the ability to see God. God knew where Adam was as he hid among the trees. God knew that Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree He told them to stay away from. God knew that their eyes had been opened to the truth of good and evil. God knew what was coming. But did Adam know where he was?

Did Adam know he was fleeing from the only love that he could ever hope to find? Did Adam know that he started something that brought shame, sorrow, remorse, regret, embarrassment, humiliation, anger, discontent, and disconnect? Did Adam know that he had taken the first steps down a path of sin that mankind would continue to travel upon onward into eternity? Did Adam know where he had gone and that there was no coming back?

So much of the time we read through Scripture as if reading any other book. They're just stories about the lives that other people lived long ago and far away. But if we don't seek the lessons, the wisdom, the guidance, the purpose of those stories then we miss the plot. If we don't put ourselves in that book and imagine those scenes and invest ourselves into being there then we miss the personal growth that those pages are meant to bring.

"Where are you?" Where have you gone? What have you done? Why are you hiding? Why are you ashamed? Why are you scared? What lies have convinced you that you need to flee from God? What life are you living, why are you living it, what do you want from it, what are you doing with it, where did it come from and where is it going?

The sad reality is that humanity has been on an ever-diverging course away from God ever since that apple. We've set our hearts to hiding from God, fleeing in shame from the reality of what we've done and how ashamed of us He must be. We've taken hold of every single lie that tells us we're not enough, that we're lost, that we're broken, that we're worthless, and helpless, and should never dare show our face around Him again. We've chosen to live as vagrants on the run from the home that we so desperately wish we could return to.

As we discussed yesterday, someday we'll be unable to hide anymore. We cannot go on forever avoiding the presence of God. Truth is that we never have. We've never managed to do anything He's not seen. We've never hidden anything from Him. We have never been able to fully break away from the truth that He planted in our hearts. We may think we have. We've lived like we have. We've spent years pretending that our choices and actions have not been witnessed by His eyes and that our words have escaped His hearing. But it's all a foolish lie meant to keep us believing that we've managed to avoid the punishment we know we deserve.

See that’s the problem we’re facing here. Our hearts, though broken, lost, deceptive, and confused are still aware of the truth that God planted inside. And thus we hide. We hide from reality. We hide from others. We hide from ourselves. We hide from God because we know in His presence lies the inescapable truth that we’re long fled. We hide in this attempt to convince our hearts that that small voice inside is uttering nonsensical rubbish that’s only trying to dampen our fun and decrease our excitement in life. While in reality we know we should listen that saving call to turn back to God and stop living as fools.

So again I ask, how long? How long will we buy this lie that we can hide and do as we please and pretend that nothing is off limits because God can't see us? How long will our society play this suicidal game with sinfulness that is heaping up suffering at the finish line of this life? How long will we shove God to the side and live as if He's not as big and powerful as He claims to be? How long can we honestly keep living this lie that tells us we can evade Him forever?

Friends, this world hates reality because reality is built on a truth that is entirely inconvenient to our sinful nature. But we can only run from God's truth for so long because as I said yesterday, life is circle, not a straight line. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. That which was fashioned from the ground will one day return to that ground. The breath God breathed into our earthly lungs will one day take a final breath of this temporal air and ignite on the other side of eternity. One day we will stand again before God. Will we do so as arrogant fools still thinking there's an out? Or will we kneel as humble servants desperate to hear "Well done"?

There are so many undeniable facts in life: The world is running away from God. Society has chosen the path of sinful depravity. The road is wide and easy and comfortable and lavish and popular that leads to death and many are finding it every single day. And the road that leads to life only seems to grow more narrow and lonely as the rest of the world continues on chasing those lies that have them blindly thinking they're outrunning God. And ultimately, the fact is that these lives have an expiration date.

So where are we? Where are you? Is it where you want to be? Is it where you want to be found should Christ return this afternoon? Are you ready to face the righteous judgement of God, or are you running away from that reality because it's just too scary for your mind to accept or consider? There is no hiding my friends, and if we're on the path that's diverging from God then we're going to slam into that dead-end at some point.

And if we've been living a lie trying to hide from God then it's going to be a truly painful crash that reverberates eternally onward in the form of unending suffering as God grants our clear life-long wish to remain apart from Him. Is that what you want? And if not, what are you doing to ensure you don't have to hide anymore? Because in truth, if we’re living a life that makes us think that we can or should or need to hide from God then that’s evidence of a very big and very serious problem.

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